In Exilium

In Exilium is a fantasy action RPG that thrusts players into a mystical world filled with perilous adventures and intense hack and slash combat. From an isometric diagonal-down perspective, gamers explore vibrant environments, battle fantastical creatures, and engage in fast-paced, skill-based gameplay, all set against the backdrop of a rich, immersive fantasy setting.

Girls’ Frontline 2: Exilium – A Fractured Monument to Ambition

Introduction: The Weight of a Legacy

Girls’ Frontline 2: Exilium is not merely a sequel; it is a vast, ambitious, and deeply contradictory monument built upon the foundations of one of mobile gaming’s most dedicated cult followings. Released in 2023-2024 by Sunborn (MICA Team), it represents a quantum leap in production values from its 2016 predecessor, trading the original’s lean, hardcore tactical simulation for a sprawling, narrative-driven tactical RPG with AAA-grade 3D graphics and a complex gacha ecosystem. This review argues that Exilium is a game of profound duality: a technically impressive and thematically rich post-apocalyptic saga that is simultaneously hamstrung by a tumultuous development history, controversial monetization, and narrative missteps that led to a significant player revolt. Its legacy will be defined not just by its content, but by the remarkable story of its own creation and the fierce community response that forced a developer to listen, rewrite, and radically alter course.

Development History & Context: From Ambition to Backlash

The Vision and Technological Leap
Announced in 2018 as a simple “3D version” of Girls’ Frontline (GFL), Exilium‘s scope ballooned rapidly. Producer Yuzhong (“羽中”) and director Smoke pivoted from considering SLG or RTS genres to a Strategy RPG to balance storytelling and cross-platform (PC/mobile) accessibility. The stated goal was to retain the “hardcore-oriented gameplay” and “post-apocalyptic/realistic atmosphere” of the original while expanding into a more mainstream, visually spectacular package. This necessitated a monumental technical undertaking for a mobile-focused studio: building a custom engine with Physically Based Rendering (PBR) and Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR), implementing motion capture via Chengdu Big Eyes Technology, and creating hundreds of detailed 3D character models and environments. By August 2023, Yuzhong claimed the budget exceeded 100 million RMB (≈$13.7M), inspired visually by Code Vein. Character creation cycles of 6 months underscored this commitment to quality.

Beta Turmoil and Narrative Crisis
The development was marked by recurring beta tests (CBTs) and a shifting timeline. Early builds featured scrapped mechanics like chance-to-hit and morale systems. More critically, the narrative was a consistent point of contention. The story, initially set in 2070, was moved to 2074. By late 2023, beta testers and the community began voicing serious concerns about “clashes with established setting,” “characterization,” and “lack of quality-of-life options”—particularly in the dormitory system. The situation culminated in a public apology from Yuzhong in November 2023 for inappropriate content in the character event for Qiongjiu (later datamined to involve Maoist quotes) and a promise to rewrite scripts.

The August 2025 Gacha Scandal and Community Revolt
The most defining moment arrived with the “Elmo Ultra” / “Crew Deck” update in August 2025. This introduced a new costume gacha system for the revamped dormitory, featuring:
* An exclusive costume (“Cerulean Breaker” for Klukai) obtainable only through the gacha with a 1.18% base rate, pity at 100 pulls.
* A new premium currency (“Outfit Access Permissions”) purchasable only with real money (Credit Tokens) at 120 per pull, costing ~$167 USD for pity.
* High-priced premium furniture (some costing more than real-world plushies).
This was perceived as a blatant, aggressive monetization shift targeting the core dormitory/affection system. The response was immediate and severe: 32 top-ranked Platoons (player guilds) on CN, followed by KR and Global servers, pledged to stop all payments. Sunborn was forced into emergency talks with player representatives, resulting in a patch that added more free currency, reduced prices by 40%, and made some Standard costumes directly purchasable—but the exclusive Klukai costume remained gacha-locked. This event cemented Exilium‘s reputation as a game where player trust was hard-won and easily broken.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive: A Saga of Exile and Conspiracy

Set in 2074, 12 years after the events of GFL, the world is governed by the Union of Rossartrism Nations Coalition (URNC). Our protagonist, the nameless Commander, has left the gutted PMC Griffin & Kryuger to become a bounty hunter aboard the mobile base Elmo, accompanied by veterans Groza and Nemesis, mechanic Mayling, and later medical Doll Colphne.

The Core Mystery and Thematic Throughlines
The plot ignites with the transport of a mysterious box containing Helena, a “fully-immune” girl immune to Collapse radiation. This sets off a chain reaction involving:
* Corporate & Political Conspiracy: The Girard Group (industrial powerhouse tied to the Orlog Conglomerate’s “Project Lullaby”), Mangi Security Service (pharma giant Cecht FABN’s private army), and the shadowy Paradeus cult.
* The “Helena” Enigma: Multiple Helena clones/entities (“D-68” becomes Melanie) are central to Paradeus’s goal of creating “fully-immune individuals” to control Relic Technology. This explores themes of identity, personhood, and sacrifice.
* Doll Agency & Freedom: A major theme is Doll autonomy. The “Mephisto Agreement” is a URNC decree forbidding the Commander from contacting former G&K Dolls (except amnesiac Groza). Stories like “Sojourners of the Glass Island” (featuring the independent Doll community led by Ullrid) directly confront the question: Can Dolls be free from human ownership? The Commander’s self-imposed exile is framed as a failure to protect their charges, making every reunion a complex negotiation of guilt and responsibility.
* The Corrupting Influence of Power: From Girard’s monopolistic practices to Cecht FABN’s sham vaccines and Paradeus’s fanatical cult, the narrative is a study in how institutions betray their stated purposes for control and profit.

Narrative Execution: Strengths and Stumbles
Exilium‘s story is presented via visual novel segments with Live2D-animated sprites, full voice acting (CN/KR/JP), and 3D cutscenes—a massive upgrade. The world-building is exceptionally dense and coherent, detailing the six-tier contamination zones (Black to White) and their socio-political dynamics. Factions like the Varjagers (bandits), Underground Brokers, and BRIEF (bounty hunter association) feel lived-in.

However, the release-order narrative structure is famously confusing. Key plot points from side events (“Deep Oblivion,” “Aphelion,” “Corposant”) were retroactively promoted to main story chapters (e.g., 8.3, 11-12, 13-15). The rewrites were extensive. Original versions of events like “Zucchero Café” (Centaureissi) and “Daiyan’s event” were decanonized and replaced with new stories (“Bitter Thorns and Daisies,” “Amidst Wings of Gray”) more tightly integrated into the main conspiracy. This patchwork approach, while ultimately aiming for cohesion, created a fragmented initial experience where players had to consult wikis to understand chronology. The core mystery of the “Lost Cavitas,” Helena, and the Puppeteer-like “it” behind Project Lullaby remains compelling, but the path to it is winding and occasionally undermined by the production’s own revisions.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems: A Promising Foundation with Grinding Gauntlets

Exilium is a turn-based tactical RPG on a square grid, often compared to XCOM but with guaranteed hits and a unique Stability/Phase system.

Core Combat Loop:
1. Positioning & Cover: Directional cover is paramount. Flanking circumvents damage reduction.
2. Stability Index: All units have a Stability bar. Incoming damage reduces it; at 0, cover’s protection vanishes.
3. Affinity & Weaknesses: Each unit has weapon type (Handgun, SMG, AR, etc., plus new Blades) and Phase type (Burn, Corrosion, Hydro, Freeze, Electric, Physical) weaknesses. Exploiting these inflicts extra Stability damage.
4. Skills & Phases: Skills apply Phases, creating a tactical layer of debuff/buff cycling.
5. Rewinds: A limited “undo” system allows minor mistake correction, easing the penalty for error.

Progression & Gacha: The Double-Edged Sword
Exilium made a pivotal shift from GFL: playable T-Dolls and their weapons are primarily obtained via premium gacha. The system is notoriously complex:
* Standard Banner: 0.6% base rate for Elite Doll/weapon (0.3% for any Elite Doll). Pity at 80 pulls. Rate-up is 50% chance after pity.
* Targeted Banner (Limited Dolls): Only Elite Dolls drop (0.6% rate). Pity at 80 pulls for first copy, 160 for guarantee.
* Military Upgrade Banner (Limited Weapons): Only Elite weapons drop (0.7% rate). Pity at 70 pulls.
* Monthly Income: A generous player might earn ~60 free pulls on a limited banner monthly through diligent play, but the worst-case cost for a limited Doll reached $396 USD without value packs.

The “Generous” vs. “Exploitative” Debate
The system is celebrated for its high free currency yield compared to many gacha games. However, the August 2025 costume gacha scandal revealed a predatory underbelly. The Covenant/Dormitory system—a core emotional hook for bonding with characters—was locked behind a separate, expensive gacha with an exclusive costume, weaponizing player affection for monetization. This shattered the trust built by the supposedly “generous” character gacha.

Other Systems:
* Dormitories (Crew Deck): A social sim for increasing Affinity, which grants significant stat bonuses. The update made it a full 3D interactive space but tied its best rewards to the controversial gacha.
* Boundary Push & Dispatch: Primary resource-grind modes. The former is a roguelike stage-clear; the latter is an automated mission system.
* Facilities: Base-building is minimal; focus is on the Elmo as a hub.

Flaws: The grind for enhancement materials (Neural Fortification, Key Regulation) is intense. The auto-battle system was so inadequate initially that a dedicated “anti-death” Doll, Klukai, was created to cater to players relying on it. The gacha weapons are often mandatory for optimal performance, creating a significant power gap between free-to-play and paying players.

World-Building, Art & Sound: The Visceral Heart of Exilium

This is Exilium‘s undisputed triumph. The visual direction, inspired by Code Vein, creates a stunningly atmospheric post-apocalyptic Europe. The blend of PBR (for realistic materials like metal, skin, rubble) and NPR (for stylized lighting, Cel-shaded outlines on characters) is masterful. The contamination zones are beautifully desolate: the silica-spired, vitrified hellscape of the Black Zone; the desertified, Epiphyllum-blooming Red/Yellow Zones; and the sleek, vertical, artificial White Zones.

Character Design: The T-Dolls are exceptionally detailed. Returning characters from GFL (Groza, M4A1, Springfield, etc.) are faithfully reinterpreted, while new units like Darture, Sextans, Kalina have strong, distinct silhouettes. The mechanic designs for Dolls, enemies (Boojums, ELID creatures), and Girard/Cecht tech are inventive and cohesive.

Sound Design: Vanguard Sound returns, delivering a moody, atmospheric soundtrack that blends ambient dread with tense combat cues and melancholy character themes. The voice acting in CN/KR/JP is universally high-quality, with most returning VAs from GFL. The Commander is now fully voiced, a significant narrative boost. Environmental sounds—howling winds in the wastes, the crackle of collapse storms, the sterile hum of White Zone cities—are impeccably rendered.

These elements synergize perfectly. Traversing a crumbling Yellow Zone town, the visuals sell the decay, the sound sells the isolation, and the narrative context (via loading screens or dialogue) sells the history of the collapse. The world feels lived-in and lost, which is essential for a story about scavenging, exile, and the fragile remnants of civilization.

Reception & Legacy: Triumph and Tumult

Commercial Performance: Despite the controversies, Exilium was a massive commercial success on Global/KR/JP servers (Dec 2024 launch), reportedly earning over 400 million RMB in its first month—a stark contrast to the 20 million from CN’s 2023 launch. This highlights the global appeal of the GFL brand and the game’s high production values.

Critical & Community Reception: The reception is highly polarized.
* Praised for: Stunning graphics and art direction, deep and engaging tactical combat (with its Stability/Phase system), dense and mature lore that expands the franchise confidently, excellent voice acting and character writing (for most, after rewrites), and a genuinely compelling central mystery.
* Criticized for: The protracted, confusing narrative rollout; the atrociously handled monetization (first with resource gates, then with the exclusive costume gacha); grindy, unfriendly progression that was only partially addressed post-launch; and an initial UI/UX that felt like a “beta state” product.

Legacy and Influence:
1. The “GFL2” Standard for Mobile Tactical RPGs: It set a new bar for 3D production values and narrative ambition in the niche mobile tactical genre.
2. A Case Study in Community Management: The August 2025 player revolt and subsequent negotiations are a landmark event in mobile gaming monetization controversies. It demonstrated that even a dedicated fanbase for a deep IP has limits, and that locking narrative/character-bonding elements (dorms) behind exploitative gacha can trigger catastrophic backlash. Sunborn’s eventual concessions became a benchmark for “damage control.”
3. Narrative Experimentation: Its non-chronological story integration, where side events become main chapters, is a bold (if messy) experiment in serialized storytelling for a live-service game. The extensive post-launch rewrites are a rare admission of narrative failure and an attempt at course-correction mid-service.
4. Franchise Evolution: It firmly establishes the Girls’ Frontline universe as a serious, long-form sci-fi saga comparable to a visual novel series. The themes of Doll autonomy and post-collapse society are explored with more nuance than the original.

Conclusion: A Flawed Masterpiece of Its Era

Girls’ Frontline 2: Exilium is an impossible game to score simply. As a piece of world-building and tactical design, it is a landmark achievement, offering one of the most immersive and strategically satisfying post-apocalyptic settings in gaming. Its combat is deep, its art is breathtaking, and its core story, once the rewrites settle, is a worthy continuation of the GFL saga.

As a live service product, it is a cautionary tale. Its development was a high-wire act between creative ambition and commercial pressure. The August 2025 scandal revealed a fundamental disconnect between the developers’ desire for revenue and the players’ emotional investment in the community and dolls they had built. The game’s economic model oscillated between “generous” and “predatory,” poisoning the well of goodwill.

Its place in history is thus complex. It will be remembered as the game that raised the production bar for mobile tactical RPGs but also redefined the consequences of perceived monetization betrayal. It is a testament to the passion of its creators and its community—a community so invested they forced narrative rewrites and economic rollbacks. For the historian, Exilium is a vital document: a snapshot of the tensions in the modern gacha ecosystem between artistic vision, player agency, and shareholder demand. It is not a perfect game, but it is an important, unforgettable one.

Final Verdict: 8/10 — A brilliant, beautiful, and deeply flawed sequel whose technical and narrative ambitions are constantly at war with its own monetization philosophy. Its story of exile is mirrored by the player’s own tumultuous journey with it.