The Great Lunar New Year Bamboozlement

Didn't update this in a bit because the latest gachas are not my thing and therefore I am saving gems which also makes me not want to sperg about them... But I do want to write a short drama summary of The Great Lunar New Year Bamboozlement and the very rare to see uproar it caused within the community. Please be aware, this writeup will be incredibly detailed for no reason other than I feel like writing about it lmao.

The Great Lunar New Year Bamboozlement

Almost every person that has ever played a game that isn't from their region originally knows this pain - update and feature delays, events not being synced, region exclusive events, certain regions being the clear favourite etc. Life Makeover is no stranger to this. While some publishers are smart and publish to all regions at once and at the same time (or with a slight delay - but still synced), Archosaur doesn't do this. They could definitely have their financial reasons for this, but eventually this sort of thing will lead to dissatisfaction. I noticed this seems to particularly be a thing for east asian games, and even though publishers are starting to rectify this with newer titles, it still happens. Players will start to notice patterns, speculate and try to deduce which events are coming next because not everything is always a 100% copy and paste from the original sg/my region - and something will eventually happen to trip the players up and disappoint them because it's not the same as what was predicted. It doesn't matter that Archosaur never communicated that they're following a certain pattern, the spirit of the community has decided that it was so, and therefore everyone will feel let down. Personally I don't think the community is to blame for this, this lies entirely on the publisher's lack of communication. In my eyes, there is no possible reason to blame the community for being disappointed.

First, a historical overview. Life Makeover release dates:

• Singapore/Malaysia on July 2022.
• Japan on December 2022.
• China on March 2023.
• Global on May 2023.

This hectic release schedule means that quite a few of initial gachas and events are missing from China and Global. Contrary to the popular opinion that China is Archosaur's pet (ok they def are but not in this case) - China has not received many of the initial gachas either, which is misinfo that gets spread around quite often. Because of this discrepancy Global has suffered the most obviously, being the last one to release. This has caused some grievances in the community, as some people really want the old gachas to run. However, for the most part people seem to understand the reason why these gachas never ran for some regions and are not having reruns on the regions that already had them before, including sg/my! They're kind of... mid compared to everything we get now, and they're lacking in execution and complexity - making them look worth way less than your average gacha being released now. If you look at the image on the right, the old 6 star could hardly pass for a free 5 star event nowadays. After all this is about money, and you wouldn't release a product that looks half assed compared to what you release now. There have been suggestions, to make the old gachas run in a rerun slot. This to me seems like the most logical option, but Archosaur has never crossed the "no reruns of a gacha that has never released" unspoken rule (many unspoken rules here). Another suggestion people gave was running two new gachas at a time. This is something that happened once, only on Global as far as I know, in which two new gachas had a slight crossover (Clockwork Tune and Golden Bells) but this was never repeated again. We can once again assume that Archosaur thought this wasn't suitable or profitable for them because they haven't repeated it since. With these invisible and assumed conditions in mind Archosaur basically has no means or wishes at the moment to run a gacha that was never ran in a region - without a new gacha being sacrificed. This is the logic under which the community operates, even though there's basically no confirmation for this anywhere.

Important thing to note, up until January 29 2025, if I'm not wrong - only two gachas were released on SG/MY since Global has been active that Global has not received. Phoenix Song and Landscape Thread. Phoenix Song not being released on Global never got much discussion. It was a double 5 star Chinese themed gacha which tend to be less popular on Global, and since the release schedule of gachas hasn't had much rhyme or reason up until this point on Global which has been out for only 3 months, people thought we'd surely get it at some point and promptly forgot about it. And probably many of these people don't even play anymore, therefore even less people now even know that Global had skipped it. Around late 2023 and early 2024, Global's gacha release schedule had stabilized. We started following SG/MY very closely, it became a trend for Global to release the same gacha SG/MY had released a week before. So, stronger expectations are being established. Come Lunar New Year 2024 and SG/MY teases a gacha called Landscape Thread. The 6 star in the gacha is Chinese themed as is becoming tradition - following last year's LNY set Snow Date which also featured a Chinese themed 6 star set. Everyone on Global is starting to expect Landscape Thread, but instead, we receive Snow Date, previous year's LNY set. Interesting! A mix of hype and disappointment appears - many players have been expecting Landscape Thread, while others preferred Snow Date. I just began playing like 2 months ago so I'm pretty clueless, preferring to lurk on the sides and observe the slight chaos. After this miniature fiasco, every once in a while a person appears on the discord, or subreddit, asking for Landscape Thread. When is it arriving? Have there been any plans? People seem to be desperate for this set, and nobody knows anything. As the year passes, Global continues to follow the SG/MY gacha schedule to a T. No more deviations. And people slowly stop asking about Landscape Thread too.

Enter Plume Essence, the 2025 LNY set. About two weeks before January 29th 2025, a new gacha got teased on SG/MY. Once again, the 6 star is Chinese themed, but it looks quite grand. As you can see in the picture, it's a lot more grand than either Landscape Thread or Snow Date. The 5 star is nothing to scoff at either. Probably the first wuxia themed set we ever had, because LM leans xianxia all the time. It's the first ever androgynous set too, only increasing the love for it. The hype rises, and lots of people begin to expect this gacha. Considering we've been following the SG/MY release schedule, surely we'll get this wonderful set! Alas, a switcheroo, once again. Global decides to release Landscape Thread. A clear pattern arises. Every LNY, global gets the set from the year before, other than that we follow SG/MY. While people have been extremely hyped about Plume Essence, a feeling of calmness appears. When someone asks - when is Plume Essence coming? We all answer in unison:

"Relax, Global always releases the LNY set with a year delay, so we should be seeing Plume Essence next year!" - me included.

And so, this non-factual "fact" has cemented itself in the zeitgeist. Plume Essence is coming. I mean, just look at how previous releases worked. But there's more than just that, Plume Essence is the main promotional set that's used in the game's opening MV, including Global. It makes appearances very frequently in sets worn to show backgrounds and other purchasable items. It's not invisible and forgotten about like, say, Phoenix Song. It's everywhere. The 5 star wuxia inspired set is the main loading screen ingame. You can't escape this gacha, and you're greeted by it any time you enter the game.

LNY 2026 approaches. SG/MY gets the yearly special LNY stream and releases the new 6 star gacha, Alpine Honor. A Chinese set, of course, but arguably less "impressive" judging by the communities reactions. Visible on the right, you be the judge. Personally I prefer the dress and coat to that of Plume Essence, but Plume Essence has just so much more potential and cool factor which is undebateable. The 5 star is not visually connected to the 6 star at all, and it looks like a lame gawr gura ripoff. Global waits patiently for that one week delay between gacha release announcements. Everyone is sure Plume Essence is coming, no doubts about it. Come Saturday, we get a teaser. It's Alpine Honor. Plume Essence was skipped.

A lot of people expressed disappointment. Not just because the unwritten rule was disrespected, but because Plume Essence was truly, truly a beloved gacha everyone waited patiently for. People start looking for answers, making threads theorizing why this happened, and in come the whiteknights lmao.

The arguments for archosaur were really quite interesting...

• These things are planned in advance and Plume Essence was never in plans for Global. Deal with it! Go play SG/MY if you don't like it!
• Global players are racist against Chinese outfits so they don't deserve to have Plume Essence, a gacha with huge versatile wings and winged face covers, and swords that could be used anywhere.

Regarding the first point, I feel like these people don't understand why everyone got upset. If the communication was decent, there would be no issue. Archosaur simply doesn't communicate these things, therefore they (by they I really mean you, the wk, because Archosaur doesn't care) shouldn't be surprised people resorted to speculation. Expecting people not to pay attention to other regions is foolish and ridiculous, especially when these regions are incredibly similar. The second point came from 2 disgruntled reddit posters, and I was quite surprised to see it because this sentiment of "racism" is really rare in the community. LM is a Chinese game. It'll be saturated with free and paid Chinese content. Everyone playing LM knows this. For a player that's not really invested in Chinese fashion, investing real money in these sets would be insane and a waste of money. Therefore people tend to skip them and use it as an opportunity to save, me included. Chinese sets especially tend to lack versatility, something I feel like started getting better with Plume Essence specifically. Up until that point, the Chinese sets pulled inspiration from only a handful of time periods and that only allows for so many different silhouettes, and this is a complaint I heard even from players that are nuts about China. I wonder what these players would think of our Chinese sisters that say "I'm skipping this western style set" every time a non Chinese set appears. I see this all the time on rednote, and it's no different from how we talk about Chinese sets...

And with this, the saga has concluded. As usual, Archosaur refuses to make any comments regarding gacha releases. It's all under a veil of mystery, and therefore we don't know if we're ever receiving Plume Essence. The more time passes, the more "outdated" it will become, potentially left forgotten like Phoenix Song, or like all of the gachas that were released before Global came out.