Dislyte: Internet's New Obsession Makes Gods Hot

Dislyte is quickly taking the internet by storm as the slick, free-to-play gacha-style game fuses mythological figures and cyberpunk together in an intriguing fashion. Released last week by Lilith Games, Dislyte quickly acknowledges that a mobile game can go pretty far on vibes alone. Whenever you open the app, a message flashes that the game is best enjoyed with headphones as Dislyte comes with a surprisingly fun soundtrack that's heavy on EDM and synth. However, where Dislyte quickly separates itself is with its character designs that take various gods and mythological figures pulled from numerous cultures and makes them... hot. 

The world of Dislyte is set in the not-too-distant future after a cataclysmic event in which monolith-like Miracles appeared throughout the planet, granting god-like powers to some humans while also releasing monstrous Miramons upon the world. There are only a handful of cities left on the planet, which are protected by the Esper Union. The story mode of the game follows Brynn, a new Esper who's searching for her friend Sieg after he was kidnapped by members of the Shadow Decree, a mysterious group with nefarious intent. Brynn is joined by the mischievous Q (based on the Greek god Eros) and Drew (powered by the Egyptian god Anubis) as she tries to hunt down leads for her missing friend.

While the story is rather generic, the character designs and gameplay are more than enough to keep players sucked in for lengthy periods of time. Combat in Dislyte is turn-based, with each Esper having a default attack and two other abilities that have cooldown timers. The game also uses an affinity triangle in which each Esper has an affinity that grants them an advantage over characters of one affinity and a disadvantage against characters from another affinity. Each character is also classified as one of several character types, which gives players a hint as to how they should be used in battle. As for the character designs, Dislyte certainly seems to know that building a fanbase is key to a mobile game's success. Almost all of the characters in Dislyte are attractive to a tee, which has spawned a ton of fan art already. One early favorite among players is Drew, the jackal-headed butler whom everyone (both in and out of the game) wants to take on a walk, among other things. 

Players can grow their roster by "spinning" Gold Records, which reward players with either Rare, Epic, or Legendary Espers. During the early part of the game, players get Gold Records pretty easily, but I'm guessing that Dislyte will eventually tamp down on the many events and giveaways as time goes on. Even Rare Espers (ironically, the lowest difficulty of Espers) have their uses as players can use duplicate Espers to either boost stats or increase the level cap for their existing Espers, thus making them more powerful. Of course, players can get resources more quickly by paying money, either via a Season Pass or by purchasing premium currency that can be spent in one of several in-game stores. 

In addition to the story mode, players can sink their teeth into a variety of different side modes, ranging from PvP battles to grindy battle modes used to farm certain resources. One nifty feature of Dislyte is that players can use the Multibattle function to automatically grind through certain modes to get XP and resources while simultaneously doing something else within the game. Using Multibattle to multitask seems to be the way that Dislyte gets its cake (by having players invest time) and eats it too (by making the players feel like they're not wasting it.) Honestly, there's a lot to do in Dislyte and players will likely spend more than a few hours getting sucked into all the different ways they can waste time within the game. Although many of the game modes require Stamina to use, players can re-stock Stamina using daily free items or can simply put their phone down and wait a few hours for their resources to replenish.

Ultimately, Dislyte is going to be a big distraction for a lot of people over the next few months. Based on internet chatter and Google Trends alone, the game seems set to be setting itself up to be next Genshin Impact, although Dislyte seems more content to stick with typical gacha trends. 

Dislyte is a free-to-play game that's now available for iOS and Android via the App Store and Google Play. You can check out all of our previous coverage of mobile games in general right here.