Surprised their isn't a Tales of Ray OT.
As posted above, nearly all the characters are given to you as you progress but the gacha aspect of it is for mirrages (special moves) or weapons.
It's super generous for F2P and honestly feels like a legit game as opposed to a time waste/sink like other Gacha games.
Yeah, it's extremely friendly towards F2P.
It's not so much that they shower us with free gems (although there's still a lot to earn, and each events gives us at least enough to do a multi-pull on the event banner), it's that you don't really need to pull on the banners to make any progress. Mirages are useful, but not really NEEDED, as the ones they give you for free in-game are more than adequate. Normally I'd say you need to pull on banners, in-order to get weapons, but we'll eventually get the weapon exchange that the Japanese version has, where you can exchange prisms for 3* (even 4*) weapons. You get prisms through missions, doing multi-pulls on banners, as well as selling 1/2/3/4* weapons (eventually, they only give us gald right now). As of now, you can only purchase each 4* weapon once before it becomes unavailable, but one is all you need to use that arte. As for whether it'll be replenished every couple of months so you can buy more than one of each, no one knows, but even if it isn't, that's still extremely useful.
I'm not terribly surprised to see not many playing the game, as the Tales series is relatively niche even here. It's a shame, as it's a lot more fun than most give it credit for. I've said it before, but it genuinely feels like a Tales game, which is quite a feat.
I dunno, I auto-battled and auto-mapped for two hours straight before quitting.
There's your problem.
Auto Battle is fine for dailies, but if you do it during story missions, you're going to miss a lot of chests (and missions rewards), since oftentimes they're off the beaten path. Also, if you Auto Battle during battle, you're passing on what makes the game feel like a Tales game. The battle system is interesting here, as the timing of your artes give you a bonus to your Mirage meter, allowing you to use that skill earlier. It's fun trying to chain as many artes together as you can, while retaining that bonus.
Honestly, Auto Battle basically makes 99.9% of the gacha games out there seem boring, which is why I rarely use it even when it's there. There are a few situations in games where I will use it, but generally I manually control everything as I feel I get the most of my AP/stamina/etc. this way. Otherwise, it's like I'm not even playing anything.
If you're a Tales fan, I'd recommend giving it another try, if not...we still share interest in Fate/GO anyway, haha. Speaking of, DUMPLINGS SOON!