少女前線(Girls’ Frontline) is a Chinese gacha game franchise about a post-apocalyptic Russian mercenary officer and his massive collection of military androids who happen to look like cute andor sexy girls. What a weird coincidence, huh?
I don’t remember how I found Girls’ Frontline, but I’m happy I did, because the story seems to be unusually good. Though, that’s hard to tell, since getting through that story is a bit difficult. The worldbuilding, though, is quite sensible. Get this, there’s actually a reason for why the androids look like girls!
Oddly enough, the IOPWiki is pretty sparse on lore and story, focused mostly on gameplay. Not that that bothers me, the Exploiter of Stories.

This is an in-general note, but I quite like the story and lore of Girls’ Frontline. It’s oddly captivating. Though, and this is what I dislike about it: the way it’s communicated is not the best.
The story is primarily told through visual novel sequences in the first and second games. Or, if you don’t like that, you can read the manga adaptation or watch the anime. Though you won’t get a complete story there.
I don’t think the visual novel format is bad per se, just that the way it’s integrated is less than ideal. It would have been better if it were just a standalone visual novel, or if it were easier to go through the story. Or if there was just a little less story at times, because there’s a lot.
Basically, yeah, not great. I think one of my personal projects might just be repackaging the story.

I think the gameplay is kinda fun, but there is some pretty severe level gating in the game. I ended up quitting the game after I attempted to min-max just to get through the story. Upon realizing that it would take me forever to just play through one level to see a story segment lasting about 10 minutes…well, I couldn’t go on.
I thought about getting into the game later again (after GFL2), but I’m still quite hesitant…and wondering if I should just experience the story another way.
The gacha is pretty nice. The game can be played completely without spending money and you can almost get every doll without paying. Some are locked behind one-time events (OTs-14). The skins are gacha and you can pay for stuff to speed up your progress.

GFL2 adopted Genshin gacha, which I didn’t think much of at first…but now…yeah, I don’t like it. I’m not gonna focus on this too much, but needless to say…yeah, no. Particularly bad is that you have to gacha to get the characters, which is completely unlike the first game…and they aren’t added to the standard banner. I’m maybe half-convinced Mica Team will change this in the future…provided enough people complain about it, but it’s not something I’m counting on.
I think the introduction to the story is pretty good. It raises intrigue, gives you a taste of the action and gets you introduced to the world and story. It’s set 10 years after something in GFL1’s future (which we haven’t gotten to yet), so a lot of stuff is different. My main complaint with the story thus far is that it’s a bit long-winded. There was a point where I was asking myself why three of the chapters existed as three chapters and not just one. GFL2 also has a bad habit of not properly spacing out the story sections, so they sometimes go on for too long. Sojourners was especially bad with this, but Rhapsody Quartet was more like the main game, which is good. I haven’t gone through most of the optional story yet, but I will! Eventually…
My main complaint besides the long-winded nature is that there’s just soooo muuuuch stooory! Besides the main storyline, you have a bunch of bonus content in the Server Room. I have no clue when I’m going to get to all of it, but I will.
Let me note something that people claim about this game that seems dubious to me now: references to the first game. It’s stated repeatedly that you don’t need to know about the first game’s story to enjoy the story here…but considering I’ve played through the story and paid attention…yeah, I’m not sure. I think people unfamiliar with the first game are going to be confused. I’m also confused, since I just don’t know some stuff, but know enough to know it’s a reference to the first game.
The gameplay is completely different from the first game, which is why one of my big nitpicks is the title of the game. It should have just been called Girls’ Frontline: Exilium instead of GFL2, because it just isn’t a sequel in the sense of a game sequel.
The main gameplay is good, is what I’d say, but it can come off as too easy…especially in the campaign. The Horde gameplay mode probably provides the most intriguing challenges. That said, I’ve played the game long enough to realize that it’s a bit of a chore. Keeping up with dailies, to maximize the chance of getting a character is exhausting. It’s to the point that I’ve decided I’m just going to play the current event and that’s it. Since all I care about is story.
I’ll be pretty clear: the game is fun, but the game is also good at sucking the fun out of it. This is sorta similar to the first game’s experience, though not quite the same. Since GFL2 offers a lot of options for auto-battling, you can just stop playing the game while collecting stuff for the purposes of collecting Dolls. I think there are ways of preventing this, but I don’t care enough to want to suggest those changes.
Anyhow, let’s end off with a few minor notes: the art-style in GFL2 is more unified than in GFL which has caused skub, though I prefer it; the music is a straight-up upgrade from the previous game, with Makiatto’s theme being my favorite so far (check embed below); the skins available rarely appeal to me and I’d prefer more militaristic or casual outfits^A); having matching outfits among the dolls would be nice too; I’d prefer the dormitory come with clothing customization that isn’t just changing the entire outfit: make it a dress-up game please; I’d prefer the bonus gameplay content (like Horde, Expansion Drills) had some story content to motivate me to play them.

The Aphelion event had some nice music too. Also, slight update! Yeah…I ended up not finishing the previous event because I lacked motivation. However…a ‘Previous Events’ tab was added to the campaign screen…so I’ll wait for that to be implemented, then I’ll play the campaign stories at my own pace.

In the world of GFL, there’s a reason for why the dolls all look like girls. There are two main points to this. First, the commander canonically is empathetic and seems to like girl androids for whatever reason.
The second reason is the more interesting one, because the dolls we use in-game are all retrofitted from the civilian market. Basically, most of the dolls employed in G&K were former waitresses, entertainers, caretakers and more, who were purchased for cheap and then fitted with military hardware to turn them into effective soldiers.
Considering that, it really isn’t surprising that they have humanoid forms: for those kinds of social roles, you do kinda need a humanoid appearance.
This explanation doesn’t extend to Sangvis Ferri. SF is actively trying to be human though, which possibly explains why they have so many humanoid robots.

• Girls' Frontline Site
• Girls' Frontline 2 Site
• Girls' Frontline - Music Playlist
• Girls' Frontline 2 Exilium - Music Playlist
• IOPWiki
  • This is the main wiki for GFL. You’ll notice it isn’t a Fandom wiki and, yeah, it’s pretty good…for gameplay stuff. Lore and whatnot? That’s more spotty.
• EXILIUM Tracker - A collection of tools for Exilium. More comprehensive than macchiato.app.
• macchiato.app - A tool for keeping track of gacha stuff.
• Story Stuff
  • GFL Story Viewer - Lets you experience the GFL1 story as a visual novel…basically, exactly what I wanted.
  • GF Cutscene Interpreter - Basically the same as above, but not as immersive or great quality-wise.
  • Google Doc summaries here and here. The latter is less comprehensive than the former, though I’m not reading either until I go through the story viewer.
• Girls’ Frontline is called Doll’s Frontline in Japan because, apparently, someone else has the rights to the franchise. That’s kinda funny, but it is a little jarring if the language is set to Japanese.
  • Also, the Japanese voice acting is better than the Chinese voice acting. It’s unfortunate, but it’s true.
• Apparently Girls’ Frontline is getting a PC port. I hope they remove the gacha.
• My distaste for the gacha mechanics has reached a point where I’m lacking motivation to do much of anything in-game (GFL2) now. It’s a good game…sans the gacha. So…yeah, not actually great.