Let me tell you about the first time I truly understood what makes Jili Golden Empire special. I was three hours into a co-op session with my regular gaming crew, and we'd just cleared what must have been our twentieth room of the evening. The combat was fluid, the coordination seamless, but then we hit that familiar wall - the post-map reward selection screen. Watching four turtles take turns picking perks while the game's momentum ground to a halt gave me this sudden clarity about what separates good cooperative experiences from truly great ones.
What struck me most about Jili Golden Empire is how it absolutely nails the core cooperative experience while stumbling in one crucial area that affects player retention. When you're in the thick of combat with three friends, whether online or sharing the same physical space, the game delivers something magical. The chaos of four turtles smashing and slashing through enemies creates these unforgettable moments where strategy and mayhem collide in the best possible way. I've tracked our session data across multiple playthroughs, and the numbers don't lie - we consistently achieve room clearance times under 60 seconds during the first half of any run. That breakneck pace creates an adrenaline-fueled experience that few games can match.
The problem emerges precisely because the core gameplay works so well. When your team becomes efficient at clearing content, you end up spending what feels like disproportionate time in menus. I actually timed this during our last five sessions - we spent approximately 35-40% of our total playtime navigating perk selection screens rather than engaging with the actual gameplay. That's nearly half your gaming session spent watching teammates scroll through options while the action waits patiently in the wings. It creates this strange rhythm where minutes of intense action are followed by what feels like eternity in menu limbo.
Here's what I've learned through extensive playtesting: the issue compounds itself as you progress. Early in a run, when your perk selections are straightforward and your team is still building synergy, the menu time feels manageable. But as you advance and the perk combinations become more complex, the decision-making process slows to a crawl. I've witnessed teams of experienced players taking upwards of three minutes to complete their perk selections in later stages, which completely undermines the game's otherwise perfect pacing. The contrast between the lightning-fast combat and the glacial menu navigation creates a cognitive dissonance that's hard to ignore.
From my perspective as someone who's analyzed dozens of cooperative gaming systems, Jili Golden Empire's approach to reward distribution represents a fascinating case study in player psychology. The turn-based perk selection likely seemed like a fair way to distribute rewards during development, but in practice it creates unnecessary friction. I've found that teams develop workarounds - we've started implementing a "ten-second rule" where each player has to make their selection quickly, but that feels like we're fighting against the game's design rather than working with it.
What's particularly interesting is how this single design choice affects different player types differently. Casual players might not notice the disruption as much, but for dedicated teams playing through extended sessions, the cumulative effect becomes significant. In my group's case, we typically play three-hour sessions, and I've calculated that we spend roughly 65-70 minutes of that time in menus. That's over a third of our gaming time spent not gaming, which eventually led us to modify our play schedule to account for this inefficiency.
The real shame is that everything else about the cooperative experience works beautifully. The combat system allows for genuine teamwork and strategic coordination. The visual spectacle of four turtles working in unison creates moments that feel both cinematic and deeply personal. I've had friends who rarely play cooperative games tell me how impressed they were with the seamless integration of single-player and co-op modes. The foundation is so strong that the menu issue stands out as this glaring imperfection in an otherwise polished gem.
Through my numerous playthroughs, I've developed some personal strategies to mitigate the pacing problem. We've started designating one player as the "perk coordinator" who helps speed up decision-making, and we'll often discuss potential perk combinations during combat downtime. But these shouldn't be necessary workarounds - they're bandaids on what I consider a fundamental design flaw. The solution might be as simple as implementing simultaneous selection or creating preset perk loadouts that can be quickly applied between stages.
Despite this significant drawback, I keep coming back to Jili Golden Empire because when it works, it really works. There's something magical about those moments when your team moves as a single unit, clearing rooms with precision and style. The game understands what makes cooperative gaming special - that sense of shared accomplishment, the unspoken communication between players, the joy of pulling off complex maneuvers together. It's just unfortunate that these brilliant moments are regularly interrupted by administrative tasks that could have been streamlined.
What Jili Golden Empire demonstrates is that game design isn't just about getting the big things right - it's about ensuring all the pieces work together harmoniously. The developers clearly understood how to create thrilling cooperative combat, but underestimated how important flow state is to maintaining player engagement. In my experience, the most successful cooperative games find ways to minimize disruptions and keep players immersed in the action. Jili Golden Empire comes incredibly close to perfection, but that one persistent issue keeps it from reaching the legendary status it otherwise deserves.