Punishing: Gray Raven's Fan-Favorite Luna Flops Hard on Spring Festival Banner — Test Server Was Already Weak, Got Nerfed AGAIN on Live, Players Suspect Intentional Sabotage to Protect Male Character Sales

A gacha game's marquee Spring Festival character — already underwhelming on the test server — gets nerfed AGAIN before going live, and her banner revenue completely tanks. That's the story of Punishing: Gray Raven's CNY 2024 update in a nutshell.

Luna has long been considered one of the most beloved characters in Punishing: Gray Raven (PGR). But Kuro Games pulled a baffling move: according to the original post, she was already weak during the test server phase, yet they chopped her numbers even further before the live release. The result? Her banner debuted at a pitiful #41 on the bestseller chart — an embarrassing showing for what was supposed to be the grand finale of the Spring Festival event.

What really set players off was the alleged motive behind the nerfs. One commenter wrote bluntly: 'She was already garbage on the test server, and they nerfed her AGAIN on live — all so she wouldn't outdamage the male character from the previous banner.' If true, this means Kuro intentionally sabotaged a fan-favorite character just to protect sales of a recent male unit.

This theory isn't baseless. Players reported that feedback about Luna's weakness was aggressively suppressed on the test server forums — 'the censorship was brutal, they wouldn't let anyone say she was weak.' As a result, none of the balance issues were addressed before launch.

Players also laid out the bigger picture of PGR's 2023 decline: 'All three DPS characters released in 2023 were nobody favorites — players were hemorrhaging, and Luna was supposed to carry the revenue responsibility that Bianca's White Hair banner carried in 2022.' The 2022 Bianca banner had briefly revived the game, but a full year of releasing forgettable characters in 2023 burned through all that goodwill. The Watanabe patch alone drove away a massive chunk of the playerbase, and even the anniversary Ice Qu banner couldn't outsell the Lamia banner.

With that backdrop, Kuro needed Luna — their fan-favorite ace — to carry the game's revenue. Instead, they gutted her power and players refused to spend. The vibe in the comment section was summed up perfectly: 'Kuro simps deserved this... they had it coming.'

Some players dug even deeper into the community dynamics. The original poster revealed that the same people on NGA's PGR sub-forum who opposed buffing Luna during the test server were also supporters of a notorious 'CP-obsessed' user who had caused drama during the Spring Festival event. One commenter nailed it: 'PGR's community is one of the most blatantly gatekept I've ever seen. When Luna won the popularity poll, I went to the Tieba forum and almost nobody admitted to liking her — at best they said they only liked her design or meta value.' In Chinese gaming forums, 'CP shippers' (CP厨) refer to players who are obsessive about shipping characters into romantic pairs, often to the point of prioritizing relationship dynamics over actual gameplay balance.

The most savage moment came when a player posted a screenshot of a 'Come Back' invitation from Kuro — their so-called 'exclusive returning player bonus.' Translation: one single pull on the standard banner.

One player nailed the situation: 'The game had a brief revival in 2022, then spent all of 2023 releasing garbage — players left in droves, and now even their emergency revenue character flopped.' Another went further: 'This studio is just waiting for Wuthering Waves (鸣潮) to launch so they can attract a new audience and screw over the old-school waifu gamers who are still here.' The implication is clear: Kuro may be burning PGR's remaining player goodwill to fund their next big bet, leaving longtime PGR fans as collateral damage.