>>1643478
FGO makes tons and tons of money and its primary strategy is to make every single character limited or story-locked (unable to be rolled as a spook) whether it makes sense or not while having effectively no pity system while demanding you roll two or more copies (no meaningful enhancement systems outside of dupes) to use a character for virtually any content. I think I'll take Blue Archive's approach, thanks.
>>1643480
Timing matters, and popularity does as well. Not every character is going to do huge numbers, but with how this game's pacing is handled you will see the reception to a student's design and personality well before you can ever roll for them so they can test the waters a bit. The issue is that a lot of the characters that get the biggest fan reception are villains like Smug and the Decagrammaton bunch and thus can't be released without a ton of buildup.
I feel like a lot of the newer students don't get a good enough limelight focus either, you have to have already rolled Satsuki for example to get any idea as to why people like her as much as they do because all of her main story and event writing is a boring one-note gag but her momotalks reveal a whole new side to her. Umika was almost there in terms of getting an event that showed her appeals and had her center-stage but the writing wasn't nearly strong or entertaining enough so it fell flat, and they felt they had to take Shimiko out of the equation to give her focus which is a weakness itself.
I think Kirara got some solid attention and has a likeable and well presented personality across multiple appearances that anyone playing can understand, but they completely fucked her kit and animations over so even people who like her aren't going to bother in most circumstances. She got released at an odd time after the event she should have dropped for in favor of fucking Guide Tsubaki of all units, too. Everything about Get Hyped and March On confuses the hell out of me. You have this event entirely about secondary characters getting to finally star and then you don't bother to have them face any real challenges other than Gehenna mobs starting a few small incidents. The Guide alts don't do anything at all in the story and you have no established or popular characters appearing in any real capacity to create a foundation as if you're scared they'll overshadow the "lesser" girls. You HAVE troublemaking Gehenna clubs and characters with plenty of charisma, use them! Let Shizuko help Umika but push her to take charge on her own initiative. Have Kirara/Erika work with the Guide girls and teach them about Gehenna's unique quirks and customs to nip smaller issues in the bud before they can even happen.
I can't speak for 5-2 yet but up until then Niya's biggest appearance was in the Iroha and Ninja Club event from eons ago as a minor "antagonist" in the background. She doesn't do anything in 5-1 other than have the foresight to call on Sensei and has little to no presence otherwise. If anything the minor success she did see was based on having a strong core design and concept executed well with a great VA choice. Nagusa I feel got plenty of focus and character building beforehand but her sort of character can be polarizing... and then on the gameplay side they dropped her as a permanent right after Nozomi who the entire playerbase had already rolled for so they wound up with another miss. With Swimsuit Mika out now no one will ever roll for her on a rerun either.
This is a game where fulfilling raid mechanics and hitting higher and higher DPS goals is a necessity, with the investment to make a damage-based student viable over another choice being incredibly high so it's not too surprising if a student with 0 utility or purpose to use them over an existing character drops to cold reception unless they have godlike writing. Most people aren't going to roll a DPS unless they intend to max them, and the writing and gameplay team alike are going to need to work a lot harder to make sure that happens with new faces. I think we could use more mixed offensive units along the line of Band Kazusa where you have reason to use them even if they're only 3* but they shine even more when invested. That sort of thing is why people are way more willing to roll for their own tanks and supports a lot of the time.