Azur lane has some of the best fanservice in anime/anime games, but the costumes are just too expensive to be worth it in-game.
I disagree. Sure, they're expensive, but they're the only thing you would realistically want to spend money for. Yostar is very generous with coobs, and you can retire all other shipgirls to free up dock space, so you don't need gems to buy coobs & dock space. So, imo skins are the only thing you would spend your gems on, and they're not even required to play
That's how I play, too. But with how slow it is to save up the gems, and how expensive the costumes can be, the fanservice doesn't seem worth the trouble. You can't even really appreciate it during a fight because of the chibi style, (and the permanent focus on the vanguard fleet) so you really only get to see it in the dock. It's not like F/GO where you can see/admire the fanservice during battle and when looking at the character bio. Each FGO character gets 3+ costumes for free, too, which allows players to choose their favorite costumes. All in all, I love AL's fanservice, but think it's not as easy to enjoy as other games.