*Update* Brave Frontier
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| Gimme my freaking Feeva goddamnit |
Looking at my old pros and cons for this game,most of them still apply. I said it was really easy to get good units, but I see now that it's honestly all up to the fate of the rare summon gate. Some people get a great metagame unit on their first and only pull, whereas I just used up 20 gems on a rate-up group only to get none of the units in that group. Such is life in F2P.
Evolving them is still hard but almost for the opposite reason now. It's hard to level them, but easy to get the materials for evolution. Except for the new 7-star units. Those Mecha Gods are a bitch. (But it's all worth it I am so in love with my 7* Selena right now.)
As for the sprite and battle effects...well. I still love the sprites, I could watch those 7* units all day. But as for the battle effects, I'm sure they look great but I turned them all off because it makes my game run faster. Seriously, update your servers.
I was on point about my energy expanding so I don't have to check back too often nowadays but most of the higher level dungeons take way too much energy. Not to mention any free unit dungeons where the emphasis is on farming the perfect type.
Everything else is much the same. Still don't like the daily dungeons, although they did make the super special feeder dungeon a sure thing instead of an event. Still don't like the sphere and item stuff, such a pain to keep up with. And the user base is still awesome. Between the subreddit and Brave Frontier Pros and their forums and wiki, anything you could possibly want is covered.
*Update* Chain Chronicles
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| Get back here damnit no not that row god fucking damn it |
Reason: I'm really bad at line defense.
1. Final Fantasy Record Keeper
You know, I'd say something about how Squeenix can never let go of this franchise but I can't say anything WHEN IT WORKS. Yes this game is designed to milk you for your nostalgia but goddamn if it didn't want to make me replay FFVII immediately. I played this game pretty much the day it was released, and at the time of this writing it's only been out for about two weeks. And yet there's been two events and I have gotten every single event unit so far. I-is this real life??
Pro: Nostalgia in spades. Oh man, if you are a fan of Final Fantasy play this game. The music is instantaneously recognizable, and all the iconic enemies are transformed into pixel versions of themselves. You revisit key plot points and get your favourite characters and seriously the music is fucking me up with nostalgia. .
Con: Not a lot of abilities out. Characters who have good stats are often limited by the lack of helpful spells and skills they can use. There are too many restrictions on what class can use what magic/skill.
Pro: But goddamn if it isn't accurate. So faithful to the original games. Why can Sephiroth, a character that seems to be totally set up for a warrior type with his high ATK and low MAG, use black magic? Because FFVII said so. Characters are completely set up according to their original backstories, and so are enemies. If you remember an enemy's weakness in the original game, it's still gonna work here.
Con: It's so faithful, even the part where you have to keep checking a guide is faithful. Like the original RPGs, you'll get the most outof the game if you check a guide beforehand for the enemy weaknesses and special attacks. There's also a 'target score' which is a goal you have to try to fulfill during the boss battle basically in order to get a mastery for the dungeon (and therefore the mastery reward) It kind of helps to know what the target score is before heading in but the game doesn't give you that.
Pro: It's okay because there is an official strategy guide and it's amazing. It's updated almost instantly and accurately with the newest events and characters and enemies and equipments. Although the user base isn't too large at the start of the game, this guide pretty much makes up for it.
Con: Not a lot of characters out. I'm using Rydia only because she's pretty much the only viable character who can use Black Magic. (Black Mage himself is too squishy) Where my girls at? Terra would own that magic! Yuna would be killing it with the summon magic! I bet Lightning can be a good spellblade user too! Aerith come on and replace my White Mage already!
Pro: Characters can't be summoned using rare summon. That summon is for relic (=equipment) only. And while good equipment is definitely important, and there's always the iconic weapons like Masamune or Buster Sword, it's not as wallet wrenching as character summons. Don't you understand? It means that you'll never miss out on a great character because you don't have cash. How incredible is that???
Con: Not a lot of plot out in general. You get mythril every time you finish a dungeon, but there aren't many dungeons out except for the 'Elite' versions of the regular dungeons. And those are an awful source of mythril, considering how hard it is to finish those things. Not to mention the lack of characters for some storylines (FFV and VI especially) make it hard to finish those as well.
Pro: Easy to catch on. They have quite a few mechanics that focus on farming and crafting, but it's pretty simple compared to other games. Plus, without spending any cash or even any mythril for continues/resets, I managed to get to the end of both events that they've had so far. Just by grinding for about a week during the event, I got my characters completely comfortable with taking on the final boss.
Con: Lack of notifications. I would actually like to know when my energy has refilled okay? If I want to ignore it and waste my energy that should be my decision to make. Also you get increased Stamina from finishing story missions, but since there aren't that many story missions out my energy refills to full too fast.
Pro/Con:The ATB gauge system. It makes me nervous, although for fans who dislike the static turn based RPG system this might be a plus. I'm still nervous though, and sometimes I enter a dungeon and forget to turn on auto so I just sit there taking damage before I look at my phone like oh shit.
2. Star Era
A poor man's Million Arthur...IN SPACE! That's pretty much all you need to know about the game. I've been playing it for about two weeks and I still feel like I'm in that 'newly addicted' phase. I'll be real though, I'm really only using this to tide me over until the North American localization of Million Arthur comes out sometime this quarter.
Pro/Con: Browser based. I like it because it doesn't take away as much of my time as it might if I had it handy on mobile everywhere I went. Some people might not like it for the same reason, it's hard to keep up with energy re-fills and whatnot if you can only access it on your computer.
Pro/Con: Lack of notification. Ties into with the browser based thing above, but I like it because I don't feel pressured to fight every time I get a notification about an Infector (= Faeries = Archwitches). On the other hand, you can miss berserk (= arousal) Infectors because you don't get notified about it.
Pro: No region restrictions. For those who aren't into MA or CCG enough to get a SEA region account, Star Era can be played globally.
Con: Player base isn't as large as MA, so there isn't much support. Plus the in-game tutorials don't really help with a lot of the game features, like World Boss, Arena, Daily Events. You have an 'assistant' but the tips are randomly generated and there isn't even an in-game FAQ.
Pro: Multiple accounts. Unlike MA or other iOS CCGs where you have to have multiple devices to have multiple accounts, all you need to two windows to field two accounts (they don't even have to be different browsers. An incognito one and a regular one is enough). I guess you could probably have more but I really don't see the point in it. I use one as a energy sink when my main account runs out. If you don't need a helper account, you can also create a character in any of the current 18 servers.
Con: They have quite a few events, such as the world boss or the current Sirius hunting event which are time locked, and therefore time zone based. Considering that this is global, not region locked, time zones are never a good thing.
Pro: MMO. There's a world chat where you can speak to everyone on the server and I think that's one of the biggest strengths of this game. It's much easier to be social and interact with other players than in most CCGs.
Con: The plot is negligible. Also, it really takes me out of it because the game keeps putting in 'Protagonist' in the dialogue instead of your user name.
Pro:I like MA's art more than Star Eras, but it's not terrible and some of the cards are really nice.
Con: Same limit breaking principle as that made it a con in MA.
Pro: Easy to get summons. You get a summon coupon if you stay in the game long enough everyday, and diamonds aren't super hard to come by.
Con: Summons do nothing. Seriously you can summon twenty times and not get a five star and those are regular rates. Coupons do nothing except add to your points, where if you get enough points you'll be guaranteed a good card. There are some other summon mechanics but they cost a lot of diamonds to be viable. That's the other thing too, you get diamonds but everything costs an arm and leg in diamonds so better stock up.
3. Heavenstrike Rivals
This was another Squeenix game that I played not long after it came out. For a while there I really worked on it, but eventually I dropped it. The reason is kind of the same reason why I dropped Chain Chronicles: I'm really bad at real time strategy. I guess I just can't handle tactics, or games that need even a fraction of intelligence. (If you need spreadsheets and stat comparisons though, I am so there.)
Pro: That Squeenix quality. I just love the world-building that goes into Square Enix games. This one has a really nice steampunk fantasy setting, and a nice assortment of characters. The plot, while it didn't immediately capture me, seemed like it was setting up a well built story.
Pro: The art is super lovely. The world screen especially looked really nice, really detailed. The game sprites are really nice and I really dig the steampunk fantasy. There's also tons of user avatars to chose from. Also cat ears (^oωo^)
Con: Some of the user base is really intense and they talk about resetting the game then redoing the tutorial over and over again until they get a good first two rare pulls. I..am not invested enough to do that.
Pro/Con: Real time strategy. It feels like a really solid RTS to me? I'm not a big expert on them but the way it was set up is really easy to understand. Also there's real time PvP which comes with its own pros and cons like the pro being able to compete with real human beings and the con being also that. The main con of all of this is that I really suck at it. I got stuck at a stage and of course being the resourceful, intelligent person I am, I immediately gave up. For tactics fans though, check it out~
4. Quiz RPG: The World of Mystic Wiz
Okay I actually played this a while ago, and I thought I included it on the other post but apparently not. This one has a really interesting concept that kept me going for a while but is also why I stopped playing it. Basically you summon your cards and whatever, but to do damage you have to answer trivia questions.
Pro: Not Puzzles & Dragons. Too many of those puzzle connecting dungeon things out there and I do not like them. This one is pretty much the same thing, except just with trivia questions instead of puzzles.
Con: To do well you basically have to have Google open by your side constantly. Trust me, you think you're pretty good at Trivia Crack so you try this out? No, this needs the guidance of Google.
Pro: You can do well as long as you know how to Google. Especially for tournaments, which are pretty much the same as Challenge mode on Trivia Crack, where it's better to take your time and get a correct answer than get a fast time but more wrong answers. Thanks to that, it's pretty easy to rank well even if your cards might be worse. Of course, rare cards always help.
Pro: Good user base, the wiki is pretty comprehensive. It includes the cards naturally, but also rankings and exp calculators - always a plus. Then for those difficult treasure chest questions, there's a database for those too.
Con: Keeping everything open pretty much. It's like you sit down for a session and prep your Google and that treasure question database and it's like work. Plus they added another Hidden Power mechanic that makes it annoying to keep track of when levelling cards.
Con: Sports trivia. Fuck sports seriously.
5. Elune Saga
I don't remember much about this game, I played it for a little while and just lost interest. It's pretty repetitive, and I didn't think the sprites were mind blowing or anything. You can summon cards, but they act as skills rather than characters, so you don't really see much of them. I don't know, it just didn't capture me so I'm not even going to make a pro/con page for it.
That's all the games I've gone through since my last post. Right now I split my time between Brave Frontier, FFRK and Star Era. My friend recommends Love Live's School Idol Festival but I'm like no thanks I need to have a life right now. (Even if the kimono outfits are so cute seriously why do Kotori and Ayase get all the best outfits) For those who understand Japanese, I hear Kancolle is great for a bishoujo harem and Touken Ranbu is great for a bishounen harem.
I will probably update this again in the future, what with me moving past the newly addicted phase and getting more or less of a life, or hopefully with new English/NA localizations to come~
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