Happy New Year! And a few 2019 resolutions

Happy New Year! 2018 seems to have whizzed by amazingly fast. Even faster than usual, maybe because I didn’t do much or go anywhere interesting last year. I still managed to play a lot of games but those don’t really count.

Actually, I was flirting with the idea of making 2019 a No Game year. Just packing all my games into a box and putting them away until 2020. There are lots of things I want/have to do this year and every hour spent gaming is an hour spent not achieving them. Escapist fantasy is all good and nice, but when the credits roll, that mountain of work you were avoiding is still waiting for you.

The only reason I’m not going to is because of my siblings. Specifically the ones who are married with kids and have no time to play games any more. They’re not complaining, mind you, but when I think that a day might come when I can’t even play Candy Crush Soda because my phone has been taken over by “Baby Shark” and “Daddy Finger” then I realize I’ve gotta make hay and kill bosses while the sun shines. So here are my six gaming targets for 2019:

1. Atelier Ayesha Plus (VITA) – I started it briefly after finishing Meruru because I was curious but Atelier is still Atelier in the end so it’s best to leave some months in between games. Is she just pretending or is Ayesha really that ditzy? It’s not cute at all.

2. Atelier Escha & Logy Plus (VITA) – I’ll be playing Ayesha quite early in the year so by the time the second half of the year rolls around, I’ll be craving more Atelier. It sounds like it’ll be really interesting to play first as Logy and then as Escha to see different events or endings. Assuming I have the energy to play twice, that is.

3. One of the Ys action-RPGs (PC) – Any Ys will do. Except Ys DS. I happen to like the words “Felghana” and “Celceta” so I’m fixing to play either one of those first. It’s all because I really like the combat in Tokyo Xanadu eX+ but there just isn’t enough of it. Since the combat is (supposedly) Ys-inspired, I might as well go to the source and check it out.

4. La Corda d’oro 3 (VITA) – It will be hard to let go of my old crew, but I’ve done almost everything worth doing in LC1 and LC2 so it’s time to move on. New settings! New music! New bishies! This should be good. After that I just have to play LC4 and the new Octave game and I’m done with the series. I hope to play one of the Harukanaru Toki no Naka de games as well.

5. Final Fantasy XV (PC) – a.k.a. FF Boyband Edition. I like to play series in release order so I’ll give FFXIII one last, honest try. Especially now that I can use a PS4 controller to play the game. I just can’t get into keyboard controls. So honest try for FFXIII, then FFXV. Even though I’ve heard it’s bad I still want to play it.

6. Sakura Wars 5 (Wii) – Still haven’t played Sakura Taisen 4, but I’m going to prioritize it because it was on last year’s list. Then I can get SW5 out of the way in time for the next game in the series which Sega will eventually release someday, hopefully while I’m still young enough to play it.

That’s it, nothing too ambitious this year because I still have leftovers from last year’s resolutions. Though I did pretty well last year and almost everything I tried was good. The same guiding principle applies: “It’s enough to play just a little bit of a game.” It helped me stay stress-free last year so I think I’ll keep it and apply it to other things like books and movies and the like.

Well that’s enough from me. Enjoy your day and Happy New Year again!

Granblue Fantasy – Now is the Winter of our Discount Spark

…Made glorious summer by this Wheel of Salt.

Welcome to my second Granblue Fantasy spark for 2018. As with my last spark in summer, I’m trying to get something to finish up my Varuna grid. This time I’m getting Drang’s weapon, the Blue Sphere. If nothing else it’s a good main hand for Sage, or so I’ve heard. Also I’ve never sparked during a Flashfest before so I’d be happy to pull some Flashfest exclusives. Like, y’know, Shiva, or Shiva, or even Shiva. But I can get him some other time so my goal remains unchanged. If I manage to pull the Blue Sphere before 300 draws is up, I’ll either drop the spark (if it’s under 100 sparks) or get an Ixaba or second Eden so I can build Agni or Zeus.

Day 1 – Nothing (10 rolls).
Day 2 – Tezcatlipoca (10 rolls). I used to want this summon but I can’t remember why.

Also pulled 20 single tickets and got an Agni dupe and Eustace.
I don’t have Titan but I’m stockpiling weapons just in case so I’ll take that Stratomizer.
Day 3 – 20 rolls. Europa dupe only. Rolled another 20 single tickets and got SSR Gorilla. Free quartz! And more importantly, free rainbow prisms so I can build Seox!
Day 4 – Gachpin frenzy. More like Gachapain. I’ve had it three times so far and it’s always been interrupted after one or two rounds by a gold moon. But it’s not good to complain about Free Stuff so I’ll take it with a smile. Here goes nothing… Yup, ends in the very first round with an SSR.

Light Silva! Water Silva is the best SSR I have ever pulled so if her alt lives up to even 70% of her older version’s prowess I’ll be happy.

Welp, that’s it for the free pulls. I only saved 50 free rolls on the spark, but it’s better than nothing. Okay Drang, come to Mama. 20 single tickets, 4 10-draw tickets and 57,000 crystals. Hmmmm… I dunno if I wanna do this any more. Is the Blue Sphere really that good? Wouldn’t it be better to get a third Murgleis and a chance at the new Zodiac in a few days? It would, wouldn’t it? ……. ….. … Eh, what the heck, I’ll do it anyway.

20 single tickets gave me a Grand Order dupe. Yay, I’ve MLB’d Grand Order. I still remember how GO legit carried me through my first 6 months of the game. To think I would finally have my own someday, sniff, sniff… Time for the 10-draw tickets. You watch and see how Granblue Fantasy will give me only SRs even though Gachapin cut me short after one round.

1st ticket:
Wheeeeee! *ahem* I mean, this is acceptable. My fire team really needs hard hitters, so I hope he can help.
2nd ticket: Zilch.
3rd ticket:
Light Jeanne. a.k.a. a new skin for my Dark Jeanne. I like free skins.
4th ticket:
Okay, that wasn’t as awful as I had feared. Let’s finish this with the crystals. 57,000 crystals is 19 10-draws if my calculator is right. Wait, my math is off. After all this, I have 150 sparks, which means I need 150 more, which is… 45000 crystals. How did I get that 57,000 figure? Oh right, I forgot to count the 40 single tickets I had used before. Careless mistakes like this have plagued me throughout my academic career. MATH IS HARD!

1st: Nuffink.
2nd: Another Europa dupe. One more and I can MLB her. Come on Granblue, you can do it!
3rd: Nada.
4th: Zero.
5th: Shiva dupe. Purifying Thunderbolt might be good for Agni grid if it ever gets FLB’d.
6th: Sylph
It’s a bit rude to reduce her for prisms so soon after she came out so I’ll keep her in the stash for a bit.
7th: Zip.
8th: Arriet dupe and Lancelot dupe.
9th: Lancelot and Vane.
10th: Not even a single moon.
11th: More nothings. What happened to talk of giving out a trophy for drawing 9R and a characterless SR?
12th: Sylph dupe and Dark Angel Olivia:
Fallen Sword is supposed to be good for dark. Was that primal or magna? I can’t spare the damascus bars to FLB it right now, but I’ll be sure to keep it safe just in case.
13th: Nought.
14th: Nowt.
15th: Clarisse dupe.

Phew, it’s over! I was starting to run out of synonyms for “Nothing” 😀 Time to pick up my Blue Sphere and skedaddle!

That was fun, kinda. I wish I wasn’t so ambivalent about this Blue Sphere thing. It’s gotta be awesome, right? I mean I sparked for it and everything, I’ve gotta convince myself of that. If nothing else, it will absorb some of the tons of weapon fodder that’s clogging my weapon box and stashes.

Final spark tally

SSR summons: Tezcatlipoca, Agni (dupe), Europa (dupe), Gorilla, Grand Order (dupe), Ca Ong, Europa (second dupe), Sylph, Sylph (dupe)
SSR characters: Eustace, Silva (light), Shiva, Jeanne d’Arc (light), Shiva (dupe), Arriet (dupe), Lancelot (dupe), Lancelot and Vane, Dark Angel Olivia, Clarisse (dupe), Drang (spark target)
SRs: Shao and a ton of silver moons
R: No new ones.

That’s 20 SSRs, or 6.66% and I got both the rate-up characters. I also got trophies for getting more characters and weapons.

Yay for sparking! If I get a 100-draw roulette spin during the next banner, I’ll spark again for another Murgleis, otherwise I’ll wait for anniversary roulette. And I’ll report on whether Blue Sphere made a difference to my Varuna grid or not, once I get round to fitting it in and stuff. See you next time!

Merry Christmas + Early thoughts on Tokyo Xanadu eX+

Merry Christmas everyone! It’s a blessing to be able to make it to another Christmas. I’m not taking anything for granted any more these days. Any year I make it through safe and sound and with all my body parts intact is a good year! I spent today pigging out with family like I always do. It’s actually a bit hard to balance my laptop on my lap with my stomach sticking out like this |))))) but I’ll do my best!

So, early thoughts on Tokyo Xanadu eX+. Really early thoughts, because I’ve only played 5 hours. Finished the first 2 chapters and about to start the second side story. Before I started, I heard the game described as “Persona meets Ys.” I thought it was just a particularly unimaginative reviewer grasping for words, but it turns out to be a really accurate description. It plays like Persona 3 or 4 but with action RPG combat instead. During the day you go to class and make various choices to build social links strengthen bonds and improve your Wisdom, Courage and Virtue, then later in the day you go dungeon crawling with your buddies. Visual novel by day, action battler by night. I haven’t seriously played any of the Ys games, but Tokyo Xanadu plays like what I think Ys should play like when it’s not doing that unplayable bump thingy from Ys DS.

But actually the similarities are mainly limited to the concept and general premise. Instead of looking for stuff to compare the game to (speaking of which, the chapter system reminds me of Tokyo Majin Gakuen) I’m trying and mostly succeeding to appreciate it for its own merits. Such as they are. It’s a bit hard right now because the visual novel sequences are so long and the dungeons are so short that I’m not getting the ARPG fix I was expecting.

And the VN parts are CHEESY. “I want to discover true strength together with you!” “I want to use these powers to defend the people I care about!” I mean yeah, I understand what they’re saying and yeah, they’re all honorable and good thoughts to have, but when you verbalize them like that, it’s just criiiiiingy. And this is just after 2 chapters. By the time we get to the inevitable “Mankind needs no gods!” conclusion I think my eyes will be permanently rolled back in my head ^^;; Just hope there’s a proper explanation for why people around Kousaka are turning out to be Wielders left and right.

(And of course, when developers do make a game with a hero who seriously doesn’t care a.k.a Luminous Arc Infinity, people like me complain anyway so they just can’t win.)

But I like all the characters so far so I don’t mind too much. And they’re all just so nice and forgiving. In the most recent chapter, a character named Aizawa was mean and said some very cruel things to her junior Sora, but by the end it was all swept under the bridge because of the power of friendship. Man, I must have gone to the wrong high school. Back in my day, the Karate club would have broken into the Aizawa faction (“Who does that Sora ***** think she is”) and the Sora faction (“Who does that Aizawa ***** think she is”) and the rift would have continued till graduation. This is where fiction comes in handy, eh?

The combat, what little there is of it, is pretty easy because you can pull up the menu and heal at any time. That said, it took me a long time to get a hang of the controls. In fact I couldn’t play it at all with the keyboard. I had to hook up a controller and remap the controls to stuff I could remember. And even then I still forgot the command to trigger EX skills in the most recent battle and had to beat the boss normally. What was it again…? There’s just so much stuff to remember. X-Drive, EX Skill, Power skill, etc etc. I forget all the commands as soon as I stop play and then I have to relearn them in the next session.

Can’t tell what’s going on? Neither can I.

Right now my parties have low HP and really weak defence, so my go-to strategy is to hang back and hit the enemy with Ranged Attacks. For regular mooks you can just smash through normally but for bosses it’s easiest to learn their attack patterns and dodge and fight from a distance. If the boss throws up a Guard (because the developers are totally on to me) then I have to close in and smash the guard, healing as necessary. Then it’s business as usual.

Easy stuff, and the dungeon gimmicks aren’t too annoying yet so it’s all good. I actually really liked the look and atmosphere of the most recent dungeon, Moonlight Garden. Just wish the dungeons were longer and there were many many many more enemies to defeat, but that will probably improve as the game goes along. If it doesn’t, I’ll have to downgrade the game from “action RPG with VN elements” to “Majin-like harem RPG” and nobody wants that.

I’ll be back to report if anything exciting happens either in Tokyo Xanadu eX+ or Luminous Arc Infinity. Otherwise I’m sneezing a lot today and feeling suspiciously headachy so I’m going to try and rest as much as I can for the rest of the week. Merry Christmas again!

Luminous Arc Infinity – Actually it’s not so bad

I didn’t have any clear goals when I started this blog years ago, but one thing I knew was that I wanted to give every game a fair chance. I didn’t want to either rush through games or play a little bit just to say I’d played them. Sometimes a game just sucks and I have no choice, but I rarely feel good about it. So after dismissing Luminous Arc Infinity after only one hour, I decided I wasn’t being fair to it and decided to give it another chance. Verdict: It’s better than I had initially feared.

That doesn’t mean it’s good, though. It’s just moved from “Bad” to “Mediocre, but playable.” The crazy amount of talking in every single scene is still a huge problem, but I’ve solved it by skipping all the text in everything except story quests. This means I’m missing out on a lot of “immersion” and “world-building” but I hate that stuff anyway so it’s all good. So that decision alone has cut my stress in half.

Now that I’m about 5:30 hours into the game, the tutorials have all but ceased and more battle options are available so there’s more playing and less reading. These isometric RPGs are always a little slow, and at least Luminous Arc Infinity isn’t as bad as the original Luminous Arc or some others I’ve played. But I still crave a fast-forward button because it takes so long for turns to go round and attacks to play out. Pressing buttons helps a bit, but not much.

The interesting things to note about this battle system are:

1. The singing buffs. Aka “Calling” in the game. An idol stands on a spot and sings and everyone in range gets a buff. Another idol can join in for a duet, or even more for a trio, quartet or quintet. It’s good to spend the first turn of the game when all idols are clustered together getting buffed before moving out. Calling also accumulates Voice Points which you can use to trigger EX Arts and EX Attacks.

However, strangely enough, you don’t get any special music or voice sounds when the idol sings. Just the regular battle music. Which… kind of defeats the purpose of having a game about singing idols. I’ve collected 6 idols so far and haven’t heard a single one sing outside the opening sequence. Stella Glow and Shining Blade did much better in that regard.

2. Duo attacks. That means you borrow attacks from allies standing nearby. For example since Aqua is a water mage, she can’t use fire attacks. But if Xiorker is standing next to her, she can borrow a flame attack to strike an enemy who is weak to fire. Duo attacks also build affection between the girls, which does… something. I forget what. But they’re super useful regardless because elemental strengths and weaknesses seem to matter a lot in this game.

3. Brave clear conditions borrowed from the Summon Night series. You get extra items by fulfilling certain conditions. Usually it’s not healing too much, defeating a number of enemies with the idol of the day, that sort of thing. They’re much easier to fulfill than those in Summon Night but the rewards aren’t that great so it doesn’t matter if you do them or not.

4. The main character can’t fight because he’s cursed. What he can do is fondle the girls to give them stat boosts before battle and pop in with all kinds of supports whenever his turn rolls around. So far it’s just a few things like giving them VP, healing, Aura Points, etc but he’s also been learning status attacks like Sleep for the enemies. And his accessories all decrease his wait time, so depending on how things go, Xird could be a formidable ally after he grows a bit.

Lest you forget what kind of game we’re dealing with here.

5. Characters level up normally, but they also get growths through a skill tree. In theory there are 4 kinds of builds: Variety, Pure, Cool and Beauty, which affect what kind of growths and skills you get e.g. more MAG instead of ATK, that kind of thing. In practice I am told it’s best to leave everyone on their default paths so it’s not as exciting as it seems at first.

My characters are averaging level 17 and don’t feel too strong yet, so there’s still plenty of room for Luminous Arc Infinity‘s battle system to blow me away. Right now it’s just adequate, but adequate is good enough for me when it comes to SRPGs. Really, if they just wouldn’t talk and bicker so much and if they would let me fight more than once or twice an hour I would be quite happy.

Does that mean LA: Infinity has been un-dropped? Eh, yeah, I guess. I’m playing this side by side with Tokyo Xanadu eX+ but Tokyo Xanadu is not exciting enough to deserve my full focus so there’s still room in my heart for an SRPG. Unless something better comes along, I guess I’m playing these two games for the rest of the year.

Luminous Arc Infinity – I hate it already

I’ve only played an hour, but I’ve played enough of other games to know the signs so I can tell Luminous Arc Infinity is going to suck. Here are the three main signs:

Too much talking. In that one hour I played, I’ve only fought two battles. And they were tutorial battles too, so almost every step was interrupted by a lecture. The rest of the game is just talking, talking, talking.

The story behind Luminous Arc Infinity is that their world is supported by 9 Idols – young ladies who sing and offer magic up to the magna lapis that holds up the world. A shadowy organization named Amadeus is trying to kidnap the idols for unknown reasons, so after a lengthy LENGTHY discussion, the world powers decide to bring all the idols under one roof so they can be better protected. And the person tasked with doing this is the lazy main character, Xird.

See, that didn’t take a whole hour to explain, did it? So when you see a game that uses a lot of characters and scenes to say something very simple, you know it’s going to suck. Especially if they won’t even let you save during a cutscene.

Stupid touching gimmick. In between chapters you have to fondle and paw at a half-naked idol in order to “tune” her properly. These excuses get more and more inventive every time. If you’re skillful enough, she gets bonuses in the next battle. The fanservice isn’t particularly risque, but the minigame is very pointless because you’re just poking and scratching at various spots in the hope of finding something good. Also I hate touching mini-games.

Too many tutorials. You can’t even save without getting a tutorial on saving and loading. This level of over-the-top hand-holding is extremely boring so after a while I started skipping everything. Which means I’ll have to read a FAQ later to get all the nuances but whatevs. More importantly, the wealth of tutorials makes me suspect that either 1) The game is full of obscure mechanics that you won’t understand even after reading all those tutorials or 2) The game is aimed at an audience that doesn’t usually play video games. For Luminous Arc Infinity it seems to be the latter.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing to try to draw in new audiences, but the question is “Draw them in to what?” From what I can see, LA Infinity has a very heavy emphasis on whole “anime j-pop idols” and the gameplay aspect is a distant second to ogling and interacting with cute girls. If this game is not aimed at gamers, then I supsect it won’t try to please gamers. It will just throw more girls and more talking scenes at you. After all, that’s what you came for, right?

Still I could be wrong (unlikely, but possible) and now that the worst of the tutorials are over and the basic story has been established, maybe things will get better. But I won’t be finding out any time soon because I really don’t feel like playing any more of this right now. I haven’t had even the slightest bit of fun in the hour I’ve played, the girls are not that cute and the lazy slacker main character kills my motivation stone dead. You can consider Luminous Arc Infinity dropped until I’m done with the other, better games in my backlog.

Update

I decided that dropping Luminous Arc Infinity after just one hour was being too rash, so I played two more hours. There’s still a ton of talking and I still hate that stupid mini-game, but that battle system is starting to open up. More idols have joined my party and they’ve leveled up a few times and gained some more skills. Battles are a bit sluggish and long-drawn out for my liking but the game isn’t so bad any more.

Oh, oh, and check this out: you don’t get a Game Over if you lose a battle. You just get to try again with all the EXP and Aura Points you’ve gained already XD. It’s like the Egress skill in Shining Force 2, but even more exploitable! If you wanted, you could deliberately one battle over and over again (easy enough because friendly fire is a thing in this game) to learn a ton of skills and gain a lot of stats very early in the game. But I won’t do that… or will I? Heh heh heh. Nah, the game isn’t fun enough or hard enough for that so I’ll just keep playing as normal. Proper update next time!