Guardian Tales dropped – Too much skill required (great game, though)

And by “too much skill required” I mean there were too many stealth missions and eventually I’d had enough. I played up to World 9-1 in Guardian Tales, made it through other stealth-based stages like the whole desert saga, but finally I gave up the ghost. It’s like, even if I make it through this one, there’ll just be more of them, won’t there? Along with a host of other game tasks requiring skill and sharp reflexes, all of which I don’t have, otherwise I’d be at the Winter Olympics and not sitting here blogging about games.

I’ll say this for Guardian Tales, though: there’s never a dull moment in the stages. It’s not all running around smashing enemies, fun as that may be. There are also plenty of dungeon puzzles like pushing blocks, completing circuits, lighting torches, stepping on a switch and dashing through a gap before time runs out, and more. Now I hate dungeon puzzles and I hate stealth, but for the most part I was able to figure out the ones needed to pass a stage by myself. As for the optional/bonus ones, well, someone somewhere must have done them, and that’s enough.

Apart from the puzzles, there are also places where you need to race others, blow stuff up, swing across with your hookshot, jump with trampolines, slide across ice, etc etc etc. I haven’t even covered the side stories and optional quests, one of which features a shoot ’em up type game. Incidentally, my personal favorite weird gimmick is/was the Awakening dungeon where you could farm awakening stones by smashing illegally-parked cars. It’s nothing innovative, but it sure is funny.

All that skill-based gameplay makes the stages varied and interesting. That’s undeniable. But it also means you can’t grind/buy/pull your way to victory in non-battle scenes. It doesn’t matter if you have a level 9999 waifu if your fingers are too clumsy to sneak past the guards at the beginning of the stage. And therein lies the crux of my problem with Guardian Tales.

Honestly it’s a fantastic game for anyone who is sick of the one-way monotonous gameplay many casual games offer. Too many of them just have you moving from screen to screen killing enemies and watching cutscenes along the way, but GT keeps you on your toes. It still has casual elements, though. Most stages are short and quick to clear, and you can unlock auto-battles and sweeps for the grindier content. You can also ignore the story and focus on PVE/PVP like the Towers, the Orbital Lift, the Colosseum, the real-time Arena, etc.

But if you care about the story at all (and you need to, to unlock those PVE/PVP options), you’re going to have to “git gud” at running, dodging and sneaking, and I don’t have it in me to do any of that. If you do, though, you’re in for a real treat. I recommended it to a Zelda fan I know, and he’s loving every minute of it.

Things I liked about Guardian Tales

⚔️Action RPG combat! With all the ducking and jiving that comes with it.

⚔️The challenge level is just right. Most stages come with a recommended level, and as long as you stick to that and keep up with enhancing your equipment and awakening your characters, you should be fine. I hear there’s a massive difficulty spike at World 11, but I won’t get there so I have nothing to worry about.

⚔️The soundtrack is pretty good, especially the one that plays in the lobby.

⚔️The little princess is so cute!

⚔️I’m usually not a fan of the retro pixel SNES RPG look, but it worked great here.

⚔️Lots to do, plus lots of unlocked side stories to play through if you get bored. At the same time it’s not overwhelming or confusing. With some games it takes weeks and tons of guides to get all the mechanics down, but it’s pretty straightforward here. There are only a few things you need to grind to get stronger as well.

⚔️The pop culture references are amusing to spot. Monty Python, Ski Free, Pokemon, Ace Attorney, Disney, Dragon Quest… and those are just the ones I remember.

⚔️The game is pretty generous with gems. And it’s not just the usual “love-bombing” gacha games do to newbies to keep them playing. Even after playing for weeks, there are still plenty of ways to earn gems like the Colosseum, events and frequent giveaways. You could probably do at least one 10-pull a week.

⚔️The localization is mostly good, but you do spot occasional careless errors that suggest that the translation was done in a rush.

Things I wasn’t so hot on

🔨It doesn’t run well on emulators unless you’re very persistent & lucky. I don’t like gaming on my smartphone, so it was inevitable that I would remove it eventually.

🔨The story isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. A lot of bad things happen to your cutesy characters and their friends, so you won’t be feeling very good when all is said and done. TBH I rather like sunshine and rainbows, but if you’re looking for a grittier experience, this might be for you.

🔨I said it already, but I hate stealth missions and dungeon puzzles. Always have. And while we’re at it, I resent the fact that it’s a free-to-play mobile game and yet I can’t simply pay my way past the most annoying aspects of the game. I’d actually pay a small amount of cash to skip certain puzzles, no joke.

TL;DR Guardian Tales is a very charming game with a lot going for it. You can see that by the small number of things I disliked versus what I liked. It’s just that both the stealth thing and the phone-only things are complete dealbreakers for me, so this is where I get off. Anyone who is even slightly curious, I highly recommend you try it. Best of luck to continuing players and may the little princess give you lots of free gems!

Another Eden – Another day, another game dropped

No surprises with this one. I already mentioned last month that I was going to delete Another Eden: The Cat beyond Time and Space from my phone and possibly pick up where I left off on Steam. It’s unlikely that this will happen any time soon, though, because I don’t miss it very much right now. It helps that because of the way Another Eden is structured, there’s very little permanently missable content. I could come back three years later and pick up right where I left off, so I don’t feel any urgency to jump back in again. This is actually a very good thing, because it makes the full game accessible to new players and old ones alike. Plus the power creep isn’t completely horrible (or more like I haven’t gotten very far into the game) so I won’t have to worry about being unable to compete at all when I return.

To summarize all I’ve said about Another Eden in the past, it’s a good JRPG disguised as a gacha game. The main story is pointless, drawn-out and nonsensical in places, which is why I was really baffled by all the praise this game got for its writing. Turns out all the good stuff is in the side stories, many of which could be spun off as complete RPGs on their own. I was enjoying the Western Mythos until the final boss, and I really like the atmosphere of the IDA School arcs. The music especially reminds me of other high school RPGs like Tokyo Xanadu and the Persona games.

Nice one, Another Eden! Now I know everyone who will join me in Persona 5!

The battle gameplay is ordinary. Hit-me-I-hit-you, as a friend of mine once described turn-based RPGs. Speed is very important, but it’s not the end all and be all stat like it is in many such games. I would be in real trouble if the stories were interesting, the music was great AND the gameplay was super-interesting, but no game is perfect. I actually liked that the gameplay was plain and not too challenging. You didn’t need to grind too much for weapons or armor; the occasional upgrade was okay. Until the Western Mythos last boss…

That thing really broke my immersion. If it was a grindy game from the start, that would be understandable, but progress had been so smooth until then, I lost half of my motivation to continue. So I thought, “I’ll just watch the conclusion on YouTube and play the rest.” But once “just watch it on YouTube” became an option for Another Eden, the rest of my motivation dropped off as well. If it’s the story that is good and I don’t actually have to play to get the story, then…

Nowadays there are many places to find good stories: novels, light novels, webnovels, live-action series, anime (just started Kimetsu no Yaiba), manga… That means the plot is way down on my list of priorities when I play a video game, instead I’m looking for things that non-interactive media can’t offer, like exploration, a sense of progression and increasing power, etc.

Hehe, I filled all this out and more.

Pretty sure I’ve said all this before, and this isn’t to put Another Eden down. It’s just to note that a game that prides itself on its writing should be very careful when throwing roadblocks in the way of enjoying that writing. No matter how engrossing the TV thriller is, if the last scene comes up: “The true killer is…!!” and then you have to watch episode 10 fifteen times and episode 2 five times before maaaybe you get the answer, most people will just head to Wikipedia.

Eh? All this over one difficult side story boss? It sounds like I’m saying “Wah, I suck, so I quit!” Yeah, that’s pretty much what I’m saying. It’s not the first game I’ve quit over a hard boss, and it’s only going to get more frequent from now on. But usually when I quit like that, I feel a pang of regret, or a blow to my gamer’s pride, or just nostalgia for the rest of the game and the characters. That moment might come someday for Another Eden, and when it does I’ll reinstall it and pick up where I left off. Until then, it’s bye for now.

Romancing SaGa Re;Universe – Dropping it before I get in too deep

Actually Romancing SaGa Re;Universe is not the only game being dropped: I’m in the process of shedding almost all the gacha games I’m currently playing because they’re too time-consuming. Romancing SaGa Re;Universe just happens to be first because I started it most recently, so I can drop it without too much pain.

In the game, I’m rank 100, which doesn’t really mean anything, and my party has an average of 400HP, which also doesn’t mean anything except it shows I grinded the New Year’s Trial almost all day yesterday. And I thought “What a pointless game.” I wasn’t even playing, I just set it on Auto then came back every hour or two to refill stamina. This is not a game, this is… IDK, an exercise of my computer’s processing power?

I mean, there comes a point in every gacha game where you’re just auto-ing stuff to get stronger, but this was only day two or three since I started. Like almost all gacha games, Romancing SaGa Re;Universe is about grinding up your stats so you can beat new enemies, then grinding some more so you can beat even more, but here you don’t even get to enjoy the grinding.

Speaking of grinding, there’s a lot to grind in RSR;U:

⭐Grind character levels

⭐Grind individual character stats: This bears explaining because it’s a feature of the SaGa games and SaGa-inspired JRPGs. Fighting battles doesn’t just give you EXP; it also improves various stats like HP, DEX, AGI, etc. So it’s not enough to just level up your characters and move on. Once you hit the highest point  you can get to without struggling, you have to fight the same content over and over again to improve all your attritbutes. For example to raise your HP from a piddling 100 HP to 400 like I did took almost 200 battles. Which is really peanuts in the grand scheme of gacha games. But it was 200 auto-battles where I wasn’t even in the room. And I’ll have to keep doing that for as long as I’m playing the game. Wait, am I even “playing” at that point?

⭐Grind character skills: Character skills are locked when you pull them. They have to be “grasped” by being used in battle before you can use them. And then they have to be ranked up by being used repeatedly in battle, preferably against tough foes.

Not only that, but different character rarities have different skillsets which they can borrow from one another. For example SS Albert can borrow one skill from S Albert or A Albert. So for optimum strength you should also grind the S and A rarities at least until you unlock their best skills.

⭐Grind for gold pieces to uncap character levels.

⭐Grind materials to awaken and amplify skills: These are two seperate processes, BTW.

⭐Grind for equipment.

⭐Grind for materials to level up and evolve said equipment.

⭐Grind for holy stones to put into that equipment.

⭐Grind for modstones to do IDK what with.

⭐Grind for colosseum medals and Zweig medals and Hidden Dojo and a host of other things. I don’t know what these are for either, and I don’t want to know.

TL;DR I’ve been on this merry-go-round several times before with other games. It is fun to feel your party getting stronger so you can tackle tougher content. I just don’t want to start that process all over again with this game. Especially since it’s so hands-off from the start so I’m not really getting the “me playing this game” feel.

It doesn’t help at all that the lore of RSR;U is heavily tied to (direct sequel to?) Romancing Saga 3, which I’ve never played. I have played and enjoyed Saga Frontier II andSaGa 2: Goddess of Destiny (Final Fantasy Legend II) and SaGa 3 but very few characters are from those games, and the story has nothing to do with them. I’m pulling all kinds of cool-looking characters like Final Empress and Final Emperor and Princess White Rose and I have no idea where they come from or what their story is. Well, what did I expect from a game called Romancing SaGa Re;Universe anyway? Guess I thought it would be more accessible to series newbies. Maybe that’s what other games like SaGa Scarlet Grace are there for.

Anyway, that’s it for me and this game. On to the next candidate for the chopping block!

January 2022 gaming roundup

I keep meaning to do a proper post on all these games, but that would cut into my gaming time, so take this mass post for now.

Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi: The only “proper,” non-gacha game I’m playing. Made good progress, too. Just finished the Dying Light Forest, for anyone who has played it. The premise is that we’re adventurers trapped in a dungeon and trying to find their way out, but… why would I want to get out? Let me explore some more! More! They make it seem dire like we’re going to run out of supplies, but… what supplies? My supervisors are hoarding them all, it seems. Besides, there’s plenty of water and those pig-women do look kinda tasty….

Epic Seven: Grinding, grinding, grinding. I got stuck in the story (Episode 2 Chapter 10-1) so I’m strengthening my parties. They gave some free pulls for Lunar New Year but I can’t remember if I got anything good from it. One or two new artifacts, I think? Pretty-looking game, lovely bright art and I enjoy the main story for once, but there’s so much grinding for catalysts and good gear… I’m at the point where I want to just enhance everything I currently have to +15 and call it a day, but then I won’t be able to make much more progress in the story, so what’s the point? I think I’m going to do that and see how far it takes me.

Love Nikki: (Some) paying players are going on a recharge boycott this month to protest a lack of updates compared to the Chinese server. Joke’s on them, I already stopped recharging long ago. Not out of principle but because all the recent monthly recharge suits aren’t worth it. Also I have more star coins than I know what to do with and the one event I was looking forward to (Mucha collab) is happening this week, so I don’t need any diamonds either. More power to the boycotters, though. Show those publishers who is boss!

The publishers do need to buck up and update the game, but I can’t help feeling… Love Nikki has run its course? Like even if the stuff people want is released, that ennui that has set in won’t go away so easily. And the longer they drag new updates out, the worse it will get.

Romancing Saga Re;Universe: I did say I wasn’t going to start any new gacha games, but then I remembered I’d always wanted to try this, so I’m giving it a quick spin. It’s unlikely I’ll stick with it for a variety for reasons, chief among which is tooooo many characters and waaaay too many different things to grind. It’s not enough to just grind levels, you also have to grind up individual stats like HP and DEX. Grinding 1500 HP one point at a time, battle by battle, isn’t that crazy? But I’ll talk about all that another time.

I will say, though, that rumors of RSR;U being insanely generous are 100% true. I just started and they gave me so much stuff my head is spinning. Every time you log in there are like 10 login bonus screens just plying you with more stuff. Then there are daily missions, weekly missions, event missions, stuff stuff stuff. Jewels and summon tickets pour out of the sky like rain. And the stamina system might as well not exist because I got like 1000 stamina potions on day one and two (not even joking). If I didn’t know better I’d say the game was going out of business, but no, it’s still doing pretty well in Japan, I hear.

Guardian Tales: I manage to get it to load on Nox emulator like 1 out of 10 tries. Eventually I caved and installed it on my phone, but I perform much better on emulator with a PS4 controller. Something about sitting back and getting a wider perspective makes it easier for me to move around and dodge. I have mixed feelings about Guardian Tales because the mood is rather dark (don’t let the cute art fool you) and the stage gimmicks can be very annoying. On the other hand I really enjoy the action gameplay and exploring to find hidden pieces. That’s another game that needs an in-depth post one of these days (she lies through her teeth).

Another Eden: It was their anniversary recently, so they gave away some Chronos stones and a few free pulls. Another Eden is not a very generous game, so I couldn’t miss out on the rare free stuff. Of course I got nothing good from the pulls, but I have good parties now (Pizzica rawks!) so I don’t need it. Besides, I’m not in the mood for a lot of reading these days, so I’m not really playing much. I just need to figure out how to safely uninstall it so I can pick it up again when I’m ready and then I’m done.

Genshin Impact: Logged in, grabbed Zhongli, logged out. Game is on hold until the next big map release. I don’t want to end up hating it, so this is the best method for me.

And that’s all I’ve been doing this month. Playing a LOT of games, maybe too many, because they’re all so time-consuming they don’t leave much time for writing. Hopefully see you before the end of February with more detailed posts, but well, we’ll see how things turn out.

Happy New Year 2022! + Sorting out gacha games

Happy new year everyone! Can you believe we’re already 10 days into the year? It feels like Christmas was only yesterday, but now it’s already time to go back to school/work. And so another year begins.

I had a lot of time to think about gaming over the new year break. Specifically why I’ve moved away from regular gaming to mobile/gacha ones so much these days. It boils down to a few simple reasons:

1. Bright happy colors. Self-explanatory. There are gacha games with duller palettes I’m sure, but I’m not attracted to those.

2. Quick thrills and cheap dopamine hits. Bosses everywhere, loot everywhere, new stuff to chase all the time, etc.

3. Fear of missing out. Free time-limited stuff like banners and events keep you coming back again and again.

4. JRPGs ain’t that great. I’ve played my fair share and most of the time it’s 60 hours of blah blah talking, go here, go there, then the ending is the same old “Mankind needs no gods!” and/or “The power of friendship triumphs over all” spiel I’ve seen a hundred times before. Nowadays I aim for interesting gameplay like exploration (e.g. dungeon crawlers), crafting, action-based combat or some other gimmick, and gacha games have all of that as well.

5. Gacha games never end. Until they suddenly do, but you know what I mean. With a regular JRPG, it may take 100 hours, but you’re still going to finish, roll credits, the end. Gacha games are designed to keep you playing for years if they can. And there are only so many hours in a day, so every neverending game you add to your list is another chunk of time out of your day. That’s less time to spend on work, sleep, food, other hobbies or other video games.

With that in mind, I’m not going to start any gacha games from now on. If I’m not already playing it, too bad. Moreover I’m going to definitively drop those that just aren’t “sparking joy” or that I hardly play any more.

Gacha games to drop

Shining Nikki – Already deleted. It was fun in its own way, but I wasn’t getting much out of it. The heavy focus on stats made collecting low-scoring clothes feel pointless, especially since the 3D look didn’t interest me. Meanwhile events were so expensive that an F2P has to save months to afford a full suit in a UR event. It’s not worth the effort.

Sdorica – Tried it briefly over the holidays. Lovely and unusual art style and character designs. Everything else I just didn’t like, especially the draggy story (how many monsters must we kill in the slums?), sluggish combat, lack of clear tier lists (this might be a plus for some people), the double-edged sword combat mechanics, etc etc. It’s just not my kind of thing.

Granblue Fantasy – It’s pretty much dropped already, but I did log in every day during the roulette because hey, free stuff. And I discovered how meaningless it is to get free stuff  you have no use for. I also discovered that it’s still possible GBF to rope me back in, but it would require a much faster internet connection than I currently have. As it is, the loading times drive me crazy and make everything from raids to story quests a huge chore. And you can’t even tab out and let things load, like seriously? As a bonus I was also able to delete Google Chrome since I only had it for GBF purposes.

Rakuen Seikatsu Hitsujimura – One of my longest-played online games. Now sadly in decline. The developers are putting much less effort into events – rerun upon rerun. They’re not fixing bugs or giving compensation for login problems any more. And they keep tightening the screws to make things less fun and less rewarding unless you spend money. It’s always been like that but now it’s totally blatant. Doomed game is doomed.

Guardian Tales – Really wanted to get into this because I think it’s cute. Unfortunately it doesn’t play nice with emulators. In the past two weeks I’ve only been able to get into the game three times. All other times, it gets stuck on the “Checking newly acquired resources” screen or the “Now loading” screen. I’m not going to put it on my phone no matter what, so unless it comes to Steam or gets a PC client, it’s not meant to be.

Gacha games on probation (not dropped but not playing regularly)

Genshin Impact – Great game when a new map comes out. Boring otherwise. Rather than stick out and complain or start to hate it, I plan to get Zhongli (or fail 50/50) when his banner returns and then relax until the next big map update. I know a smaller update with Enkanomiya came out a few days ago so I’ll check that out for a bit while getting Zhongli. After that, it’s the backburner for Genshin.

Another Eden – Great JRPG, nice cast, interesting stories, highly recommended. Not your typical gacha game at all. However I ran into a massive difficulty spike against the final boss of the Western Mythos and it made me think “What am I doing with my life?” so I got mad and so I’m going to delete it. There’s slightly more to it than that, but not really. Difficulty spikes are annoying. Getting stuck and having to grind for gear is unpardonable.

More importantly, I want to reclaim my phone from videogames, so it definitely has to move. But since it’s actually pretty good, I’ll look into picking up where I left off on emulator or Steam. That will take a couple of months, though. First I gotta let this anger pass. Damned double-attack spamming crystal-using, cheating lying sunuva…

Gacha games to keep playing with great joy

Love Nikki – Almost caught up to the story. Should take another week or two to clear Volume 2 chapter 9 and then…???? Either I will enjoy crafting suits without being forced to by the story, or I will get bored with the lack of direction and reduce my playtime before too long. Most likely the former because the story is bogus and I’m well rid of it, but you never know.

Epic Seven – Started two weeks ago. Today is day 16 IIRC.

What I like most is that there’s auto-battling for when you just want to farm in the background. So convenient. Though you just know that any game with auto-battle is going to be super duper grindy. I’m at Abyss floor 46, level 8 in most hunts, for those familiar with the game. I’ll do a proper post on it one of these days, so no need to say much.

Happy Color & Water Sort Puzzle: My go-to casual games/apps for when I’m in an offline environment or just chilling mindlessly. Nothing much to say about them either.

Games to play in 2022

I’ve had success in the past assigning games to actual months so I know what to play at any given time. I’ll try it again this year and see if it gives gaming a much-needed shot in the arm. 6 months, 5 games (January is virtually over as far as I’m concerned). If it works out, I’ll do another batch to take me to December.

Jan/Feb – Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi. I’m already 10 hours in and it’s pretty good. If I finish it soon, I’ll try to get back into Ray Gigant. It would be nice if I could play all of Experience Inc.’s dungeon crawlers, I always tell myself.

March – Zwei: the Ilvard Insurrection. My mind tells me I like anime-style action RPGs, but for some reason I just can’t get into Ys. Maybe Zwei 2 will do the trick? If it doesn’t, I’ve been meaning to restart Dark Cloud 2 for the past little while, so I might go with that.

April – Atelier Lydie & Scumbag. I haven’t played any Atelier stuff in a while. I’m not missing it, but maybe I will be by April.

May – Final Fantasy XIII. Started it long ago, made some progress, got tired and quit. Time to give it a final try or just delete it from my PC once and for all. If I finish/quit it early, I’ll do the same for Tokyo Xanadu eX+. I can consider the FFXIII sequels if I really, really like the game by the end, but I’m not holding my breath.

June – The Caligula Effect: Overdose. I’ve enjoyed other JRPGs from Furyu Corporation, so despite the scathing reviews, I still want to try it. I’ll also use June as a “free month” to try other stuff I’ve been curious about as well as random stuff that happens to be on my hard drive.

And that’s it for new year’s resolutions this year. Hope you all had a great holiday! See you around!