Relaxation and Rehabilitation

Relaxation and Rehabilitation

Thursday, September 6, 2018 / No Comments

It has been about a month since I ORDed, where I am now a NSmen. Finally, 2 years of national service was over and I’m left with 10 cycles of reservist. I took a few weeks off, relaxing and enjoying my moment of freedom but at the same time looking into parts for building my very own PC.

After consulting my friends who had experience in building one, as they build theirs, we head to Sim Lim Square to scout out shops which offered parts in my budget range. Circling the floors, browsing through the shops and eventually we head to the shop that my friends bought their parts from. I'm going to be honest. I am not a tech savvy person. I understand some jargon but I have no idea how it comes together. I was told to pick out the parts that I want and see how much it cost and from there, cut out what isn't necessary. The initial price of the parts that I picked out was $2k, which was way over my budget that was $1.5K. I had to compromise on some parts of the PC but it must be good enough to be able to edit and game, so basically a PC that is for work/play. I do not have a monitor so the price went up quite a bit.

In the end, after having discussed between ourselves and the shop assistant, I managed to get parts for an above average PC, much to the envy of my friends that accompanied me. For your information, the following are the parts:

CPU: Ryzen 5 2600

GPU: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060

Motherboard: Asus Strix B350F Gaming

PSU: 600W Super Flower

RAM: 16 GB DDR4

SSD: 240 GB SANDISK

HDD: 2TB TOSHIBA

Monitor: LG 24MK430 24” FHD IPS LED

Total Cost: $1540 (w/o monitor: $1381)

I had nothing in my bank account thereafter.

We head over to my place and spent a few hours piecing it together, as we were confused where some wires go to, why won’t it fit etc. I didn’t know there was a Gijinka of Radeon and Ryzen. I got to say, the PC was worth it.

The cable management could use some work but at least the computer works very well. It took me a few days to transfer my files and documents from my MacBook and hard drives into the PC due to the different format and OS being used.

A week after, I bought a keyboard and mouse to replace the ones I had that were old and also a card reader to transfer footage over from SD cards. Yes, I had to take a “small loan” from my other bank account. I still, at the moment, do not have a proper desk as right now, my monitor is precariously placed near the edge of my small computer desk. The monitor is 60cm wide. It couldn’t fit into the desk’s shelving. But until then, I’ll enjoy playing games on it so that at least if the monitor falls, I’m there to catch as it is right in front of my face, or… my face will.

I’m currently playing a few games I did in the past on my MacBook and newer ones that I either wanted to try out but couldn’t as I am using a MacBook or ones that interest me from Steam.

I played through DDLC again and it is still as creepy but at the same time funny with all the puns by Monika.

I also started back OW as I had not played it for more than a year on the PS4.

Yes, I know. Overwatch has become very toxic that it has reached cancer level. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed it. I faced worse in my National Service so I am quite immune to it. It is very fun when you play with friends and the weird shenanigans we come up with when playing. All the delicious salt, the savoury toxicity, the cancerous characters and coming up with hilarious but workable metas. Let’s go all support. Now go all tanks. Hey, I even made new friends playing the game.

Another game I have been playing and probably never will stop is Fate Grand/Order.

I spend way too much money on that game. No way will I ever stop (It’s also why I’m broke). I am playing the NA edition of it so yes, it is 2 years behind. And yes, why did I spend money on NA and not JP. I like to understand the story of a game I’m playing so I’m sticking with NA. I did start a JP account but I’m playing that on my PC as the JP server is very slow on the phone. Haha. Playing phone games on a PC. What am I thinking? It is way more efficient in a way than using my phone and I’m playing this as F2P so I got nothing to worry. Though I’m quite salty that I didn’t get Caster Illya from the Prisma banner. Neither the servants not the CEs for that banner came home. So now I have a lonely Chloe von Einzbern without the sister.

Here are the servants that I've made contracts with

Time to save quartz from the Nero event for future banners.

I didn’t just play for the month. I had tag along with my friends to help out on their shoot. Compared to what I did in my unit previously, this was much more draining as this was kind of what a proper one would be like. I didn’t really do much. My main goal for that day is to get out of the house as well as adjust myself back to how it was in my poly life. A refresher in a way.

A month of relaxation and rehabilitation I would say. Celebrate my freedom, caught up with friends, made new ones, unwind with some games, learning new skills, practice back the old ones and I also enrolled into driving school. Since I had obtained my military driving license, I expect it to be easier.

Now to find a job.

Written by Zwei

Figure Unboxing and Review: Saber Alter 1/8 Scale (Ichiban Kuji Premium A Prize Fate/Stay Night Heaven's Feel)

Figure Unboxing and Review: Saber Alter 1/8 Scale (Ichiban Kuji Premium A Prize Fate/Stay Night Heaven's Feel)

Tuesday, September 4, 2018 / No Comments

I've had a love-hate relationship with the Ichiban Kuji lottery, snagging more rubber keychains and mini figurines than I dare to admit. The icing on the cake was an ill-fitting Love Live! Sunshine!! B Prize t-shirt that I still keep for sentimental value. On the bright side, I must have accumulated enough karma points during those bad draws, eventually managing to win an A Prize Saber Alter 1/8 scale from the Fate/Stay Night Heaven's Feel Ichiban Kuji at C3 AFA last year. It was with my first and only ticket of the day, to boot. Unfortunately, my luck quickly ran out after I discovered I had to carry the uncomfortably large box for the rest of the day. You win some, you lose some I suppose.

I finally got the opportunity to unbox and display this after a year, no thanks to a combination of procrastination and a lack of space. As you can see, the figure's large size is a result of Saber Alter's stance along with her billowing skirt. Making problems worse was the large box itself. It won't be anyone's idea of fun having to carry this around for more than a few hours. Within the blister pack, each piece was wrapped in an additional layer of plastic film, a nice touch and something I didn't expect from a prize figurine. On a side note, it's weird that Saber Alter armour and all, was included in the first Heaven's Feel installment's Ichiban Kuji where it would have been more appropriate for the second one come January next year.

Saber Alter was a no-brainer to assemble as you can see from the blister pack, featuring only three pieces consisting of the scale figure itself, the base and Excalibur Morgan. It's a pity that the Excalibur Morgan included wasn't the Vortigern version instead like in Good Smile Company's 1/7 scale figure but I'm just being nitpicky.

Oddly enough, Saber Alter's skirt stole the show for me, despite everything else going on in this figure. It matched her stance perfectly and was well-sculpted, appearing as if it were billowing in the wind I like mentioned earlier, with creases at the appropriate portions to boot. Unfortunately, the base seemed like it would fit her casual dress version better, bearing an elegant design that doesn't match the aggressiveness this particular figure has. Also, I'd take Artoria's usual blue and silver armour over her Alter version any day but the paint job here was good, with a menacing combination of purple and red streaks. 
One thing that confuses me would be Banpresto's decision to create a figure that is posed similarly to Good Smile Company's own 1/7 scale Saber Alter, although the latter's one is more dynamic and detailed, needless to say. I wish that they would've taken a different approach or created a figure featuring Rider or Lancer instead, considering how much airtime they had in the first Heaven's Feel movie. For those of you wondering when the second installment airs, you're going to have to wait a little longer but if the latest trailer is anything to go by, it will be well worth your time.

Written by ET

「Mobage」Monogatari Series: Puc-Puc!

「Mobage」Monogatari Series: Puc-Puc!

Friday, August 31, 2018 / No Comments

The first ever mobile game for Monogatari series is finally out on the market! It has been delayed for months on end, and this sudden release has left fans of the Monogatari series with high hopes. Have the developers really delivered a product that's well worth the year long wait? Is this the game for you?

     

Well, Puc-Puc is a puzzle game that follows the gameplay of Disney Tsum Tsum, and LoveLive's Puchiguru. The good thing about this game is that lags do not typically happen on my device (Samsung Note 4 and Note 8) when I play this game. However, the loading time when you start up the game takes a little while.

The gameplay itself is quite simple. Basically, you link up the puc of the same character across the entire map and these chains would add up to your score. Each match is 50 seconds long and consists of five randomly chosen characters. You can buy power-ups for each stage (such as increased score, five second time increment, decrease types of puc by one) using either coins or diamonds.

Gauges

In each round, you have four gauges to fill (or five, if you use another player's character as an assist). Whenever you link up pucs of your cards (① and ⑤), you will fill their gauges. For instance, if you use Sodachi as your main card (①), only linking and exploding Sodachi's puc will increase her gauge. No other puc will increase her gauge.

Furthermore, when the gauges fill, you can use the skill tied to the card. 

Each card has its own skill so be sure to choose one that you can use efficiently. 

Gauges ②③④ are filled with any puc. The gauge for ② and ③ are for the ema which also comes with skills. These ema also have different rarities, ranging from 1-star to 5-star). And last but not the least, ④ is the fever gauge. Not only will your match be extended by five seconds every fever you get, the distance which you can link pucs will also be increased during fever time.

Gacha

Being a game with microtransactions, it is obvious that it will come with gacha. There are two types of things you can gacha for, which includes the cards ① and the ema ②. 

You can get red tickets through the normal matches and use them to gacha for cards.

One red ticket is given when you clear all stages in a chapter (excluding secret levels) and when you get three stars for all levels in a chapter (including secret levels). Red tickets can also be given through log in bonuses, or every 10-scout for ema. Otherwise, if you are not against spending, you get one try for 120 paid gems daily.

     

On the other hand, ema is obtainable through normal gameplay. Each time you get three-stars on a level with an image, you will get the image as an ema. You can also get it as drops after clearing a stage. These ema are around 1-star to 3-stars.

     

For 4-stars and 5-stars ema, you will have to gacha (75,000 coins for 5-pull or 750 diamonds for 10-pull). 

Miraku Chan

                                                                         

     

Some of these 4-stars and 5-stars ema will be useful when clearing stages as they may give 20% or 50% star boost on chapters that feature the character. These boosts are really useful as you can now play a stage less times to clear the three-stars and get the featured ema and red ticket reward!

Grindiness

This game is rather grindy, especially if you intend to use your LP  to maximum efficiency. LP is shown as a pink-glazed donut at the top of your screen and you use one each time you play a match. However, each donut recovers within 10 minutes, and you are also able to exchange up to six donuts from the exchange-shop every 12 hours.

The journey to getting all the stars in a chapter is also a very long one, especially in later chapters. 

You can get easier missions where you need to activate your card's skill 35 times, or get fever 50 times, or burst 12,000 pucs. You can also get more challenging missions like linking size 15 pucs up to 375 times (and already 155 times for the second star!), or linking size 20 pucs up to 185 times. While these number are daunting, rest assured that these can all accumulate, and as long as you pass a stage, the fraction of stars that you gain from that match would be added to the pool.

Another aspect of the grind would be to level, bond and maximize everything. There are three aspects to level for a card. 

Firstly, the rank (①) . You get 20 fragments per duplicate copy, and several from clearing missions. These fragments are generally card-specific, except for the initial set (i.e. both Tsubasa initial cards use the same fragment, but Tsubasa from the first event uses a different one). 

These fragments help to rank the card up and increase the level cap. For instance, at Rank 1, your level cap is stuck at Level 40. Increasing to Rank 2 allows you to level your puc past Level 40. 

At Ranks 3 and 6, you will also unlock more slots for tools that you can equip the cards with. 

Secondly, the level (②). With each level, the score of the puc increases, hence the higher the level, the higher the score given when forming a chain with that puc. 

Leveling happens either with playing or with using candy. There are three different kinds of candy (S, M, L) and the disparity in EXP they give is huge, and this disparity is a point I do not like as it is difficult to reach middle-ground without overflowing EXP. This overflow happens because there you have to unlock your card with coins every 5 levels.

For instance, despite having a rank 1 card with a level cap of 40, you will have to unlock the level cap at Levels 5, 10, 15, etc, until you reach Level 40, where they would tell you that you can't increase it further without reaching Rank 2 first.

Thirdly, the bond (③). Every 100 bond, you get a free donut from clearing the mission. At specific intervals you get to unlock new voices and other miscellaneous stuff too. 

     

Finding the character on your homescreen and tapping them would give 2-3 bond points each time. 

Do note that this isn't a very important aspect to grind for, but it would be good to have if you like the character.

Story

I left this section for the last as there is not really any new addition to the art/art-style or story in this game.

In Puc-Puc, the story follows what has been depicted in the anime and novels, where you unlock stories as you play and clear missions. The stories are definitely not as long and detailed as in the anime and novels, which suggests that the player would have to have some knowledge of the franchise before getting into the game. It could also be an introduction to the series, if you want to know more about Monogatari series, but unsure if you would appreciate the intricacies of the anime and novel.

Most of the female characters depicted in the main part of the series have their own chapters and cards. This includes, Hitagi, Tsubasa, Shinobu, Mayoi, Nadeko, Tsukihi, Karen, Sodachi and Yotsugi. Ougi, Araragi and Meme are also usable characters. There are no information on whether other characters such as Heart under blade, Gaen, Kaiki, etc. would be added into the game as well.

Enjoyment

I gave this game a try because I am into the Monogatari series and any chance to get more Araragi, Hitagi and Tsubasa things is good for me. That being said, I am not a fan of this type of puzzle gameplay and I do not think that it really suits Monogatari series. But despite this, I am still playing the game. Something that I really love and look forward to, is getting more characters, both male and female. I love how they decided to add Meme into the game as well, and I am definitely impatiently waiting to get more pucs and cards with different hairstyles.

I love how the ema depicts different scenes in the anime and is generally a really good alternative of an artbook to look back to, to remember what Monogatari series has brought to my life and to reminisce all the fun times when I was watching the series.

And last but not the least, if you are intending to try this game out... join now so you don't miss out on the pre-register bonus featuring Hitagi and Shinobu!

Gameplay suitability to the series ★★☆☆☆

Grindiness ★★★★☆ (can be very grindy to rank well)

Art ★★★★☆ (same as the original)

Story ★★☆☆☆ (due to the repeated stories already in the series)

Worth-it for microtransactions ★☆☆☆☆

Overall ★★★☆☆

~ Reina-rin

Figure Unboxing and Review: Type-Moon Racing Nero Claudius 1/7 Scale (Stronger)

Figure Unboxing and Review: Type-Moon Racing Nero Claudius 1/7 Scale (Stronger)

Thursday, August 30, 2018 / No Comments

It seems that the Fate franchise has something new in store for fans every year, be it a new anime movie or series, update after update to the mobile game Fate/Grand Order or hordes of collectible figures finally hitting stores after being announced. What piqued my interest the most in the past year would be the Type-Moon Racing theme that features different characters from the various spinoffs as grid girls. Some of them have remained two-dimensional, only being featured as artwork on cars, like Miyu Edelfelt from Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya or Atalanta from Fate/Apocrypha. Others have had scale figures produced, with three of them from the main Fate/Stay Night series...and Nero Claudius from Fate/Extra, just because. Nero Claudius' figure was part of a set of three, as you can see from the image above. I wasn't particularly interested in Rin or Artoria Pendragon, although the Excalibur umbrella accessory for her was tempting but it was an instant pre-order the moment Nero Claudius was announced, again, just because.

The packaging was simple enough, allowing you to view the entire 1/7 scale figure. It also featured Stronger's logo along with the Type-Moon Racing one. Coincidentally, all four Type-Moon Racing figures have been produced by Stronger, not that I have any problems with that, having purchased their Toujou Nozomi 1/8 scale figure previously. The gloss on Nero Claudius' jacket and boots was eye-catching even within the blister pack itself, matching the promotional images that were making the rounds.

Like how Artoria's Excalibur was turned into a makeshift umbrella, Nero's Aestus Estus was re-designed and re-purposed for race day, this time as the placard for Rin. I chuckled at how much thought was put into the design and lament that Rin didn't get any character-specific accessory like the two Sabers featured alongside her. A secondary arm accessory was included but it was an odd addition because Aestus Estus could only work with the original arm part due to how it needed to rest on a specific spot on the base. You had to pick one or the other and I'm definitely choosing the more eye-catching option, thank you very much.

Stronger managed to incorporate Nero's colour scheme of red, white and gold well into her grid girl outfit well, much like how they did for both Artoria and Rin. For the more...discerning fans out there, the butt window from her original outfit's dress is included for good measure, but considering that Nero is already wearing hot pants...oh well, common sense be damned. Personally, Nero has the most dynamic and flamboyant pose out of the three, fitting her character to a t. The fact that her jacket was sculpted to appear as if it was fluttering in the wind was a major plus point as well. 

As expected, the figure's paint job was flawless, from the gold boot zippers and toe caps to the glossy red paint being applied right down to her hair ribbon. For collectors with a brightly lit room or display case, you're going like this figure even more. If I had one complaint, it would be that Nero's face is obscured at most angles because she's looking sideways. This is made worse as her face is covered by her hair, but that's hardly a deal-breaker for any potential collector, or in my books anyway. I do hope Stronger or even Alter continue to produce scale figures under the Type-Moon Racing line because the ones that are available right now are knocking it out of the park and considering how profitable the Fate franchise has been for a good part of the past decade, its easy money to be made.

Written by ET