One month has passed, and I've finally gotten a bit used to this game to write a review! In addition, I was requested by a friend to provide it in a format that worked more like a guide, as the game is completely in Japanese, thus this may be a bit different to my usual game reviews!
1. Very basic login screen
Two buttons on the left, one for entering data transfer codes, and the other is for clearing the cache/data. It's a very simple and clean layout. I do like that it is not completely static, and that the character bobs up and down, and blink as well (her eyes are not permanently closed!).
2. Regular user interface
On the top bar you will see your current rank, stamina gauge, amount of rainbow gemstones, gold and points. The key here is that your stamina recovers every 3 minutes, and does not overflow when you rank up. The rainbow gemstones are for card/character gacha, while the points would be like an in-game currency used to gacha for memoirs.
On the left sidebar, the four buttons are News (game news), present box, missions (daily, permanent and event missions), and side quests. While the rest are pretty much self-explanatory from their names, the side quests is slightly different.
You send up to five characters on a side quest to obtain materials. Do note that you cannot practice characters who are out on side quests, nor can you use them in your main quests. In addition, the time needed per quest varies in certain denominations, and each one requires a particular attribute, so you are pretty much restricted by the cards/characters you possess. Thus, you might want to level at least two teams worth of characters so you can still continue to clear your stamina with quests while members of your main team are out on missions!
The six buttons on the bottom bar are character, memoir, party, quests, shop, gacha and others. Right off the bat, you might find the home page to be a little cluttered but I assure you that everything is actually located in a systematic location and order, making it very easy to navigate.
3. Shop
From Mirajane, you can purchase the in-game gemstones currency and other items such as special dice (with gemstones). It's basically a page that you likely won't be at unless you're spending money on the game... which I really don't recommend doing ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
4. Others
In case you're curious, this is what you can view from the "others" button on the bottom row.
Top Row: Game News, Items, Gallery
Second Row: Profile, Sound Settings, Story
Third Row: Help, Q&A, Support
Last Row: Data Transfer, Legal Notice, Return to Title
5. Gacha
The page that we all love to hate ಥ_ಥ
Rates are pretty much ordinary by today's standards, at 3% SSR 10% SR 87% R. The game actually started without guaranteeing a SR or above card for a 10 scout, unlike nearly every other gacha game, but it implemented it recently ( ´ ▽ ` )b Nevertheless, the harm has been done...
Note that here are also pages for memoirs, one which is gemstone scouting (200 per memoir), as well as a different in game currently (the one at top right) for 1000 per memoir. You get one free daily gacha here, and it is part of the daily mission to get your free daily memoir.
6. Event
This event is a collection event where you clear stages to obtain the respective items. Visit the shop below to exchange. This is the second known event type so far, the first being one that you just clear stages to rack up points.
In both cases, only event stages are counted. The stages can be accessed from the bottom right of this event page.
Behold the Event Shop! Some items can be exchanged by all of the event drops, and some are exclusive to a certain drops only. The last stages of each difficulty give all three types of drops, but you may want to focus on a particular type if you are lacking in that item.
As usual, the cards from the event gacha give extra items, namely 30% boost for SSRs and 20% boosts for SRs.
Here's Erza and Yukino for the Valentines' Day event:
May the gacha luck be with you.
Event Missions give extra rewards on top of the ones from the event shop. They range from clearing certain stages/difficulty, to defeating "x" number of a certain character. Yes, this game is very RNG-based and grindy...
Accessing event can be done via main page, or the quests page, via the event banner.
As this is only the second event, and the first of this type, I have doubts that the amount of materials required to purchase items in the shop will be properly balanced, but we'll see how it goes ＼(*T▽T*)／ﾜｰｲ♪
7. Characters
Character page, where you can practice, awaken, view or remove characters.
Practicing - Each type of stat has their own level, and also require different items (namely different colored shards and occasionally, non shard items such as the first 2). The amount of gold required for leveling increases exponentially, up to around 300k per level from level 9 to 10, so I would definitely recommend not wasting money or materials, especially the non-shards items. These items usually overlap within the same guild, making it tough to level multiple characters at once.
Awakening - When you limit break a card with a dupe, you increase the level cap of the skills above. With each round, the level cap increases by 2 per stat. Also, the leader skill slightly improves.
8. Memoirs
These are the equipment that you attach to your character. On this page, you can select to practice, limit break, view, remove, or set for characters.
Each memoir provides different effects, and there are several which have overlapping effects. One memoir can only be attached on one character at one time.
9. Quests (Battle)
The main "fighting" system, where you can select either: Main Story, Normal Quests or Power-up Item Farming. The last tab is the one which you would want to focus on. The stages are split up based on stat, and you would want to farm whichever stat you are lacking the items in. You can also farm gold on one of the stages in there.
Each stage has three different difficulty: normal (N), hard (H) and very hard (VH). You unlock the next difficulty upon completing the stage.
Of course higher difficulty stages tend to drop rarer shards. That being said, you may find yourself lacking in the lower tier shards at times, so don't forget about the older stages!
If you complete the goals, you will obtain the reward on the right... Gacha! o(≧∇≦o)(o≧∇≦)o
You do not need to complete the second and third requirement on the same quest run so do take your time to ensure that you get 3-stars for all the quests!
Some star-missions involve landing on a particular spot "x" number of times, so that's just a matter of RNG which can be overcome by grinding. Thankfully, this game also comes with an auto function which should make this type of grinding a little easier~
This game's battle mode runs on a "Dice Number for Attack" strategy. Basically, it means that the player will roll three dice each turn. Based on the number that appears, the character will attack if it coincides with the chart above. This chart can be accessible in manual mode, via the button next to "manual".
Thee's also a special dice function where you can fix a number, which ensures that a particular character will attack in that turn.
Special Attack is when characters use their skills. This only works in manual mode, in between dice rolls after the enemy has attacked. When the circle next to the character is full, you can drag the character's square icon upwards to activate the special attack. You can also select which enemy to attack by tapping on them. Be sure to check the combat circle on the top left first, and target enemies which are weak against your attack type!
10. Overall Review (2/5)
I felt that this game is a huge disappointment, especially after they delayed the game's release several times. There are quite a few parts that felt like minimal effort was put in, such as the lack of voicing, and reusing art for the character cards and memoir designs. The battle animation is severely lacking, even for SSRs and the battle graphics is quite terrible, especially when I compare to similar turn-based battle mobage that I've played before, like Revue Starlight and FGO.
The game is also overly dependent on RNG and P2P. First, you need the RNG to gacha for a strong character card and a suitable memoir for him/her. Nevertheless, even in battles, RNG is a crucial component as you need to get the correct dice roll to maximise your team battle. Of course, the first two points can be easily overpowered by the power of money, which takes a bit of the fun away.
Next, there is no inter-player connection, at least for now. Events have no ranking system and there is no feature for friends or PVP. This might be nice for some people who'd love to have a game all to themselves, but I'll prefer to have at least some interaction since this is a mobage.
I do wish that the game could improve, but based on the existing game play and the way that the game has already set itself up to be, it does not seem possible.
~ Reina-rin
