annoyances · games · iOS

Fantasian Review on Canadian App Store

I enjoyed the first half of Mistwalker’s strategy* RPG but, like many others, found the difficulty spike during the second half to be frustrating. I submitted a short review to the Canadian App Store back in the Fall of last year explaining how I felt about the damage sponge bosses plus their insane attack power among other things.

*It’s not officially labelled as one. I just consider it that based on the battle design.

Apparently someone or some people didn’t take kindly to my critiques and down voted it making it impossible for anyone to see it unless they sorted by Most Critical or Most Recent. The latter would require a little bit of scrolling but at least it’s not sitting way at the bottom like it is with the default sort option — i.e. Most Helpful.

I’m just bewildered why my review was considered less helpful than the simple, common complaint, “The bosses are too hard.” I didn’t lie or exaggerate anything; it was what I saw happen when I played.

At any rate, even though I don’t get many views on this site, I’d still like the review to be a little more accessible so here it is:

This is a strategy RPG that is not meant for all JRPG players
Regarding part 2: I am absolutely fine with figuring out tricks and timing the swapping out of characters to tackle bosses. I am NOT fine with the absolute absurdity of every one of them hitting like a truck even when the party level is 2 – 3 levels higher. Healing is almost always a necessity after each hit as health easily falls into the yellow or red. Barrier & DEF Up barely mitigates any damage.

Aside from bosses, why does a level 50 area with level 50 enemies give puny amounts of experience for a party that’s several levels lower? Was the reduced experience after level 35 applied globally by accident?

Lastly, it feels like the only point for levelling up after Part 1 is to gain SP for Growth Maps and some extra cushion for characters so they an survive an extra hit from a boss.
________________
Original review which was written during Part 1:
Fantasian is good times except the crashing. I’m 13 hours in and enjoying the experience. The Dimengeon system is great for uninterrupted exploration. More JRPG developers should consider something similar. My only gripe with the game is that it will crash without fail after playing it for about an hour. It can be the only app running and it’ll still happen. I’m guessing because it’s running on an older iPad (6th generation, 2018 model). It would be amazing if something could be done at Mistwalker’s end to stop it from happening though.

annoyances · iOS

iOS 8.x Apps Not Updating in App Store

Please refrain from making “This didn’t work for me.” comments since this is not a sure-fire solution. It was one that solved the issue for MY device (which, for the record, is an iPad mini 2 running iOS 8.3 on jailbreak) so I figure I’d share this.

About 2 days ago, all the buttons for the apps waiting to be updated in the App Store flickered from Update to Open the moment I switched to the Updates screen. Some Google searching yielded results that suggested to move to another menu, turn off wifi, return to Updates and quickly tap on the Update button next to an app immediately before it changed back to Open.

While this did work, the apps refused to update; the usual circle with a blue square in the middle that should have appeared just ended up as an empty circle that wouldn’t move. To make matters worse, after I closed the App Store and re-opened it, the apps showed they were updated. However, looking at their version number in iFile (a file manager app for jailbroken devices) showed that no update actually occurred. :/

Other suggestions like turn on automatic updates, log out and log back in either App Store or iCloud, rebooting the device all DID NOT WORK.

What did work was changing the system language to another language and then back to English. It’s crazy, I know, but I verified the version number of the app I selected to test after the update and it was correct (re: most recent version).

Settings menu in iOS 8.3

See also: https://koukoupuffs.net/2014/10/12/problem-apps-on-ios-app-store-wont-update/ and its comments from other users for potential solutions if the above doesn’t work for you.

Android · games · iOS

[Terra Battle] Rage Against Neo Bahamut

Terra Battle - Defeating Neo Bahamut
Not that anyone could tell but this was taken after the umpteenth time I fought the bloody dragon.

There’s really not too much to say about the event, Bahamut Evolved. I think Mistwalker has made the drop rate of weapons something dismal like 5% because if you check around the Web, you’ll see a lot of flustered players stating that they’ve done at least 20 runs and STILL didn’t get Caladbolg. There is no trick to getting the drop other than having specific characters for their specific skills to boost drop rates* but try and see how quickly the game provides you those characters through the Pact of Truth. 😛

* Check this post and the next few following it for information.

I was hoping I wasn’t going to be one of those but I ended up being part of the gang. 😛 Here’s an image edit I did after my 17th run:

Terra Battle - 17 Fucking Times and Counting
I did this out of frustration and fun! :E Even added a silly space-like background to show I wasn’t completely serious about the anger.

Then at my 27th or 28th try …

Terra Battle - Caladbolg!
Final-FUCKING-ly!

I don’t use any exploits to play Terra Battle so I actually sat through ~280 battles just to get a fucking weapon.

Honestly, I wish Mistwalker could implement something to ease up on the grind such as upping the success rate of receiving a rare item by 2 – 5% after passing a certain threshold such as 20 – 30 replays of the same stage, or maybe something earlier like 15 – 20 replays. It’s obvious they WANT people to buy Energy to keep going. It’s the nature of freemium games but the way the gameplay is designed and the fact that the dungeon had 10 stages made each subsequent try rather frustrating.

Android · games · iOS

[Terra Battle] Mini Tips 2 and more babbles! XD

Can’t stop talking about this game but I will eventually. :B

I’m also not doing any more tweet dumps because I have to manually copy and paste them and fix links and such. Too much work. If you ever want to see my random TB tweets and lots of other crap, follow https://twitter.com/koukoupuffs :D!

I also upload screencaps from the game like a mofo at http://instagram.com/koukoupuffs :3

Now onto the meat! ^-^ Continue reading “[Terra Battle] Mini Tips 2 and more babbles! XD”

Android · games · iOS

[Terra Battle] Adventures with Bahamut

Terra Battle - Bahamut Event
Way overlevelled. 😀

I participated in the event to grab myself a Bahamut today. It was a rather easy dungeon with a party that averaged level 30. XD And while I anticipated the Bahamut drop rate to be low, I was hoping I wouldn’t have play the through dungeon 5 times before I finally got him. (I mean, it’s 10 freakin’ stages!)  Some people are in excess of 10 times and still haven’t got the creature. 😦 I do have to admit that I’ve been fairly lucky with Terra Battle’s RNG (random number generator) since I recruited a few S and SS class characters already without any special tinkering.

Unfortunately, since I went in with a beefy group, I don’t have any sort of survival tips. The only real danger I encountered was the dragon’s Meteor attack which is a board-wide skill meaning that your characters will get hit no matter where they are. He also has single column and row-spanning fire attacks so keep a healer or someone that can use regeneration handy if you have one. Continue reading “[Terra Battle] Adventures with Bahamut”

Android · games · iOS

Terra Battle Mini Tips

I’m probably the last person playing Terra Battle that should put together a post under the guise of it being about tips because I honestly believe I’m not all that great at the game. (There are also forums out there for this sort of stuff like http://terrabattleforum.com/ XD)  But I figure that any mention of the game at my blog shouldn’t simply be a collection of tweets with little context.

Anyway, some of this is probably no brainer information but I’m still including it in case someone does need it. Also, I apologize ahead of time for mentioning ONLY Chapter 11. It’s the chapter I’m currently on and I have a horrible memory and don’t recall the earlier ones much. ^^;;; Continue reading “Terra Battle Mini Tips”

Android · games · iOS

Terra Battle Tweet Dump 2!

Terra Battle - I love Tin Parade 2! I can actually get rares from it!
I love Tin Parade 2! I can actually get rares from it! I wonder which job to add?

Let’s see how long I can keep this up. XD As usual, anything in brackets are corrections or additional comments.

I’ll continue to add to this post until this Friday. 😀 You can always follow me at https://twitter.com/koukoupuffs too. ^_~ Of course, I tweet about a lot of other things as well.

Continue reading “Terra Battle Tweet Dump 2!”

Android · games · iOS

Terra Battle Tweet Dump 1

Koko from Terra Battle
Koko from Terra Battle

Since I tweet hardcore about Terra Battle on Twitter, I decided to put them here as well. XD (It’s an excuse for a post, yes. :3)

I’ve put the tweets back in chronological order from oldest to newest so they don’t read all strange. ^^ While I’ve removed dates and time stamps, some of the hashtags still remain. Anything in brackets are corrections or additional notes.

Edit: I’m still adding to today’s (Oct 20th) section.

Continue reading “Terra Battle Tweet Dump 1”

iOS

Temporary Workaround for the Problem of Apps Opening Instead of Updating on iOS App Store

Edit on Oct 14th, 2014: Please don’t comment on this post with “I have this problem as well”-type statements. It’s known that a lot of users are experiencing this. Thanks.

Update on Oct 16th, 2014: I originally posted that this problem affects multiple firmware versions but it seems to be a problem with any devices still using iOS 7.x. I’ve corrected that in my post. I also added some information dispelling stupid rumours and misinformation about being charged to update apps using the workaround.

Update on Feb 19th, 2015: I’ve been meaning to mention this and it’s probably NOT something people want to read but I no longer have this problem after updating to iOS 8.1.

Update on September 20th, 2015: I had a similar problem a few days ago where I just couldn’t update but instead of a useless Update button, everything was showing “Open”. I wrote about how I solved it in this post: http://wp.me/p1PZkv-1LO

~~~~~~

I am a victim of the mysterious anti-update problem that seems to affect iDevices — jailbroken or non-jailbroken — running any version of iOS 7 where tapping on the Update button from the Updates page will simply open the application. The Update All button is also greyed out despite the fact that I never turned on Automatic Updates.

Continue reading “Temporary Workaround for the Problem of Apps Opening Instead of Updating on iOS App Store”

Android · annoyances · iOS

Reviews of some iOS and/or Android apps~

Updated October 18th, 2014: Added a screencap of a review of Terra Battle and an revised review of Fable Age.

Updated September 4th, 2014: Added reviews for Manor Fable and Little Raiders: Robin’s Revenge. 😀

I guess I’ll make this post a repository for reviews that I submit to the App Store and Google Play. For some reason, they don’t always appear. I suppose they could have been rejected but when I see stupid useless 5-star reviews like “Because Kairosoft.” are accepted then I wonder why mine aren’t? Maybe it’s because I’m too honest and write down what I really think of the app?

Please note that I’m not linking to the pages of any of these apps on either iOS or Android stores unless they’re worthy of attention. 😛

Fable Age
Rating: star-ont

Terra Battle
Rating: star-ontstar-ontstar-ontstar-ontstar-ont

(Submitted to iTunes Canada)

A review of Terra Battle and a revised review of Fable Age
Click to see full version.

Hidden Object – Manor Fable
Rating: star-ontstar-ontstar-ont

(Submitted to Amazon Appstore)
This game is terrible to attempt to play through in one sitting. I’m on level 63 on Story mode and only 82% done. The problem with Manor Fable is that it reuses the same few scenaries. The only differences are the placement of some objects and the type of challenge you’re presented with when searching for them. For example, the game may just provide you with silhouettes of the items or write them out in text.

There’s also a match 3 puzzle mini game that serves to add to whatever plot the game has. Honestly, I just want to play the meat of it so I skip through all the dialogue scenes and the diary snippets you obtain from the mini game. I believe I would have cared about it more if the game brought back the story with more frequency instead of having the player randomly go through the same places repeatedly in between “cut scenes”. (Poor sleuths?)

Little Raiders: Robin’s Revenge
Rating: star-ontstar-ontstar-ont

(Submitted to iOS App Store)
It shouldn’t be a surprise that lengthy timers and “penalties” (re: units being knocked out means equipment breaking unless you have Unbreakable ones) exist to lure people into buying Ambers. In fact, growing the damn tree can take a while without them. At least there’s a ton of missions that’ll let you grind for materials and silver so there’s no need to restock those with premium currency.

Aside from the IAP trap, the game suffers from random crashes which loses game progression data when you load it again, a frustratingly annoying Wishing Well (I get way more weapons than shields and backpacks), and you can only invite Facebook friends? Kind of limiting the pool there.

GAMEPLAY TIP: For fun, I grew my tree through premium currency as you can buy them through the merchant and built facilities based on objectives not related to the “story”/map nodes. DO NOT DO THAT. If you have 2 Storage Warehouses and a Tavern, you will not have room for later facilities that you obtain through blueprints because the merchant will eventually run out of stock on Acorns.

Knights N Squires
Rating: star-ont

(Submitted to Google Play)
This game is seriously for little children or people with extremely low standards when it comes to defining a fun game. Knights N Squires is MIND NUMBING; you run down a single path from left to right slashing away at enemies. Sometimes you’ll throw in a block or a skill. There’s even an AUTO PLAY option cuz the game play is THAT simple. All the staples of freemium crap are here too like daily login bonuses, bringing along “friends” to help, lottery draws for allies, rare materials for upgrades, etc. There’s nothing innovative or interesting. Just cute packaging and a waste of time.

Star Trek Trexels
Rating: star-ont

(Submitted to iTunes Canada)
This should seriously be renamed Star Trek Notifications because that’s pretty much how it’s to be played …. UNLESS you have tons of money to spend on Dilithium Crystals so you can instantly finish everything. Otherwise, you’ll just be waiting and waiting AND waiting for facilities to finish building or upgrading, crew to finish retrieving artifacts or training, and probes to complete their scans of planets. So the natural way to play this is to assign crew to places and start construction on everything that you can and then exit the game. Once you receive notification(s) that something is done, THEN you can continue playing. What a joke!

Whatever happened to keeping players ACTIVELY engaged in a game? The only active thing you can do is shoot debris to replenish Command, Research, and Energy points. You may occasionally get Dilithium as well but the return on this mini shooting game is so small that it’ll take eons to build up stock that way.

Honestly, I don’t dislike the game THAT much to give it a 1-star rating. However, what I DO loathe is developers asking for 5-star ratings to inflate the app’s ranking at the store making it seem like it’s something worthy to be checked out. You want 5 stars? You EARN it, buddy.

The primary method of playing Trexel: relying on the notifications window!
The primary method of playing Trexel: relying on the notifications window!

Pocket Wizard: Magic Fantasy!
Rating: star-ont

(Submitted to Google Play)

This one's in the form of an image because I wanted to show the developer shrugging off my critique.
This one’s in the form of an image because I wanted to show the developer shrugging off my critique.