Tag: random musing

Android · annoyances · games · iOS

Tiny Farm: The Event Lucky Bag Draw

koukoupuffsLeave a comment

Whoops. I meant to come up with something before September ended but forgot.  The silly thing is that I always have a lot to write about! However, they always end up as snippets on Twitter.

I probably mentioned it before, but one of the biggest deterrents in writing a blog post is that I feel the need to think up a theme or two and then write a few paragraphs based on that/those. Composing a blog post takes up a good part of the day too.

With Twitter, on the other hand, I can just toss up anything at the spur of the moment without worry that it has to be some sort of short prose. I like that sort of freedom.

Anyway, let’s talk about the pesky event lucky bag draw from Com2uS’ free-to-play mobile game, Tiny Farm, and how using it can get expensive.

Continue reading “Tiny Farm: The Event Lucky Bag Draw” →

games · life

January Potpourri: Games

koukoupuffsLeave a comment

Wow. It’s been a while since I last posted. It’s mainly because I have trouble thinking about topics I want to spend time writing about. I suppose serial tweeting things that could be topics doesn’t help matters. 😛 Guess I’ll just write about whatever comes to mind. :3

Watch out though — a wall of text is incoming. XD

Mobius Final Fantasy

For everyone following this blog because of Mobius Final Fantasy — I’m sorry but I most likely won’t be writing much about the game anymore as I’ve lost interest in it.

Final Fantasy XV: Moogle Chocobo Carnival

I’m guessing this place is some magical dream that also allows you to take things back to the real (in-game) world? XD After all, only Noctis could participate in the festivities.

I’m disappointed in the prizes we can exchange medallions for. I suppose it’s not a bad option for people looking to stock up on food materials or to get the items needed to upgrade weapons. I may have done the former if there were more mini games to choose from. The best parts of the carnival was the Whack-a-Cactuar and fishing. 😛

I completed the quests with the chocobo chicks (I spent a good hour total looking for my 15th baby chocobo), moogles, park decorating riddles, got all fishing prizes except the reel, and got some bonus photo challenges. The waiter mini game, target shooting, and chocobo racing don’t interest me. I did try them out though.

If they’re going to do another event like this, I really hope it won’t be in Altissia. I still hate navigating the bloody city. >:| But at least Noctis could point warp and Carbuncle allowed fast travel so it was less painful than usual.

Also, those fishing rod and reel prizes should have been carnival-themed skins instead. Is it even possible to get the top prize without having a stronger rod than the prize itself?

Tap Titans 2

A mindless clicker/tapping/incremental free-to-play mobile game. I inherited a clan from the player that created it recently. I assume he was too busy to play. We were stuck at clan quest 9 for a while but after removing inactive members and changing the clan description to include rules and expectations, we finally managed to get some team work going that allowed us to fly through clan quests 9 to 16.

Incidentally, in any game with guilds and clans, if you’re not planning to put some effort into contributing to the group somehow, please don’t join. Similarly, if you’re doing it simply for a “join a clan” achievement, just leave after you get it.

Anyway, here are just a few things that bother me about clans:

  • The weekly clan quest participation counter resets based on local time. I wish the developer would use UTC as the standard instead. Perhaps midnight UTC or something.
  • Players joining another clan retain their participation count from their previous clan. It would be better if they started back at 0 since their past efforts mean nothing in the current clan.
  • Clan names can’t be changed. At least it’s not giving me the option to. :\
  • Not about clan design but, on iOS, there is no notification that a clan quest is available in the notification center or lock screen. :\

Unrelated to clans: Despite all the bug fixes the game has undergone, it still abruptly terminates if I try to watch an ad. Sometimes it even crashes after I watch one. I’ve already written to Game Hive about the issue and they replied saying that it’s device-related. 😦 I’m using an iPad mini 2, for what it’s worth.

Endless Frontier

Another pretty mindless incremental mobile game. 😀 It’s also free-to-play. What I like most about it is that the developer hands out  premium currency like free food and you can also earn it easily as well. But like all F2P games, unless you’re whaling, buying premium items should be done in moderation.

Premium buffs for things like 3x game speed and permanent skill upgrades cost 100 , 500, or 700 gems. The more expensive offerings are evolving and buying units; their price tags are in the thousands.

If you’re into the PvP battles, gems will be spent cycling through opponents to find some that you can actually win against. Each cycle costs 3 gems but you win 10 gems after defeating the other team.

Despite the need for premium currency everywhere, I’ve yet to hit any pay wall and game progress is rather smooth and painless. With each revival, my little army of elves, undead, humans, and orcs progress further than their last run. 😀 However, I anticipate a bit of a “slow down” since unit enhancement is requiring a lot of medals now. :\ (Er, there are 5 currencies in the game but only gems can be purchased. Everything else is earned, won, or given by the developer as special bonuses.)

I can’t comment guilds or guild wars as I only joined one for 5 minutes and didn’t know what I was doing. XD The instructions are not thorough enough. I suppose I could have asked fellow members though.

Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate

This is my current video game love. Typical Musou cheese, but it’s fun getting to alternate between three characters in battle. My permanent team consists of Wang Yuanji, Kaguya, and Seimei Abe. XD I loved Wang Yuanji in Dynasty Warriors 7 & 8. Used her to death in both games. I also loved using Sima Shi in them as well but his crowd control relies too much on combos with strong attacks. 😐 The three I’m using can destroy mobs with regular attacks so I don’t need to worry about when to hit the triangle button. Yes, I’m going through the game on Normal difficulty. :3

The weapons system is also pretty fun to work with. I still feel that Freedom Wars should have done a similar weapons upgrade and customization system instead of the idiotic piece of shit the developer came up with.

In terms of game progress, I just finished the second ending last night … which unlocked new stages. X_X I do wish the game were shorter since there are still battles in chapters 5 – 8 to unlock. ^^;

I wonder if there will ever be Warriors game for the Final Fantasy franchise? 😡

Oh, one complaint about WO3 — there are hardly any variations on missions and they’re all KO-based. Considering there’s a weapon attribute that can prolong combos, why not have combo-related ones too? :\

More random babblings under the cut. Well, more like just answers to a video game-themed questionnaire that’s been circling on Twitter lately. Continue reading “January Potpourri: Games” →

Android · games · iOS

Reflections About Mobius Final Fantasy

koukoupuffs3 Comments

It’s the first post of the new year! XD Of course it’s about Mobius FF~! :B

Mobius Final Fantasy was released at 10 AM on June 4th, 2015, Japan Time. It seems so long ago yet it’s only been half a year! There’s been a lot of new additions since the beginning and I feel privileged to have seen all of it happen. You can read about my initial impressions about the game and its system here: https://koukoupuffs.net/2015/06/05/mobius-final-fantasy-pic-dump/. :3

The funny thing about Mobius Final Fantasy is the fact that it’s one big grinding game that’s full of cliches and free-to-play staples (which you can read about in the link above ^^).

This is the gameplay in a nutshell: You control a single character and move around to different nodes on a map to fight a set of battles at each one. In battle, tapping anywhere on the screen initiates an attack. Tapping on the readied abilities on the side triggers the use of those abilities. After winning, the user gains experience for overall player level, equipped cards, and Skill Seeds which can be used toward developing jobs.

Enemies drop ability or evolution card materials which are for strengthening cards that possess the same ability or used as fodder to level up the rarity level of a card. Cards can also be obtained through random draws which need special tickets or premium currency.

You’ll find yourself fighting monsters, levelling up cards and jobs, and, drawing for new cards (and maybe jobs too) over and over. You can view it as a roleplaying game with just the battle system. There are some moments where you’ll get to speak to NPCs but there are no towns to visit, no shops to purchase gear and goods, and no way to explore the world the way you want.

Why have I stuck with it then? It’s because I find that it’s fun, completely playable without spending any money, and I also set goals for myself which gives me reason to continue with it. Continue reading “Reflections About Mobius Final Fantasy” →

Android · games · iOS

Mobius Final Fantasy Wish List

koukoupuffs5 Comments

These are just some things I want to or don’t want to see. XD

WANT!!

  • Moogle familiars.
  • Fat Chocobo familiar.
  • More cactuars, especially the Afro one from Lightning Returns, as enemies and familiars.
  • Guest characters from main FF titles to assist in battles. They could appear as summons. If they were to be battle companions, I can only see it working if SquEnix makes enemies tougher to accommodate a 2-person fight or if they join only during boss fights. It’d be kind of a waste if it were the latter though.
  • World Boss event! Everyone can join in beating it up!!
  • More creativity in map progression. So far, it’s all beat up x-amount of monsters or kill specific monsters for key items to unlock routes.
  • Stamina requirement adjustment. Maybe have them scale with user level? The ones that need 20 – 22 are way too costly even at level 30.
  • HIgher frequency of 3-star card drops on Normal difficulty once a 2-star card of a monster has undergone a class change.
  • More events with unlimited stamina! Mobius Day was great~! ^____^
  • Collaborations with other studios! I kind of want a Terra Battle x Mobius Final Fantasy~

DON’T WANT!!

  • Teleport traps. Actually, my hate for these come from games that were in isometric view or just in mazes where you can’t see the entire area or map easily. It may not be as bad if you were tossed around on the world map in Mobius.
  • Echo familiars. The ratio is always like 6:3 against other familiars.
  • A rental card page full of Cait Sith. I know I’m partly to blame since I followed a ton of users that have that as their rental card but come on, they shouldn’t cycle so many of them in at once (including those from people I don’t follow). I guess it’d be a lot of work to write a code that could check duplicates per page.

I’ll add to this post when I think of more. :3

Edit on October 11th: Whoa. Some of my wants came true! *___* I crossed out that Square Enix actually added. For the Mobius Day one, the 8th of every month has been selected as Mini Mobius Day where players enjoy a top-off in stamina as well as additional stamina plus some other perks for 24 hours.

life

I like writing stories

koukoupuffsLeave a comment

Well, they’re more like play scripts because they mostly consist of dialogue and character actions. ^^; Although I’m not going to share any of them publicly, I find myself thinking back about how I did let some friends read my stories before. It was nerve-wracking waiting for a reply and their opinions since I’m terribly self-conscious about any creative works I make. But the waiting was worth it because some of them gave me feedback that allowed me re-evaluate various aspects such as plot, character motivations, logic, etc. in ways that I never would have considered. I actually kind of miss those kinds of critiques so now I’m wondering if I should let someone read a current story just to get some ideas of where it should be going or how some things could be changed.

However, one of the biggest problems of my writing style is that, not only is it poor, but it’s incredibly disjointed and contains many notes and points that only *I* understand. I’d imagine they’d makes things rather difficult to follow. ^^ On top of this is the fact that I use WikidPad to help me organize ideas so I have things separated into sections like “Main Characters”, “Main Story”, “Ideas”, and even something like “Secrets” so in order to even begin to comprehend one section, the reader may have to refer to another one. But there’s the also the danger of learning too much ahead of time too, I suppose. ^^ Those earlier stories that I’ve let others look at weren’t divided all over the place and were actually written in proper story format though.

Now that I think about it, I did write a summary of the general plot idea and character information for a friend along with sending her the mess that was the story itself. ^^; I suppose I could do that should I decide to share one again.

Anyway, this was something I just wanted to get off my chest. ^^

[Android] Random game picks
Android · games

[Android] Random game picks

koukoupuffsLeave a comment

Yeah, usually, it’ll be Picks of the Week or Month but since I kind of download new games without a set schedule, I can’t define a period.

Anyway, I’ll discuss 3 mobile titles that have struck my fancy recently! I won’t get into much detail about each one though.

Ninja Village

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.kairosoft.android.ninja_en

Ninja Village Army
My army is ready to kick ass.

Kairosoft found a spot in the hearts of many mobile gamers when they released the video game making management simulation title, Game Dev Story, in the last quarter of 2011. Since then, they gained a fan following where almost everyone a part of it would  instantly buy their games the moment they are released. Currently, Kairosoft’s Android fanbase has been enjoying a more or less regular release schedule where localized titles come out at an almost bi-monthly rate. Factor in Japanese releases and Android gets nearly monthly doses of cute, 8-bit building and management sims.

Ninja Village is their most recent offering at the Play Store. It’s based off of the mechanics found in Epic Astro Story but has some improvements such as allowing players the option to sell raw materials directly. (If you’ve played EAS before, you know how annoying it is to have aliens wander onto fields or into mines and simply buy up everything you produce from them.) They’ve also removed the walking distance restriction found in EAS yet this brings about other problems due to the stupidity of the AI of your villagers.

Along with the changes, one main and important difference between Ninja Village and Epic Astro Story is that you can preview your enemy’s army size before committing to any battles. This is a welcome option as it’ll allow you to properly outfit your own army with the necessary units and skills to combat your opponents. Unfortunately, battles are still fully automated but at least you can dictate the actions of your Archers somewhat.

At the moment, Ninja Village is among my favourite Kairosoft games; the others being Mega Mall Story, Kairobotica, and World Cruise Story.

Incidentally, I would like to point out that we have a guide for Ninja Village at AdeptGamer. :3 In fact, we have guides for most of the titles released.

Defender of Texel

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobage.ww.a1257.Dot_Android

Defender of Texel party
My motley crew for the Treasures of Texel Special Event Dungeons.
I’m not looking for any friends but if you want to start out with some privileges in the game, you can use my code: nKad. XD

I trash talk social mobile gaming networks like Mobage and GREE. I trash talk them a lot. It’s mainly because all their games are freemium and have some sort of pay-or-wait gimmick going on and I hate that kind of shit. I mean, why put limitations on how much play time users are allowed to have. If you want to continue as soon as possible like a normal game, you have to pay. What gives? Who started this crap?

So if I terminally rage about dumbass freemium gimmicks so much, why the heck do I have Defender of Texel (also known as. D.O.T.) among my gaming picks?

It’s because it’s fun and one of the few that I can stand. Overall, the core gameplay is reminiscent to the bajillion freemium card battle games out there for mobile devices; you create a party of characters that you will use to conquer dungeon after dungeon. These characters can also be upgraded by merging them with other characters or “self-fusing” them to develop them even further. There’s nothing really special about the dungeons in D.O.T. either since you still have to hit ye olde big single button to go through them. The difference is that once you get into a battle, you don’t just press a plain old “Attack” button over and over; there’s a grid of 9 boxes where you must select lines of 3 by swiping horizontally, vertically, and/or diagonally as a means to choose which party members go into battle and in what order.

Sadly, that’s about the only gameplay bit that’s unique to Defender of Texel that I can name off the top of my head.

It’s pretty amazing how playable D.O.T. is without spending a penny. I do anticipate reaching a wall of sorts eventually where my band of heroes won’t be able to defeat enemies after a certain level due to a myriad of reasons like characters that aren’t strong enough to last through battles or not having the right skills to quickly take out enemies. Once this happens, handing over money to participate in the lottery build in hopes of nabbing an Epic character — one that possesses stellar stats and abilities — may be the only way. Of course, I can always just build and fuse until I can upgrade my Rare characters to Epic rank. This will require a lot of grinding though. But hey, that’s how freemium games roll, right?

One gripe about D.O.T. is the energy amount you’re allotted. You only have 100 and replenish 1 energy unit every 3 minutes AND you consume 5 units per move. Dungeons get ever-longer the further into the game you progress which means getting to the end of a dungeon requires hours upon hours of waiting. Naturally, there are items that can fully restore energy or 30 units of it. For the latter, you’re limited to using 10 of those per day. If you want a full restore, you’ll have to shell out money for that item. They may also be handed out as prizes during special events though.

The Room

http://fireproofgames.com/the-room

Screenshot from The Room
Solving a mini puzzle in Chapter 3.

At the time of this writing, The Room is only available for Android as part of The Humble Mobile Bundle. The developers, Fireproof Games, state that it will be released to Android stores soon, however. And that’s great news because this puzzle game is quite enjoyable.

I can’t describe it all that much since the only other game that I’ve played that’s similar is Myst. So if you know how Myst is — with all those vague puzzles and equally vague clues scattered throughout the game — you’ll have an idea of how The Room plays. But unlike Myst, you’re not travelling to different worlds and collecting pieces of magical paper.

The Room is set in a room (is that a surprise?) and all the puzzles are on an object you find in a safe. Heck, the safe itself is a puzzle. None of them are overly difficult but may require some abstract thinking to reach a solution. And if you ever get stuck, there’s always the handy clue button which always provides enough information to get you looking in the right direction.

My only disappointment with this game is that it’s too short. It only consists of 4 chapters and the amount of time I spent going through them all probably doesn’t even add up to 3 hours. Fireproof Games has noted that there will be free DLC in the near future and a sequel coming in the Fall. I look forward to both!

games · silliness

The magical arm injury in anime, manga, and games

koukoupuffs1 Comment

I always wonder … why is it that characters always hold their arm after becoming a victim of some sort of injury? It’s like if they’re thrown against a wall, they’ll get up and hobble a bit while holding their arm. I suppose it’s plausible that the arm broke or something when the body hit the wall but then there are instances where characters are pummelled to a pulp and when they get up, they’re still holding onto their arm???