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New Nexon game that is F2P friendly!

KamiNoBeniMizuKamiNoBeniMizu
Reactions: 1,375
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Member
edited November 2016 in Off-Topic Discussion
Come on and join the community of Fantasy War Tactics if you have a mobile (iOS & Android)! This is THE most F2P friendly title from Nexon, and one of THE most F2P friendly title I have ever played.

First of all, this game is a Turn-Based-Strategy game. More in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea, as the direction in which you attack is a very important game mechanic. The second important game mechanic are tiles. If you stand on lava with a character that cannot go on it, you will get damage. Not all tiles deal damage, and water cannot be crossed unless the character can walk on it (that's weird considering they can walk on LAVA and still live, yeah, it's not a 1-HKO).

The third important game mechanic is that... instead of having an elemental system, it has a "Rock, Paper, Scissors" system. Yes, you read that right. Characters are Rock, Paper, or Scissors. And then, there are types. Area (excel at large area of effects), Attack (high attack power), Defense (high defense), Balance (they are all-around) and Support (they can give status effects to enemies, or heal allies). Types are only there to indicate in what characters are good at. It doesn't affect gameplay further than that.

There is an energy system. As you level up, your total energy increases. The recovery time is decent, and there is a skill that can shorten the time it takes to charge even more.
You can get 50 energy at 12:00 (noon, not midnight!) and 18:00, what's even better to know is that it is based on your local time! Both times, you have 3 hours to get them, so you have until 14:59, or 19:59 to get the energy. You can go over the normal limit you have too. For example, you can have 1021/50 energy. 1021 being the maximum you can hold.

Energy is used to enter in...

Stages (past the 3rd chapter) have 4 difficulties, Normal, Hard, Hell, and Chaos. The higher the difficulty, the harder it gets. And obviously, the better the rewards. There are two types of stages, normal stages, and boss stages. Boss stages can have recruitable characters, or stronger monsters than in normal stages. To recruit characters, you have to get a certain amount of that specific character's genes. Character genes only drop in Hard difficulty and onward in its boss stage. For example, if you want Raboff, you will have to fight Raboff in Hard, Hell, or Chaos to get his genes. Normal won't drop his genes.

However, not all characters have stages. Some are acquired in special ways, and they are among the strongest if well used.

Characters have levels and grades. To get to the next grade (commonly referred as stars, so if you see 5*, it means someone has x character at the fifth grade). The higher the grade, the stronger a character gets. To reach the next grade, you have to reach the current grade's maximum level and "rebirth", or by chance, have a rebirth ticket (only handed out via events).

To use the "rebirth" option, you have to pay a fee in gold (the game's normal currency), and have materials (Rebirth golems). To get said materials, you need to go in a special dungeon. They are open all week long. So you don't have to worry about missing them like in other games.


Now, to tell you how friendly the game is, which is surely what you want to know the most.

Crystal is the game's premium currency and here is how you get them.

You get 120 per month for the daily log ins (30 on the 2nd day, 40 on the 8th day, and 50 on the 14th day). There are 24 days per monthly log ins, so you can miss a few days without getting punished. You can get up to 40 DAILY (and 80 during events that raise the amount of premium currency given daily). You can get some randomly when clearing stages. You can get some randomly by using the Expedition system (to help you get rewards when not playing), and there is even a skill that increases the chances of you finding them (WOW!).

You can get up to 1,500 in Battle of Honor (one of two PvP modes), however, such an impressive amount is handed out only to the best player. The minimum is 20. But you'd need to participate once to get such a small reward. Or be extremely weak. I received 75.

Some stages give you 2 Crystals when you first clear them.

There are some achievements that give you a lot of Crystals too. Level based on your avatar (called Lord), the amount of characters you have at x grade, and the amount of days you logged in. These achievements gives you LOTS of Crystals.

Then, there is a certain monthly mode that is EXTREMELY rewarding (Tower of Dawn). You can get 365 Crystals per difficulty (Normal and Hard), PER MONTH. However, Crystals are not the only rewards in this mode. Many other helpful things are given there (Gold, Mana Stones, Perfect Genes, Minerals, and equipment capsules).
But you'll need to clear 55 stages in Normal mode if you want the rewards. And then there will be Hard mode... Surely the reward in Hard mode is better, right (56 stages of rewards!)?
NOTE:There are 5 optional stages per difficulty that are called "Mirror Room". They give Perfect Genes, which are genes that help characters get stronger.

There is way more to the game (such as guilds and daily guild raids), equipments (that have a rebirth system of their own), potential for characters (called option for equipments), Dimensional Breakthrough (the 2nd PvP mode), Friendship Points, Library in the Sky (special mode that is always there, no worries), mini in-game forums for characters and stages, and Skills (that need genes to get stronger). But if I had to speak about EVERYTHING the game has to offer, it'd be ridiculously long.

If you though my "normal" posts were long enough as it is, it would be even longer than 3 of them.

It looks overly complicated when not used to such systems. But this game is truly casual friendly (it even has a auto mode), and easy for the wallet. I've been playing for nearly a year (NEVER paid), and I am at level 74 (Lord level), with two characters at level 70 (maximum grade). And a few characters at 5*. There are some that are stronger than me, but whether they played more than me, used money, or both, is unknown. Players are usually friendly no matter the levels they have, but some are vulgar (night time is really creepy).

The censoring is easy to bypass, but you can report offensive messages (in the mini in-game forums). If you find a player vulgar, you can block them, and the only way to unblock them would be to uninstall the game from what I've heard. When you block them, you won't see their messages in the general chat.

Because of the look of most female characters (it's an Asian game after all*), most comments will be about... "Boobs". That's the average size. As of late, they reduced the size of new female characters thankfully! So the comments are bearable now.
*:No, it's not racist.

This game is REALLY solid for a 1 year old game. A MOBILE game at that. And the second season is on the horizon too!

Currently, they have a second cross-over going on. It is with BlazBlue (Ragna, Jin, Rachel, and Noel are the characters). The only one you have to "pay" for is Jin. He costs 2,500 Crystals (he comes with a costume, equipments, and some genes). But as I've said, getting Crystals is quite easy. Especially in the beginning when you have a lot of achievements. But when you get stronger, PvP and Tower of Dawn are the spots.

Wiki.
  1. Wanna join?9 votes
    1. Sure. But if you lie, go to Niflheim!
       0% (0 votes)
    2. Nope! Nexon is Nexon! THAT'S IMPOSSIBRU~!!!!!
       33% (3 votes)
    3. I'll see...
       11% (1 vote)
    4. Me don't like SRPG!!!!!!!
       33% (3 votes)
    5. Interesting, I'll try it.
       22% (2 votes)

Comments

  • AKradianAKradian
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    edited November 2016
    MapleStory started out perfectly free to play, too.
    FennekinLilyflowerbumbertyr
  • KamiNoBeniMizuKamiNoBeniMizu
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    edited November 2016
    AKradian
    AKradian said:

    MapleStory started out perfectly free to play, too.
    Comment Update 2.563.999.
    Fixed some issues with the comment. It can now be read properly


    Sorry for the long post, but I really want to explain how F2P the game is.

    You're right. However, everytime MapleStory received a new feature, it would take AGES before an equivalent for free players was created. Or at least, an effective one.

    I can think of inner potential that was tedious (for free), and then Nexon decided to sell potential resets and re-rolls in the Cash Shop first, before fixing the tedious inner potential system. Potential on equipments couldn't be re-rolled for free at first, so you had to turn to the Cash Shop or wait for an event, or replace the equipment...

    Or how people who paid could ADD EVEN MORE potential lines (seriously!?)! And so on (MapleStory sure came a long way from the P2W fest it was! there's worst out there, but for how the game began and then turned out, phew!).


    With Fantasy War Tactics, most feature have 2 sides from the start. One for free and one for paying. And when you pay, you don't always pay with money, but with premium currency (there are packages that are $ exclusive, but they are not game breaking).

    I am a free player, and I managed to get a character with a Combat Power (CP for short) of 33,600 (and still rising since its level is not maxed, and even the equipments are not the best). That is considered powerful (and OP would be 37+k), as the average player has a CP of 22k to 26k. In fact, this character alone helped me win PvP against teams of 115k CP (while I only have a team of 102,500 CP) CP on its own. And it's also one of the easiest characters to get for anyone (participate in every guild raid boss at least once). For such a powerful character, one can get it very earlier game too. Of course, equipments count, and I got many good ones for free.

    In fact, PvP used to give less rewards than it does now (it was revamped a week ago). Back then, there were no tiers, so players could easily stumble upon OP teams right off the bat (and even after days it started), despite refreshing. That's why I wasn't participating at all, or refreshed times and times again until I had a bunch of weak players to fight during the last hours of PvP so I could get decent rewards. PvP was awful and a chore. Now, it's actually fun.


    And they also revamped guild raids so that less powerful players can have a shot at getting better rewards. Before the revamp, you could do it 3 times a day for free (and 2 additional times paid in Crystals), and it also meant extremely powerful players had better chances. Now, it's 2 times (free), and an additional time paid with Crystals, or a special key used to get more runs in guild raids. I have better rewards not only because I am stronger, but also because they lowered the scores needed to get better rewards.


    So far, if we were to compare MapleStory and Fantasy War Tactics. MapleStory crushes FWT in terms of bad decisions. Even if it's true a character was sold for $100 US (Seira), it was the only time Nexon screwed up so far for FWT. And upon the massive backlash (many changed 4 and 5 star ratings to 1), they decided to listen to the community.

    They re-released the cross-over characters: Muzaka, Seira (still sold for $100 US which people were mad again for), Raskreia, Frankenstein, but this time, they also created a new character that was only availble as a costume for Lord (the avatar), Raizel. It was to compensate for Seira. Both of them were very powerful at the time. They are still powerful, but the newest characters are on-par with them easily.

    Actually, Seira is more cheap than powerful. Many said this character would kill PvP, but in the end, she didn't. And most experienced players laughed at others for buying her thinking she was going to help them.

    So in the end. Even then they didn't screw over the F2P players, but the players that pay instead.

    I bought 2 limited time costumes for 1200 each (2 Raizel costumes), 4 packages for 2500 (Celestial, Deimos, Banshee, and now Jin), and 1 for 2200 (Halloween costumes for Lord, Valkyrie, Krut, and Mas).

    I maxed my equipment inventory (I think it starts at 100 and caps at 200) which is 5 slots for 50 (it starts at maybe 10 and increase to 50), I still didn't max my material inventory (which includes items that help characters level up), I capped it at 200 (it costs 50 at the end too I think), and friend list (starts at 50 and caps at 100), but I forgot the price for this one. I also bought 9 character costumes that cost 600 each.

    And I still didn't play the game for a year (will be a year on 28th of December), and I forgot to participate in PvP a few times, and didn't know how "easy" ToD was (when I tried it the first time, I got stomped hard, and I lacked energy a lot at early levels. the second time, someone told me I was more than ready). And I still managed to get that much premium currency.

    The game only has 9 limited time characters so far (Muzaka, Raskreia, Frankenstein, Seira, Raizel, Jin, Ragna, Rachel, and Noel). The rest are released via Lost Island, which opens once every 2 weeks (Nirvana, Chenny, Muang, Krut, Rena, Banshee, and Lucas are released in this mode), or in Library in the Sky (Celestial & Deimos).
    NOTE:A character named Spooky had her genes sold in an event shop. So she wasn't released in any modes

    Characters with names in bold are characters that are released during events (they happen often). And for LI, the 3 regulars (Nirvana, Chenny, and Muang) can be available while the special ones are there too. The special characters usually stay for 20 days, while the regulars stay for 2 days. Yeah... 2 days of grinding every 2 weeks. They require 720 genes to unlock, and then you have to grind for more genes to make their skills stronger.

    It's not a problem if you have energy potions (ToD gives you some, and event shop sells them) and a high level.

    I wouldn't speak of the game if it was truly bad. They changed modes to be more F2P friendly, and they still sell characters for Crystals instead of $ only

    Oh yeah, I forgot to say that they do sometimes give Crystals to players. Some costumes are sold in shop events (2 costumes for Halloween, and Magical Girl Lord costume for example). So you don't always need to pay premium currency. And if you are lucky, they hand out costumes to characters based on polls. Chris and Cleo are 2 characters that received costumes based on polls.

    I don't know if costumes will come back, or if they'll create new ones. But limited time costumes based on cross-overs won't come back easily, that's for sure. It was a miracle they re-released the Noblesse event.
  • KamiNoBeniMizuKamiNoBeniMizu
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    edited November 2016
    The only things that could be considered P2W are costumes and equipment capsules.

    Costumes for characters cost 600 each, and some of them are $ exclusive (Seira, Raizel, Krut, Rena). But even then, they are not game breaking despite giving stat boosts. In fact, most costumes are actually sold for premium currency, or event currency (which is gained by completing stages, however, some modes do not give event currency).
    NOTE:Starting from Celestial, Nexon decided to sell characters for premium currency instead of $. Sorry for the confusion at first!

    Equipment capsules. There are two types. The free ones uses friendship points, and the premium ones use premium currency. You can pull 1 or 10 equipments at the same time. When you pull 10 equipments, the price is high (250 for 10 1* pulls, and 1200 for 10 5* pulls), but you will get one piece of set equipment guaranteed (which are the best equipments).

    You can get set equipments from ToD (any grades, but the higher the grade, the slimmer are the chances to get them), or other special capsules given in the daily log ins (1* to 3*). You also receive them via events (that's how I got one of the best 5* set for free, and many got it too).

    You can also get set equipments from alchemy.

    Oh euhh... Actually, set equipments have grades and letters. The grades are the stars I spoke about earlier, and the letters are A, S, and SS. Only platinum and set equipments can "Transcend" (which is a system that allows them to go past level 10, up to 13 for sets, and 12 for platinum equips).

    There are also ways to modify equipment for free with "stones" and all the stuff, but like I said, it'd be ridiculously long.

    In short, the game is fine so far. It can go into P2W territory, but by how they reacted with the Seira case, I think it's safe for now.
  • KamiNoBeniMizuKamiNoBeniMizu
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    edited November 2016
    KamiNoBeniMizu

    Costumes for characters cost 600 each, and some of them are $ exclusive (Seira, Raizel, Krut, Rena, Celestial, Banshee, Deimos, Lucas, Jin, Ragna, Noel, and Rachel).
    Wowowowowowo! That! Was BADLY explained! Actually, only Seira, Krut, and Rena had their packages sold exclusively for $. The rest had their packages sold for 2500 Crystals (which includes costume, special exclusive 3* set, some genes, and the character).

    So in short. Starting from Celestial, Nexon sold characters and their packages in premium currency instead of $. Wow, I explained stuff in a bad way the first time around...

    The special equipments sold were not among the best either. Sure, they offer an advantage, but like I said, all features have two sides. And so far, those that are permanently in the game are better than the ones that were sold.

    For the Noblesse cross-over, they sold ($ exclusive) special endgame equipments called Soul Gears (Blood weapon for Noblesse). Shortly after they sold these weapons, they created free versions for the Noblesse characters.

    And it wasn't because of a massive backlash. They planned to do both of them, but since the event was ending, they decided to cash in first. Almost no harm there.

    They also said they'd revamp the characters that became too weak. Like I said, the newest characters are quite strong compared to the first batch of characters. So to prevent some of the older characters to fall into oblivion, they decided to revamp a few of them. Since the game is not old, it won't be a nightmare for players to give feedback to Nexon.

    Also, the Battle of Honor rewards are weekly (a minimum of 20 Crystals weekly is not that bad). So that's really great. They give gold, medals (for the honor shop), and transformation gems to transform set equipments into another type from the same set. Example: You have 3 Battle Axe of Frenzy, but to have the complete set, you need Helm of Frenzy and Necklace of Frenzy. With the gems from PvP, you can transform the other 2 Battle Axe of Frenzy into a helm and a necklace. It's a nice system for people with dupes. Dupes have more uses than that, they can be used to upgrade equipments past level 10. However, only platinum and set equipments can go past level 10.

    Dimensional Breakthrough is a daily PvP, and the rewards are genes for Lena and Fruel (there is a 100% drop on their genes until Nexon cancels it. before, they were SO rare, only a few players had these characters, and even less had their skills maxed), and gold. In both PvP modes, you can only use 4 characters, while in story mode, you can use up to 5.

    DB is a PvP survival mode. You can use as many characters as you want until you lose them all. When you win, your characters will heal HP and MP a little. You have 10 stages, and you can reset the stages once per day, but you'll have to start from stage 1 again. If an opponent is too hard for you, you can try to get another for free, but if you try again, you'll have to pay Crystals. Resetting your progress and getting another opponent are not the same thing.

    Library in the Sky has a lot to offer too. It's a "protect" mission basically. If the character/item you are trying to protect has all its HP depleted, you lose. Or if you lose all your characters. You can clear each stage once per day. So even if you lose, you can try again. You can buy items with special gems you acquire from this mode, or you can buy some neat things with gold. The rewards are blue gems, red gems, and green gems. The stage rewarding blue gems is always there, while the stages that rewarded green and red gems respectively, ended a while ago.

    There is a tutorial in the game that does a good job at explaining things, so even if I don't say everything, Nexon covers the topics well enough. Don't worry, it's casual friendly!
  • AKradianAKradian
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    edited November 2016
    KamiNoBeniMizu

    AKradian
    AKradian said:

    MapleStory started out perfectly free to play, too.
    You're right. However, everytime MapleStory received a new feature, it would take AGES before an equivalent for free players was created. Or at least, an effective one.
    You're not going far enough back.

    When first released in May of 2005, Global MapleStory had no cash shop at all.
    The Cash Shop was added in October of 2005, and contained only cosmetic items.

    I don't know when, exactly, the "pay2win" items (Gachapon, looting and autopotting pets, 2x cards) started to appear, but in April of 2008 we got the MTS. MTS allowed non-paying players to sell in-game items for prepaid NX (to other players), which in effect opened up everything in the Cash Shop to non-payers.

    The dread pay2win we know today started with the increased demand for NX due to potential being added (in 2010), and later the damage cap being raised 50x higher (Unleashed, in 2013). The closing of the MTS in 2012 didn't help (although arguably that was replaced by players trading NX for meso illegitimately).

    So, yeah, just because a Nexon game has no $$ requirement at the moment, doesn't mean it won't have any soon.
    Lilyflower
  • KamiNoBeniMizuKamiNoBeniMizu
    Reactions: 1,375
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    edited November 2016
    AKradian
    AKradian said:

    KamiNoBeniMizu

    AKradian
    AKradian said:

    MapleStory started out perfectly free to play, too.
    You're right. However, everytime MapleStory received a new feature, it would take AGES before an equivalent for free players was created. Or at least, an effective one.
    You're not going far enough back.

    When first released in May of 2005, Global MapleStory had no cash shop at all.
    The Cash Shop was added in October of 2005, and contained only cosmetic items.

    I don't know when, exactly, the "pay2win" items (Gachapon, looting and autopotting pets, 2x cards) started to appear, but in April of 2008 we got the MTS. MTS allowed non-paying players to sell in-game items for prepaid NX (to other players), which in effect opened up everything in the Cash Shop to non-payers.

    The dread pay2win we know today started with the increased demand for NX due to potential being added (in 2010), and later the damage cap being raised 50x higher (Unleashed, in 2013). The closing of the MTS in 2012 didn't help (although arguably that was replaced by players trading NX for meso illegitimately).

    So, yeah, just because a Nexon game has no $$ requirement at the moment, doesn't mean it won't have any soon.
    Oh sure. MS started "innocent" and turned into something else completely. But for now, like I said, they better be careful. Mobile playerbase is ridiculously volatile compared to PC playerbase (from what I noticed).

    They screwed with Seira, and the chat room literally died for a couple of weeks. When I joined, the chat room was filled with tons of people and notices about upgrades (it literally made chatting nearly impossible). Then Seira nuke happened, then almost nothing.

    Even MapleStory didn't almost die as bad as Fantasy War Tactics. Bad decisions after bad decisions and the chat rooms and channel wide messages were still active. Even during Unleashed (well, Broa at least stayed the same). It's slightly after Unleashed that it died a little (while it should have died during Unleashed, and even then, it was still far better than KMS's Unlimited that literally screwed people. the GMS's team did a good job to correct such a bad update).

    And the game started out well to get screwed up in one update (unlike MapleStory that received updates after updates and barely got good things for free). And as I've said as well, they tweaked the game to make it even easier on the players, especially those that do not pay.

    MapleStory barely had things going for it. So they sold power before putting free ways to earn power. Now the game is recommendable for anyone, while before, even I started to feel like it was a chore (not only this, but they nerfed newly released classes after a while, which made things harder than necessary), but the music and story still interested me.

    I understand that online games shouldn't be about being solo, but there are limits when you can't beat bosses that are supposed to be low tier unless you pay a ton of real world money. And this is how MapleStory was. There were no non-boss sets for characters over level 120 (timeless equips required items that were dropped RARELY by ToT enemies, and they were dropped mostly by... Pink Bean), and the upgrading was nearly impossible due to high chances of item destruction.

    The ONLY way they could screw up FWT is if they allow people to get max level, max upgrades, and best potential for $300, or something similar. With Seira that was less ridiculous than that, the game almost died. So I don't think they will do anything stupid before a while.

    Not only that, but they tend to listen to people. They put requested features in the game that people wanted. It seems those running FWT are more competent than MS team.

    I have high expectations after they excused, and acknowledged the problem themselves. Companies don't bow down easily, especially in front of clients. And I think MapleStory was kinda weird because it was still far too "Korean" in terms of planning direction. This style doesn't work outside of Korea. It was ridiculously grindy, and harsh. It's a VERY popular trend in Korea. Pretty much like how many Chinese games reward you even when you're not playing. One example is Perfect World International. I think they have a system that allows you to gain EXP or items. Maybe it was removed, but it was there when I played.

    NOTE to Nexon:No offense to Nexon, but you have to admit the game had multiple questionable desicions. The global team is competent and listens to the community (they added the Sengoku faction because people asked for it! I remember!), but you guys had to follow the rules of the Korean branch which wasn't the best in terms of planning (they are the ones that excused themselves afterall)...

    People really underestimate the North American Nexon branch. They are good, but they have to follow the main branch (or "tree"). I don't know about the European branch though, but they should be alright too since I haven't heard/read bad things about them.

    So far, I am sure that the one that decided to make people pay for Seira was from the main Nexon branch. I think the North American branch is far better (besides, it's currently the North Americans that pretty much "rules" the gaming market across consoles, PCs, and even mobiles).

    I understand your idea about how Nexon could EASILY screw up, but so far, it's safe. For MapleStory, people saw it coming little by little. With FWT, they sell one unit for $100, and people could affect their mobile reputation. There's nothing worst than having a bunch of 1 star ratings in an app store. Believe me. Even Nexon wouldn't like that. So they carefully plan. It feels a lot like current MapleStory in terms of decisions.

    They make the game based on player feedback. The day they stop listening is the day FWT closes. If it gets P2W, it couldn't be worst than Brave Frontier. A game that is said to be EXTREMELY P2W, yet, in this game too, I managed to get better than many that seems to have paid. I had 2 max ranked units defeating a team full of maxed units in this game's PvP (I have a win streak of 897 and still rising). And now I have 3. All free. So far, Candy Crush is more P2W than both FWT & BF (far too many match-3 games are made to make us lose 7 times out of 10...). It could all vanish, but so far, so good.

    Recently in FWT, they even released low tier set equipments (1* to 3*). It proves they still think about low level players. If they think about low level players, they can't screw up. Many games forget about low level players, and only focus on endgame, but FWT seems to be well balanced.
  • ClawStaffClawStaff
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    Member, Private Tester
    edited November 2016
    Wow are we building the Great Wall of China with text?
    KamiNoBeniMizuNakazatoJL
  • KamiNoBeniMizuKamiNoBeniMizu
    Reactions: 1,375
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    edited November 2016
    ClawStaff
    ClawStaff said:

    Wow are we building the Great Wall of China with text?
    Of course! Ask Maryse, that's my trademark!

    UPDATE 5066833.578
    Fixed some darn spelliang mistakez!


    And while I am at it, I better do a little recap and fix a few things I got wrong.

    There is a Rock, Paper, Scissors gameplay.
    Character type DOES affect gameplay, in that some sets are exclusive to Defense type characters for example. Something I got wrong in one of the posts...
    There are some sets that are character exclusive. Krut, Reina, Celestial, Deimos, Banshee, Spooky, and Lucas have sets that are exclusive to them. All cross-over characters have exclusive sets as well. However, the strongest sets are permanent. So no problems. And the character exclusive sets are not game breaking (they do not boost attack by 60% for example).

    There's over 40 characters (excluding the cross-overs), and all non-cross overs can be obtained for free (expect major grinding, but Nexon said they'd work on it).
    *The strongest equipments can be obtained for free via ToD (both from capsules and set capsules), alchemy (equipment extraction), events, and capsules in Library in the Sky (I think I got only one from this mode though).
    *:You can also receive weak sets. Unless an event says you can only receive 5* sets, don't expect to receive them. But even SS rank 1* sets can be better than A rank 5* sets. Yes, you read that right. All is not black & white in this SRPG, and that's good.

    Battle of Honor rewards up to 1,500 (and minimum of 20) Crystals weekly.
    You can get 40 Crystals from daily achievements (and 80 daily if Nexon doubles the daily rewards), get 365x2 monthly from ToD (Normal & Hard); some stages rewards you 2 Crystals the first time you clear them; non-repeatable achievements rewards you a lot of Crystals; expeditions rewards you some Crystals (and there is a skill that raises the chances you can find them on expeditions), and you can get Crystals randomly when clearing stages.

    You can also get Crystals via in-game events between characters. That's a point I forgot about in earlier posts.

    The bad decisions they made were selling a character exclusively for $ (Seira) and two characters' costumes (Krut and Reina).

    The good/bad is that they sold a special type of weapon called Soul Gear for $ exclusively for the Noblesse characters. But after that, they created free versions for the Noblesse characters too (they planned the free versions, but they decided to sell the other ones first before the event ended).

    The good decisions they've made before and after Seira.
    Remove the payment in gold for unequipping Legendary equips
    Remove the payment in Crystals for unequipping set equipments
    Make Battle of Honor more rewarding for all players and friendly for weaker players
    Allow players to buy characters with Crystals
    Allow players to buy packages with Crystals (a package selling rare materials is currently being sold)
    Make guild raids more rewarding for weaker players (less P2W)
    Create the Alchemy system which allows players to get Platinum equipments (stronger than normal equipments, have special effects, but still weaker than a set effect) and set equipments

    Make the Alchemy system more F2P friendly (it was a struggle to use it before)
    Adjust sets (some sets are useless, while others are beyond OP*, so they try to balance it out)
    *:Some sets can boost attack by 60%, yes. 60% with 2 pieces out of 3. Most people use 2 pieces and use another random OP piece since they don't need the set's 3rd effect.

    Create more sets for all grades (they recently released sets for 3* instead of just focusing on 5*, good sign)
    Allow players to get costumes for event currency instead of $ or Crystals only (cross-over characters' costumes are always bought with crystal, or are included in their packages which are also bought with Crystals)

    And it's just the beginning. So far, they've made more good decisions than bad ones.

    In comparison, they are among the best F2P titles on mobile. Brave Frontier, Boom Beach, Clash of Clans, Dungeon Boss, Final Fantasy Record Keeper, all of these games are more P2W so far. And 4 of them are quite popular (Dungeon Boss became better only recently). You know why? Because these games are F2P friendly as well.

    So it really speaks when a Nexon game can put these titles to shame easily. Yes, Nexon can screw up, but so far, they managed to do more good things than bad things. And it was only the first year. The game is easily recommendable for anyone for now. Keep your eyes on things and see if they are starting to screw up to tell them. Many good changes were suggestions, and they listened.

    So speak up if you think something is off.
  • SandwichSandwich
    Reactions: 2,830
    Posts: 155
    Member
    edited November 2016
    Mobile games image
    Lilyflower
  • KamiNoBeniMizuKamiNoBeniMizu
    Reactions: 1,375
    Posts: 268
    Member
    edited November 2016
    Sandwich
    Sandwich said:

    Mobile games image
    Mobile games are equal to handheld games when done right. And I said games, not "gaming apps" *Shivers*

    Besides, not only mobile has shovelware (however it does hold a record because it has no standard and anyone can upload their *BEEP!* in there). PCs had Big Riggs (and MANY other equally bad titles) after all. And I don't know how that company didn't get sued for false advertising and non-working product. All I know is that they thankfully are out of business!
    NOTE to mods and volunteers:We can say *BEEP!* in here, right? I mean, it cannot offend anyone! I SWEAR IT ON MY OWN GRAVE! No... I don't have a grave just yet!

    Dan the Man (made by Halfbrick) is a nice platformer. I've played worst on the NES/SMS and SNES/Gen. Dark Castle (a Genesis game)? Ouch! People paid for that thing. Dan the Man is free (if you don't want ads, just play offline, or pay a fee).

    On mobile, I've played things that can easily rival with old school games. It's just that it's insanely hard to come across these among online games, small games exclusive to mobiles (D.I.S.C is as simple as making toasts, but can you score over 500 points without throwing your mobile?), and the craptasticularfest there is in the stores.

    Maybe the Amazon store has more quality, I haven't checked them yet. But Google and Apple don't have any standard, and that's a shame.

    There are nice time killers (and games) on mobile. Not everything is a "pay us $4 soon turned into over $500 deal" or "Totally not rip-offs" apps. Just need to have patience and search. Even though I hate searching these stores because I've never seen so much crappy stuff anywhere else... ugh...!

    EDIT
    The Battle Cats released this year on 3DS too. And it started as a mobile game. The 3DS version has multiplayer too (unlike the mobile version).
  • MarisaKirisameMarisaKirisame
    Reactions: 500
    Posts: 19
    Member
    edited November 2016
    if they make the game work on a PC then I might play it cell phones
  • bumbertyrbumbertyr
    Reactions: 6,610
    Posts: 1,167
    Nexon
    edited March 2017
    interesting :o.
  • NakazatoJLNakazatoJL
    Reactions: 1,505
    Posts: 62
    Member, Private Tester
    edited November 2016
    ClawStaff
    ClawStaff said:

    Wow are we building the Great Wall of China with text?
    ROFL

    image