[ indie navi ] iOS

Rise of Mana Hands-On Impressions: A Little Bit MMO, A Little Bit P&D

Posted 17:58 EST on 07MAR2014 by: tim walker in hands-on » android, iOS, rise of mana, secret of mana, seiken densetsu, square enix

Seiken Densetsu: Rise of Mana was just released yesterday in Japan for iOS (coming later for Android), and I’ve been able to spend a few hours playing around with it. Though a little rough around the edges, it’s a pretty enjoyable game that tips its hat to Mana games of old while firmly embracing many of the modern-day conventions of mobile games like Puzzle & Dragons.

The game begins with you selecting the names and genders for your characters: One member of the Lasta tribe (angels), and one member of the Darka tribe (demons). Once this has been completed, things are kicked off in dramatic fashion with your two leads fighting to end each other in heaven. Unfortunately, the apparently-mystical Mana Waterfall has other plans for them, knocking both down to the human world. Neither tribe can survive long here without perishing, so a deal is hastily struck between the two to merge into a single body, giving them the chance to survive.

Once this is complete, you’ll take control of the merged beings, and are able to switch between your angel and demon forms at will. The main advantage to this during the action sequences of the game is that the swapped-in character starts off with a fuller lifebar, allowing your better half time to regenerate in the void. This ability also becomes useful in the city of Miste (the game’s central hub), where swapping forms can allow you to read the thoughts of certain villagers for more information.

Before taking you into town, the game gives you a quick tutorial on the basics of combat. Like many of its predecessors, Mana is action-based at its core. Unfortunately, unlike past titles, the action controls are all touched-based, a mixed bag to be sure (to be fair, the game supports physical game pads for later versions of the iPhone as well, but we only had a chance to test it with touch controls). The default setup allows you to move your character both by dragging your finger around the screen and by tapping a fixed point for them to walk to. Whenever combat begins, your character locks on to the nearest enemy automatically, and tapping the screen will cause them to strike. Tapping a different enemy will allow your character to switch targets, and sliding your finger across the screen in the middle of battle allows them to dodge.

In theory, this setup should work well, but I definitely encountered input confusion while playing. Tap too excitedly during combat to strike, and your device will often misinterpret your motions as swipes instead of taps. In non-combat situations, while you can guide your character to a set point, they’ll rarely stop there, instead continuing on in the general direction that you tapped or else walking in place forever. There is a virtual pad option as well, but since it’s completely invisible (an in-game guide explains roughly where it’s located), it can be frustrating to use. (as an added bit of frustration, it’s impossible to swap between the two setups while you’re in the middle of a quest) Hopefully these issues will be corrected in a future update.

During combat, you have a few other options available to you. You can perform special attacks with the weapon you’re currently using by tapping an icon in the lower-right corner of the screen. You have a limited number of these per combat session, and there is a cooling off period of a few seconds between uses. After the tutorial, the Familiar (a fairy, essentially) will inhabit the body of a doll found on the road, creating an ally to assist you in combat (she’s effectively the first “monster” in your party, and can later be replaced with others). Another player’s character can also be selected prior to starting a quest to beef up your team.

During the tutorial, your character wields a sword, but you’ll also gain access to a bow and a spear once you’ve moved onto the main game. You’ll find more variants on these three weapons as you play, and you can use your spares to strengthen other weapons in the same manner you would with monsters in Puzzle & Dragons. You can upgrade your pet monsters (allies) in a similar manner. One odd trapping of Mana is that upgrading and even swapping are not done from a pull-down menu: Not only must both actions be done in town, each must be done at a specific, separate location in town. The absence of the ability to swap from the pre-quest menu is a particularly odd game design decision.

The town of Miste is pretty small, but there are a few other things that can be done here. As noted earlier, you can speak to villagers and read their thoughts, which often allows you to gain access to new quests, MMO-style. Maybe I’m just anti-spoiled by the lack of substance in modern FtP games, but Mana seems to have a lot more dialogue and character development going on here than the typical FtP titles out there. I appreciate the fact that Square Enix actually put these elements into a game that they’re giving away.

Before you leave town, Nikita (known as Niccolo in Western releases of past Mana titles) shows up to let you take part in the requisite lottery for a shot at a rare monster. There’s also a vendor selling jewels for real-world money that have different effects, such as refilling your Stamina (Rise of Mana is FtP, so naturally quests “cost” in-game currency to take part in).

The typical quest you go on lasts around 3-5 minutes. It normally consists of you leading your party down a path to the next combat encounter, taking out the monsters that get in your way, and moving on. The action aspect keeps things fun, but I would have preferred a bit less linearity in the setup (most “alternate routes” are blocked by hulking monsters that cannot be attacked). I’m just getting started though, so hopefully the layouts will improve as I get further into the game.

That should wrap it up for my initial thoughts on the game. While I wish that the touch controls worked a little better, I’m still having a lot of fun playing Reign of Mana, enough to forgive it for its flaws. Check out the gallery below for more screen captures (we took quite a few). I may revisit this title with some further impressions soon, so be sure to check back with us!

(Seiken Densetsu: Rise of Mana is available on Japanese App Store for iOS devices)

Dragon High & Low Hands-On Impressions: Low

Posted 17:58 EST on 06MAR2014 by: tim walker in hands-on » dragon high & low, inaba, iOS, puzzle & dragons

“Puzzle & Dragons is a pretty fun game on mobile platforms. Let’s rip it off and sell our own version!”

“Sure, we could do that. But you know what’s bad about it? That combat system! It’s too complex! Matching all those jewels to make combos just gives me a headache sometimes!”

“Hmm, what if we just tore that combat system right out of there? And maybe replaced it with something more simplistic?”

“Sure, why not? But what should we replace the jewels with?”

“How about that old drinking game, High/Low? Yeah, everybody likes that!”

“I know, right? And it’s so easy to play! Hmm, but couldn’t we make it even more basic? Like, maybe, by making combos depend entirely on blind luck? You know, remove skill from the game completely?”

“Love it! Uploading it now…”

I’m not sure if those are exact quotes from the design meeting for Dragon High&Low from Inaba, but after spending some time with the game, it’s probably not far from the truth. Soaring to the top of the Japanese App Store just days ago (and, as of this writing, plummeting fast), H&L is the latest in a long line of clones that attempt to share in the success of P&D, but which completely miss out on what makes the latter such a great game.

I’m not going to spend any time covering the basic setup of the game, evolving your monsters, choosing allies, etc. If you’ve played P&D, you’ll feel right at home, though this particular house is built on a shaky foundation. The main difference between the two games (aside from P&D’s superior aesthetics) is the combat system. P&D has you match jewels to inflict damage on your opponents, but there’s much more to it than that: You have a window of turns before monsters attack you (allowing you to plan out your strategy), and you can increase your attacks exponentially by scoring combos in the jewel game (partially luck-based, but with some level of skill involved).

There’s none of that finesse to be found in the combat system for H&L. Instead, swipe up or down to tell the computer if you think the next card will be higher or lower than the one shown (you can also “Fold” once per deck of 13 cards by swiping to the side, though it’s rarely to your advantage to do so). Guess right, and you’ll damage the monsters; guess wrong, and you’ll suffer the damage yourself.

Let’s go over a few of the basics of this system, and then we’ll see how it falls apart in actual gameplay. Each battle in H&L begins with a card between 1 (Ace, always treated as a low card) and King being drawn, and with the suit of the next card visible. There is only one of each numbered/royal card (13 total), and icons at the bottom of the screen keep track of which cards have been drawn. Cards have suit that match the one of four offensive elemental classes, and are always randomized; a fifth suit (Hearts) heals the party when it is drawn.

The elemental suit of the card dictates which characters will strike in your party, and you can pick your target beforehand. Certain element classes are supposed to have higher priority to damage certain other ones, but this seemed to become moot once I killed off most of my non-party members to jack up the stats of my main group.

Once you win a battle, the deck resets (with randomized suits again), though any damage you take sticks until your current quest is done. If you happen to burn through all 13 cards fighting a single group of monsters, you’ll just be rewarded with a new deck to use.

Beyond the somewhat broken elemental system described above, the only other real strategy (if you can call it that) is to pull off combos. Subsequent correct guesses result in blows inflicting more damage; an incorrect guess or passing breaks the combo (Side Note: With this in mind, unless your life is about to run out, there’s really no point in passing at all: The worst that could happen would be a broken combo, the same result that happens anyway every time you pass). Since they’re guesses though, there’s no real skill involved beyond a rudimentary comprehension of probability.

As in P&D, characters can also unleash special attacks after they’ve been used a certain amount of time. These don’t especially inflict any greater amount of damage, but they’re 100%-guaranteed hits without the risk of damage to your party.

There’s a lot that’s wrong with this system, at least compared to the one employed in the game being copied here. For starters, you have far less control over which type of elemental attack to use than you do in P&D. Sure, you can tell what the suit (element) of the next card will be and can choose a target to be attacked, but what good does this do you when, say, you’re attacking a single fire-based monster and the next four cards in the deck happen to be fire? Aside from the aforementioned “Fold” move, there’s no real way to affect your fate, something that is almost always present in P&D.

Not that winning battles is especially challenging, due to the nature of the mini-game. With 12 card draws per deck, you’re guaranteed hits from at least 2 cards (Ace and King), and can pass on another if you choose. That already takes away 25% of the chances your enemies have to attack you, and that’s just the gimmes. As long as you understand the odds, you’ll rarely give up more than 10-15% of the rounds to your foes, even if you forgo using the special moves.

Beyond these factors though, the main problem with the system is that it’s just not fun. You’re welcome to rag on Bejeweled and its candy-coated ilk all you want, but the fact of the matter is that games like that one actually require a certain amount of thought and planning, which is what makes them (and, in turn, P&D), fun. Dragon High&Low asks you to guess whether the next card will be bigger or smaller than the 9 currently on your screen. I’m certain there are good games out there that borrow liberally from Puzzle & Dragons, but this is not one of them.

(Dragon High&Low is currently available on both the Japanese and U.S. iTunes stores. It is free to download and play, and includes in-app purchases)

Guns N’ Souls Hands-On Impressions: More Chinese Democracy Than Use Your Illusion

Posted 18:09 EST on 21FEB2014 by: tim walker in hands-on » guns n souls, iOS, square enix

Guns N’ Souls: feat. Song Summoner is Square Enix’s latest attempt at the free-to-play model on iOS. Billed as a “Hyper Action RPG” (and as a sequel to the tactical RPG Song Summoner), it’s really more of an endless runner broken into chunks, with plenty of glitz, McGuffins, and numbers thrown in for good measure. It’s far from the worst thing on the platform (and not even the worst Square Enix game on iOS ), but it’s pretty hollow for such a high-profile release from such a high-profile publisher.

Guns N’ Souls aims to wow the player right off the bat with a beautifully-rendered opening sequence set to a song by Japanese pop group Larval Stage Planning. It’s nice to look at and listen to, but once you’ve played the game for some time, you’ll start to wish they’d spent more time working on gameplay and less on razzle-dazzle.

The game starts off with a few brief lines of exposition before putting the player through a tutorial level to learn all of the game’s controls (there are roughly six). Anyone who has played an endless runner on iOS should know the drill by now: Flick left and right to move protagonist Ziggy between the three invisible paths as he runs, up to jump, and down to slide. In addition to running on his own, Ziggy also targets and fires his weapon at enemies automatically; just position him correctly, and he’ll take them down. Though it’s not shown during the tutorial, you can also jump-cancel by flicking down right after jumping.

The main unique control element in Guns N’ Souls is tapping your cards: Certain cards in your deck can be used once per stage to create certain effects (powering up your gun temporarily, restoring HP, etc.). Oh, we didn’t mention the cards yet? Don’t worry: We’re about to reach the point where the game will teach you more about the cards then you’d likely care to know….

Once the tutorial is done, the game designers decided to do everything they possibly could to make you uninterested in playing further. You’ll start off being bombarded with text walls detailing the card system, evolving your cards, and organizing your deck. You’ll then catch a slight reprieve in the form of some cut scenes that fill you in on why exactly Ziggy is doing so much running about. After that, it’s back to your blonde shopkeeper/emcee for some in-depth discussions on crystals, rare card drawing, and the like.

Also, somewhere around this point, the game decides to kick you while you’re down by pausing to download more data. And we mean a lot more data: This download took about 75 minutes on an iPad Air. I started this forced download on my iPhone 5 around the time I started typing up this review, and it’s sitting at around 30%. It’s also notable that closing the app completely sometimes results in the game needing to re-download some data once you load it again, though not for nearly as long.

Gameplay is basically divided into two parts that feed into one another. First, there’s the card management side of things. You begin the game with a few cards in your inventory, and can use them to create custom decks. Each deck can have up to five cards, though each card “costs” a certain amount of points to place in your deck, so you may not be able to equip all of the cards you want right off the bat. Cards basically serve three purposes: 1) They dictate how powerful your gun is, and how many hit points Ziggy has, 2) They allow you to gain both offensive and defensive bonuses if you match their suit with the stage’s suit, and 3) As mentioned above, certain cards grant you special abilities for a limited time once per stage.

Keeping in line with the music-based theme of the game, the three suits of cards are Rock, Pop, and Punk. The action stages are divided up pretty evenly between these three suits, so it’s to your benefit to build at least one custom deck for each suit in order to take advantage of the stat bonuses for particular stages. You can mix and match cards of different suits freely, and sometimes it makes more sense to do so since a powerful Punk card would still be more effective even without the Rock stat boost offered. The names of the cards all allude to album and song titles. The art on the cards themselves is a bit on the risqué side of things, but perfectly in line with the industry to which Guns N’ Souls pays tribute.

The stats of an individual card can be boosted permanently by sacrificing other cards to bond with it. Sacrificing an identically-named card normally offers a larger boost, and has the added bonus of increasing the maximum possible level of the card being boosted.

With this in mind, you would think that the designers would implement a simple way for you to sort your cards to make boosting easier, but sadly, Square Enix appears to have dropped the ball on this one. While you can sort your cards in six different ways, there is no option to place identically-named cards next to one another. So, for example, boosting your Firestarter card by burning up her two twins in your deck basically requires you to hunt through all of the cards you’ve acquired until you’ve located the ones you need. Since you’re limited to 50 cards, it doesn’t take long to find them, but it’s a minor annoyance that could have been corrected with just a little bit of effort on the development side.

Along similar lines, you can filter by suit type, but the game ditches these filters whenever you return to card selection, even if you’re in the middle of boosting. Also, though you can filter by suit, you can’t sort by suit, though you can sort by the most recent card to oldest (hooray?).

Cards can also evolve into other, more powerful cards by combining them with bizarre animal mascot cards once the card you’d like to evolve has reached a certain level. The problem is that raising a card high enough to do so takes quite some time, and while you’re waiting for this to happen, those same (otherwise useless) mascot cards sit around in your inventory. Again, this isn’t a deal breaker, but being able to put them elsewhere (so that you don’t have to constantly scroll through them) would have been a smart move.

The other half of gameplay revolves around the endless-runner-style action sequences introduced during the tutorial. Stages are earned one at a time, and you can replay a stage once it’s been beaten (in fact, unless you want to spend real-world money to advance, you will be replaying them. Often.). Once you’ve selected a stage from the menu, the game will allow you to choose a support card, offered either by someone on your Friends’ List, or from a random guest. You’ll then be prompted to choose a deck from the decks you’ve already created.

Stages are about 2-3 minutes in length and do not offer much in the way of variety. While the graphics look nice, there’s little of substance here: Avoid the obstacles, avoid getting shot, shoot down the enemies that appear, and collect the crystals (LUNA) that line the ground. There are also 3 special crystals per stage (SPLUNA) that are pretty much required pick-ups to get a decent grade (and a decent XP bonus) for the stage. Occasionally, you’ll stop running and be whisked away to a boss stage, where the controls remain the same.

Finishing a stage successfully will net you a certain rank, which earns you a certain amount of experience points. Earn enough to level up, and you’ll improve Ziggy’s Stamina (the currency used to play the action stages) and Cost (which allows you to have better cards in your deck). Beating certain enemies in a stage and completing the stage successfully also earns you new cards for your deck, and there are also achievements (collect all LUNA crystals in a stage, don’t jump more than 3 times, etc.) that can be completed to earn more of this in-game currency or that in-game currency. At the end of the day, it all feeds into each other in such a convoluted way that it made me want to shove the game aside and go ram into trees to collect Rupees.

This piling on of rewards and systems illustrates another issue with Guns N’ Souls: Like many modern games, it’s way too busy for its own good. This includes not only the reward structure and card systems, but also the sheer amount of garbage text you’re confronted with constantly throughout the game. Every menu screen is busy, Busy, BUSY, with in-game hints plastered all over the menus, reminders of log-in bonuses, and scrolling text alerting you to ongoing events.

Since I can read Japanese, the menu system is not hard for me to navigate personally, but it would probably be difficult for anyone who doesn’t speak the language to memorize it due to the sheer number of sub-menus and shortcuts crammed in here. Again, it’s just too much.

There are a couple of nice things I can say about the game. First, aside from the opening dialogue section, the story sections of the game are not forced upon you. Instead, you are alerted whenever there is a new portion of the story available, and can read through the scenes (or listen to them: The game allows you to download voiceovers as you wish) at your leisure.

Second, although the game restricts your stage runs through its Stamina meter, it’s rarely drained: Every time you level up, it replenishes completely, and might even grow a bit. (to be fair though, I’ve only spent a few hours with the game, so this could become an issue later on)

Finally, while the game does allow you to purchase McGuffin crystals with real-world money to earn rare cards and purchase Stamina, it doesn’t beat you over the head to make a purchase. The crystals are there to buy if you choose, but the game isn’t going to ask you to cough up your iTunes ID every 5 seconds.

Despite these minor points, Guns N’ Souls is really not something I’d recommend spending time on, even though it’s totally free. It’s 2014, and we’ve suddenly regressed back to a Dragon’s Lair-level of gameplay from a company that was once the darling of the industry (not to mention the developer: Have I mentioned that this was made by the guys who made Devil Dice?). And unfortunately, all the sexy girl cards in the world won’t do a thing to change that.

Guns N’ Souls is a free-to-play app from Square Enix on iOS. It is exclusive to Japan at this time.

The Girl From Gunma Hands-On Impressions: Short, But MSXcellent

Posted 18:08 EST on 17FEB2014 by: tim walker in hands-on » girl from gunma, iOS, MSX, shmup, shooter

Anyone paying attention to the indie game scene over the past few years has probably come across more than a few stylistic homages to games of yore. While many of these act more as broad tributes to 8- and 16-bit titles from yesteryear, occasionally you’ll come across a game where the authors have gone out of their way to tip their hats to a more specific target. The Girl From Gunma, a recent free-to-play iOS release from the PHP Institute, is one such case of pinpoint homage: From start to finish, the game invites players to journey back to the era of the MSX.

Originally released in 1983, MSX-based PCs never caught on in the United States, but sold well in other parts of the world, including Japan. Somewhat close in technical specifications to the ColecoVision, the original MSX hardware was powered by a Zilog Z80 processor, had 16KB of video RAM, and was capable of displaying 16 colors onscreen at once.

Beyond the tech. specs., the system was also notable at the time (along with the Famicom) for having quite a few great games. Konami in particular was a big supporter of this platform, which is where a couple of their notable franchises (Metal Gear, Parodius) made their debuts.

While nostalgia for this platform is not prevelant in the United States (few of us here grew up playing games on the platform, after all), it’s definitely strong in Japan. The creators of The Girl From Gunma have fully embraced this by creating a game that looks, sounds and plays like a lost relic from the mid-80′s.

Players control the heroine of the game, Koyotoru, as she battles to retrieve the lost spirit of Gunma Prefecture and restore peace to her homeland (or something like that: The throwback plot is explained in the “recovered” and scanned manual for the game, shown in the photos above). Controls are pretty standard fare: Hold your finger anywhere on the screen to make Koyotoru fire at the enemies, and move it around to move her around the screen.

You have five lives available to make it through three levels (it’s pretty short), and you also have an energy shield that can take a hit or two before you’re vulnerable to enemy fire. There are six hidden power-ups to find total (which just happen to be types of food that Gunma Prefecture is famous for); any of these will boost your firepower once, but more importantly, you’ll need to collect them all to get the best ending of the game.

The little touches are what makes The Girl From Gunma truly shine. From the boot-up screen with the DSX logo (which proudly proclaims, “This game was made using the latest in Gunma scientific technology!”) to the faux manual and cartridge artwork, from the stilted scrolling of the backgrounds to the black pixelated borders around the bosses, the creators have done an excellent job of recreating the aesthetics of the MSX platform.

The Girl From Gunma is over pretty quickly (it probably won’t take you more than 10 minutes to blaze through it if you’re good at shooters), but it’s still a nice trip down memory lane for those with a love for the MSX.

The Girl From Gunma is a free-to-play app available now on iOS. It is available for download in the U.S. App Store, though the game is untranslated at this time. (do a search for “PHP Institute” to find it; as of this writing, it is the second app that appears in the results)

100 Turn Hero: Text Translation and Setup Guide (Part II)

Posted 12:16 EST on 28JAN2014 by: tim walker in features » 100 turn hero, half minute hero, iOS, kotaro yoshida, ritterz, RPG

One of our goals here at indie navi is to assist gamers who aren’t necessarily fluent in Japanese with getting import games up and running on their U.S. mobile devices. With just a little bit of guidance, many of the games we cover can be fully enjoyed by Western gamers who are not fluent, and we’re more than happy to help you navigate through the menu screens to get you started.

Welcome to the second part of our translation/guide to Kotaro Yoshida’s 100 Turn Hero! (Check out my impressions of this gem of a game here, and check out Part I of our guide for information on the introductory/tutorial stage in the game) In this addition, we’ll guide you through the menu screens to familiarize you with all of the game’s options and its weapons upgrade system.

Now that you’ve completed the first stage, it’s time to familiarize yourself with everything you can do between quests. The game will guide you through weapon upgrades and management first.

The Weapons Box holds all of the weapons you’ve collected so far. Since the concept behind 100 Turn Hero is that you never actually fight monsters while they’re able to move, you’ll never take damage in combat. Therefore, unlike conventional RPGs, there is no armor to worry about equipping, just weapons. Go ahead and tap the Weapons Box to proceed.

Like the instructions say, double-tapping on a weapon will take you to the upgrade screen. Go ahead and tap on the Default Knife twice.

There’s a lot of information to cover on this screen, so let’s examine it very carefully. First of all, the top portion shows your current Hero Level and the number of Jewels you currently have. The main purpose of your Hero Level is that it dictates how much it will cost you to upgrade your weapon (very important if you want to avoid spending real-world money in the shop, and if you want to avoid spending too much time grinding). We’ll see exactly how it works in a minute. Jewels are used mainly to purchase weapon upgrades. You might also remember from the first part of our guide that any gold you find during a quest will get converted into Jewels (at a ratio of 2:1) once you’ve beaten the Boss for that stage.

The box in the upper left shows the weapon you’ve selected and its current level. A weapon’s level increases each time you upgrade it. Upgrading it beyond your current Hero Level will cause the cost of the upgrade to double.

The box below this shows the weapon’s strike range. The arrow indicates that Fandele is facing north, and the red square indicates strong damage; therefore, when using this weapon, position yourself with an enemy in front of you (on the red square) to damage it. Other weapons might show dark or light orange squares as well; these squares indicate that the weapon will hit monsters standing in those squares for minor damage (the lighter the shade, the lower the amount of damage inflicted).

The box in the upper right shows the attributes of the weapon. Attack Power indicates how much damage your weapon will inflict. Charge Rate indicates how quickly (number of turns) the weapon can be charged up to unleash a special blow that deals many times the normal amount of damage. Guard Chipping indicates how quickly the weapon can wear down an enemy’s defenses from successive hits (allowing successive hits to inflict more damage). The numbers after the arrow indicate how much the attribute will increase if you purchase an upgrade. Finally, the text below the attributes indicates any special skills that the weapon possesses. These include inflicting more damage on certain types of monsters, increasing one of your attributes even further, and increasing the amount of gold dropped by monsters.

The next box is a brief summary of the weapon. The box directly below it indicates how much it will cost to upgrade the weapon to the next level. (Note: If the text is red here, it indicates that you do not have enough Jewels to upgrade the weapon) Three of the buttons below allow you to select which attribute to upgrade, and the last one sends you back to the Weapons Box. Go ahead and tap Attack Power for now to upgrade that attribute.

Go ahead and tap Upgrade! to increase your weapon’s Attack Power to 12 points. Incidentally, the text in yellow is slightly deceptive: The game lets you know that you’ve received a discount for not trying to upgrade a weapon beyond your current level, but does not bother to explain that the discount has already been applied. (in this case, the upgrade costs 30 Jewels; if you had attempted to do the same upgrade at Hero Level 1, it would have cost you 60 Jewels)

Again, the price indicated here reflects the full price (120 Jewels). You can always upgrade your weapon beyond your level, but since you can carry three weapons into battle at once (and will often need to), you’re going to save a lot of money in the long-term by not upgrading beyond your current level.

We’ve gone ahead and upgraded the Woodcutter Axe as well. Refer to the summary of these screens above, and note the differences between the two weapons. Once you’re done, tap Go Back to return to the Weapon Box screen.

Now let’s take a look at the other options available from this screen. Again, notice that you’re allowed to have three weapons equipped on your character before heading into battle, and can keep six more in storage (we only have three right now, so all of those squares are empty). To move weapons around, just hold down on a weapon icon and move it where you want it to go. If you move a weapon onto a square occupied by another weapon, the two weapons will swap positions in your inventory.

What’s that, you say? Nine slots aren’t enough for you? Okay, we can deal with this: Go ahead and tap Increase Slots.

You can double your slots if you’re willing to pay for it. Unfortunately, there is no way to increase the number of slots you have available for combat, so the only advantage to buying more slots is to allow you to keep more weapons at HQ to choose from. (side note: The game will force you to either buy more slots or sell a weapon off if you try to go into combat without any empty slots (since you earn a new weapon every time you complete a quest)) Our personal advice is to keep this option in mind for the future, but don’t waste your Jewels on it for now: Increasing your slots is expensive at this juncture and provides little benefit. Tap Go Back once you’re finished here.

/a>

You probably don’t want to sell anything off right now, but let’s take a quick look at how selling works anyway. Just tap Sell on the Weapons Box screen, and you’ll be taken to the first set of screens above. Selling is easy: Just tap anything you’d like to sell, and it will be marked with a red stamp. Once you’re done, just tap the Sell button at the bottom of the screen to sell off everything that has been marked and collect your Jewels.

Sort, the final option on the Weapons Box screen, allows you to reorganize your inventory with a single tap (again, not very useful yet since your weapons stock is pretty low). Try it out if you’d like, then tap Go Back to leave the Weapons Box screen and return to the Main Menu.

From here, go ahead and tap Menu to proceed to the next set of options.

Here’s what the game calls the Menu Screen. We’ll go through these one at a time, so go ahead and tap Settings first.

This brings up the game’s sound settings. Go ahead and tap the buttons to disable the Sound Effects and Background Music (both are great, so shame on you if you tweak either of these options!). Tap Go Back once you’re done, and then Purchase Jewels to check out the shop.

If your wireless connection is down (like ours was, briefly), you’ll get the first set of screens; otherwise, you should see various Jewel packs for sale (second set). Again, after several hours of play, we have yet to encounter a need to purchase extra jewels, but you may want to kick in a few yen anyway, if only to thank Mr. Yoshida for creating such a fun game.

Tap Go Back when you’re done, and then Present Box for something interesting…

This is your chance to spread the word about 100 Turn Hero and earn some swag for it. Both options send you to Safari, where you can log into your Twitter account and either leave a pre-generated tweet, or else create your own. (the first option is to praise the game; the second is to brag about your accomplishments) Either option nets you 500 Jewels for free, so it’s an easy way to get some extra in-game cash with just a little effort on your part.

Once you’re finished tweeting, tap Go Back to return to the Menu screen.

The remaining two buttons are pretty self-explanatory: Play Other Games from ritterz! opens up a page with Safari that shows ritterz’ other apps. Send a Request for Support allows you to contact the development staff if you have any concerns about the game.

Finally, tap the little Staff icon in the lower-left corner of the screen to view the credits for the game (already in English).

Once you’re through, hit Go Back to return to the Main Menu, followed by Quest.

Here’s where you can select a new quest to begin and view your medals for completed quests. Just tap on any of the monster icons that are lit up to view a summary of the quest, and then tap Try It! to take it on.

We’re almost done, but there’s one more important screen to take a look at. Go ahead and start a quest (either the new one available, or the one you just finished), and hit the Pause icon once you’ve cycled through the dialogue.

Here’s what the Pause screen looks like. First of all, let’s start at the bottom: In order to unpause the game, you’ll need to tap Back to Quest, not the Pause icon at the top of the screen (which is nonfunctional). Keep this in mind in case you accidentally pause the game and can’t seem to figure out why you can’t get back to the game.

The topmost option, Icon Location, allows you to re-position the icons used for pausing, switching weapons, and attacking.

The next option is Control Method. The default option is Control the Character, which allows you to move Fandele around the screen normally with your finger. Switching this to Control the Ground causes your finger motions to rotate the ground underneath Fandele’s feet, effectively reversing up and down while keeping left and right the same. (we’re not big fans of this control option ourselves)

Finally, selecting Quit will take you to the self-explanatory menu screen above. There is no penalty for quitting out of a quest at any time (aside from having to start over from scratch), so don’t be afraid to use it.

That should be more than enough to get you started on your way in 100 Turn Hero. We’re not going to translate the rest of the in-game dialogue at this time (there’s a lot of it!), but we are playing through the game, so don’t hesitate to contact us if you happen to need a little more guidance. Good luck, and we’ll be back soon with even more great translations for you!

100 Turn Hero: Text Translation and Setup Guide (Part I)

Posted 11:39 EST on 27JAN2014 by: tim walker in features » 100 turn hero, half minute hero, iOS, kotaro yoshida, ritterz, RPG

Welcome to the first part of our guide to Kotaro Yoshida’s 100 Turn Hero! (Check out my impressions of this gem of a game here) Today we’ll be showing you how to get the game up and running, and then we’ll walk you through the game’s first level.

It’s really not that hard to figure out what to do on your own, but we thought that you’d like to at least know the backstory before you get too far into the action. For this guide, the screenshots really tell most of the tale, so we’ll keep quiet for the most part and just let them do the talking (ProTip: Tap on the screen to advance the dialogue).

The good news about 100 Turn Hero is that it is actually available on the U.S. App Store, so you do not need a Japanese iTunes Account in order to play it. Just search for “ritterz” on the App Store (it’s only listed under iPhone games, but will play just fine on your iPad as well), and you should find it for 99 cents, along with a couple of other great games from Mr. Yoshida. (or else click here to get it right from the web)

The bad news is that the game is still in Japanese. We’re hoping for a localized version, but until that day comes (we hope it’s coming!), we hope that our translation will help you get started on your adventure.

Unlike many Japanese apps we’ve tried, 100 Turn Hero doesn’t get waded down with text-heavy menu screens and promotional offers at the onset. Just tap the screen to begin, sit back, and watch the story unfold……

(Note: We’ll go ahead and skip the Japanese screens for now to avoid overcrowding. We’ll add them back in for comparison once we go over the menu system in Part II of this guide.)

Pretty riveting stuff, eh? Now that you know how the story begins, let’s learn about the controls and how to play…..

As you can tell, moving around in 100 Turn Hero is a snap (no mushy virtual control pad here!). The only thing you really need to pay close attention to is the exact direction you’re facing before attacking so that you don’t end up wasting your turns.

It’s combat time! The red box (or boxes) show which target(s) you can hit with your current weapon. Since Shadow’s technique has stunned the monsters, there’s no need to fear counterattacks…for now (see below). Just walk right up to the monster, position Fandele so that she’s facing the right direction, and tap the Weapon icon to attack.

Congratulations on vanquishing your first foe! Don’t forget to pick up any coins that your enemies leave behind. More importantly though, be sure to heed Shadow’s warning: If you use up your 100 combat turns and the boss is still standing, it’s game over (back to the quest selection screen).

Even though the dialogue above is lacking in revelations, it’s normally worth your time to seek out and enter any buildings (like this castle) that appear on the stage map. It won’t cost you any of your precious turns, and you may pick up a tidbit or two of information on how to kill the boss. Certain buildings also contain merchants selling temporary power-ups to boost your stats, helping you use your turns more efficiently.

Weapon-switching is probably the most critical element of the game. Tapping the Switch button will swap your current one with the next one you’re carrying (you can bring up to three different weapons into battle). It also briefly shows you the stats for the new weapon, including any Special Skills it might have. (neither of your default weapons has any special abilities, but you’ll eventually acquire weapons that can do more damage to certain enemy types, earn you more gold, etc.) However, the Woodcutter’s Axe does hold one advantage over the Default Knife since it can damage two side-by-side enemies at once.

One thing to keep in mind about weapons that damage multiple enemies is that not all hits are created equal. You’ll be able to tell exactly which targets will receive major damage from a particular weapon (and which ones will only receive minor hits) once we’re done with the Tutorial level and can look at the Weapon Stats screen.

We’ve finally reached the Boss! Boss characters normally have thick hides, which is why it’s not only important to level up before you reach one, but also to upgrade both the Charge Rate and Guard Chipping attributes on your weapons (we’ll cover this in Part II). Hit him enough times, and your weapon should start to flash; this means your weapon has become charged from successive hits, and your next blow will deal massive damage to the….regular-sized enemy crab.

Congratulations on completing Stage 1! You can go back and replay this stage as often as you’d like in order to earn more money and more experience. In this instance, it took us 39 turns to beat the stage; if you can beat it in fewer turns, you’ll earn more experience points. The gold you collect throughout the stage gets converted into Jewels (2 gold = 1 jewel), which can be used to pay for weapon upgrades. Also, the summary screens for stages after this one also include a maximum value for the number of jewels you can earn after completing that particular stage.

You’ll also earn a new weapon every time you complete a stage, including stages you’ve already completed. (this can be a great way to earn some extra cash: Run through a lower level stage several times, and then resell the junk/duplicate weapons you pick up)

The number of turns you have left when you beat the stage is converted into Experience Points, boosting your Hero Level. Note that this is separate from the level you begin a stage at (which is always Level 1). The main advantage of your Hero Level is that it keeps prices reasonable in the shops for upgrading your weapons, allowing you to do more damage to enemies and make further progress. In this instance, completing the stage in 39 turns means that we gained 61 XP (100-39). If we were to replay the stage and complete it in 34 turns, we’d gain another 5 XP.

The text at the bottom of the screen is always a random hint on gameplay. We should be covering most of these as we delve deeper into the game.

This concludes Part I of our guide. In Part II, we’ll wrap things up by going over the menu screens, and giving you a few pointers on progressing through the game. Look for it soon!

100 Turn Hero Hands-On Impressions: Turning a Genre On Its Ear

Posted 10:16 EST on 23JAN2014 by: tim walker in hands-on » 100 turn hero, half minute hero, iOS, kotaro yoshida, ritterz, RPG

100 Turn Hero is one of the best games I’ve ever played on iOS. Yes, that’s a pretty bold statement to make. But on a platform where a dollar spent is often a dollar wasted, Kotaro Yoshida’s wonderful deconstruction of the RPG genre is not only an amazing value, it’s an incredibly fun and addictive game as well.

100 Turn Hero (or 100Turn Yusha if you prefer) has visuals that evoke memories of classic 8-bit RPGs like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, but it plays considerably differently from traditional RPGs. The player controls Fandele, a heroine who begins the game facing down the legions of Hell (don’t worry, they’re much cuter than they sound!) a year after the Demon Lord led them to ravage the land. Their numbers are too much for her to take down alone, but fortunately, a nice little bit of Deus ex Machina arrives to save the day in the form of Shadow, a ninja with the mysterious ability to stop the fiends dead in their tracks!

There’s a catch though: Shadow’s secret technique will only keep them frozen for 100 “turns” of combat. If Fandele can’t clear a stage within a hundred swings of her weapon, the monsters will reawaken, and the game will end.

Yoshida used a slightly different premise for his most famous project, Half-Minute Hero , where the player had a mere 30 seconds (with a few twists to extend the clock) to save the world. 100 Turn Hero boils down the RPG genre to its core elements in a similar, yet unique manner.

The player begins each stage at Level 1 in terms of their stats, though weapons and their stats are carried over from previous levels (more on this in a bit). The object of each stage is to destroy the boss monster in as few turns as possible, though the path to getting there is delightfully intricate. A “turn” in this case refers only to a round of combat, so players are free to move about the map, manage equipment, and enter buildings without needing to worry about exhausting their limited number of moves (prominently displayed at the top of the screen).

This might sound pretty straightforward, but the twists and nods to traditional RPG elements are what gives the game its depth. For starters, since your character starts out at Level 1, it’s often not very effective to just make a beeline straight for the boss (you can–in many cases–but you may find your turns used up in rapid succession as you fail to carve through his hide with your puny stats). Instead, you’re often better off spending some turns to take out the weaker enemies on the sidelines first, increasing Fandele’s levels to make the final battle cost fewer turns (and ultimately clearing the stage in fewer turns as well). Groups of enemies also often blockade shops selling items that can boost your stats through the roof, though they’re far from required to clear the stage. It’s up to the player to decide how to proceed in the fewest number of moves possible.

The unique properties of weapons also come into play, and often make the game feel rooted as firmly in the Puzzle genre as it is in the RPG one. New weapons are acquired by beating stages, and up to three can be carried with you into battle at once. Basic weapon stats include Attack Power, Charge Rate (how quickly your weapon charges up to deal critical damage), and Guard Chipping (which allows you to deal more damage with each successive blow to a single enemy). Certain weapons also offer damage bonuses when fighting certain enemy types.

An even more important characteristic of a weapon is its hit radius: While some only strike enemies in front, others will also do slightly less damage to an adjacent enemy, allowing you to chip away at a secondary foe while walloping the guy in front of you. These ranges also have their own fun little quirks: Axes, for example, are swung from left to right, so they can only be used to damage enemies positioned to the right of your main target. Hot-swapping weapons between turns can be done with a single tap, and is actually critical to making it through the stages efficiently.

Finish a stage within the 100-turn limit, and any remaining turns are converted into experience points, boosting your Hero Level and allowing you to increase the damage that your weapons deal. You can replay completed stages at any time, and any turns you save on your next time out will get converted into XP (for example, clearing a stage the first time in 60 turns would net you 40 XP; clear it again in just 50, and you’ll earn another 10 XP). In short: Beating stages helps you increase your weapon stats, which helps you beat stages quicker, which helps you increase your weapon stats further, and so on. You’ll hit a wall on this eventually (your sword can only kill a finite number of enemies per turn, after all), but it’s definitely a lot of fun to go back and breeze through a stage in 20 turns that once took you 70 to clear.

The control system in 100 Turn Hero works perfectly. Touching the screen causes an arrow to pop up that indicates your character’s current orientation, and sliding your finger back and forth moves them effortlessly around the screen. There are large icon buttons at the bottom that allow you to pause, attack, or cycle through your weapons. When your character is not moving, red squares around them indicate your attack range with your current weapon.

While the graphics might be going for the retro look, the music is fully orchestrated, and complements the game quite well. Character voice samples add to the experience and are frequently hilarious. (the text of the game itself is delightfully casual, something we’re hoping to capture in our upcoming text guides for the game)

While the game is not as text-heavy as a typical RPG, there is a storyline here (albeit in more compact form), so comprehension of the Japanese language is a must if you want to fully enjoy the game. That said, the core game itself does not require a significant knowledge of the language, so it’s worth giving it a try even if you can’t read every element of what’s going on. (and of course we’ll be happy to walk you through the setup and first couple of stages; check back in the next few days for the first part of our text translation!)

About the only negative thing I can find to say about the game is that it’s not available in the U.S. yet (I’ll give it time: It’s been out less than a week in Japan). At 100 Yen (roughly $1 U.S.), it’s a complete steal for the amount of content offered (there are a total of 30 stages to conquer). The game does offer in-app purchases of the in-game currency (used for upgrading your weapons), but the ability to replay levels and earn money that way makes this is a luxury, not a necessity.

100 Turn Hero is a perfect example of how to do a game right on iOS for those of us who want to see the legacy of 8 and 16-bit-style games continue on mobile platforms. Mr. Yoshida continues to have a fine eye for evoking feelings of nostalgia while delivering an experience that is anything but orthodox.

(100 Turn Hero is published by ritterz Inc., and is available on iOS in Japan only at this time. It retails for 100 Yen, and includes in-app purchases.)

Pop’n Rhythmin: Text Translation (Part II)

Posted 11:36 EST on 13JAN2014 by: tim walker in features » iOS, konami, pop'n music, pop'n rhythmin, walkthrough

Pop’n Rhythmin, Konami’s iOS adaptation of their Pop’n Music franchise, is the first game we’ve selected for this process. (Go here to read my thoughts on the game) In Part I, we walked you through downloading and setting up the game, learning basic gameplay, and understanding many of the options screens.

In Part II, we’ll take a look at Treasure Mode, a board game mode that allows you to unlock items by spending points earned by playing the main game.

(Note: Whenever possible, we’ll try to put the original Japanese screen next to our translation for reference. In instances where Japanese text is minimal, we’ve opted to show just the translated screen.)

Now that we’ve played at least one round of the main game in Part I, other options should be available on the Mode Select screen. Treasure Mode is the meatiest of these, so we’ll tackle it first (we’ll touch on the other modes in Part III(!)). Go ahead and tap the Treasure Mode icon.

The first time you play in this mode, you’ll be greeted by a couple of screens explaining the basics on how to play.

Here’s Page 2. Just tap “Close” once you’re ready to move on.

Welcome to Voyage of Exploration, your first destination. Just tap the name to advance.

No sea voyage can begin without setting sail first! The two icons shown here indicate the number of presents and tickets you’ve collected so far. Tap “Set Sail” to move on.

Welcome to the first Map (game board)! Let’s review the buttons at the bottom first. Mode Select will take you back to that screen.

Characters takes you to the Character Selection screen, allowing you to change characters. Right now, your only choices are Mimi and Nyami (a subtle play on J-Pop duo Puffy AmiYumi). You can tap on the individual characters to read their profiles, or scroll through to subsequent pages to view more characters. You’ll be able to unlock new characters once you’ve collected at least 5 tickets, allowing you to play the Character Lotto.

Collection takes you to the Collection Selection screen. You can choose either Song Collection or Wallpaper Collection to view what you have unlocked so far. You’ll need to collect 9 parts/pieces of each to unlock one.

Retire lets you quit in the middle of playing. Only items you’ve gotten since you last crossed the goal line will be saved.

Ready to play? Just tap “Move” to bring up the spinner.

The following screens illustrate the basic gameplay flow for Treasure Mode. Once you’ve hit Move, the spinner will start spinning around. Tap the numbered area to make it stop, and your character will advance that number of spaces. Each time you use the spinner normally costs 20 Treasure Points.

Advance Spaces move your character forward a predetermined number of spaces. (Note: We’re not going to translate all of the in-game text for Treasure Mode, but we’ll give you a few examples to get you started)

Back Spaces send you back a predetermined number of spaces. Believe it or not, this can actually be useful at times, since it may allow you to try again for a Treasure Space you had already passed.

Trap Spaces (which you’ll encounter on later maps) result in a negative effect that will last for a certain number of turns. In this case, the darkness will hang around, making it difficult for you to determine where to go next. (there are areas on the later maps where you can choose your direction of movement after spinning when you come to a fork in the road)

Warp Spaces (again, these show up later) warp you to new locations on the map.

Landing on a Treasure Space rewards you with either part of a song or a piece of wallpaper. Once the present on a Treasure Space has been opened, it will not be restocked during subsequent playthroughs.

Instead of spinning right away, you can choose to tap your character and then select to activate their special ability. In this case, Nyami’s We Love! ability pulls a fellow Pop’n player onto your map, and earns you Treasure Points for landing on their square. You can use a character’s special ability as often as you’d like, as long as you have the Treasure Points to spend!

Congratulations, you’ve reached the goal! You might have noticed that you do not need to spin an exact number of spaces to land on the goal, so it’s really not hard at all. The tricky thing about Treasure Mode is spinning the exact numbers necessary to land on each of the Treasure Spaces to claim your gifts. The good thing is that you can try as many times as you want as long as you have Treasure Points available, and that’s rarely a problem early on: You earn a certain number of Treasure Points back for completing a level, and it often ends up being more than you’ve spent to begin with! (the game does sometimes give you Character Tickets as a reward instead)

Clearing a map for the first time gives you access to an additional map or area. The higher-level ones become quite complex, but provide you with many more Treasure Spaces.

As we mentioned before, there’s more detailed information on how Treasure Mode works under the Settings menu. To get there, go back to the Mode Selection screen, tap Settings, and then tap Treasure Mode under the How to Play section.

Here are the How to Play screens for Treasure Mode. A few types of Spaces we did not cover yet are mentioned here, and there is also a detailed explanation of how the Character Lotto works.

This concludes our guide to Treasure Mode in Pop’n Rhythmin. Play around in the Main Game mode for a little while, and you should have more than enough Treasure Points to start making progress and unlocking stuff.

We’ll be back with the final part of our guide next week. In the meantime, Keep On Pop’n!

Pop’n Rhythmin: Text Translation (Part I)

Posted 11:53 EST on 06JAN2014 by: tim walker in features » iOS, konami, pop'n music, pop'n rhythmin, walkthrough

Pop’n Rhythmin, Konami’s iOS adaptation of their Pop’n Music franchise, is the first game we’ve selected for this process. (Go here to read my thoughts on the game) In this section, we’ll guide you through the setup process, cover the basic settings, and get you into the main game. (In Part II, we’ll cover Treasure Mode and touch on the other available modes)

First of all, you will need to have a Japanese iTunes Account set up in order to play this game. Pop’n Rhythmin is free to download and play (with in-App purchases), and you do not need a credit card to set up an account (though you will need at least a 1,000-Yen ($10) iTunes Card from Japan). Follow this link for an excellent walkthrough on how to go about setting up your account.

Once your account has been set up, go to “Settings” on your iOS device, select “iTunes & App Store”, click on your Apple ID, sign out, and then sign back in with your new Japanese account (keep this information handy for later so that you can log back in with your regular Apple ID). Close Settings, and open the App Store.

Tap the Search box to begin your search. Before typing anything, select “iPhone Only” as your category (Pop’n will work on the iPad as well, but it’s categorized as an iPhone-only app), and then change “All Categories” to “Games”. Type “Konami” into the search field, and Pop’n Rhythmin should be among the results. (Note: You may have to reset the category to “iPhone Only” when searching on an iPad; the store likes to arbitrarily switch this pack to “iPad Only” for some reason) Click on the FREE icon to download the game, enter your password (if prompted), and wait for the game to be installed.

Once the install has been completed, fire up the app. You’ll be greeted with the title screen. The Japanese text here reads “Touch Screen (to begin)”. Do so, and you’ll be greeted by the text-heavy screen below

This is just the standard Usage Agreement screen. You can click on the red button in the center to read the terms, the lower-left button to opt out (bouncing you back to the title screen), or the lower-right button to accept and continue. The agreement is lengthy, but it’s pretty similar to the type of document you “sign” with Apple after an iTunes update.

(Some light reading material for you. Don’t worry: You’re agreeing to adhere to Konami’s guidelines while playing online, not to relinquish your firstborn for use in a Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa sequel.)

Once you’ve agreed to the terms, tap the title screen again, and the game will begin downloading further data required to run. This will normally take a few minutes to complete.

Once the update has been completed, it’s onward to the game, right? Well, not just yet: You’ll be bombarded with a few walls of text first. Don’t panic though: We’ll guide you through them!

The screen shown above is the Log-In Bonus screen. The Pop-kun shows that you’ve logged in today, and the text indicates that you can receive a new song for the game by logging in 30 days (note that you’re logged in whenever you activate the app). The News banner at the top of the screen provides you with random information on this and other Bemani apps from Konami.

This is information on a specific event. In this case, installing all of the available Bemani apps (this game, plus jubeat (pronounced “YU-BEET”)plus, REFLEC BEAT plus, and GITADORA) will unlock a special free track that’s playable in all four games.

The game now allows up to 20 friends on your Friends List (increased from 6).

The latest update to the game (which we’ve already installed during the download above) adds Twitter functionality, Daily Log-In Bonuses (see above), and Push Notifications (hooray?).

Something called BEMANI Stadium is underway, and apparently Pop’n players can take part as well to win some kind of (presumably virtual) cards. Sounds interesting, but we’d rather play the game, thankyouverymuch.

Several text-walls later, we’re finally allowed to play the game! “Game Play” is the only option available initially, which is fine, since this is the heart of the app. Tap on this icon, and you’ll be taken into the Tutorial….

The song you’ll be practice-tapping to is Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, a good song to ease you into the game’s basic mechanics.

(Note: As stated in the review, the little anthropomorphic blobs that appear on the screen are known as “Pop-kuns” (lit.: “Mr. Pop”). We’ll refer to them as “notes” from now on when translating the in-game text)

“The object of this game is to tap the notes in time to the music!”

“Tap notes of the same color at the exact moment they merge together!”

“Okay, let’s get tapping!”

Like the instructions say, wait until the two notes come together to touch them. The better your timing, the better your score.

Incidentally, if you want to pause the game, press down on the triangle icon near the top (don’t just tap it). The pause menu shown above displays the following options (in order): “Resume”, “Restart Song”, “Return to Song Selection”.

“Notes with trails behind them are called Long Notes.”

“Tap these when they merge, but don’t lift your finger until the whole trail has disappeared!”

(Hint: Although you have to keep holding down on the note until the trail behind it disappears, the game does not penalize you for lifting your finger up too late)

“Notes with numbers written on them are called Number Notes.”

“Tap them the same number of times as the numbers shown!”

(Hint: The rhythm on tapping the Number Notes correctly matches the rhythm of the song being played. Generally-speaking, it’s a quick double-tap motion (for “2′s” at least), but the speed varies depending on the particular song.)

“Star Notes must be tapped simultaneously!”

“Tap both Star Notes at the same time!”

“And that covers all of the controls!”

“Alright, now let’s give it a try!”

The remainder of the tutorial throws all four types of notes at you. Remember what you’ve learned, and tap appropriately!

“Remember what you’ve learned, and try to play all kinds of different songs!”

Here’s the Song Selection screen, where you’ll be taken when selecting “Game Play” from now on (hope you weren’t married to that Tutorial level!). The button in the upper-left of the screen takes you back to the previous menu (and is present on many of the menus that follow, so just keep in mind what it looks like in case you wish to backtrack). The box on the right shows how many Treasure Points you’ve accumulated so far (required to play the Treasure Mode game, which we’ll cover in Part II of this feature). The three song tracks available initially are shown here, as will be any future ones you purchase from the Store or unlock by playing the game. We’ll come back to those in a minute, but first, go ahead and press the reddish button in the lower-left corner (“Settings”).

Here is the Settings screen for the game. The first section is just labeled “Settings”, and includes “Sound” (more below) and “In-Game Cinematics” (moving the slider to the “Off” position removes the cutesy characters at the bottom of the screen). The next section, “How to Play” features “Game Play” (more below) and “Treasure Mode”. The final section, “Inquiries”, includes “Inquiries” (which opens up a link in Safari to allow you to contact Konami for support) and “Show Information on the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions” (which links to a page of legalese related to making in-game purchases).

Clicking on “Sound” takes you to this sub-menu. The three sliders are for “Background Music Volume”, “Sound Effects Volume”, and “Tap Sound Volume”.

Tapping “How to Play” takes you to a series of five screens running through the gameplay elements of the main game. We’ve covered some of this already, but we’ll go ahead and translate all of the text here since there are some finer points that have not been covered yet.

This screen reads as follows, from top to bottom:

“Let’s select a song and a difficulty level!“

“Choose ‘Game Play’, and then tap the album cover of the song you’d like to play!”

“Tap the icon for the difficulty level you’d like to play at!”

(N) “Start here”

(H) “This is a bit challenging!”

(EX) “Challenge yourself at this level!”

“Game Controls“

(white line) “Note”

(speech bubble) “Starting to merge!”

(speech bubble) “Tap at this point!”

“The object of this game is to tap the notes in time to the music!”

“Tap notes of the same color at the exact moment they merge together!”

“Types of Ratings and Stage Clear Requirements“

“A ‘Rating’ shows how good your timing was when you tapped a note!”

“Types of Ratings“

COOL!! “You tapped it perfectly!!!”

GREAT! “You tapped it just right!!”

GOOD! “You tapped it!”

BAD… “You missed!”

“Score over 70,000 points to clear a stage! Try to clear the stages while matching the rhythm to get as many ‘COOL’ ratings as you can!”

“Types of Notes“

“Notes”

“Regular Notes. Notes of the same color will merge together!”

“Long Notes”

“Tap these when they merge, but don’t lift your finger until the whole trail has disappeared!”

“Number Notes”

“Tap these the same number of times as the numbers shown!”

“Star Notes”

“Tap 2 Star Notes at the same time!”

“Screen Layout“

(top to bottom)

“Clear Line (The moon is replaced with the sun once you score over 70,000 points!)”

“Pause Menu (hold down for a few seconds to call it up)”

“Combo Count (Shows how many notes you’ve tapped successively)”

“Score (Get over 70,000 points to clear the stage)”

“Groove Gauge (“Shows your ups and downs while you’re playing!”)

We’ll leave the play instruction screens for Treasure Mode alone for now (they’ll be covered in Part II of this feature, when we discuss the other game modes). For now, hit the “Return” button in the upper-left part of the screen to go back to the Song Selection menu.

The two options next to “Settings” are “Song Order” and “Recommendations”. The latter takes you to a screen that shows songs your friends have recommended for you. The former takes you to a screen where you can elect to sort the songs in a few different ways, such as by artist or difficulty level. For now, let’s select the first song (“Earnest Trip”) by tapping its album cover.

The name of the song and the artist (“Last Note.”) are displayed at the top of the screen. Underneath your score is “Compare Score With Friends”, which takes you to a screen that lets you compare scores across all difficulty levels with anyone on your Friends List.

Back on the Song Selection screen, tap on any of the three stars to select a difficulty level (though each track has three difficulty levels, there are also degrees of difficulty within the level, indicated by the numbers in the stars (an EX 7, for example, is harder than an EX 6)). Finally, tap the pink button at the bottom (“Decide”) to start playing.

The Results Screen will appear once the stage is finished. This is pretty self-explanatory; the only Japanese here is your cumulative Treasure Points (upper-right) and the track title (below that).

Tapping the screen takes you to this next screen, which shows you how many Treasure Points you’ve earned. Clicking on it again returns you to the Song Selection screen, where you can select another track to play.

This should be enough to get you well on your way to tapping along to the (ahem) Rhythmin. Again, we’ll be back with Part II shortly, which will cover the other modes in the game.

Pop’n Rhythmin Hands-On Impressions: Pop’n Music Makes Beautiful Music on iOS

Posted 11:09 EST on 03JAN2014 by: tim walker in hands-on » iOS, konami, pop'n music, pop'n rhythmin

Pop’n Music is one of those series of games that, for whatever reason, was just never given a fair shake outside of Japan. Originally released in arcades in 1998 (around the same timeframe as Dance Dance Revolution and Beatmania), it’s a cartoony rhythm game with a method of interface (see below) that feels more like Simon than Guitar Hero. It has received an astonishing 20 sequels in the arcade, as well as a handful of spin-offs. The first four arcade releases showed up on both the Dreamcast and original PlayStation; 5-6 were PlayStation exclusive, and 7-14 were released on the PS2. The catch here, of course, is that all of these releases were exclusive to Japan.

Konami tried to bring Pop’n to the U.S. once, and then again the following year, and the results were pretty lousy both times. It’s not hard to see why: Those familiar with Pop’n Music know that it’s not meant to be played with an Xbox 360 pad, and it’s certainly not designed to be played with a Wii Remote (the Wii version actually had the gall to put you in control of an on-screen character hitting a virtual arcade Pop’n controller in time to your waggle motions).

No, Pop’n Music is meant to be played with this:

Or at least with this:

Like many rhythm games out there, Pop’n Music is a game that relies heavily on the “instrument” designed for it. Kill that interface, and you’ll risk alienating your fanbase.

Naturally, Pop’n Rhythmin, the first incarnation of Pop’n Music for iOS (available only on the Japanese App Store, but far from unplayable in the U.S.), lacks a table-sized, nine-button controller for slamming along to the music. Fortunately though, the game has been redesigned to take advantage of the touchpad interface, resulting in a respectable attempt at reimagining the core concept of the game.

The Pop’n series has always played similarly to former plastic instrument mainstays Guitar Hero and Rock Band: Hit the colored buttons that correspond to the on-screen “notes” (in this case, normally anthropomorphic colored blobs called Pop-kuns; I’ll call them “notes” here to keep things simple) in time to the music playing in the background. The original arcade incarnation and its sequels had these notes falling downward towards the bottom of the screen.

The new version forgoes this placement and gets a bit wackier: The colored notes now start off from two points onscreen and travel towards one another, merging together right when the beat hits (and when you, in turn, should be hitting them with your finger). With the old controller interface a thing of the past, color is now a moot point, and the different shades are merely there for variety (grey blobs though, Konami? Really? Surely there’s another tint you could have tossed in there instead!).

Though color is no longer a factor, Konami has added a few new note types to keep you on your toes: Long Notes require you to tap a note and hold it for an exact duration (indicated by lines on either side of the note that disappear gradually), Number Notes require you to tap them multiple times in a row, and Star Notes are used when you’re required to hit multiple notes at the same time. The higher difficulty rankings not only combine these notes (Long Star Notes, for example), but also dump a lot of regular notes onto the field while you’re holding a Long Note down.

As you may have surmised, the game is best played with two hands, with your iOS device placed on a flat surface (like many iOS games, the game will only show up on the iPhone list in the App Store, but functions perfectly on the iPad as well). The songs I tried on Normal difficulty can be done pretty easily with one hand, but Hyper and EX are best done with two.

And unfortunately, as is the case with many mobile conversions, herein lies the problem: Your fat fingers will likely obscure part of the playing field, causing you to miss notes. Much like the arcade Pop’n, missing a note or two does not necessarily mean failure, but missing one will likely cause you to drop four or five in a row until you can pick up the rhythm again. As someone who has played Pop’n Music and its sequels for years at all levels of difficulty (I own both of the controllers pictured above and most of the home conversions), I found the Normal levels in Pop’n Rhythmin to be enjoyable and completely playable, the Hyper levels to be doable with practice, and the EX levels to be kind of messy due to too many misses for the reason detailed above.

That said, I’ve amended this review a bit from my original assessment thanks to an epiphany I had this weekend: It took me a week to learn to play Pop’n Music correctly on the Dreamcast. The reason for this was that my brain had trouble “reading” the notes and getting my fingers to remember where the corresponding buttons were. Once I learned the game, I had no trouble taking down the Disco King. Pop’n Rhythmin has its own unique controls and visual coding to learn, and after spending a few more hours of the game, I found it quite a bit more enjoyable.

Adhering firmly to current mobile business practices, Pop’n Rhythmin is free to download and play, but you only get three tracks right off the bat. An online store sells various track packs (four tunes per pack) at 500 Yen (around $5 U.S.) each. At $1.25 per song, that’s actually not far off from past console releases, which retailed for around $60-70 and included anywhere from 30 tracks to upwards of 90. There are 18 different packs available, and the store allows you to listen to samples from each. While there’s a good selection of music available, I was a bit disappointed to find very little in terms of earlier Pop’n content, and no Konami legacy tunes to speak of (the Contra remix in Konami’s U.S. release of Jukebeat is a fantastic track, and it’s totally free).

In addition to the main gameplay mode, there’s also Treasure Mode, which allows you to use points earned in the main game to play a board game in order to unlock more music tracks and characters. Each present you land on represents only a shard of a track or character though, so be prepared to play for a while. The game also includes modes for locating arcades in Japan with Pop’n Music machines, and a way to link the mobile game up to arcade machines.

Though I would still have preferred an option to go with a more orthodox approach for the notes and controls (virtual buttons at the bottom of the screen matching the arcade layout, for example), Pop’n Rhythmin is a fun diversion if you’re willing to put in a little bit of time and learn its visual coding. Long-time fans will probably still prefer to stick with their conventional controllers, but as a free game, it’s a good introduction to the world of Pop’n Music for those who have always been curious about the series.

(Note: The language requirements for Pop’n Rhythmin are fairly minimal, but we’ll be happy to guide you through the process if you don’t happen to read Japanese. Go here for Part I of our in-game text walkthrough!)

Square Enix Announces Follow-up to Song Summoner for iOS, Android

Posted 17:08 EST on 19DEC2013 by: tim walker in news » android, guns n souls, iOS, song summoner, square enix

Square Enix has announced a new RPG entitled Guns N’ Souls for mobile devices in Japan. The game is a continuation of the story started in Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes, a tactical RPG they released for the iPod back in 2008.

While the new game looks to be just as full of references to both Japanese and Western music as its predecessor, it will be an action-based RPG rather than a turn-based one. Players will once again take on the role of protagonist Ziggy (we’re assuming in reference to Ziggy Stardust, rather than to the Tom Wilson comic strip), who has apparently been set up for the murder of his brother, Zero, by an entity known as Kill The King.

Song Summoner had a unique feature where it created troops for you to command based on the tunes stored on your iPod. One element of Guns N’ Souls is equipping cards with different abilities to your weapons, including special Song Cards, which cause a specific tune to start playing during combat.

Guns N’ Souls is being developed by Shift (God Eater 2), and is being written by Yukinori Kitajima (Chaos Rings, Okamiden, Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies). Song Summoner character designers Yusuke Naora and Roberto Ferrari have both returned to work on this game as well. The title theme “fire just do it” (which can be heard in the trailer on Square Enix’s official site for the game) is written and performed by J-pop group Larval Stage Planning, and I’ve Sound leader Kazuya Takase is composing music for the game as well. The voice cast includes Yuichi Nakamura (Cid in Final Fantasy XIII) as Ziggy and Maaya Uchida as an unnamed heroine character.

Guns N’ Souls will be released for iOS very soon, according to the official web site. The Android version is slated for Summer, 2014.

(News Source: Dengeki Online)

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective Temporarily Discounted to 99 Cents on iOS

Posted 09:52 EST on 13DEC2013 by: tim walker in news » ace attorney, capcom, ghost trick phantom detective, iOS

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, Capcom’s possession-based adventure game by Ace Attorney producer Shu Takumi, is currently down to $0.99 on the App Store. The game is normally free-to-play for the first two chapters, with additional sets of 5-6 chapters selling for $4.99 apiece, or $9.99 to unlock the whole game. Just download the app for free, select “Buy More Chapters” from the main menu, and then select “All Chapters” to get the full game for under a buck.

Puzzle Bobble Comes to LINE for iOS, Android

Posted 12:51 EST on 10DEC2013 by: tim walker in news » android, bubble bobble, bust-a-move, iOS, line, puzzle bobble, taito

Taito has released a version of long-running Bubble Bobble spin-off Puzzle Bobble for the LINE service in Japan on both iOS and Android platforms, and the Android version appears to have been released in English as well (just follow the link). It is not available on the U.S. iTunes store yet, though past LINE service releases have shown up there before.

The new version is free to play (with in-game purchases) and features over 90 stages, unlockable power-ups, local leaderboard rankings, and special “Friend Bubbles” (based on your Friends’ List) that can be popped for special items. It also includes a cameo appearance from pre-Bubble Bobble platform hero Chak’n from Chak’n Pop.

Puzzle Bobble made its debut in Japanese arcades in 1994 on Taito’s B System hardware and on the Neo Geo arcade and home platforms. It was followed by numerous ports and sequels, many of which have shown up in the U.S. and Europe under the name Bust-A-Move (a title change that complicated things when a certain other game was brought stateside).

Double Dragon Trilogy Released for iOS, Android

Posted 15:58 EST on 05DEC2013 by: tim walker in news » android, dotemu, double dragon, iOS

DotEmu has released Double Dragon Trilogy for Android and iOS devices. As reported previously, the compilation includes ports of all three Double Dragon arcade games, and features customizable controls, support for many Android and iOS controllers, 2-player co-op via bluetooth, and the option to choose between the original soundtrack and a remixed version. It’s available today for $2.99 on the iTunes App Store and on Google Play.

PS Vita Platformer Dokuro Now Available for iOS, Android

Posted 11:18 EST on 05DEC2013 by: tim walker in news » android, dokuro, game arts, gungho online entertainment, iOS

GungHo Online Entertainment has released a version of former PlayStation Vita-exclusive puzzle platformer Dokuro for both Android and iOS platforms. The game appears to be available worldwide, and is currently only $0.99 in the U.S.

Originally released for the Vita last year, Dokuro essentially asks, “What if a sympathetic Goomba attempted to save Peach from Bowser in Super Mario Bros.?” As a henchman-turned-hero, your character is tasked with guiding the princess to safety by solving puzzles and clearing obstacles. The game was developed by Game Arts, famous for their work on the Lunar and Grandia RPGs.

Story and image source: Famitsu.com