The next thing was I love Kantai Collection aka Kancolle for their characters and world building however Kadokawa (The company behind Kancolle) has a very narrow mindset of Kancolle since it started off as a Japan Exclusive browser game (unless you used VPN) and an arcade game by Sega that will probably never get a home release. (I played that game in their Sega Arcade centre and it was pretty fun) Furthermore after the animated movie was released, no news of any media of Kancolle was announced, leaving a lot of fans disappointed and leaving the franchise.
I wasn't really that hard up about Kancolle but disappointed on Kadokawa of not advancing the series outside and inside Japan. Even the PS vita game was not interesting since it is just a lite version of the browser game with limited animations and gameplay.
So sometime later in 2017, two China based companies namely Shanghai Yostar and Xiamei Yongshi created Azur Lane and it took not China but Japan also by storm! It became the top 5 best game of 2017 and an English version was released in 2018. Furthermore Azur lane has become a hot topic in Doujin communities as such many artwork and doujins were released based on it and surpassing Kancolle in terms of popularity!
I am not here to talk about which franchise is better since they both have their positive and negative but rather I was attracted to some of the artwork which both official and doujin artists has created. So after doing research and looking on videos online about Azur Lane, I decided to download the English version on my tablet two months ago and see what the buzz was about.
True enough, Azur Lane opened my eyes and show that a mobile game does not need to have ridiculous micro-transactions and grinding to win your customers like so many Pay to Win mobile games in the market.
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| Laffey is the Best! |
I was given the three main starters to choose from and I choose Laffey because of her cute twin tails and deadpan voice. Then I was given the chance to draw a ship from the Build option using the Wisdom Cubes (which is how you get new ships) and out came Belfast, my first SSR ship and because Yostar/Yongshi has collaborated with Japan, they will able to get several big name voice actress to voice the characters.
In this case, Belafast was voiced by one of my favourite voice actress, Horie Yui (Riko/Cure Magical of Maho Tsukai Precure) and she has been my favourite ship to use and I even got a chance to "Marry" her, granting her a wedding dress skin and power up status.
How about the gameplay? The gameplay is similar to a bullet hell shooter which you control 2 teams (Vanguard/Main Fleet) in a fleet. You can control the vanguard team with a virtual controller and fire their torpedoes when it is ready. The Main Fleet which consists of Battleship and Aircraft carrier, used their airplanes to divebomb and battleship cannons for additional firepower.
The building ship or Gacha is also user friendly since doing your daily tasks will award the player with at least 2 or 3 Wisdom cubes per day and the chance of getting SSR is 7% which is higher than a lot of similar Gacha games. Even Kancolle didn't have such rates and it is based on investing the amount of oil and materials and hoping for the best.
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| I just got Yamashiro just today based on this posting. |
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| My First Retrofit -Ranger and she is hot as THICC! |
Till to this date of this post, I have more than 40% of ships and more than 20 over SSR ships which to me, I can't never be able to get such rates on similar games unless I pay to win. Even the pay to win will only grant you gems which is mostly used for opening more slots in your dorm (for the girls to rest and gain some experience points) or alternative skins which does not affect the status of the girls. I only pay once just to get Saratoga and it was a one-off thing and it was 9 dollars only so it was not much of a issue.
So when I went to Japan on April this year, I was wondering if there was any merchandises on Azur Lane in Akihabara and true enough, on the first night there, I saw three big posters billboard promoting the mobile game! Even the upcoming PS4 game is on preorder at a local game shop!
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| The Upcoming PS4 game coming on 29th August 2019! |
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| I bought the Mobile Game Soundtrack, Playing Cards, A Fan-Made Card Game and several Acrylic Stands! |
At first, I was looking at some shops wondering why Azur Lane has no merchandises until I found out that only Kotobukiya, Akiba Radiokan and Akihabara Toranoana (A book store) are selling their goods and I went all out to find whatever I can get my hands. (It was a good thing I got the 1st Anniversary Art book collection in my local bookstore before coming to Japan since it was pretty heavy) Hopefully when the anime series which is coming out this Summer, their popularity will rise.
Overall, I really enjoy the mobile game and I have also preorder the PS4 limited edition of the game which I hope it is good. (Cross fingers since it is done by Complie Heart)
That's my thoughts of Azur Lane and are you playing this game also on your mobile devices? If you want me to talk more about it, feel free to leave a comment below! Until then, see you in the next post!
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