Hello everyone, its' been quite a while since I last checked or updated this blog. Hope you guys are doing fine. I am in the midst of my exams period, and I just felt like I wanted to post something short just to keep this blog semi-active. And to keep my mind off studying too, haha. Now this blog is becoming less and less focused on Cardfight Vanguard!, and I guess its' because I've lost much of my interest in the game, along with exams which brings me to the excuse of not having time to play. Oh well, I still do watch the Japanese anime and I do check Cardfight Wiki once in a while, but aside from the new cards revealed (which are quite a lot by the looks of it), namely those in EB08, EB09 and BT14, nothing much excites me, the cards are still very much the same apart from a few eye-catching ones, its' just the power creep taking effect, thats' all. Another reason why I sort of semi-quit playing the game was due to the fact that I'm too lazy to find people to play with, my close friends quit playing the game a few months back, I still have my decks with me though, but they don't see any play.
Well on to non-Cardfight related stuff. Just a small update on my life, I am having exams now (haha said that earlier...but oh well) and my exams end on 28 November (just 17 days to go!) and maybe when it ends I might go out to the local cardshop to play some games of Cardfight. But until then, more studying and revising for me then haha. Now some of you that read this blog (if any) may use their mobile devices to read or surf the Net, and I would like to recommend some Smartphone games that you guys should give a shot, you won't regret them!
1) Puzzle and Dragons
Now I have been playing this game for the past 6 months or so, haven't spent a SINGLE cent on this game, although arguably if you want to speed things up you could toss some cash at it. But I personally don't, but it is a much slower process. But I do enjoy it. For those of you who may want to check it out, and give it shot, don't know if it is available in your country, as of now PAD has servers in North America/Canada, Japan, Korea (South Korea of course) and most recently the United Kingdom. I'll put some links for you guys if you are on iOS or Android, and you can go check the respective websites out (NONE of the things below are owned by me and copyrights to everything are Gungho Entertainment's, NOT mine + fan-based web tools to help you out):
Puzzle and Dragons (US Server)
For Android:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.gungho.padEN
For iOS:
https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/puzzle-dragons-english/id563474464?mt=8
And a helpful site to get started:
http://www.puzzledragonx.com/
Facebook group for helpful information, tips and tricks:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/PADGlobal/
If you don't know by now, with the links I gave you, I play the US server. Although it is behind the Japanese Server in terms of updates and some differences, I can't be bothered to overcome the language barrier and learn Japanese for the sake of the game. Ad the US server is on par in terms of updates as the Korean server and slightly faster than the UK server. Also, the US server is the most populated English-based server. But if you guys don't mind reading Kanji/Hiragana (I don't know which one is it haha), you can go Google PAD JP for yourselves :P.
Even if you are NOT in these regions, you STILL can play PAD (like me here hehehe). For iOS I am not too sure, you could create a iTunes account based in US or JP (depending on the version you want to play) and download the app from there. For Android, what I usually do is that I download the APK.file from the Facebook Group as shown above, or you can click the link here if you are lazy, and update/install from there. Its' really quite simple and easy, I quite like the ease of play in the beginning, although there is a steep curve as you progress and become stuck as I was, but not if you do some research beforehand to plan your steps. Initally it may be difficult, but you'll get used to it.
Now on to the gameplay of Puzzle and Dragons. Now as the name suggests, it is a Puzzle-based game, which has you collecting cards or monsters to fill up your party (much like Pokemon, with the leveling and evolving concept) as well as for the obsessive collector, the chance to Collect 'em All (which is quite a challenge if you don't spend money in the game). Now I am NOT encouraging you to spend money, nor am I dissuading you from doing so, I for one did not spend a SINGLE CENT on the game, and although compared to the people who spend money I cannot compare to them, but I can safely say I am pretty strong, although not exactly top-tier or fantastic. You just need a bit of patience and hey, after all, its' a phone game, why so serious? Just have fun and go with the flow :)
To help newbies, I will introduce to you some jargons and abbreviations which the Facebook Group as well as the Puzzle and Dragons Forum uses, which when I first started took a while for me to figure out, and it really was an experience which I do not want any of you to go though. Hence this mini-guide below:
Jargons and terms used (not exhaustive, or limited to):
PAD/PnD - shorthand term for Puzzle and Dragons
PG/@PG- members of the Facebook Group
PF/@PF - members of the PAD Forums
Helpers/Pals - Friends which you MUST have in order to enter dungeons, you can add them either through the FB Group, or through beating dungeons, which will allow you to add the people you paired up with (subject to the person's approval)
Magic Stones - Given out for free, either during events or milestones in your PAD journey. Also can be bought. Used as a type of ingame currency in order to gain access to stronger monsters/cards.
IAP - in-app purchase, basically just buying Magic Stones.
REM - Rare Egg Machine, the Golden dragon machine which acts as a slot machine type of dispenser. Through this you get Star, Silver or Gold Eggs, which gives you stronger and better monsters to use in your party. (The best being Gold).
Re-roll(ing) - The process by which you clear you ingame data by resetting the app in order to re-do the tutorial and get a free roll on the REM. (Important to note, especially if you do NOT plan to IAP).
Evo Mats - Evolution Materials, used for Evolving Monsters to help them reach the next stage.
Normal Fusion (also known as Power-Up Fusion) - The function in the Menu where you can 'feed' monsters to other monsters for EXP. Also used in Ultimate Fusions.
Ultimate Fusion - the process where you use certain cards/monsters and fuse them to a certain monster in order to gain access to the card's final form. Different from normal Evolution. (like Mega evolution in Pokemon).
Descend(s) - Dungeons with strong bosses which are useful and can be gotten if you clear them, mostly endgame material for your team
Godfest - Events where strong monsters (Gods which are found in Gold Eggs) from the REM are made more likely to appear. Usually an extra 3X chance to appear.
OoH - Ocean Of Heaven, can be found in the 'Normal Dungeons' list as you progress. A well-known Dungeon which people run in order to farm pluses.
Plus(es) - Additional stats which a monster can accumulate (not by levelling up the monster) by feeding monsters with the yellow 'plus sign' in the Normal Fusion function.
(OTHER TERMS TO BE ADDED WHEN I THINK OF THEM)
Some abbreviations of Monsters/Cards which are useful to know (you can copy and past to search these monsters for more information):
ADK- Ancient Dragon Knight
CDK- Chaos Dragon Knight
D'tron - Dark Metatron
SOD Luci- Seraphim of Dawn, Lucifer
Valk - Valkyrie (as well as evolutions of her, most notably Warrior Rose, Graceful Valkyrie)\
Chuchu - Noble Wolf King, Chu Chulainn (somewhat similar to Valkyrie)
Sieg - Earth-rending Emperor, Siegfried (also similar to Valk)
OneTrueGod - Anubis, well known for his crazy power, and yet demanding on skill and luck.
These terms above are just kickstarters to help you in your PAD journey, if you so choose to download and give this game a shot. Overall I rate this game a 8.5/10, higher than my rating for Pokemon X. Although the graphics are nothing compared to Pokemon XY, the gameplay is addictive and fun, with a friendly community to help you every step of the way, and the way the game is built such that there is little to no competition to be the 'best', and you need friends to help each other, I find this game overall a great game, both in gameplay as well as you can progress at your own pace, without worrying that you are too slow or will get left behind. Do give it a shot if you have chance to, trust me, you won;t regret this! Hope you guys enjoyed my post, sorry if I cant update this as frequently as I would like to, but thanks for reading!
FINAL VERDICT:
Puzzle and Dragons:
Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 7/10
Overall Experience (ease of use, connectability, WOW factor): 8/10
Total: 7.7/10
Until Next time,
EndBlade.
ADDITION: If you havent checked out my mini review on Pokemon XY, do check it out here!
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