Azur Lane

[Arraxis]

As some of you may know, Azur Lane entered Open Beta yesterday, and I played it much of the day. So far it seems quite interesting. The story seems to be about the level of FE Heroes admittedly, but that's still more than Kantai Collection. There's a lot of different characters to collect, too. I'm not sure if I like the designs more than, say, KanColle or the as-yet-to-be-released Victory Belles, but there are definitely some quite good ones in there. Aoba's cool and cute at the same time despite being Common.

I'm not sure how pay to win the game is meant to be, but you'll be happy to know that many characters are available as drops in mission, and some can only be acquired this way. As for building/rolling, the chance of a top rarity character is 7%, and often it feels more like Magic the Gathering rarity. Yes, the characters tend towards powerful but they have more odd abilities. My Warspite, for example, snipes the enemies in the back, and I acquired Hiryu who does better when she is partnered with her sister ship. There's a lot to do as well, as you'll be outfitting your characters with different equipment, too. There's an auto-play function that can facilitate grinding or simply let you play on the go or while doing something else (even if they run into torpedoes more often than I'd like) and it is entertaining to watch, too.

Naturally it isn't available out of the US yet so I downloaded it using QooApp. Starting now gets you a free Yorktown carrier, who is a decent addition to your fleet.

Friend Codes:
Arraxis - 67132945
BlackStarLine - 67175543
Elvis - 67118617

[Elvis Strunk]

I downloaded this, played a little here or there. So far it's been pretty easy, but I've barely done anything beyond the tutorial, so hopefully it'll require a bit more effort later. I do like that certain characters have sets, and that you get bonuses for completing them- even if all of the units are low rarity. My free summon during the tutorial got me Portland, and my login bonus for Day 2 got me her sister. Not sure if that's supposed to happen or not, but it's neat to have characters that refer to each other and have abilities that synergize. Even if Portland's affection might go a bit farther than just familial. I haven't looked too much into how upgrading, long-term or otherwise, works yet, but it should be straightforward enough. And hopefully not too much of a grind.

[Arraxis]

I've upgraded a few of them already - as for Portland, that was a coincidence as I got someone else. I did get Portland later, though, so she's paired up with Indianapolis now. I found that things got trickier a lot faster than FGO - World 3 I needed to upgrade and plan more to finish it, let along get all the stars.

[mikebrand83]

Installed it (using a US region account, which I previously set up for FGO). Played it for a few hours in total over a day. Uninstalled it.

The interface just feels pointlessly clunky, when I’m used to games like FGO and Honkai Impact allowing you to adjust your equipment just before going into a mission, instead of having to go back to the main menu every single damned time. An auto-equip of highest rarity equipment to the ships currently assigned to your fleets would have also been nice. The game also gets repetitive fast, requiring you to grind on the same maps over and over to level your ships up, before you can really proceed.

But yeah, when it comes to real-time mobile games that actually requires your attention to play, I feel like Honkai Impact is just a far more valuable use of your play time.

[Arraxis]

That's certainly fair. I too would like a better interface. I keep going to Fleet to edit my lineup's equipment and realise that there's no option for this. I'll see how things go anyway. Maybe I enjoy the grind, maybe I get bored. What's Honkai Impact like?

[mikebrand83]

Probably the best way to describe Honkai Impact is that it's a bit like a mobile version of Bayonetta.

It's a 3D beat-em-up, with strong emphasis on evading enemy attacks with the right timing. It makes up for the lack of Bayonetta's depth in combos with a far larger variety of characters that have different skill sets, as well as typically having you deploy in teams of 3 characters (so you can switch between them as needed).

Probably the best part of Honkai Impact is that virtually all characters are farmable through getting "fragments" missions and events, and you can keep increasing their rank by farming more fragments (from B rank to SSS, super rares you can summon from gacha tops out at S rank).

... Made even better by the gacha having a very generous "pity timer", where every banner is guaranteed to give you an A rank character for every 10 summons INCLUSIVE of single summons. So if you do a 10 summon, get an A rank with the second roll but no more characters for the rest, just another 2 single summons on the same banner will guarantee you another A rank.

Oh, also much like Bayonetta, some of the daily missions and even story missions will incorporate surprisingly varied mini-games, such as side scrolling platforming and shoot-em-up.

[Douman]

Game is pretty much not pay to win, but pay to get rings for your waifus and costumes  8)

Wiki https://azurlane.koumakan.jp/Azur_Lane_Wiki

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P.s Girls Frontline has more deep lore and story, if you care

[Arraxis]

The theme of Girls Frontline is admittedly less appealing - I like ships more than guns.

[Gamerjunkie]

Well, as the stereotypical American, I like guns more than ships, so... I'm gonna go poke at that on account of large confuzzlement in regards to Azur Lane. It might also be because it is currently 2 AM and I haven't gotten a full night's sleep for a few weeks.

[WeAreTheMeta]

Well, unlike with Fate/GO my phone isn't acting like a radiator every time I play, and the good thing is that it seem a lot less gacha to me since I don't actually have super rare character that I want!

Will keep playing for as long as I will, knowing that I can quickly get bored from game though.

[Elvis Strunk]

Not sure what friends do but my code is 67118617 if anybody's interested~

[WeAreTheMeta]

Through a sudden stroke of good luck, I got Takao, two Hiryuu, and Rodney. Which also mean I now have four ships to level up (since Helena's levels are still lagging behind) but then I'll be super powerful!

I also just realized I could buy food for the dorm using oil, and I always have oils thanks to commission, so that's good.
Also, for friend my name is WeAreTheMeta, case sensitive, but still easier to type without mistake than the code

[BlackStarLine]

Well, Elvis & Arra know who I am, but just in case you don't, my name is BlackStarLine and my friend code is 67175543.

[Douman]

afaik in Azur Lane I'm not sure what benefit friends bring.
It seems more or less pointless  :-\

[WeAreTheMeta]

Well, at least you can see each other progression!

And in case other people haven't seen yet, in collection there is a tab with lot of ship, including some you don't have, and how to get them. Meaning both which section to build them from, but also what place to farm from. Thought it was neat.