Sunday, May 24, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: Hello Kitty/Sanrio Collab returns in the Japan version (Minor update to Melody)

This collaboration is returning for the second time after quite some time and it'll be the first time I'll be taking part in it for the Japan version as I was on an old NA account the first time it appeared. This update wasn't very interesting for me as there don't seem to be any new cards while the old cards got minor changes in the form of buffs for active skill cool-downs and the gold eggs getting more awakenings but no changes in skills with the ultimate evolution.

The silver eggs mostly serve as low cost leaders, although I'm guessing it will be hard to find other people running the same ones. The most useful ones IMO are Melody and Kuromi with Melody making into green teams, like Osiris', because her active delays and enhance which is really useful, while Kuromi is a shield breaker for devil teams. The Gold cards mostly serve as leaders with Pompompurin also being used as a sub for his active skill enhance for light cards. Princess Valkitty, on the other hand, could pair with and/or use Cloud(s). I do not recall seeing her used as a sub most of the time probably because her delay is only 1 turn plus a lack of farmable skill-up card for her.

Following the trend of recent collaborations, there should be skill-up cards in the collab dungeon for the collab REM cards but none was announced so far. The dungeon is great for Fruit Dragon skill-ups and the rare invade Kittyn & Mimmyna is a good replacement for Idunn & Idunna for mono blue teams and also Yo & Siegfriend's team because she is balanced.

In conclusion, all the card artworks are really cute and if you are a Hello Kitty fan or just like cute things, you definitely don't want to miss this. I don't think there are a lot of useful or attractive cards in this so I'll probably just roll once.

Friday, May 15, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: My thoughts on the latest Gungho Collab Pal Egg Machine Cards (Updated#3)

Update#3: I realised the machine has arrived for the English version and it includes the latest card that was added to the Japan PEM: Yukari. I have the card and never got around to using her. Her low CD will be very useful for leaders that require active skill activation to burst but being a silver egg, I don't think I will consider putting her into my teams. She's like poor man's version of Cerberus Rider. I have the complete set of Gungho Collab PEM cards but didn't use them at all other than Archer, which I kept at the original base form for low rarity to S-rank a dungeon once. I only managed to get Pianis the last time the PEM returned in Japan (probably 3rd to 4th appearance) to complete the set. I think she's probably the best card in the set and a leader that will see use.

Update#2: Full information for 3 and 4 stars are out at PAD Skyozora. Updated their section.

Update: The 3 and 4 stars cards have evolution versions which are not revealed yet. The art can be seen at PAD Skyozora. I don't think it matters that much due to their active skill being pretty much "locked in" but will have a look again and update this post when we get more information.

It's really nice to have more usage for pal points other than trying for rare evo materials and we have another Pal Egg Machine with new cards this time round. The new cards will be joining the mini three kingdom heroes that I wrote about previously: Mini-heroes of Three Kingdoms Friend Pal Egg Machine cards thoughts.

Official information and pictures of the cards from Gungho's website
Pad Skyozora with the Chinese translation
Puzzle Dragon X has the information on the 2 6-stars but not on the other cards yet at this time of writing

6-stars

Arthur from Divine Gate

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: Thoughts on the new Rider Series for Japan version (A new edit note for Kraken Rider)

Stats, active skills and awakenings information are out at Puzzle Dragon X

When they were first announced, I thought they were going to be improved version of the Mythical Beast Series, maybe something on top of the orb enhance during skill activation. Although that may be a little boring, it will definitely be more useful than what was announced IMO. These new riders all get unique active skills that are mostly defensive save for Griffin Rider while Cerberus Rider get a weird 99 fixed damage attack at 2 turns cool-down. They all get identical awakenings with the row enhance for their respective colour and double two-prongs which are nice but I think they are let down by their active skills with Griffin Rider being the exception. Their leader skills are similar to the Norn/Grimoire series but I don't think people will likely lead with them. In terms of overall design,  I actually find the previous released Warriors Series better.

Phoenix Rider

Monday, May 11, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: A look at the Japan's Battle Tournament Collaboration Egg Machine Cards (Update with a note on Leona)

PAD BT Collaboration is back at this time of writing and as I have not written about it yet although it has already returned for quite a few times, this post will be about the cards you get from their egg machine. There are quite a lot of useful silver egg subs in this pool that are skill-able, so it is definitely worth rolling a few times for. For additional reference, here's GameWith with the card ratings. The artwork is really cool and one of my favourite series, with the human characters next to the PAD creatures making them like Shaman King or Pokemon.

I'm curious about their English name conversion as well as some of their sex as I can't really tell from their artwork but I manage to find the information here from their CV cards at Inner World. I'm going with the English names from that site as well. The character cards can be found on the Official website as well.

Silver Eggs

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: My notes on the Japan Final Fantasy Collab Rare Egg Machine cards (Added an edit Zidane's active skill)

**Below post is based on 1st Collab of FF. A post on the update to the FF collab can be found herehttp://simpleduelist.blogspot.com/2016/03/puzzle-and-dragons-ffcd-collab-7th-and.html#uds-search-results **

It's finally here; the Final Fantasy Collaboration on the Japan version of Puzzle & Dragons! The rare egg machine card information is out at PuzzleDragonX. There are no cards this time that are on the level of the Juggler but some color types do get new leader skill play-style which is good. All of their active skills also reduce cool-down of other active skills by 1-2, an interesting new mechanic. Although I don't think it helps against skill bind, it's effect is close to a delay active skill and it will be  useful against a boss like the PAD Academy Hera-Ur, who increases your active skill turn by 2. The effect is also great for the awoken 1.0 Egyptian Gods leader skills.

Silver cards (I'm assuming all those that have a cost of 20)

Wal
Quite a useful light sub with versatility to go to either row-enhance or two-prong teams; all his awakenings are useful. His unconditional leader skill also makes him a good leader for fast low level dungeon farming. Overall, a good card to have.

Monday, May 4, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: New Weapon Series in Japan Version (Updated#2 with YouTube video links)

Source: Translation by Madao over at Puzzle & Dragons forum

They have nice stat, great awakenings and beautiful artwork IMO but having them all be attacker type and with active skill boosting attackers only kind of limits their team options by a lot, not to mention that their color change is already not very synergistic as most teams usually just want to be mono-colored. I'm not sure if their active skill only changes their main color but even so, only the blue one, Claymore, will benefit in Urd, Theurgia and Gotenk teams. (Edit: plus the light one, Kopis, for Ars Nova teams.)

Their introduction in the Murakore Festival will also feature the removal (temporary for the festival period only?) of light valkyrie, fire, water and wood Golems from the Egg Machine (Source in chinese by PAD Skyozora) although I personally prefer Vampire or Gigas over the former as she is at least a descend drop with a certain degree of difficulty. I rather get the featured valkyries over the new weapon series if I were to roll in it though.

Update: The leader skills information are out. (Source: Puzzle Dragon X) The leader skills just doesn't make much sense right now IMO. I really think their sub-colour should be the colour the active skill changes into and when activated, do a swap of the colours, so they work better with their own leader skill. I'm guessing that perhaps it will eventually be that and the developers are still creating the animation and effect for a proper swap of the main and sub-type colour during skill activation.

Update#2: I was wrong about their usefulness as leaders. Their teams basically consist of subs that are their changed colour and mostly focused on two-prongs. It doesn't matter that their leader skill do not boost their own main colour, they are a team of 3.5x attack multiplier when above 50% for subs and a 5.25x attack multiplier when above 50% with their low cool down skill activated for the entire team minus one of the leader if you are pairing with the same leader. They are actually pretty strong!

I was able to find YouTube videos of them except for Kopis (Light) but he should work similarly to Claymore (Blue). Masamune's (Green) and Zeihander's (Dark) teams are probably harder to form as there are fewer blue attackers.

Shotel clearing Paradis of the Holy Beasts by Kui 34: YouTube link

Claymore clearing Thoth & Sopdet Descended by M パズラー: YouTube link

Masamune clearing Dragon Ball Collab 2 by SABER Channel: YouTube link

Zweihander farming Red Mechdragon by Kosuke of AppBank: YouTube link

Friday, May 1, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons Z Super Mario Edition Demo impressions

The demo is currently out for Nintendo 3DS at the North America eShop. There are 2 short game modes available with 2 team choices each; one introduction mode (presumedly easy mode) and an expert mode. Both modes start off with an explanation on how to play and it is worth going through again as there are some new gameplay stuff and controls compared to the mobile version.

The biggest difference is the Mario theme, being able to use a stylus, if you don't already use it on the phone version, and 3D stereoscopic graphics. The time limit to move the orbs seem shorter but it is probably due to me getting use to the time increase awakenings on my teams on the mobile version.

I was looking forward to the game but after trying out, I kinda lost interest as it is pretty much the same game as the mobile version of Puzzle and Dragons. I thought there will be a difference with using the stylus and there sure is, as you do not get your finger blocking the view but I'm used to using my fingers to move orbs. The iPhone retina graphic is also noticeably better although the 3DS version has animated enemies.

I was hoping for a collaboration dungeon or rare egg machine for the mobile game but since the Japan version was already out on 29 April 2015 and there wasn't any news or announcement of Mario characters, I guess there won't be any. There is a lot of time invested in the mobile version as well as the daily playing involved for me so I do not see myself picking up this 3DS version at all. On the other hand, it is definitely something for non-PAD players to check out, especially puzzle game lovers.

Puzzle & Dragons: Reco's Tutorial on Board setting up

Reco SFs YouTube video link

The video is about one hour long and is in Chinese. There was some English subtitles at the beginning but it stopped after a while while I was watching, so I'm not sure if it is still currently being added in. His PAD videos of dungeon clears are very impressive and if you watch his live Twitch stream, he really moves the orb around insanely fast with no speed up in video involved. He seems to be able to solve each board very quickly and with the maximum combo-s.