Saturday, January 31, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: Fist of North Star Collab Egg Machine Cards revealed! (Edit #3)

Edit#3: The collab is now out in NA as well so I updated the post's title.

Puzzle Dragon X with the cards and translation

It seems relatively attacker focused like the Eva collab with a couple of light devils. We are also getting quite a few of the silver eggs that are useful IMO. In particular, Juda and Souther are silver eggs that seem leader-worthy with the high attack multiplier, especially Souther with the HP boost if you can build a team of light devils as well as the offensive active skill. Here's my evaluation of the cards by their main colours:

Red
Red teams got a lot of support in this collab with 2 gold eggs going to them.

- Mamiya is like the "Mr. Satan" of this collab with 9 awakenings but 4 of which going to dark resist. Her active skill is similar to Gold Saint, Aries Mu but favouring red teams which is great. She's going to be a nice sub for red teams, especially row-focused ones.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL World Duel Carnival temporary discount from 24 January to 6 February 2015

Nintendo Download: 22 January for North America Source: Nintendo Life

It drops from USD$19.99 to USD$12.99. If you are interested in getting it, check out this blog post I made earlier about it.

Puzzle & Dragons: Japan's Angel 2nd Series and Grand Sonia (Edited #2)

Angel 2nd Series

Grand Sonia information

Source: Puzzle Dragon X

I didn't read the title and just by looking at the skills, I actually thought these were just another series like the Weapon Warrior or Armoured Knight. It turns out they are the 2nd series of Angels and will be in the God Festivals rotation. I find them really uninteresting and on paper, they seem to solely serve as subs for Urd, U & Y, Dark and Light Grimoire REM cards(Goetia and Ars Nova respectively) and Durga for the five colours respectively due to their active skill or colour typing which is rather niche.

Their leader skills are rather boring as well and mostly (Edit #2) the Red Angel's skill does not gel with her active skill; no creation of red or light orbs for offense. They do have nice artwork which is their only saving grace IMO. Their awakenings can be viewed from pad_sexy's Twitter here and here, with all of them gaining Skill Boost and being un-bindable, along with a different awakening for the last slot.

On the other hand, the new descend card, Grand Sonia, is a lot more interesting. It looks to be a solid leader. GameWith already has a sample team up for her.

Edit: The green Angel can sub for Devil Bastet and Cell while the blue Angel can also sub for DQXQ as well as Trunks because he converts the board to his main colour after the Angel's active.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: じゃじゃーん菊池 GAME's YouTube Channel

YouTube Channel link

I've been checking out his videos lately and unlike the usual high rarity and plus egged teams of most Puzzle & Dragons video on YouTube, he showcases mostly teams filled with farmable leader and subs, other than the friend leader. It's entirely in Japanese but nevertheless, a great team-building information resource for various dungeons. I really need to get a Beezlebub to ultimate evolve. I manage to get all the required orbs from gift dungeons and Pal Egg Machine events. You can see from quite a few videos that he can be used to clear a lot of difficult dungeons!

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Hearthstone: LifeCoach's interview by GosuGamers (Updated)

Article link

I first noticed LifeCoach from tournaments as he took very long time with his turns, going until the rope burns out. He's obviously thinking through all his and his opponent's possible moves and you can find out more about his thought process through his Twitch streams. I really like his positive attitude as well, in trying to learn as well as share his input about the game. You get that as well as his excitement towards the game when you tune into his streams.

Update: Hearthstone Subreddit discussion on the interview and LifeCoach. I totally agree with the top post by DOGpls.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: Bikkuriman Collab returns in Japan version

Updates on Collab rolls with new evolution and reworked active skills (in Japanese)
Dates on availability (in Japanese)
Source: official website

New collab skill-up card for Bikkuriman Super Zeus (in Chinese)
Source: PAD Skyozora

It's nice Gungho is continuing the trend of including collab card skill-up in the Collab dungeon, after Dragon Ball, although it is only for one card this time round. (more to come?) The most notable update are the new evolutions to Echidna Rococo and Hera Maria as well as the change in leader skill of Super Zeus to include HP and RCV boost to God types. The expensive evolution material route for Echidna Rococo and Hera Maria both swaps their main and sub colour as well as providing more useful awakenings, while the lower cost route version retains the awakenings but alter their leader skills.

I actually rolled once and got Hera Maria the previous time it came around so I was pleasantly surprised with this announcement as she was only a silver egg. Her active skill is a nuke which isn't really useful IMO but at least now her expensive evolution comes with double Resistance-Skill Bind awakenings (seems popular nowadays with dungeon mobs that bind skills), a red row enhance and TPA.

Puzzle & Dragons: 3DS game English version coming out in May 2015

Trailer from Nintendo at YouTube

The Super Mario Edition is bundled in it which is great. I will have chosen to get only the Mario edition but it's nice not to have to make that decision now.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Street Fighter Puzzle Spirits Tutorial and Gameplay videos

YouTube video of the game's tutorial posted by cogmovie

YouTube video of the gameplay posted by Suphakit Thanvisit

The Japanese version of the game has been out for a while on Android in the Japan Region Google Play store. I didn't try it but it is probably region-locked. I was curious about the gameplay but from the videos linked above, it is basically based on the "touching-a-colored-orb-to-clear-all-the-surrounding-same-colored-ones" (didn't know any term for it) as opposed to Bejeweled or Puzzle & Dragons play-style. I like Street Fighter and although the game and art looks nice, I'm not a fan of that kind of gameplay. I'll be looking forward to a collab, if any, with Puzzle & Dragons though!

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: Japan Version New Weapon Series Sub Usage Video (Updated#2)

Light Kali Beelzebub Descend YouTube by monjamonja48

Light Kali / Trunks / Zweihander / Claymore / Dragon Rider, King Arthur / Light Kali

Interesting use of the new weapon series, forming an attacker-centric team with TPA on every member.

Update#1: You can achieve something similar with Umisachi & Yamasachi, using Zweihander, Claymore and another water card with double TPA like Beast Rider, Wiz Merlin with Dragon Rider, King Arthur or Dark/Light Yomi to fulfil the colors.

Update#2: More videos by monjamonja48 featuring the new Weapon Series

Same Light Kali team clearing Fagan

Vegeta team featuring Zweihander clearing Fagan

Sarasvati team featuring Claymore clearing Challenge Dungeon 5 Level 8

Friday, January 9, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: Japan version's New Weapon Series Sub Usage (Updated with a note and some edits)

Update: There are more and more attacker type leaders, FF Collab etc, so the below post is no longer up to date. I missed out on a few like Superman for Kopis, Kenshiro etc. I won't be updating but you can instead check out the Puzzle Dragon X list of Attacker cards for ideas. Also, at the time of writing, they didn't had a leader skill which they do now so they are kinda viable as leaders too. Check it out in this post.

Puzzle Dragon X has the official release of new cards including this new weapon series and I just realise that there are only 3 new active skills among them as they only change to Fire, Water or Wood so there is less skill-up mob to create. Here's a YouTube video of Kopis' active skill activation, the main and sub color are both changed but only with a little fire icon on the card to symbolise it.

Based on their type and active skills, they only fit into attacker teams so I will list out their viable attacker-type leaders and see how they fit in. I bolded the leaders with greater synergy:

Fire
- Asuka&Upgraded Eva Unit-02, Code 777, Misato&AAA Wunder, Powered Up, Ares, Cao Cao, Bronze Saint, Phoenix Ikki: Shotel for a situational wood attack burst, Claymore and Kopis for added fire burst and the rest for a situational off-color attack burst.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition 3DS game

Source: Puzzle Dragon X

This is a huge collaboration but I'm more exited about the possible Mario cards we can get from the Collab dungeon and hopefully a Collab egg machine.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Hearthstone: Kolento's Demon Warlock

Source: Hearthstone Top Decks Section with updated version posted by Kolento to imgur (Image 9, changes made was Dark Iron Dwarf for Defender of Argus)

I was expecting Mal'ganis like we usually see for Demon decks but Kolento only ran Doomguard and  Lord Jaraxxus as the only demons for Voidcaller's deathrattle. You can watch the deck in action from his Twitch past broadcast video. Some of the interesting combos in the deck are Void Terror + Sylvanas Windrunner and Abusive Sergeant and Dark Iron Dwarf on enemy minions to combo with Big Game Hunter.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: GameWith's Leader and Subs Evaluation List

I posted about GameWith's Tier List the other time and their recommended team template the other time, and the Tier List has since been updated for January 2015. I can't remember what were the changes made but I'm guessing there were moves from the introduction of Norn Goddess and new ultimate evolutions. Bastet actually fell off the C rank! I don't understand how the ranking is done and according to Google translation of the first line of the article, they are supposedly the recommended first rolls. S ranks cards are the most popular ones that can also carry you to the end game. Anyway, I found another page of the website with a huge breakdown on most of the cards.

GameWith's Leader and Subs Evaluation List (The second column is the evaluation points for leader while the third column is for sub)

I've seen the evaluation points used when GameWith writes about God Festival and I think it is a pretty good general reference. The points do not coincide with the Tier List and I'm guessing maybe popularity is not factored in? The list also seem to only have Dragon Ball Collab Gold eggs as the only Collab in the list so far. (Gotenks is in by the way) Interestingly, the Heroes pantheon have the one of highest ratings with Yamato Takeru and Pandora yet to receive ultimate evolutions but are already on par with Perseus and Andromeda. I'm interested to see if the former 2 gets the full 10 points for leader evaluation after they do!

Puzzle & Dragons: 3rd Dragon Ball Collab for Japan Version (Written to fit in all previous edits)

Information translated by Nez from the Puzzle and Dragons Forum: Post 1 & post 2

Dragon Ball, the most iconic manga and anime from Japan IMO, is probably the most popular Collaboration for the game, returning 3 times with updates each time. I still constantly see the gold cards being used as leader from the 3 non-friend helper slots which is rare for Collab-s. It is the only Collab to have skill-up cards for the gold cards so far, with the Dragon Balls, so hopefully you didn't used your 100% skill-up-pys on them. The existing gold cards also got active skill cool-down reduction so the Collab is really getting a ton of support!

The new cards from the rare egg machine aren't as attractive compared to the previous 2 IMO, the only interesting ones are:
- Gotenks, essentially a buffed-up Blue version of The Grimoire's Theurgia, as well as a good sub for Norn Goddess, Urd. His evolved art featured him using one of his moves from the manga/anime which was really cool. Here's a list of cards with main blue with sub-color red and main red with sub-color blue from Puzzle Dragon X, there are quite a number of farmable subs but I'm not sure if the overall team will be good because of the lack of focus on TPA or Row Enhance for them. With the REM cards, you probably want to go TPA-focus with Orochi and Merlin.
- Raditz for being a weaker version of the Chinese Gods, who has the same board change active skill, but with different additional effect, as Cauchemar which is interesting
- Videl in the evolved form for being a good sub to the Norn Goddess, Verdandi, and Grimoire Series' Almadel. (Fun Fact: She is Gohan's wife in the series and has the same typing as him. It's nice for the Collab to include all this little details for family-related cards, the other being the father and son relationship. Gotenks was an exception though, being a fusion of Goten and Trunks and not going attacker and physical.)

Overall, I think this rare egg machine is worth rolling for, especially if you are a fan. The good news about the machine this time is that the silver eggs of the first, except Piccolo, were removed but the bad news is Tenshinhan, a good sub for green attackers, was removed along with that. Most of the rolls will probably have a use as the silver eggs from Collab 2 are not too bad and if you score a gold egg, it will not be hard to find friend leaders. If you are non-IAP and already have a few of the cards from this series, then consider saving some of your stones for future collabs coming soon like the First of the North Star.

Friday, January 2, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons Japan's New God Festival Exclusive: Norns (Updated)

Update: I found a very useful page with information and sub choices on the Norns: Reddit Norns Wiki Page. If you search for their YouTube videos ("ウルドpt", "ヴェルダンディpt" or "スクルドpt"), you'll notice that most of the subs are just of their main color.

Wiki page on Norns

Stats over at Puzzle Dragon X

They have really interesting Leader Skills with the blue Skuld (the rarer of the 3) standing out for me as she is able to use U&Y and Karin. All 3 benefit from the new "Knight 2 Series" though with perfect color typing. I think the Norns as leaders, are all pretty Rare Egg Machine dependent until more ultimate evolutions and new cards are introduced. (Currently, Urd can use Siegfried, the blue heartbreaker but the main colors are swapped which is awkward. Verdandi is the only one that with matching heartbreaker in Chulainn) As subs, Norns can fill in for mono color teams as well as the Tri-colour Chinese Goddess. (those with lower number of awakenings as well as easier activation)

GameWith Norns' Team suggestions are already up. Good luck to everyone rolling for them!