Soul Reverse

August 31, 2018August 31, 2018 / outerakiba / Leave a comment

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A newer game to hit the arcades is Sega’s Soul Reverse, using the same cabinet that Fate/GO uses without the card printing ability. The control layout is similar but a little more complex with 4 buttons instead of 2. It’s not bad value wise as everyday you get a free credit to play with, on top of being able to buy more “time.” Time being the system inplace that newer titles have been using such as Kantai Collection and Fate/GO, where you can buy a limited amount of time to play and then that timer ticks down constantly as you play.

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Soul Reverse features a pretty standard console like equipment screen where you can change out your settings and view stats. Your characters appearance dynamically changes as well. I should mention that the character creator is actually pretty good for an arcade title.

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Gameplay plays out on a rather large map with two teams fighting in real time to take over territory and capture objectives. A few bosses exist through out the map for each side as well that are actually quite strong can obliterate you with ease. Throughout the map a few action spots exist where you can mount a raptor or man a cannon, though they didn’t seem to have much use in the early stages.

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As you fight forward you can fill your special Soul gauges which allow you to transform into a several types of heroic legends and you gain some pretty massive bonuses. They seem to be pretty much required to have a chance at killing the enemy’s bosses, at least at the early levels.

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At the end of every match your rewarded with what everyone loves, loot. Your not guranteed loot for your main class, but it also allows you to switch classes whenever you feel like it so that’s not really a bad thing. You can liquidate any excess loot as well for materials to strengthen your equipment as well.

All in all it’s a fairly fun game, but I feel like it’s just short of being awesome. It doesn’t seem very popular currently, but I would like to see it gain some legs, maybe the upcoming Persona collaboration will help.

Fate/GO Arcade

August 30, 2018 / outerakiba / 1 Comment

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Riding off the massive success that is the Mobile Game, it was really only inevitable that an arcade version would be in the works. And it sure is something, Aside from everything being rendered in decently sharp looking anime style 3D as opposed to the 2D sprite based mobile game. It offers rather simple gameplay that even non Japanese speaking players should be able to handle without much difficulty.

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The controls consist of two buttons, the smaller attack button which is mashed and mashed to attack and the larger Noble Phantasm button which unsurprisingly unleashes your current servants Noble Phantasm, aka Super Move, for those who are unfamiliar with the Fate franchise. As well as the fake joystick which is controlled with the smaller joystick on top to move around. I often tried to pull the entire stick. A pretty odd design choice.

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As anyone who has played the mobile version will see, the UI is practically identical with few arcade only exceptions such as the GP meter or card reading button. Thats right, card reading button. Using the same system as Kantai Collection, at the end of every mission you complete you are offered the chance to summon a servant or craft essence for 100 yen. You can also do a 10 pull gacha for, you guessed it, 1000 yen. When you do your summon, you get a rather nice looking card printed off that you can then take with you and use. The downside is the game can be ridiculously expensive if you start pulling after every mission. I would recommend scouting out several card shops in the area and direct purchasing the card you want. On the flip side, once you have everything you need you can play for a long period of time off the 100 or 300 yen buy in.

Noble Phantasm in action.

I haven’t seen the full card list yet, but It seems like currently a lot of the popular “waifu” class servants are missing in action. I suppose it is smart of them to roll them out slowly so the whales spend hard every so often.

To go back to gameplay, it’s controlled in a full 3D space where you can run around and dodge at will the incoming attacks. You only control one servant at a time as opposed to the three in the mobage, each with their own attacks. The Arts Buster and Quick system also makes a comeback as your attacks are chosen randomly from your servants stock and those effects from the mobage also take place.

Caesar got the short end of the stick with his character…

Right now I feel as if this game is a bit too shallow in story mode, there is a PVP mode which I have yet to try that seems to be fairly popular that I will need to give a go. For now though, unless your a major fan of the Fate franchise I wouldn’t invest a lot of time in this game, there are simply better out there.

Akihabara Report – Day .5

August 29, 2018 / outerakiba / Leave a comment

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Arriving around 5pm to my hotel, I wanted to settle in and deairplane myself for a bit before getting down to business. Wanting nothing more than to hit Pepper Lunch before heading to any arcades that was the first plan. There’s no image or anything special because it was gone just about as quickly as it came. With that in order, it was time to check out some stores before they closed at 8pm, nothing major just some scouting.

Night one was just a brief reintroduction to the arcade culture as its been a year since the last visit. And a year makes all the difference. new games come and old games go with new games such as Fate GO popping up based on the mobile game, while others like Border Break have dwindled considerably.

Fate/GO…More to come later.

While the old standbys like Kancolle and Love Live still have their space, they are old news. Kancolle mostly due to Azur Lane supplanting it as the Ship Girl of choice mobile game, and Love Live’s in a downturn between series.

My personal favorite Wonderland Wars is still going strong, while not as promenant as it used to be at my primary arcade, its still notably popular and the other Sega Arcade nearby having many more machines than it used too, my guess is they moved several over.

New Character event in progress!

The hot rhythm game this year is Ongeki, it looks like it has a very interesting style setup where its almost like a cross between Theathrythm with Museca. As you have a party of characters who fight towards an end goal but its much more intense.

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