I am but a humble Shrimp.

[Dragon Lord]

That's pretty neat! Shane it wasn't through somewhere like Amazon that can ship stuff in a day and it just magically arrived today. Although maybe Tuesday is better given work taking up your time before then, unless work is gonna be as restrictive at that time too.

Do any of the games you play do anything for it being your birthday today?

Unfortunately I work Tuesday night, so depending on when the tablet arrives Tuesday, I may not get to tinker with it for long, or at all.

You get a birthday cake item in Genshin, but that's the only game that does anything of that sort. I knew it'd be happening since I got one last year as well, so figured it'd be a yearly thing in Genshin. Unfortunately the cake doesn't do anything other than be a little collectable to have.

[Karo]

Happy Late Birthday Night Lord sorry for the late one! >.<

[Mr EliteL]

Frick, I missed it...again. At least you should be enjoying gaming time or are resting for another gaming day before work starts up again. So happy belated birthday, DL!

[Maniakkid25]

I'm late for the birfday wishes. Sorry bout thay, hope your birfday was good, and don't be mad at me for not stopping by to say anything plz

[Moonface]

Just looked at the videos of Fubuki you shared and I wonder how many people have forked over money only to get friend zoned.

I noticed it in your signature the other day and finally remembered to actually ask about it, but is 10/50 Platinum trophies for the year accurate (just in case you didn't update the stat)? If so, do you think you set the goal too high or did something just prevent you from getting as close to that goal as you would've liked?

[Dragon Lord]

A lot. After the first time, it obviously became a huge in-community joke, and now people send super chats to her asking her to be their waifu just so they can join the friendzone'd club. Or sending her one calling her a cat just to she'll yell at them that she is a fox, not a cat.

It is accurate, unfortunately. The goal was definitely not too high. The problem though is that Genshin Impact and mobile games (Azur Lane and Arknights, and now Revived Witch on top of them) have consumed a good 95% of my gaming time this past year. I could have easily surpassed the 50 platinum mark, but I just haven't been able to pull myself away from Genshin Imapct long enough to work on other games.

[Karo]

Night Lord I have a question in term of % of things you have completed in Genshin where would you consider yourself to be at? Like I know its an online game and there are TONS of things to do, but much like in FFXIV I do bet there is one point where you reach where the main story is completed and you unlocked all the characters so where would you say you are on the completionist percentage for it?

Also as someone that doesn't play mobile games what ended up drawing you into try these one that you been playing and how would you compare them to say your regular console games that you play? I'm mainly asking cause I am curious about the quality of mobile games really have reached, I still can't really see myself taking the time to play one on my phone, but there might be something there that I am missing.

[Moonface]

I did get some nice news on my birthday though. Checked my email and saw that my new tablet, which was originally estimated to arrive December 7th, has been shipped and should be here by Tuesday at the latest! So that's pretty great news. Can't wait to get my hands on that baby.

Was that tablet the only thing you got for your birthday?
Also do you have a number in mind yet for how many Platinum's you'll try to get next year?

[Dragon Lord]

@Karo - In terms of completion % in Genshin, I'm close to 100. I have some side-stuff to do still (little hangout events that some characters have), plus I've yet to re-comb the entirety of the world map for any chests/puzzles/challenges I've missed. Outside of that, I've completed all other content in the game.

As for what drew me into the mobile games I play... Well, for Azur Lane, it's because I saw a streamer I follow playing it, and I thought it looked really cute and interesting, so I ended up downloading it and falling in love with it. I love the characters and the team-building aspect of the game. It's free of the trash that is male characters, so that definitely gives it a boost for me as well.

Arknights drew me in because of the combat system. I never really cared for Tower Defense games before, but Arknights put a whole new spin on it and really turned up the strategy required for this game. Especially if you want to clear the content with low rarity operators. Even with a team of the most powerful Ops, you're still going to have to play smart and utilize good strategy, which is something that 99.99% of other tower defense games lack. I also enjoy a lot of the characters, even if this one does have disgusting male characters in it (I do like some of them though, but I always gotta shit on males).

Revived Witch drew me in because of the pixel art style, the exploration and the combat. Character designs and music were also big factors in drawing me in. So far I've been really enjoying the game and it's been worth investing my time and some money into so far.

Blue Archive drew me in 100% because of the cute waifus in it. I was actually about to drop the game because as an equipment based game, it becomes much harder for F2P to progress through the game, and while I enjoy the art, style and characters, I'm not interested in dropping money on this one. But then a character by the name of Izuna dropped and she's just too adorable for me to abandon. This one is 100% about the waifu enjoyment.

The rest of the mobile games I've tried, I've dropped for various reasons (bad gameplay, pushing to whale too hard, etc.), but these four are the ones that have been able to stick and keep their place among my devices. There's a Hatsune Miku rhythm game releasing soon too, and I expect that one will also take up permanent residence on my phone/tablet as well.

Short answer: All of them have different aspects that draw me in and make me enjoy the games a lot. As for the quality vs console/AAA games, I don't really like to do that. Obviously mobile games don't have the graphics/depth of a AAA game, but they all have different things to enjoy about them. Whether it's the insanely high quality character artwork or the gameplay or just the grinding, I find something to enjoy about each one and they all deserve my time and effort.

Obviously Genshin Impact would also fall under the category of mobile game, but I didn't talk about that one here because Genshin is the huge exception when it comes to production value. MiHoYo took a huge risk sinking as much cost into making Genshin as they did and it paid off huge for them, but it could have easily backfired and ruined them.

@Moonface - I also received $100 from my mother to go towards getting my gaming PC as well. As for how many platinums I plan on getting next year? That's a hard one to decide. Obviously I'm going to have a new, shiny, beastly gaming rig to enjoy, but that doesn't mean I'm going to ditch my PS4/PS5 either. I'll still likely get most multi-plat games on PS4/PS5 for the trohpies/platinum, and then double dip on Steam if I decide I like the game enough to play it again and 100% it there. Being able to play Genshin on PC should help though, as that frees up my TV and PS5 for other games instead, so I might go for 50 again next year.

[Moonface]

I forget if I asked you this, but did you ever play the Nier mobile game that came out earlier this year?

Also because I just learned about it while looking up something for another post, did you ever play the Azur Lane console game, Azur Lane Crosswave?

[Dragon Lord]

I was very hyped for the NieR mobile game, up until I played the open beta test and began to realize how quickly the gameplay was going to become stale. Then when the game officially released, I was trying to re-roll for a good start and the pull rates were just so bad that it was impossible to get a good one. So after like 2-3 days of re-rolling, and missing out on those daily log-ins and daily missions rewards, I just decided to give up on it. I was pretty bummed that a game I had been so excited for turned out to sour for me that fast, but that's the gacha gaming life. Same thing happened with Tales of Crestoria, Tales of Luminaria, Disgaea RPG, Atelier Online and Mithra Sphere. Started out feeling good about all of them, but in the end none of them could last. Just makes me appreciate the games that were able to stick even more. Over three years of playing Azur Lane, coming up to the two year mark in Arknights, and Revived Witch so far has proven to be a game that's going to stick with me until the end as well.

And yes, I have played Crosswave. I have the platinum for it on PS4, of course. It was made by one of my favorite companies (Compile Heart -- creators of the Hyperdimension Neptunia series), so I knew about it the moment it was announced in Japan. Fun fact: Compile Heart is actually making another Azur Lane console game, though no more information has been released about it other than that it is being developed. No idea if it's going to be a Crosswave sequel with the same type of gameplay or something completely different. Either way, I am excited for anything Azur Lane related. Hopefully we'll find out more about the game soon.

[Moonface]

Do you ever consider any other factors when spending money in a gacha game other than whether you like it, i.e. how likely it will continue to be supported?

Also I've been watching a streamer playing Dark Souls 2 lately and they were going through an area with a lot of poisonous pits that have really low visibility, and for me those areas just look really annoying to deal with because it just forces you to spam heals to avoid dying. What did you think of that area, if you can recall your experience with it?

[Dragon Lord]

Whether I like the game, like the characters, like the character art (when it comes to games that offer lots of skins, like Azur Lane), how I like the gameplay, and yes, whether or not I think the game is going to have longevity. That's why I will no longer spend money on Square Enix mobile games, because I cannot trust them not to shut the game down after a year. Same with Bandai Namco mobile games.

Azur Lane has been going on for three years in English so far and looks to not be stopping any time soon. Yostar as a publisher really knows what they are doing and that's going to translate into a nice, long life for the game.

Arknights is doing incredibly well, and with Yostar once again behind the wheel as publisher, there's definitely a bright future for the game. It also just got announced that they are going to add English voices to all of the characters in the game, so that must be a very good sign of how well the English version of the game is doing. Granted voice acting in this game is minimal, with characters voices only being heard when deployed in battle, when their skills are used, or on the victory screen when you win, but it's still a good sign.

Genshin speaks for itself. It's basically been the #1 grossing mobile game since it released in September 2020. The game made over $66,000,000 in December 2021 alone, and that's only counting the Android/iOS sales. PC and PS4/PS5 sales are not included, so it could be much, much higher than that. MiHoYo also has a 10-year plan for the game, and so far there's been nothing to indicate they plan to deviate from that schedule at all, so I shouldn't have to worry about Genshin shutting down any time in the foreseeable future.

Revived Witch is the only game I've spent semi-heavily on so far that I'm kind of sus about. The Global version is being published by Yostar once again, so I know it's in good hands when it comes to the publisher. However, its sales have been middling at best so far (around $700,000 in December 2021, combined between Korean, Japanese and Global servers), so there's a bit of worry about the future of this one. Hopefully they stick it out and the game picks up steam, but sadly I could see this game going down within a couple of years if it continues at the pace it's going.

So there's a little insight into each of the gacha games I spend money on. It basically comes down to giving me a huge game with lots to do and cute girls (Genshin) or get Yostar to publish the Global version of your game.

As for that area in Dark Souls 2, it seems a bit annoying at first, but it's actually not that bad. Lifegems pretty much counteract poison, so that becomes a non-factor for the most part. The only big issue with it is if you fall into one of the pits and you don't know the area well, it can be pretty annoying to get your bearings again. Outside of that the area is much better as the poisonous area than Blighttown from Dark Souls or Valley of Defilement from Demon's Souls.

[Karo]

Now that you have a gaming PC Night Lord do you think you'll give into the PC master race or will your PS5 still be the number one way of gaming in your heart?

When I got my first PC I could actually play game with I found myself slowly moving away from console gaming, but what has your experience been so far?

[Dragon Lord]

PS5 will likely remain my "main" choice when it comes to new games/playing games for the first time, to continue to grow my trophy count. While PC will be for games that aren't on PS4/PS5 or games that I'm deciding to double dip on. For example: I'll likely get Elden Ring on both PS5 and eventually PC, but PS5 will be my first playthrough/100%ing of the game, and then I'll dive in again on PC to double 100% it.

It also helps that the PS5 version of Genshin is better than the PC version, so that gives me more incentive to stay on PS5 mainly as well.