Gacha, gacha, gacha pon! Banner rolls and pity pulls

[YangusKhan]

the elements of an attack I get, but what's the deal with the little elemental markers on styles? There's cold damage, and then there's a water element, that's associated with styles and weapons instead of skills? I'm guessing that I should equip a +Water weapon to someone who has the water element on their style, but what does it do mechanically? An across-the-board damage buff? A damage buff to specific skills? (cold damage? skills native to a water style but not those inherited from non-water? spells as opposed to weapon skills?)

This stuff only applies to spells. The weapons that get +water only matter for water-element spells. For physical attacks that happen to also be water element, you don't need to have a +water weapon. There's very few styles that use both physical and magic attacks, and when I was playing the game, those styles weren't really that good anyway. This does matter in some special mage cases where a style can use 2 different elements of spells; in that case, you'd want a staff that has both elements on it, otherwise you'll have to pick 1 element to give them a staff for, and the spells of the other element will do much lower damage.

 

[SabreCat]

This stuff only applies to spells. The weapons that get +water only matter for water-element spells. For physical attacks that happen to also be water element, you don't need to have a +water weapon. There's very few styles that use both physical and magic attacks, and when I was playing the game, those styles weren't really that good anyway. This does matter in some special mage cases where a style can use 2 different elements of spells; in that case, you'd want a staff that has both elements on it, otherwise you'll have to pick 1 element to give them a staff for, and the spells of the other element will do much lower damage.

OK, got it, thankya. So I have been doing things correctly, even if I wasn't 100% sure of the mechanics. The Eel Goby Staff (+INT, Water, Dark) from the Conquer the Prefecture event is absolutely purpose-built for Squid Sashimi Rocbouquet (caster with Water, Dark), then, ha.

I think the only mixed weapon/spell Style I'm using right now is Crusader (F), as [May My Prayers Reach You] Sophia. Equipping a strong smashy hammer would help with her Blunt attacks, while equipping a Light element hammer would instead benefit the healing spell and things like inherited Wildfire. Not too big a deal right now, but it sounds like I should keep an eye out for a style that has a strong heal without needing to split the ticket.

 

[Mightyblue]

Blemishine's less a healing tank than a debuffer support tank who heals a bit as part of her skillset; she's best used to stall bosses and other really tanky things while also taking some of the pressure off your healers. There's a few other units that can Sleep units, so you can build a team around stall cheese I guess?

 

[Paul le Fou]

The "Conquering the Prefecture" event in re;UniverSe is pretty generous! There are several ways to get a ticket that fishes up seven guaranteed SS styles. It's a bit overwhelming, even! Styles with Fired Up IV are more common than those with less, now, and I found my first V: [Squid Sashimi Is the Best!] Rocbouquet. She seems pretty strong! +damage vs Weak resistance on top of that Fired Up, occasional free wins via a "charm all opponents" passive, and a boss-melting random-targets spell at the top of her BP list. There's even a convenient S-tier staff that boosts her elements available in the Exchange shop for the event. Such power!

She was my first Fired Up V style too; I actually still use her in my lightning and shadow parties. That staff is invaluable because Any Rocbouquet is basically useless without it, due to the stupid way they do weapon elements. But yeah, attack-all E for 3 BP, a B-damage for 5, and her highest spell is obscenely good, and all dual-element (dual-element is always a benefit, because an enemy can be strong against one element, but damage calculates based on whichever element they're weaker against, so if they're strong against shadow but weak against lightning, OR vice-versa, that spell hits their weakness regardless.) Also, she can use both shadow-only and water-only attacks with that staff, so it allows that style to be an effective healer (or at least sub-healer) if you inherit water of life from another style.

I may be really getting into Romancing SaGa Re; Universe.

T260G! That's the first one that's shown up on a banner since I started playing. It took me rather a lot of free Gems, but I did finally pull it. I don't know if it's good, ha, but it is funny. A counterattack that hits all enemies seems interesting, at least?

T260G [Mission: Gatalympics] shows her true strength once you unlock the other two abilities.

Oh, I see. Having Fire, Blunt, and Pierce all covered there also seems good! I didn't twig to Flame Thrower being remarkable because I've been using [Behold My All-Foes Magic!] Myriam for dishing out fire damage, which, well, it's right there in the name. All-targets Heat Wind at 5BP is a lot more spammable than column-target Flame Thrower at 8.

My perceptions of what characters/styles are strong is kinda warped, though, because the styles I've been using habitually are so built up versus the content I'm engaging with that a new incoming style needs to be really OP to catch my attention. (Hello, Squid Sashimi Rocbouquet.) Eventually I'll run enough Expeditions and whatnot that promising newbies will catch up, though.

That T260G isn't one of my best Styles, but I still use her a lot. Her skills are decent - a cheap attack-all, a nice fire-column, an expensive but powerful two-physical-type skill, and inherit railgun or rocket launcher; She lacks any really high single-target damage but has a lot of good area coverage, and multiple elements. But none of that really matters because her counter is INSANELY good. It's not a chance to proc, it's a guaranteed counter, which is relatively rare even among counter styles. It procs to any physical close-range attack (aggravatingly uncommon at times, but since it's a passive bonus that's always on, it's never bad to have). It can go off however many times she gets hit in a round. If it (or any counter) procs in the middle of a chain of multiple attacks, it stops the chain there. And of course, it hits everybody. She's in the front-line of my all-counter party and will probably never leave. It's totally possible to build a party with her in the front tank role and with a healer or two to keep her up/bring her back up, just let enemies shred themselves on her.

Speaking of damage types: the elements of an attack I get, but what's the deal with the little elemental markers on styles? There's cold damage, and then there's a water element, that's associated with styles and weapons instead of skills? I'm guessing that I should equip a +Water weapon to someone who has the water element on their style, but what does it do mechanically? An across-the-board damage buff? A damage buff to specific skills? (cold damage? skills native to a water style but not those inherited from non-water? spells as opposed to weapon skills?)

Some styles have an elemental affinity built-in. Usually it relates to their attacks (like Undine is water, and has water (and lightning) attacks, while say Blue is "light." But if they have any actual bearing on mechanics I don't know what they are; it's mostly just a shorthand if you're looking for styles with a certain type of skill. Except the filter also lets you filter by attack type without style type, so who knows.

OK, got it, thankya. So I have been doing things correctly, even if I wasn't 100% sure of the mechanics. The Eel Goby Staff (+INT, Water, Dark) from the Conquer the Prefecture event is absolutely purpose-built for Squid Sashimi Rocbouquet (caster with Water, Dark), then, ha.

I think the only mixed weapon/spell Style I'm using right now is Crusader (F), as [May My Prayers Reach You] Sophia. Equipping a strong smashy hammer would help with her Blunt attacks, while equipping a Light element hammer would instead benefit the healing spell and things like inherited Wildfire. Not too big a deal right now, but it sounds like I should keep an eye out for a style that has a strong heal without needing to split the ticket.

Casters are typically your best healers because their heals are usually the same element as their staves, whereas melee fighters will require a specific element of weapon that you'll need to grind for. Even Sophia (though once you do get a Light hammer she does absurd healing). Sophia's a special case since she's a pretty good healer even without a holy weapon, though (and ridiculously good with one. Like, every heal is more than your highest character's max HP, guaranteed).

Healing casters who avoid the element problem (some you may not have access to yet):

• Undine
• Taria
• Rocbouquet, now that you have the dual-element staff
• Princess White Rose
• Muse
• Sasha
• Sensei* - this one's a special case. He's (it's?) a martial artist, but his healing spell seems to scale on his martial arts skills... At least, I don't bother with a water-element fist on him or anything, and the healing he does competitive/useful high amounts. (His style with the heal isn't great, but there's a really good later one that can inherit it.)
• Blue (but only much later, with a recently-released-in-JP style)
• Fulbright the
• Jo* - she has the same problem as Rocbouquet, being dual-element, but you also get a dual-element staff around the same time that can cover her bases for you too.

Once you can grind elemental weapons, you can also use:

• Mei-Ling (light gun)
• Final Empress (light greatsword)
• Albert (light sword) - this one is notable because eventually, as SS weapons become slightly more common, there's an event that gives you a Light-element SS sword.
• Leon/King Leon - see above.
• Volcano - he's fire, but has a summer style with a water-element heal; the same staff Jo uses can let him heal competitively.

Those are just the ones I have, I'm probably missing a few.



By the way, that Taria in the event? The one with the attack-all that does petrify? That petrify spell is ridiculously good. Even without the petrify rider, it's a pretty good attack-all. But, since status proc rates are influenced by INT (and charm), casters also make for your best bets when trying to get stuff like that to stick.

 

[MetManMas]

That T260G isn't one of my best Styles, but I still use her a lot. Her skills are decent - a cheap attack-all, a nice fire-column, an expensive but powerful two-physical-type skill, and inherit railgun or rocket launcher; She lacks any really high single-target damage but has a lot of good area coverage, and multiple elements. But none of that really matters because her counter is INSANELY good. It's not a chance to proc, it's a guaranteed counter, which is relatively rare even among counter styles. It procs to any physical close-range attack (aggravatingly uncommon at times, but since it's a passive bonus that's always on, it's never bad to have). It can go off however many times she gets hit in a round. If it (or any counter) procs in the middle of a chain of multiple attacks, it stops the chain there. And of course, it hits everybody. She's in the front-line of my all-counter party and will probably never leave. It's totally possible to build a party with her in the front tank role and with a healer or two to keep her up/bring her back up, just let enemies shred themselves on her.

I put T260G at the front of the Imperial Cross formation for this very reason. That counter is extremely useful, especially if the enemy party is weak to Blunt.

Got the Taria you mentioned as my healer/petrifier.

 

[Paul le Fou]

I've only recently put together an all-counter party. It has 4 people who have always-counters, and one character who just has a lot of counter skills that you can actually rely on (the only one! It's a later Lion Princess style, who gets a skill called beast scratch that does an attack with decent damage and cost on its own but also puts her in a counter state after it goes off. It means she can actually participate in battle while still playing a counter role, which makes her literally the only character worth using for counters except the ones with passive counter abilities. Technically I just got a second style with that kind of skill but it's brand-new in the JP, so it's way down the line. In general, counter skills are too fucking expensive for how hard they can be to trigger otherwise and how situationally useless they become, and not really nearly powerful enough to make up the difference). It's... it's a lot of fun. Especially if they use a physical attack-all like blade roll and whoops here comes 5 counters right at you.

 

[SabreCat]

EDIT: Deleted something incorrect, I got Water of Life from another SS Rocbouquet style, not the S one

But if they have any actual bearing on mechanics I don't know what they are; it's mostly just a shorthand if you're looking for styles with a certain type of skill. Except the filter also lets you filter by attack type without style type, so who knows.

It's particularly odd because e.g. there's a Wind element, but no such thing as a Wind attack. It seems that Wind maps to Slash, and Earth maps to Blunt, maybe... is there a "piercing" magical element? Thus why I was a little confused how it works.

Even Sophia (though once you do get a Light hammer she does absurd healing). Sophia's a special case since she's a pretty good healer even without a holy weapon, though (and ridiculously good with one. Like, every heal is more than your highest character's max HP, guaranteed).

I had the good fortune of finding a hammer with Light element on it as a random drop from a story quest, very early. It's only A tier, but it supplies 22 WP/SP which is a noticeable enough boost!

By the way, that Taria in the event? The one with the attack-all that does petrify? That petrify spell is ridiculously good. Even without the petrify rider, it's a pretty good attack-all. But, since status proc rates are influenced by INT (and charm), casters also make for your best bets when trying to get stuff like that to stick.

I've been using her when I need cold spells, and yeah, it's pretty sweet. Use it for cold damage vs. all opponents, and then rejoice when sometimes it petrifies an enemy and you just don't have to worry about them for the rest of the fight, hah.

The festival Taria doesn't have any heals, unfortunately, and I don't have any other Taria styles yet. I think maybe there's another Taria on one of the current banners though? I'll have to check, and if so, try a few pulls there. EDIT: OK, looks like [Back to the Good Old Days] Taria is on a ticket summon banner, but it's not one you can just pour Gems into.

In general, counter skills are too fucking expensive for how hard they can be to trigger otherwise and how situationally useless they become, and not really nearly powerful enough to make up the difference).

[What a Drag] Laura has been one of my main fighty people since the beginning, and the counterattack stuff seems to fall into the "unreliable, but a lot of fun when it works" sort of category. Like, it's hilarious to have her in the "draws enemy attacks" position in a formation when you're up against a 3x3 or bigger grid of opponents, and Overdrive into Windmill just slapping them all down one by one. But then there are just as many times when you pour BP into it and it does literally nothing

 

[Mightyblue]

Cleared all the EX challenge missions just now on the current AK event. It's fun! Also the entire set of CM's for these EX missions were pretty....trivial? Most of them I just ran the mission again with the same squad and tactics and walked away with a win, though EX-8 is pretty mean as a baseline.

 

[SabreCat]

Cleared all the EX challenge missions just now on the current AK event. It's fun! Also the entire set of CM's for these EX missions were pretty....trivial? Most of them I just ran the mission again with the same squad and tactics and walked away with a win, though EX-8 is pretty mean as a baseline.

I'm not through all the EX yet, but with what I've done so far, I'd agree with that! E.g. the Challenge being that the frost turrets attack faster... when I'd deployed such that no Operators ever got hit by them anyway...

 

[Büge]

someone wished on a monkey's paw for a way to make Gacha games worse

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1383477418405425153

 

[SabreCat]

good lord.

"Each of your cards has a unique ID! That also melts the planet! It's MONEY"

 

[DFalcon]

I'm not through all the EX yet, but with what I've done so far, I'd agree with that! E.g. the Challenge being that the frost turrets attack faster... when I'd deployed such that no Operators ever got hit by them anyway...

Yeah, I doubt many people deployed anything in that cold zone.
I had to make adjustments on EX-8 and the Gramophones stage, but not much in the rest.

 

[Mightyblue]

Yeah, you'd have to change your approach in 8 if you used the healing tiles to tank things. If you take down the drones though, you get enough stun mines that you don't need to tank anything as long as you're smart about placement and tactical retreats.

 

[DFalcon]

I wasn't tanking bosses, but there was that "See Texas fight two Gloompincers. See Texas die from fighting two Gloompincers." going on post-shift that led me to actually deploy a Medic and move some other help there. (Partly because I gave up on a staggered front line with the lack of room, but anyway.)

 

[Destil]

And that's the end of the record dungeons. Took 6 years but we now know what's going on on the title screen.

The very end of the record dungeons were good. But we didn't need 300 dungeons worth of them. RK's story is such an odd beast, given how it's been dolled out in such a huge number of ways. I kinda like where they ended up with it, honestly, even if the trip wasn't necessary worth it at all times.

 

[Mightyblue]

Is Record Keeper finally in that gacha endstate where there's no real new content, just rereleasing old events and banners until they finally pull the game offline?

 

[Destil]

Oh, no, we've got at least 6 more months. JP is still going strong.

They just ended the Record Dungeons, and with that I think the ongoing story, because that's where it had all ended up (it started with Nightmare then Magicite and some events before being entirely moved there, AFIK Cardia doesn't do anything with the story at all). I don't know if the Labyrinth dungeons that will be the next tier will continue with it, seems like a good way to do it (since they're doing a season/weave thing with spotlight characters every 2 weeks that get build up to full 3 month seasons) but I hadn't heard anything about it.

We'll also get the Shadowsmitrh Dreambreaker next month, witch is another place they could continue things, but I expect we're just fighting him in the context of the existing record dungeon or transcendent fight.

We also get a decent amount of love for the RK OCs (do not steal) in seasonal events like Halloween and Christmas, but they're odd side-stories that don't really tie into the metaplot.

 

[SabreCat]

I've started playing FFXIV again (this was an anticipated occasion; I was waiting for Rosewood to catch up to me in the story), so I couldn't continue sustaining two gachas. Romancing SaGa re;univerSe has gone by the wayside for now. It's a good game, and I did enjoy my time with it, but I find Arknights to be a better design for my tastes in almost every respect. Probably the knockout blow was the sheer volume of daily chores in RSru, magnified by the numerous, overlapping, often brief grind events. It sucks playing catchup to the other side of the planet, I guess!

As for Arknights, though, I'm not playing intensively, but still enjoying all of it. I have my whole 12-person routine squad at E2 now, plus common substitute players Jessica and Amiya; next up are Cliffheart and FEater, so I have 5* Shift operators ready for upcoming stages. I've maxed out all the Annihilation stages. And the "Fan Appreciation" event starting today looks tremendous! When I first saw the news posts, I thought "oh cool, new story content and some free goodies," but on another look, you can scroll down those news posts and they just keep going. New Annihilation stage, operators going into the Recruitment pool, even more free goodies than I'd thought... good times ahead!

EDIT: Rolled 10 on each of the banners, and got Tsukinogi and Firewatch, haha. I need to revisit the tier lists to see if any of these random Operators I'm picking up are supposed to be any good...

 

[SabreCat]

One thing about this event, and many others under the limited-time events trope, very much falls into the "there are no ethical gacha" (as I've heard said, I think it was Freyja Erling on Twitter at last recall) category. These bits exist to get their claws into your FOMO. In increasing order of dubiousness:

"I'd better play more now, or I'm going to miss out." This encompasses things like levels, currencies, achievements, freebie characters, and other goodies only available if you log in, play, grind, etc. during a limited window. I don't mind this level of FOMO exploitation too much, as the behavior it drives is pretty innocuous--more hands-on time with the game! I do resent the feelbad nature of coming to a game late after various events have already passed, and not having any option for experiencing that content but watching VODs of other people having fun with it. Why not offer the levels free for the exclusive period, then let people buy them as DLC afterward? It seems like it'd be a win-win!

"I'd better buy this now, or I'm going to miss out." If the thing in question is only available in a limited time period, and it's attained not via gameplay, but with cash purchases, that's a bit sketchier. In Arknights, for example, alternative costumes for Operators are often available for ~two weeks, at prices in Originium currency one is unlikely to attain simply by playing stages, and then never offered again. I'd feel more comfortable with it if the items in the shop cycled in and out such that you'd get another chance at them a few months down the road, or if there were event sale discounts but the items were available at some markup in the off season. No doubt the analytics have proven that hard availability windows are more effective at getting people to open their wallets. Sigh.

"I'd better gamble hard now, or I'm going to miss out." Limited. F'ing. Operators. Characters available only via randomized pull, only within a limited period, and never again. This is peak gacha bullshit. "Rate up" banners already encourage people to spend extra to try to get a favorite; making it "one in a hundred chance now, ZERO later" is damnright unconscionable.

 

[Destil]

Finally, been at this for months (though not really more than 2-3 attempts a week).

They weren't kidding about the rewards from this being great, though.

 

[Denn]

So, I recently got back into Arknights, having played a bit about a year ago (didn't make it far though). Lost my original file and had to restart. Then I created an alt account to complete a friend mission requirement. Within the first few free rolls they give you, I got Texas, the reason I started playing Arknights in the first place (saw art of her somewhere, thought she looked cool, and figured I'd try the game). Now I'm at the point where I've gotten most of the operators I care about (except for Hoshiguma and Shining, which I had on my previous account, and they kick ass).

So far, I'm very much enjoying things. Arknights manages to scratch whatever itch I'm feeling, whether it be the strategic battles, the simple pleasure of leveling up my units and watching numbers go up, or even just autoplaying levels to gather resources if I'm feeling lazy.

"I'd better play more now, or I'm going to miss out." This encompasses things like levels, currencies, achievements, freebie characters, and other goodies only available if you log in, play, grind, etc. during a limited window. I don't mind this level of FOMO exploitation too much, as the behavior it drives is pretty innocuous--more hands-on time with the game! I do resent the feelbad nature of coming to a game late after various events have already passed, and not having any option for experiencing that content but watching VODs of other people having fun with it. Why not offer the levels free for the exclusive period, then let people buy them as DLC afterward? It seems like it'd be a win-win!

I don't mind this too much. I had a lot of fun with the Maria Nearl event, where I was frantically trying to get through her story while painfully under-leveled. Didn't make it through many of the post-story missions, but I managed to collect all the furniture, which is for some reason very important to me.

On the plus side, it seems like Arknights does do reruns for some events. No idea to what extent or how often, but apparently a few events like Heart of Surging Flame have been rerun.

"I'd better buy this now, or I'm going to miss out." If the thing in question is only available in a limited time period, and it's attained not via gameplay, but with cash purchases, that's a bit sketchier. In Arknights, for example, alternative costumes for Operators are often available for ~two weeks, at prices in Originium currency one is unlikely to attain simply by playing stages, and then never offered again. I'd feel more comfortable with it if the items in the shop cycled in and out such that you'd get another chance at them a few months down the road, or if there were event sale discounts but the items were available at some markup in the off season. No doubt the analytics have proven that hard availability windows are more effective at getting people to open their wallets. Sigh.

I haven't spent much money, but I did buy some pulls when I restarted for the third time and really wanted to get Magallan again (this effort was surprisingly successful, and I got her within ten pulls. I obviously learned a very bad lesson). As for Originium, it doesn't seem to bad. My understanding is that you should only really use it for skins, and maaaybe the level-specific packs. So as long as you don't waste it, you'll have enough to buy outfits for your favorite operators. On the plus side, fashion, while extremely important, doesn't have a gameplay effect, and it seems like most of the costumes are cycled back into rotation, even including event specific ones.

 

[Mightyblue]

Reruns for events and costumes appear to be on a yearly cadence. They also tend to stuff old event costumes into stuff like CC.

 

[SabreCat]

No visits from Rosmontis for me so far, but I have been getting a weird run of luck with Top Operator recruitment tags. One over the weekend, which became +1 Potential for Siege, then another this morning, which paired with AoE became Ifrit. I've deployed her a few times as a Support Unit and had great fun, so I'm likely to throw some resources at her sooner than later.

 

[Denn]

The first time I got the Top Operator tag, I also got Senior Operator. I was a bit upset, but I got Saria, which filled a quality defender gap in my core team, so it wasn't that bad.

 

[Mightyblue]

Yeah, don't forget you get free single pulls daily on the Rosmontis banner until the event ends.

 

[aturtledoesbite]

So, I have been playing Another Eden recently. For those who don't remember, this is the gacha which has Masato Kato writing it; he also was part of Chrono Trigger's Dream Team. The game also features music from Yasunori Mitsuda, also part of the Dream Team.

The event I just completed involved our main hero, a swordsman from 300 AD, helping solve a mystery in the far future of 1100 AD. The mystery involved an unknown android offering students a mysterious "dark apple" with the promise that it would grant their wish. When they ate it, they then fell into a coma as their consciousness enters a "dream world" which, for better or worse (spoilers: it's always worse), does indeed fulfill their deepest wish. The longer a Dream World persists, the less likely it is that the victim will ever wake up again. As such, our hero, along with a group called IDEA (magic, high-tech, paramilitary student council), attempts to enter these Dream Worlds in order to wake the victim up.

Let's take a look at the two characters we see eat a dark apple and create a Dream World.
The first is a girl who was experimented on by her father. In these experiments, she acquired a magical power over ice that she can't fully control. When this power led to her endangering her friends and leading her to believe that no one wanted her around, she took the dark apple with the wish of being eternally locked away, unable to hurt anyone anymore.
The second is a girl who has had a debilitating sickness for a long, long time. Her mother had the same sickness and undertook an operation to attempt to be cured... but it failed, and she died from it. As such, the girl had no hope of ever being cured, trapped in her hospital bed until eventually passing away. She took the dark apple with the wish of being able to spread her wings and fly across the city with the person she idolized.

In both cases, the victims only woke up once the underlying beliefs for creating the worlds was refuted. The first involved the girl's brother, along with the hero's group, convincing her that she *was* wanted, and they'd gladly be her friends and help her learn to control her power (and also had the HP to shrug off the occasional icicle to the gut >_>). The second involved showing the girl new research in the necessary operation following her mother's death, along with general medical advances, making her situation not as hopeless as she believed, as well as the promise from a friend to be with her every step of the way.

Now, abstracting them a little bit, these are pretty good stories about struggling with depression. You might think the third event in the series would go in a similar direction.

Instead, the third event involves the hero, as well as one of the more talented members of IDEA, proactively looking for clues in the absence of a new incident. They go to speak with one of the recently recovered victims, a girl who is developing a new video game, a VR MMO. On learning that she incorporated ideas from her Dream World in the game after waking up, they offer to help playtest the game as part of their investigation.

In other words, our medieval swordsman has to become an MMO junkie in order to unravel a deadly conspiracy.

Gacha games are weird.

 

[Mightyblue]

Good god I forgot how relentlessly depressing the main story is in Arknights.

 

[Denn]

I haven't played too far into the story, but I know what you mean. The writing seems a bit off, or at least bland at times. I get the feeling that it might just be the result of a fairly uninspired translation though. The Maria Nearl event felt like it had way better writing than anything I've seen in the main story thus far (I'm near the end of Episode 04), so maybe this is something that was improved overtime?

 

[Mightyblue]

The later stuff is passably localized, but chapter 8 caps off with a series of big villain speech moments from a villain that both the player and the villain's in-game audience know is full of shit, so it basically turns into a big pile of melodrama I tapped my way through as quickly as possible.

 

[SabreCat]

"She's using... her Arts...?!?"