#Like I've played other gachas before too.. But never up to 100 days..

[the--firevenus]

A HUNDRED DAY LOGGED IN!!!!!... Damn that's crazy, how did I get here

[captaindysdexic]

My problem with Twisted Wonderland

As someone who used to consistently play every single day for months, I've got a lot of issues. Let me preface this by saying I know nothing I'm saying will change the game and how it runs, I just want to come here and rant about the game I used to love.

Rant below the cut

My biggest problem is how grindy the game is, especially as a strict f2p player.

As someone who's never spent money on the game, it is so easy to tell how much of a cash grab the game is. The people that work on the game care about it I'm sure, but it is so hard to do anything in this game.

It's hard to get SSR cards, not only because the Gacha system is hella fucked up, but because it's hard to get enough gems to get pulls. Yeah we've got weekly and the logins, but that's so not enough unless you save for a card months in advance.

When you're a new player they give you some leeway, lots of free stuff because all the easy missions are meant for that, but as you get further and further into the game it's extremely hard to get even a 10 pull unless you're on the game basically 24/7.

As someone who is rank 72- and again, played almost religiously for months- it's hard to enjoy the game.

And I know as the story goes on it's meant to be harder, but because of how little they give you it's hard to get past the story as it goes on. It's hard leveling cards up, especially the spells.

It would be nicer if they gave you more materials or gems, that would make all the grind worth it, but that's not how it is. Hell, even events barely give you any pulls and yet they expect you to spend hours doing lessons to unlock the chapters and leveling up the free cards. Someone who's f2p (in my and my friends experience) will find it hard to get motivation to continue playing.

I want to continue playing, I love the characters and the story, but it's so hard to level up cards, or get pulls, that it breaks my heart and makes me want to not continue because I know I won't ever get that card I want, that I won't be able to get past this chapter, that I won't be able to finish an event fully because of the system.

It's so obvious they don't care about f2p's because reruns and even some event banners are strictly p2p things. Rerun banners require special keys that are pay-walled, event banners like the anime expo ones or special non-event related ones are pay-walled, THEY'RE ALL PAY-WALLED.

To me it is extremely frustrating to know that the developers don't seem to care about the fan base at all.

I mentioned earlier about the Gacha system, which I find really, REALLY dumb. 100 pulls for a guaranteed SSR? 200 needed for the event SSR? That's so dumb! Even if you were p2p you'd have to have some extreme luck to get an event card before at least 70 (which it's hard to get if you're far in game and f2p). In my experience, all the event cards I have that are SSR's (WHICH IS 2 BTW, ive been playing since idia's groom event and only have TWO EVENT CARDS EVEN WITH CONSTANT GRIND) I had to do over 70-80 pulls for and spent weeks grinding for. Not to mention pity doesn't carry over to other banners.

Speaking of events, I swear to god the events are getting shorter and shorter every time. The Stitch event that just passed? I swear it only lasted 3-4 weeks, banners ended way too quickly for any f2p that wasn't saving to pull without extreme luck to get any SSR card, got forbid the event exclusive ones. I got like 25 pulls during that event and 10 of those were because it was Kalim's birthday. It's extremely dumb and next thing you know it events will be lasting only a week or two and you're probably fucked over.

Anyways, that's basically all I have to say. There are a lot of things that frustrate me, like how they do events and some characters stuff, but I can't bother to put it here because I'm not as pressed about that stuff as I am about the stuff I did talk about.

I'm aware that people probably won't read this, but it's nice to get off my chest y'know? I'm going to continue to play the game, but I'll never play as constantly as I did when I first started because it's so hard to play and find motivation for it anymore.

[cr-another-kingdom]

Sugar Note Cookie

Made of low-fat sugar, and accidentally stirred in full-sugar sprinkles, Sugar Note Cookie was baked and showed the world his attempts at rock 'n roll! Of course, he's not perfect like any Cookie is, yet he yearns to be as good as Rockstar Cookie. Maybe he'll get inspiration with more sugar...

psst! theres more under the cut!

Quotes  ;

General

The show must go on.

Have you listened to Rockstar Cookie's newest album?

I will play this guitar, forevermore..

I prefer to listen to music most of the time.

Rock is my jam... and other music genres, I guess.

The names Sugar Note Cookie, uh, please don't forget it.

I'm still an up-and-coming musician...

My parents always told me I was musically talented.

One day I hope to meet Rockstar Cookie himself...!

Have you heard of this other musician lately? Parfait Cookie, I believe...

I don't see myself being as popular as other musicians.

Tired 

Bleeeh ...

Daily Gift

Here's a tune you'll like ...

Tap

Hello.

Do you want to hear a chord I just thought of?

Woo...!

Rockstar Cookie is my inspiration...

I want to be just as good as that Cookie...!

... ♪ ♫…

I want to run across the world to share my tunes... (Like hint)

Bright stage lights scare me... (Dislike hint)

Gift

Too sugary... but it's my favourite. (Given 100% Sugar Sprinkles)

Now every Cookie can hear my tunes... sick! (Given Breakout Ticket)

Bwah! Too bright...! (Given Gray Sugar Crystal)

Woah... Rockin... (Given Golden Royal Dough)

Thank you. (Neutral)

KINGDOM ;

Epic - Middle - Support

Made of low-fat sugar, and accidentally stirred in full-sugar sprinkles, Sugar Note Cookie was baked and showed the world his attempts at rock 'n roll! Of course, he's not perfect like any Cookie is, yet he yearns to be as good as Rockstar Cookie. Since debuting with some of his 'tunes', he's managed to catch the eye of quite a few Cookies—including Rockstar Cookie himself! And with the energy, will it really shine upon his heart and give him the courage he needs?

GACHA PREPULL  ;

Hello, everyone!

GACHA  ;

I'll play these tunes thousands of times..!

WISH  ;

If it will help me get better...

LOADING SCREEN  ;

Please don't make me regret this!

My melody can support us all!

I'll take em' head-on...!

Don't do anything too rash, okay?

Be careful! Please?

SKILL  ;

Hear my melody!

VICTORY  ;

Huh? Just like that?!

I hope my idol is proud of me...!

I did the best that I could!

DEFEAT  ;

Blehh...

... Maybe next time we'll rock...?

If I was just a bit better...

KNOCKOUT  ;

I failed...!

PROMOTION  ;

My dream is to be as great as Rockstar Cookie...

I could never truly preform any of my... 'Music'.

I still hope that I can get better!

This calls for a victory song!

Wow... have I gotten better...?!

ASCENSION  ;

This time...! with more courage!

Let's do this one more time...!

This calls for a victory song!

I still hope that I can get better!

I'm not perfect, but it doesn't hurt to try...!

LEVEL UP  ;

I've never had this before...

Sugary... Just like my dough...!

I think my Tunes just got better!

... Could I have some more, please...?

Is this what Rock Spirit is? Amazing...!

Too sugary... Almost like that one ingredient, ha ha!

I can be stronger for that special Cookie now...

Yayy...! I'm stronger now!

KINGDOM  ;

... Hello!

Just like you mean the whole world to me... ♪ ♫

Other Cookies have heard my Tunes...?! Wow...

Rockstar Cookie is my idol! I strive to be like him in the music industry...

My music? Oh, I call them Tunes instead.

♪ ♫ !

My body can live off of just sugar! Kind of cool, right?

Um... Wanna hear a chord I made?

Uh...! Have you heard Rockstar Cookie's new album?

... You're a Coconut, right? Haven't seen one for myself...!

Awawa... I can't believe Rockstar Cookie liked my song..!

COOKIE INFO  ;

I could never share my... 'Music'... to the world.

I dropped out of school for my Tunes!

New Cookies make me anxious, he he...!

My dream is to be like Rockstar Cookie...!

I used to be in the music club, then I learned about Rockstar Cookie's songs.

The spirit of rock...!

I admit, I'm not the best at much, he he..

I never leave my home without my full-sugar sprinkle toppings!

First day out of the oven... I showed my attempt at Rock 'n Roll!

I'm not gonna JUST rock out—I'm gonna EMBODY it!

Battling Alongside Rockstar Cookie  ;

R : Are you ready to ROCK?!

SN : Don't do anything rash, okay?

R : I know you've been waitin' for it!

SN : I'll play these tunes thousands of times...!

R : Let's hit the stage!

SN : I'm not perfect, but it doesn't hurt to try...!

[jeff-from-marketing]

So Baldur's Gate 3 has now fully released, and it kinda fucks?

Okay more than kinda, Baldur's Gate 3 should be the new standard for larger studios in terms of quality and, more importantly, how they treat players. I can't believe I'm saying that about a D&D game.

So for context to that last bit: I'm super fucking jaded on D&D. I've pretty much jumped ship entirely to any other TTRPG (namely Pathfinder 2e) because I hate how Wizards of the Coast have handled D&D 5e and how they treat their customers.

I fucking love Baldur's Gate 3. It's still got some of the D&D things I'm not overly fond of, but that's a personal taste thing, and overall this game fucking rules. Larian is really out here just making D&D a more fun experience than the actual Wizards of the Coast, it's honestly kinda wild.

But more than just in the context of "a D&D game" I want to talk about Baldur's Gate 3 in the larger scope of videogames as a whole, primarily in the triple A scene. There's a reason Baldur's Gate 3 is doing so well and why it's very quickly become so beloved, and it's not just because of the bear sex. That reason can be largely boiled down to "Larian respects their playerbase, and more importantly respects their money." Too often we're seeing games from big triple A companies that already have way too much fucking money just being absolutely filled beyond the brim with monetisation for something that's likely already $90-100 AUD. Or worse: games that borderline lie to you about how much they cost, Destiny 2 I'm fucking looking at you and your "genuinely the worst monetisation I have seen in a game." Or just straight up gacha games that are purpose built to fuck you out of your money and use similar tricks that the gambling industry uses to make money.

But Baldur's Gate 3? Pay the full price up front, and you get a full game. There's no hidden "gotcha!" monetisation, no battlepasses, no rotating digital storefront, no fake "premium" currency, no "but it's only cosmetic" microtransactions. I'm not even gonna gripe against their pre-order stuff like I normally would, because you could actually play the game before it was released. Baldur's Gate 3 was in Early Access for literal years before it fully released, and it used that time quite well! It's fascinating seeing where it came from and how much has changed since then. But more importantly: if you "pre-ordered" the game (read: buy it in Early Access) you could still play the game, you still immediately got something for your money. If you didn't like it, you could still refund it if you wanted to. As a nice little bonus: the game mostly just works! It's not perfect, there's some little oddities here and there, but I haven't had the game break yet. But then again, I'm one of the people who somehow managed to have a pretty bug-free Cyberpunk 2077 experience at launch, so who knows.

And plus it comes with couch co-op! Why is that so rare these days?? It feels like the only games you can really sit down with and play with friends these days are party games.

Of course, Baldur's Gate 3 isn't truly alone here. Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West have come out as full games with no monetisation BS and working fine, albeit stuck to PlayStation for a long time before releasing elsewhere (although BG3 is currently PC exclusive, though that should change next month). God of War, while I've not personally played, I haven't heard anything egregious about it. Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is such a fun time, but at $125 AUD it's a hard sell, even knowing all the work that went into it (Though that did drop to just $95 AUD on PC). I'm even going to give Cyberpunk 2077 an honourable mention, because if you had a computer that could run it at launch it was still a damn good time. Though that one unfortunately came at the cost of "should never have been released on last gen consoles" and "worker abuse through crunch."

But all of those examples have the "pre-order to maybe get something" issue that Baldur's Gate 3 avoided through its Early Access launch. You also can't really share those games with friends. You can maybe let a friend borrow the game and then talk about it after you've both finished it in your own time, but that's kinda like watching a movie separately and then talking about it. It's just not the same. That's not even mentioning how small that list is. I'd say it's just single player games, but both Bethesda and Ubisoft have shown even they're not safe.

I haven't seen any game from a large studio respect the player as much as I have with Larian and Baldur's Gate 3. I definitely don't feel bad paying full price for this one. Once they're wrapped up with BG3, I don't suppose I could bribe them to make a Pathfinder game? Pretty please? Already like halfway there with Divinity: Original Sin 2!

[eaglefairy]

I think, at some point earlier in this liveblog, I said that I've never played a game that felt so dedicated to making me dislike it while I'm trying to enjoy it, and however many hours later I am into x*noblade 2, this is still 100% true.

I think the worst part for me is that it's not just the gameplay or just the story/worldbuilding/etc I have problems with. It's both. The map and the menus are both far worse and less navigable than the first game (I'm about to redo my equipment soon and I am dreading that), and everything is so horribly explained that I genuinely gave up during chapter 3 on my first playthrough. (To be fair, this game at launch had a lot more issues than it does now, and a lot of things got fixed with the dlc and patches. Speaking of which...)

I sincerely dislike nearly every single aspect of the blade system. It was DEFINITELY one of the main things that made me drop this game back in 2017. I was failing constantly in battle because I didn't know what I was doing, so naturally I wanted to get more blades. But it was Gormott in chapter 2: the only option available to me was the gacha. But again: 2017, so I didn't have access to all the crystals in the DLC, so I could barely summon any blades! Not to mention how the game completely betrays you, the player, by giving you Tora as the third party member when he can only equip the Poppis. One thing that is crystal clear is that the core gameplay loop of this game is built around chain attacks (which aren't unlocked until chapter 3, by the way). This game's combat is at its best when every Driver is equipped with 3 blades, and that is literally impossible for Tora until over halfway into the game! Not to mention Tiger Tiger, which is a minigame from hell (and didn't have easy mode at launch, just saying).

Oh, but that's only the gameplay aspect! There's still blade designs and lore to talk about! Blade designs...okay. listen. I don't like how a lot of the blades look, I will say that upfront, and it is because of the designs of the female blades being so sexualized. However, that isn't actually my only problem with Blade designs. Honestly, I'm more disappointed that there aren't more cool animal blades. Like, we got Dromarch! And that's about it. There are some other monstery rare blades like Wulfric and Boreas, but the vast majority are just Hot Anime Tiddie Women and frankly I feel like that's a failure of imagination. And blade lore. I know I've said this a lot before, I'm waiting to say my full piece on this until I have full context, but the pieces I have are not looking good. (Thinking about how the first thing the party asks Vess when they meet her is "Where's your Driver?" still eats at me tbh.) Bonus points for synergizing in the worst possible way with the gacha mechanic: one of the thematic cores of this game is that blades are people and not just weapons of mass destruction, which is why I've summoned and discarded at least 100 of them in the past few days trying to get the specific one I want to optimize my build. As for the combat, I will give it this: I have warmed up to it significantly over time. Now that I know how pouch items work, what the intended flow of combat is, and have enough blades on my characters that I can always switch to have new arts refreshed, I'm enjoying it a lot more. That doesn't mean it doesn't have problems, though! I feel like Torna really encapsulates what this game's combat should've been; I had much more fun playing through that than I did the base game, for sure. Even though the way they did chain attacks in this game is fun and interesting, it just takes way too long. For context, chain attacks are extended by breaking element orbs that you've placed on the enemy in preparation. Element orbs are placed on the enemy by completing combos, which require 3 special attacks done in a specific order of elements to complete. There are 8 elements in the game, which means if you want to use chain attacks to their fullest extent, you have to do 24 special attacks. In order. While relying on the AI to pull up the blades you need on the party members you aren't controlling. This means that a lot of unique monsters and bosses have these oceans of HP to slog through because they need that much HP to just survive to the point where you can do a chain attack. Regular enemies thankfully don't suffer from the same HP problem, but they have a different problem (that crops up in 3 as well). Chain attacks just...aren't useful to fight them, the most common enemies in the game. Chain attacks may have been unreliable in 1, but when the enemy being targeted died the chain attack would swap to focus on a different enemy. This gave them utility against both bosses and packs of regular enemies. They don't do that in either of the following games, meaning that for a lot of battles that are challenging in a different way from singular tough enemies, one of your strongest strategies is almost useless.

Edit: forgot about this while I was writing but came back to say: my brain is not big enough to account for both driver combos AND blade combos. It just isn't, that or I just don't have the willpower to sort through everything to make sure I have at least one blade of every element AND at least one of break, topple, launch, and smash on all my characters. It's not happening. Will my gameplay experience suffer for it? I don't know! Just add it to the list of mechanics in this series I don't fully understand and we'll be good.

As for everything else...I don't know, man. The pacing is slow and bored me to tears in the beginning, the main villains are either very interesting or very annoying, I want to punt Tora into the sun at all times (and not in the vaguely affectionate way I feel about Issun in Okami), and the game is addicted to splitting the party all the time when frankly it should know that its at its best when there are 3 members with 3 blades who can do chain attacks. Honestly, I think my feelings on the game can be summed up by the words of many other people. People who, when asked if x*noblade 2 is worth it, tell the asker "it has a slow beginning but it gets good starting in chapter 5." Which is true, but...the game only has 10 chapters. That's not just a slow beginning, that's literally the whole first half of the game that you're writing off!

[seelestia]

My oh my you're gonna bring me to tears as well my dear author :'''D (this is actually also the first time I'm being an anon for someone hehehe)

A special spot? Reserved?? For me???

NANI ?! :''O

Thank you so much for that- you just made my entire day for real :'D

Venti plus angst? Two of my favs given for free? I'd love nothing more :D but let's wait til you open requests so I can at least play fair with the other askers/requesters ehe ;))

Also ! With the upcoming update for Summer and the new characters, I don't have a lot to say apart from everything looks really pretty asdklglsonjrohr-

I don't have much to say since I unfortunately do not have a good enough the pc to run the game, and my phone is apparently not available to download the game in the play store :''D sadge

So I've never actually played the game myself, but just from someone who quietly lurks around the fandom and only really interacting with the Tumblr side of it- I'm excited for the lore and new fics the writers are gonna come up with :D

I'm not gonna lie, even if I am able to play the game, I wouldn't know where to start cuz it all seems kind of overwhelming what with the builds, strategies (?), Having to farm, the gacha system, and also the fact that I am a broke student which means if I play the game- I'll never be able to buy my way and just shortcut through the hard stuff :'D

But enough of my misfortunes- a quick question that I've just come up with, do you perhaps know or are aware of what SAGAU is? If so, care to share your thoughts my dear author? :D

- Ever so sincerely yours, 👹✨ anon <3

hehe, then i'm glad to be your trial author of some sort fkekkwkd !! you're super duper nice and i always look forward to chatting with you, so i'd say you excel at being an anon! 100/10 recommendedヾ( ˃ᴗ˂ )◞♡

when i open my requests again in the future, i'll definitely be expecting you~ after i finish my current requests, i'm planning on making a milestone event soon tho !! i'm taking my time to decide the theme fjejsksk maybe it'll be a matchup event of some kind but we'll see >:)

so true, no more details needed except for pretty 🙏 dw about not being able to play the game~ sometimes, living thru other types of experiences are enough to drag you into the blackhole !! i was like that with genshin too when xiao just came out before i said darn it and started playing during april last year hfjejdek but true true, genshin can be overwhelming with the various features and storages, so just leave it to genshinblr to give you the news and updates! ;D

yes, i do !! one of my moots, @/meimeimeirin actually writes super good SAGAU stuff~ the concept of characters being aware that they're inside a screen or the reader being isekai'd into teyvat in the place of a divine/respected figure is vv interesting 👀 that sense of 'corruptedness' and the feeling of something being out of place really get you hanging onto the edge of your seat !!

wbu, anon??? what do you think of the au and do you have any recs maybe??? feel free to share! >:)