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freyayuki · 2 years ago

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Fate/Grand Order Akihabara Explosion Banner Pulls

The “Akihabara Explosion! The City of Wishes and the Sculptures Engraved with Love” event just started in the Fate/Grand Order (FGO) mobile game.

This came with 3 banners, each featuring 1 5-star SSR Servant as well as multiple Craft Essences (CEs). The featured Servants and Craft Essences are as follows:

5-star SSR Berserker, Galatea

5-star SSR Saber, Nero Claudius (Bride)

5-star SSR Assassin, Osakabehime

5-star SSR CE, City of Dreams

4-star SR CE, Junk Shop

3-star R CE, Hao Chi?

Thoughts and more information about Galatea, Osakabehime, and Nero Claudius (Bride)

Nero Claudius (Bride) (#ad) is limited, meaning you can only pull for her on banners where she’s specifically on rate-up.

On the other hand, Osakabehime and Galatea aren’t limited, which means that they have the chance to show up every time you pull on a banner unless said banner specifically says that they won’t be available.

Since Osakabehime and Galatea aren’t limited, wasn’t really interested in pulling for them right now.

Osakabehime is a pretty good support, especially for Quick-type Servants. But not really interested in a Quick-type support since I don’t have a lot of Quick-type Servants. And I don’t even have 5-star SSR Caster, Scáthach-Skadi, the premier Quick-type support.

Also, if I’m getting an Assassin Servant, I prefer it to be someone who specializes in dealing damage since I don’t have a lot of Assassins.

Galatea has a single-target Arts-type Noble Phantasm (NP) so she’s being compared to 5-star SSR Berserker, Vlad III. They’re both good, especially when supported by 5-star SSR Caster, Altria or Artoria, the premier Arts-type support, but it seems that Vlad III is better than Galatea.

I have Caster Altria or Castoria so would love to have either Vlad III or Galatea or both.

Anyway, as for Nero Claudius (Bride) - she is also a support but she can deal pretty good damage too. She has a single-target Arts-type Noble Phantasm and 2 Arts Cards so she synergizes very well with Castoria.

As a support, Nero can do things like increase a Servant’s NP gauge and attack. She can be used as another buffer and charger alongside Caster Altria.

Since Nero Claudius seemed like such a good support who can even deal good damage, was kinda interested in pulling for her.

Really shouldn’t pull though because I’m actually saving for multiple upcoming Servants. These Servants include the following:

5-star SSR Caster, Merlin

5-star SSR Berserker, Morgan

5-star SSR Assassin, Koyanskaya of the Light

Morgan is coming really soon. Koyanskaya will show up soon after Morgan so really need to just keep on saving as much as I can.

But it feels like forever since I last pulled on a banner here in Fate/Grand Order so really kinda felt like pulling right now.

After spending some time thinking about what to do, ended up deciding to go ahead and pull. It’s unfortunate, but really couldn’t seem to help it or talk myself out of pulling.

Akihabara Explosion! Nero Claudius (Bride) Pickup Summon Banner Pulls Results

Currently, I have 32 Summon Tickets on hand. My plan was to only use 10 of these tickets. So we’ll see if I can actually stick to that plan. LOL.

I know the odds of getting Nero with only 10 tickets is slim to none but still decided to try anyway.

Besides, if I want to guarantee that I’ll get at least 1 copy of Nero, I’m gonna need to pull on the Akihabara Explosion! Nero Claudius (Bride) Pickup Summon banner 330 times.

As can be seen in the screenshot above, the aforementioned banner has the following text:

If you don’t summon the Pickup 5-star Servant within 329 summons during this Pickup Summon, one copy is guaranteed on the 330th summon (One time only)

330 summons amounts to 900 Saint Quartz (SQ). 1 Summon Ticket is equivalent to 3 SQ. You can use either SQ or tickets to pull on the banner and either will count towards the required 330 summons.

Unfortunately, definitely don’t have 900 SQ so can’t guarantee Nero even if I want to.

Anyway, here are the results of my pulls on the Akihabara Explosion! Nero Claudius (Bride) Pickup Summon Banner:

3-star R Saber, Fergus mac Róich

4-star SR CE, Holy Shroud of Magdalene

3-star R CE, Noble Piece

3-star R Rider, Mandricardo

3-star R Rider, Boudica

3-star R Archer, William Tell

5-star SSR CE, City of Dreams

3-star R CE, Jeweled Sword Zelretch

3-star R CE, Divine Construct

3-star R Archer, Billy the Kid

Unsurprisingly, got lots of crap. Already have all the 3-stars so meh. Don’t need any more of them.

Already have a copy of the 4-star CE so also meh. The 5-star CE is new but its effect is meh.

Should be done pulling now. I did say that I was only going to use 10 tickets. So I should just walk away from this banner already. Clearly, it’s just not meant to be. Should just get back to saving for Merlin and all the other upcoming Servants that I’m interested in pulling for.

But I couldn’t seem to tear my eyes away from the Nero banner. My pulls were so bad that I just didn’t want to leave it at that. I felt like trying again. So after a bit of back and forth in which I tried but failed to convince myself not to pull again, decided to use 10 more tickets.

Told myself this was definitely the last time. After using 10 more tickets, will definitely leave this banner alone no matter what.

This time, my next 10 tickets gave me the following:

4-star SR CE, Holy Shroud of Magdalene

3-star R CE, Ryudoji Temple

4-star SR CE, Royal Presence

3-star R CE, Reality Marble

4-star SR CE, Angel’s Song

3-star R CE, Hao Chi?

3-star R Caster, Avicebron

3-star R Lancer, Hektor

3-star R CE, Atlas Institute

3-star R Lancer, Romulus

3-star R CE, Inverted Moon of the Heavens

Argh! Once again, got all trash. The rates in this game are so crappy. Rate-up is a lie. Sigh. Can’t even get a good 5-star CE like The Black Grail or a non-limited 4-star or 5-star Servant.

Also, so much for saying that I’m not gonna pull on this banner again. Somehow, really can’t seem to get away from this banner. Ugh. Regretting this already. Shouldn’t have pulled in the first place.

Already ended up wasting 20 tickets for nothing but trash. And now I’m about to waste 10 more. Sigh. Eff this game and its crappy, trashy rates.

This time, my next 10 tickets gave me the following:

3-star R Caster, Charles Babbage

3-star R CE, Hao Chi?

3-star R CE, Bronze-Link Manipulator

3-star R Assassin, Hassan of the Serenity

3-star R CE, God’s Tongue

4-star SR CE, Room Guard

3-star R Lancer, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne

3-star R CE, Noble Piece

4-star SR CE, Junk Shop

3-star R Archer, Tawara Touta

Argh! Eff this game and this banner. Now I’m down to 2 Summon Tickets on-hand. Lost 30 tickets with nothing to show for it. What a waste. So freaking annoyed and pissed off about this. Shouldn’t have pulled at all.

Class Specific Pickup Summon: The Three Knights + EXTRA (EXTRA) Banner Pulls Results

I now found myself scrolling through the currently available summon banners in FGO, still feeling mad about failing to get Nero or anything good or usable after wasting 30 tickets.

I stopped on the Class Specific Pickup Summon: The Three Knights + EXTRA (EXTRA) banner.

This banner has no 5-star Servant on rate-up so you can’t guarantee anyone here even if you pull 330 times. And in this banner, you can only pull for the following Servants:

5-star SSR Ruler, Jeanne d’Arc

5-star SSR Alter Ego, Sitonai

5-star SSR Moon Cancer, Great Stone Statue God

4-star SR Ruler, Astraea

4-star SR Avenger, Gorgon

4-star SR Avenger, Avenger of Shinjuku (Hessian Lobo)

3-star SR Avenger, Antonio Salieri

The aforementioned Servants are not limited.

Already have at least 1 copy of Jeanne and Hessian Lobo.

Obviously, I didn’t think that I’d get a 4-star or 5-star if I pulled here, especially after what happened with the Nero banner.

But since Antonio Salieri is the only 3-star Servant on this banner, his drop rate is at a whopping 40% so I was thinking that maybe I’ll be able to get at least 1 copy of him with my last 2 tickets.

I thought that it’d be nice if I could get at least 1 new Servant after spending so many tickets.

Honestly though, shouldn’t have bothered pulling anymore. Was already expecting to get crap again.

In fact, didn’t even bother waiting to see what kind of card I just got. Just quickly tapped through the screen so I could get to the draw results screen already.

That’s how I ended up missing the fact that I apparently got a gold Ruler card. Just ended up being surprised when a Servant suddenly started showing up on the screen.

This Servant turned out to be 4-star Ruler, Astraea. Welp, color me surprised. Totally wasn’t expecting this at all.

Super pleased to see this though, especially since this is my first copy of Astraea. And I’ve heard that she’s a pretty good DPS.

Anyway, I now only have 1 more ticket on-hand. Decided that I might as well throw that on this banner as well.

Ended up getting a 4-star Craft Essence called Covering Fire. Meh. Wish I could have gotten my first copy of Antonio Salieri or some other Servant or good CE instead.

Akihabara Explosion! Nero Claudius (Bride) Pickup Summon Banner Pulls Results Part 2

Now I’m all out of tickets on hand. And at long last, was finally able to walk away from all the summon banners in Fate/Grand Order.

Too bad that only lasted for a while because I soon found myself thinking about Saber Nero again.

Actually considered doing a multi-pull on the Akihabara Explosion! Nero Claudius (Bride) Pickup Summon banner using 30 Saint Quartz.

In the end, decided to just try pulling with tickets again. But first, gonna need some Summon Tickets. So I went to my gift or present box in the game and got at least 10 tickets.

Hopefully, I won’t be tempted to spend any more than that. Honestly, it was better to just not pull at all but couldn’t seem to help it.

Once again, found myself back on the Nero Bride banner. Here are the results of my pulls on this banner:

3-star SR Berserker, Kiyohime

3-star SR Archer, Billy the Kid

Meh. Once again, it looks like all I’m about to get is crap and more crap.

But to my complete and utter surprise, my third pull was accompanied by some gold sparks then a gold Saber card showed up.

OMFG! Also, hell yes! Fingers crossed that this is actually Nero Bride and not some non-limited 4-star or 5-star Saber.

Thankfully, the gold Saber card turned into 5-star SSR Saber, Nero Claudius (Bride).

Hell, yes! Super pleased to see this. Here are some more screenshots of Nero Claudius (Bride):

Still have 8 tickets on-hand but decided to stop pulling now. Hopefully, I won’t end up changing my mind about this later.

For now, just glad that I was eventually able to get Nero Bride, and it didn’t cost me that much. Hopefully, I’ll also be able to get Merlin, Morgan, and all the other upcoming Servants I’m interested in rolling for.

Akihabara Explosion Event

Started playing through the “Akihabara Explosion! The City of Wishes and the Sculptures Engraved with Love” event.

The story’s pretty interesting but the event itself is really long because there are so many quests to get through. The quests in this event gives lots of bond points though so that’s really good.

5-star SSR Saber, Nero Claudius (Bride)

Started leveling up Nero already. Haven’t gotten her to max level yet though since I ran out of Exp Cards on hand. Have lots of Exp Cards in my gift box and my Second Archive but I don’t want to use those unless I really have to.

The Akihabara Explosion event gives some Exp Cards as part of the rewards for clearing certain quests so I’ve been using those to further level up Nero.

Also farming the Exp Card quests with my extra AP. It helps that most of the quests in the Akihabara Explosion event only cost 1 AP each so have lots of AP to spare to farm for Exp Cards.

Haven’t leveled up any of Nero’s skills yet. Will do that once I get her to Level 90. Also need to unlock her Interludes and Rank Up Quests so I can get the upgraded versions of her skills.

4-star SR Ruler, Astraea

As for Astraea - for now, haven’t leveled her up yet since I’m focusing on Saber Bride. Once I’m done leveling up Nero, then I’ll do the same for Astraea.

Conclusion

So, what about you? What do you think about the “Akihabara Explosion! The City of Wishes and the Sculptures Engraved with Love” event? Did you pull for Nero Claudius (Bride), Osakabehime, and/or Galatea?

What do you think about these chars and the Akihabara Explosion event? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below or by reblogging this post.

Notes:

screenshots are from my Fate/Grand Order game account

#fate/grand order #nero claudius (bride)#fgo astraea #fgo nero #fgo #fate go #nero claudius #astraea #fate grand order #mobile games #mobile apps #grand order #games

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ask-the-party-god · 4 years ago

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SIEG! His name was sieg, I just remembered. -HNK Anon

hi hnk anon! im using this second ask of yours because its shorter, and putting your other one under the readmore to answer more extensively! X)

Okay. So I just got through the prologue, and I have a few things to say.

1. I’ve only had mash kyrielight for a day and a half, but if anything happened to her I would kill everyone in this and then myself!

youre absolutely RIGHT shes such a good girl! i love her and she only gets better and better as the same goes on! speaking of ‘better’ as it goes on, the game starts kind of slow? okay, so- the company that started fgo unsupervised, and they were making a cash-grabby game with less effort than it deserved... around the fourth singularity, though, nasu, the owner of the ip, saw the state of the game, stepped in and went like “nope, youre making this good, or youre not making it, period”, so... yeah he stepped in, put quality standards, lowered the saint quartz cost, added third skills to a lot of lower-star servants that didnt have them, reworked some other servants... also every milestone they include a quality of life change! earlier this year they increased the saint quartz you got from daily missions, then a retroactive change to interludes that gave me like, 100 pieces of it all of sudden... its good, i actually really appreciate them for that X)

2. The leveling up is a bit confusing for me.

yeah, the levelling up is, gacha levelling up, it was a bit weird at first, buuuut:

there are a few different things with exp in the game! you have your mystic code (your clothes, which have special skills), and your master level, both of which increase by just, doing any quest at all! master level determines your ap point limit, how many friends you can have, how many servants and ces you can have in your team at a time, etc... the mystic code level increases the effectivity of your mystic codes skills

theres bond level! this is how ‘close’ you are with your servant, and you raise it by fighting with those servants in your team! levels 1 through 5 unlock new information about them and new flavor text while theyre in your room! levels 6 through 9 give you rewards, like extra saint quartz, apples, etc... and if you get to level 10, you get a specific craft essence! some are like, “as long as the servant has it equipped, everyone in the team gets a buster buff”, but theres specific effects like, heracles gets a stack of 3 guts- which is insaaaaane

theres craft essences! theyre basically ‘buffs’, and levelling them up gives you some extra hp or attack, but ultimately theyre proooobably the least like, necessary thing to level up? still, you get spare craft essences out the wazoo so you probably want to feed the ones with effects you use a lot... anything with default np charge is GREAT for example, as it lets you charge up nukes all that much easier

and finally we get to servants! so you have the normal servant level up, THIS is what youd consider the classic ‘rpg level up’, but instead of levelling them up by fighting, you need items! specially, embers... feeding a servant embers and other spare servants you dont want (low rarity, pls dont feed people gold servants-), you level them up! this is a basic increase of all stats, but theres a level LIMIT! once they reach the level limit, you can ‘ascend them’ to their next stage, usually accompanied with unlocking new skills, and new cool outfits! you can ascend them up to four times, and once theyre at max ascension and max level, you CAN technically feed them holy grails (palingenesis), to break that max level limit to eventually reach 100... this is mostly unnecessary? but if theres a lower-rarity servant you REALLY like, that can put them on par with 4-stars, for example, or giving them a well needed extra boost to hp and attack

finally you have np and skills! skills are just that, servant-specific abilities! evades, healing, debuffs, buffs... levelling up skills reduces their cooldown at level 6 and 10, and generally increases their effect! np level up needs you to have multiple copies of the same servant, you can boost their np to be more damaging or to give you stronger buffs, depending on what it is

so basically, fighting will increase your master and mystic code exp, and your bond level! to actually level up servants, you have to feed them embers (you can farm them in the chaldea gate quests, or simply get them from story missions and free rolls)! to ascend them or level up their skills, you need special materials, which can drop in some free quests in singularities, be sold/drop during events, or drop from other chaldea gate free quests! not all materials are available from the beginning, so i suggest just, going through the story and upgrading your characters as you can, rather than obsessively farming to get them super high up before continuing with it

3. What’s the deal with the unregistered spirit origin currency? Because they are blocking me from getting the servants I want. That leads me to—

oh yeah no, dont worry about that, you are never, ever EVER going to use that X) basically, if you get 5 copies of the SAME 5-star, that is, if you get them to np level 5, and you get a SIXTH copy, which, again... insane odds? you will be given an unregistered spirit origin currency! basically its the way the game has of saying “sorry you keep getting this same servant so much, here, you can CHOOSE which one you want instead”

basically, insurance so you can never get a useless extra 5-star after fully upgrading a previous version of them

you gotta roll the gacha to get servants! its random! there is NO ensuring which one you will get, you just gotta try! well- there ARE occasionally events, like, twice a year, where you get to PICK a free 4-star actually

4. There are currently six servants that I want, everyone else doesn’t matter at the moment. The first is mash (so that’s one down) the second is artotia, third is Jeanne d'ark. Fourth is Jeanne alter, and firth Lancelot! And sixth- I SAW A MAID ALTER WITH A SNIPER RIFLE- WHAT? THATS COOL/FUNNY AS SHIT! I WANT THAT! (Maybe astolfo and uhhh... what was his name with the gray hair, he’s a caster- but that’s for later, the ones I listed are top priority,

lets see, six servants you want! believe me, you WILL get attached to more, but...

mash is obviously in your possession!

artoria is always, by default, in the summoning pool! theres occasionally ‘rate up’ banners, which give certain characters more weight, but ultimately, every saint quartz roll you do always has a chance of summoning her... specially right now, the more of the game you complete, the more servants you will unlock in the summoning pool, so technically shes at her highest drop rate right now

same with jeanne, shes part of the default summoning pool

jeanne ALTER is limited though! she does not appear normally, she can only be summoned when shes on a rate-up banner! i am not sure if she will be on rate-up before this, but the next banner i know she will for SURE be in is in may! oh! but- if you dont get her, there IS a 4-star, summer version that will be FREE this next summer, if you complete the summer event!

i think lancelot is also in the default summon pool!

maid alter is the summer outfit version of artoria X) i am unsure when she is available again honestly :o we had her event rerun not that long ago, so she may not be available for a while...

astolfo is in the default summoning pool AND theyre going to get a 5-star version this next year i believe! so, double stolfo!

sieg is, the free servant you get for the apocrypha event! it happened earlier this year, so i think that means theres a rerun of it still pending! eventually though, they will add a thing where you can replay events you missed and get the free servants from them, so while ideally youd wanna be playing while the event is up, theres a contingency in case you missed someone you REALLY want!

5. Please tell me how the start system works- I’m very new to this and I wanna be invested. Please help-

-HNK Anon

i think thats pretty much all there is! you get saint quartz through the story, by doing interludes, bond-levelling servants, through rewards, etc, as well as summon tickets, and you use those to roll the gacha! free friend currency only gives 3-star and under servants, while saint quartz can give you pretty much anything

theres almost always a ‘banner’ up, which offers ‘rate-up’ servants! the normal summoning pool has all the default servants and the story-locked ones you have unlocked, but the rate-ups can bypass the locks entirely! some servants are limited, so if they seem cool in a banner, you may wanna try to roll!

even if you dont get the servants you want- and believe me... it WILL happen... you WILL get more and more and more cool servants so, dont worry about that X) also a lot of lower-rarity servants are actually really good and can be used for a lot of things, so if you have a favorite, do not be afraid to level them up!

but yeah thats kind of the loop? you do stuff, get sq... roll the gacha for characters you like, level them up, do events... i honestly play mostly for the story, the main story gets really good, and the events are all charming and nice, but id be lying if i said i didnt want some specific servants... most of which are alter egos-

yeah sorry im rambling X) just... ask me anything else you may need! :D

#party god #ask #fgo

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nuclearblastuk · 7 years ago

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LOATHE & HOLDING ABSENCE | ANNOUNCE SPLIT EP THIS IS AS ONE PLUS CO-HEADLINE UK TOUR!

Heavy experimental collective of five Loathe and Cardiff ascending post-hardcore group Holding Absence are pleased to announce an exciting new collaborative project. Each band will be contributing 2 brand new studio tracks to a split EP titled ‘This Is As One’ out February 16th via SharpTone Records. Pre-orders for the ‘This Is As One’ EP are available now: 10" Splatter vinyl: http://nblast.de/ThisIsAsOneVINYL Digital: http://nblast.de/ThisIsAsOneDIGI www.thisisasone.com Both bands are today premiering videos for new EP tracks! Make sure you check those out at the locations below: Loathe ‘White Hot’ Holding Absence ‘Saint Cecilia’ Loathe and Holding Absence first officially met when they toured the UK together in April of this year with Blood Youth, bonding over their shared common principals as well as a respect for each other’s music and vision. Despite what some might see as fairly big sonic differences between both bands, Loathe and Holding Absence hold a lot more in common than one might see at a first glance. They both felt a camaraderie build after the Blood Youth tour, and partially inspired by the way the sun is currently rising on the British underground scene, they both felt encouraged to act upon their growing friendship – spotting a creative opportunity before them. Once the project had kicked into full motion both bands threw themselves at it with full creative force. Lucas Woodland of Holding Absence commented on the process of working on the EP: “On the EP we’ve tried to embrace the more natural side of our music and not overthink things. It was a very interesting process. We rate Loathe very highly as a creative entity, and I think we resonate together as bands strongly through the way we both regard our own music/art. So it was nice to see all nine members very interested and driven to make this release a thing. On top of that, seeing the inner-workings of another band was eye-opening in a great way. It was a very enriching experience.” Erik Bickerstaff of Loathe also commented: “We couldn't imagine ourselves doing this sort of release alongside anyone else at the moment, so it was definitely a smooth and easy process. We love Holding Absence for everything it is, not just for their music. The EP is something we have wanted to do for a while without doubt. Progression was the main source of inspiration for us, we took this opportunity to really push the boundaries of our music and craft two new songs that are heading in more of a defined direction for our music.” ‘This Is As One’ EP was recorded at G1 Productions in Wells UK, produced by George Lever. The tracklisting for ‘This Is As One’ EP reads as follows: White Hot (Loathe) Servant and Master (Loathe) Saint Cecilia (Holding Absence) Everything (Holding Absence) LP version (1) White Hot (Loathe) (2) Servant and Master (Loathe) (3) It’s Yours (Live - Loathe) (4) Saint Cecilia (Holding Absence) (5) Everything (Holding Absence) (6) Permanent (Live - Holding Absence)

Loathe and Holding Absence have also today announced a co-headline tour consisting of ten UK shows! Tickets for the shows will go on sale Wednesday 6th December @ 10.00am gmt 28/02 UK Bristol - Thekla 01/03 UK Manchester - Star and Garter 02/03 UK Glasgow - Audio 03/03 UK Newcastle - Think Tank 04/03 UK Leeds - Key Club 06/03 UK Nottingham - Bodega 07/03 UK Birmingham - Asylum 08/03 UK London - Boston Music Room 09/03 UK Bournemouth - The Anvil 10/03 UK Bridgend - Hobos

Holding Absence were formed in 2016 and the quintet have already played and toured with the likes of Casey, Young Guns, Our Last Night, Alazka, We Are The Ocean, Blood Youth and more, as well as having headlined almost countless solo shows and festivals, including a breakthrough performance at Download Festival earlier this year. 2017 has seen the band upping the ante with a touring schedule which has made them one of the UK’s busiest bands. Vocalist Lucas Woodland introduces the band: “We speak about who we are, who we want to be, and what we stand for. We speak about those things in great depth very often, and it's refreshing to know that there's not much of a limit to what we can do, and what we WANT to do. As music fans, we love listening to everything from Radiohead, to Thy Art Is Murder - so there's a large range of inspiration there - But I believe the real goal for us is to always write something sincere and honest, that will hopefully make people feel something. The day we stop writing true music, regardless of genre, is the day Holding Absence dies.”

More on Holding Absence: www.facebook.com/Holdingabsence www.twitter.com/holdingabsence www.instagram.com/holdingabsence

Loathe are a sedulous collective of 5, formed in industrial port-city Liverpool. Their debut record ‘The Cold Sun’ (released earlier this year) signified a forceful and shrewd testimony. The quintet nailed their colours to the mast with this resolute mission statement; an ode to the times we’re living in and the murky future that we all find ourselves faced with. The result was a highly accomplished chronicle, an undoubtedly passionate oeuvre brimming with technical precision, sinister ambience and bitter bile. Loathe offer a complex sonic architecture which weaves together post-punk, hardcore, heavy electronics, djent and deathcore with a side of prog... melding their sonic threads into a searingly surreal entity which reels you deep into the abyss. Loathe are currently touring the USA with Wage War and Oceans Ate Alaska. Their debut US show was at highly respected Knot Fest, and they’ve toured with the likes of Bury Tomorrow, Novelists, For Today and Carcer City. More on Loathe: www.facebook.com/loatheasone www.twitter.com/loatheasone www.instagram.com/loatheasone

SHARPTONE RECORDS: Web: http://sharptonerecords.co/ Facebook: facebook.com/sharptonerecs/ Twitter: @sharptonerecs Instagram: @sharptonerecs YouTube: youtube.com/user/sharptonerecords Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/sharptonerecs

#Loathe #Holding Absence #this is as one #ep release #Sharptone Records

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thomasroach · 5 years ago

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Astellia: A Love Letter to Classic MMORPG

The post Astellia: A Love Letter to Classic MMORPG appeared first on Fextralife.

The first closed beta for MMORPG Astellia just ended, and I am already missing the tunes that slowly charmed me during the five days it lasted. Astellia is a Korean MMO that is making a jump to the Western market, with some significant variations from the Asian release, and we spent quite a lot of time checking it out to fill you in on what you can expect from this game.

This is a sponsored post. Please note sponsored posts are only sponsoring coverage, our opinions on the game are our own and not affected by any business relationships with developers or publishers

Astellia: A Love Letter to Classic MMORPG

When I first saw the teaser artwork and trailer for Astellia, long before Barunson E&A contacted us, I felt pangs of nostalgia. Immediately I saw the game features a built-in wiki, so I decided against creating one on Fextralife, but there’s an inexplicable pull that this kind of fantasy world has for me. It signifies a change of pace from the western style MMOs and RPGs that I play a lot more frequently, and sometimes you just want something a bit different.

What is Astellia

Astellia is a buy-to-play MMO coming to PC in the Summer of 2019, with pre-orders starting at 30 USD and rising to 99.99 USD for a Special Edition, which includes 7 days early access and a plethora of goodies. It has just finished its first closed beta test, with a second one coming soon, before full live release. The Western adaptation breaks into the market through full localization in several languages, including English, French, and German. Barunson E&A boasts that they had their translation team play the game to ensure accurate descriptions and dialogue, and it did indeed feel natural.

But the adaptations don’t stop there. The Western release will do away with the Korean “Free to Play, then Pay to Win micro-transactions” model, and provide a “Buy to Play, Play to Win” model in its place. Further, it promises no gender lock on Classes, as well as quality of life improvements (like the removal of animations during casting).

Astellia Features

Classic MMORPG with a nostalgic but beautiful setting

Deep and complex progression mechanics, equipment upgrades, optimization

35-45 hours to get to level cap, solo dungeons available.

Unique party System: Astels

5 classes that evolve into further 3 subclasses each

Unique and upgradable skills for all classes

PVP modes

Astellia Monetization

“Play To Win”

These are the changes the developer envisions to transition from “Free to Play” to “Buy to Play”. The business model will be primarily supported via cosmetic purchases and some convenience items. The second round of closed beta, coming sometime in July, will give players a preview of the in-game shop and its prices, giving further transparency.

Cash Shop

The sale of Cash Shop items for in-game profit has been eliminated.

Cosmetic items will not have performance improving mechanics.

AP Boosting Potions are not sold for cash.

Astel Card Packs are not sold for cash.

Dungeon Tickets are not sold for cash.

Beeswax (Item Sealer) is also available for loyalty (Zender).

In-game “Loyalty” Store

Logging in each day earns a currency called Zender, and this currency can be used to make purchases on the Zender Shop.

The Zender Shop provides users with a means to access items that are too advantageous to sell for cash.

Dungeon Tickets

Dungeon Tickets allow entry into any dungeon within Astellia, and they now constantly regenerate, regardless of whether you are off or online.

Unique daily quests have also been implemented to allow users to accrue more Dungeon Tickets.

The classes of Astellia

Astellia has five classes to pick from, they are: Warrior, Assassin, , Mage, Scholar and Archer. These Archetypes follow the traditional tank, melee dps, healer, buff/debuff and ranged DPS categories of MMOs, however the implementation of their skills is interesting and varied. During my gameplay sessions, I focused on a scholar and found the return to more critical skill rotation engaging, and the further expansion of the skills via upgrades, and later on Class Specializations to be further encouraging.

Class Progression

Within the Beta, without any power leveling (or rushing), I made it to a mid-range level naturally before opting to try endgame via a Beta-only level up quest. This gave me many hours of natural progression, skill discovery and rotation optimization that I found straight-forward but deep in customization. The character development aspect of the game focuses on the upgrading of your main character stats, of which there are 8 total, with 4 physical and 4 magic based. From there you’ll also note “Secondary Stats” for Attack and Defense, and if you’re the kind of person that loves tinkering with builds you’ll likely be delighted to find there’s a fantastic granularity and plenty of opportunity for customization via both level upgrades and equipment.

Stat Upgrades

Stat customization is done by spending points and using special items that have a chance to increase stats by a percentage based on the item quality. Further customization is done by slotting equipment which is sub-divided into 6 slots and 2 “Treasure” slots that provide unique benefits such as auto-loot. A salient point of equipment is that Armor is not divided into pieces and instead is equipped as one unit, preventing your character from looking odd with a different mash up of random pieces. Then, each piece of equipment has 5 Gem slots for individual Attack or Defense effects. And, of course, the gems that you use for those upgrades can be fused to create other gems, adding even further depth.

Skill Upgrades

Skill customization is done by upgrading your unlocked skills with Skill Points obtained by leveling up. Skill upgrades can have many effects, from simple damage increases, to decreasing cooldown, or increasing the frequency of applied effects. This allows the player to enhance the Skills they enjoy using the most.

Given all these freedom and tinkering, at no point during my gameplay did I get bored of experimenting with my setup and rotation, and I even took on a group boss by myself with my Astels by optimizing the party composition. The amount of ways you can customize is staggering, and above and beyond my expectations by a good ways.

The Astels

NPC followers and party companions are not a common MMO feature, and this is by far the most uniquely interesting aspect of Astellia. You start off with one Astel, and can find more Astels to recruit by doing quests in the world, but there are even more that are only found as rewards for in-game achievements, as special drops and from dungeon loot. The initial Astels look rather cartoonish and silly, but there are plenty of endgame “badasses” to satisfy every aesthetic need. The companion system is actually surprisingly complex and rewarding.

Astel Decks

Astels come in three general flavors: Savior Astels, that cost a significant amount of Action Points to summon and then are active for a very short time before going on a long cooldown. Servant Astels, that consume a low to moderate amount of AP while out, meaning you can keep one out permanently, and up to three out for a limited time. And, Guardian Astels, that are high-level and powerful, but consume a high amount of AP, making keeping them summoned a difficult task.

Figuring out what Astels to have on your bar, and at what time to summon and un-summon them is vital to optimizing your performance, but there is a lot of trial and error figuring it all out. Certain Astels affect other companions or even your Party members, and have co-op skills that activate with your own or other class skills. Understanding the interactions between the Astels, their unique elemental effects, buffs, debuffs and the enemy you’re facing adds in to the complex chain-reaction of customization when creating a powerful party to speed-run a legendary dungeon.

Astel Upgrading

If the dozens of Astels to pick from weren’t enough, you can also level them up to increase their performance and power. Non-contract (non-story) companions are permanently added to your deck when you obtain an “Astel Card” for the character, which happens randomly when opening an “Astel Card Pack”, which are acquired as rewards for specific achievements, or dungeon loot. If you obtain the same card twice, the unlocked Astel levels up, increasing its performance. Further adding to this, players will obtain Star Jewels classified into Alpha, Beta, etc that can be slotted into companion cards to make that Astel more powerful with unique effects such as increased HP, Magical Attack, etc.

Astellia World

The game is set in a fantasy world filled with traditional RPG themes and spiced with JRPG style constructs. I found the artstyle of Astellia to be nostalgic and compelling. From the beautiful map and mini-map design, to the actual feel of the forests, landscapes and deserts, there was something magical about exploring the land. This game does not have breathtaking graphics, but the combination of an extremely soothing soundtrack, and magical destinations mixed in with classical RPG villages, made for a cozy home for what felt like a game unashamed to be a game.

I very much appreciate the gorgeous world design of Elder Scrolls Online, but there’s something refreshing and comfortable in visiting a town and knowing that a specific NPC will not have moved, because it will spend its entire time doing the same motion at a known location.

Astellia features several regions to explore, each with several different zones and distinctive landscapes. The first region goes from coastal city, to evergreen trees, to plains, and finally a magical forest with bright bird-like lights and colorful flowers. There are also caves and dungeons to explore, each with designs matching the inhabitants of said structure, or featuring long-lost ruins and castles. Each zone also contains special hidden chests, that make exploration more rewarding by unlocking achievements that give free gold and other items.

Each area treats players to new monsters, which I found to be in the positive side of design and variation. From wolves to orcs, giant mushrooms and deformed frogs, you’ll find humanoid cultists, giant snakes, golems and constructs, chimeras, ent-like creatures and even butterflies. In addition, each enemy type has an “Ancient” spawn in the area they are present, and can be defeated to obtain achievements. Enemies had individual attacks, resistances and effects, with higher level areas increasing the monster repertoire to match your more powerful character.

Astellia Gameplay

Gameplay is a core aspect of any game, and must be the backbone of a successful title. Astellia might prove to be divisive in this regard, as its main appeal is not solo-game questing, but rather in its complex endgame dungeons and PvP. The main story is over-the-top, and thus for many it will not be compelling, and the sub-plot and sub-quests feel rather generic and fetch-questy. It was not until I made it to the fourth zone in the first region, and moved on to the next region that the underlying plot of the game got some interesting tones.

Character Creation & Controls

The game sets off wonderfully with a fully-featured character creation that allows your imagination to run wild. During the beta, the gender unlocks were not available so some classes were limited in this regard, but I was satisfied with how my Scholar turned out.

I found adjusting to the controls to be a bit of a challenge, and this lasted for the first 5+ hours as Astellia does something very different. Your mouse must be clicked to look left and right. And, this change allows for you to interact with the elements on screen without having to change your POV, but it also means that you get some rather sudden angles as you learn how to traverse the world.

Automatic Movement

Thankfully, the developers have added automatic movement, where you can just click in a point of your map, or on a quest objective, and your character will proceed there on its own. During that movement, you’re free to look at your inventory, fiddle with your stats and customize your gear or check your achievements. This feature made my travels much more enjoyable, and rendered teleporting unnecessary, as I just used the roads to get places while I did my inventory sorting.

Combat

Combat is very straight-forward: point your Astel at your enemy, and attack. The Scholar class had several interesting crowd control and debuff mechanics, where I could opt to bind, knock down and slow enemies. My Astel of choice acted as a natural tank, so I summoned an extra DPS Astel, and then proceeded to take on enemies by rooting them in place and applying effects that would stack, until some higher level skill could be used for critical damage.

Since I had a ranged character, I could generally stay at a safe distance without risking much damage, but sometimes enemies would aggro onto me. The game then provides a “quick roll”, executed by double-tapping a directional WASD. You can also increase your evade chances by just simply staying on the move, and the words “escaped” show up in your screen to let you know you got out of some incoming attacks. The only downside to the system is that my lack of familiarity with the camera controls made it difficult to make my character face the enemy again quickly, sometimes resulting in missing seconds in my DPS rotation.

Thankfully, the game also includes a smart “target of target” system, so you can be targeting the boss and applying debuffs and damage, and heal the tank without having to switch to it. This was very useful in endgame dungeons, and could benefit from some further customization on the client side to be perfect.

Overall, leveling up combat was engaging enough to keep me entertained, easy enough as to not to stress me out, and hard enough to force me to learn a rotation and read my skills. This is a good combination in my book, as the road to endgame should be more than just adding stats, it should teach players about their skills and capabilities, and prepare them for monsters’ abilities and mechanics.

Inventory & Skill Management

During my time with the game, I only had an “inventory full” notice twice. This is significant because I am a committed hoarder and I usually have to stop at every town I visit to unload useless junk I have collected. That was not the case with Astellia, as armor and weapon rewards were infrequent enough to be welcome in my inventory, and materials found did not become overwhelming a few hours in.

Another positive note for me was the flexibility of the skillbar, that can be collapsed and expanded as a whole or individually. It even allows you to set an order so that a specific slot is replaced by another skill after you have executed it, and then reverts. So for example I could set Key 1 to “barrier” and after pressing it, the skill would auto-swap to “great barrier” and allow me to go for the further buff next.

Connectivity

Whilst I have heard from our community that some experienced lag and disconnects, I had zero lag, a total of one disconnect during the beta, and all skills executed instantly (and beautifully because I really like a lot of the animations and effects they have chosen). It is difficult to know from a beta what the actual servers will be like when the game is live and under a launch crunch, so if connectivity is a concern to you, waiting for reviews might be advisable.

Dungeons & Endgame

The Astellia Beta provided a unique NPC that allowed players to level up to max, obtain all Astels, and a set of endgame equipment to try out high level and legendary dungeons. I had done some dungeons as I was leveling up, and I found them adequate for solo play, with mobs that were a bit more challenging than outside, and some interesting mechanics such as barriers, traps and treasure chests guarded by mini-bosses.

Upgrading from level 25 to 50 (endgame gear and stats) upped my damage by 10 times. Skills that were doing 450 damage suddenly did 4500. It was a huge jump and when I went back to the starting zones to help some new players I was not nerfed to the zone, nor was it scaled to me (a common tendency in modern games), so I could satisfyingly one shot everything in my path.

Having managed my unearned abilities as best I could, and with little understanding of how to use them, I tried going into a legendary dungeon and soon found out that having gear and stats does not replace know-how, as we got our behinds summarily handed to us by mobs of rodents. We decided to instead do the normal version of a level 50 dungeon, and found them much more to our capabilities. We still ran into some troubles and had to optimize which Astels to keep out when faced with groups of mobs, but we did complete the dungeon and obtain rewards within the time limit, including unlocking new Astels and cosmetic items.

Endgame Dungeon Experience

The group dungeon looked the same as the solo dungeon in terms of enemy placements, but those enemies had much more powerful hits and larger health pools. The bosses also had more effects and mechanics, and with regards to these mechanics, I was an avid server-first raider for Lord of the Rings Online (before it was casualized) so I greatly appreciated them. With the limited amount of time that I had to explore Astellia’s endgame, I thought it did much better than other current MMOs in that regard, with varying AOE effects, character debuffs, aggro breaks, etc.

It was however noted that the tank’s Astels have a tendency to stay near their master, and as such are quickly killed by boss AOEs that the AI is not smart enough to dodge. This was a frustrating point for our tank, who ultimately died during the last fight due to my healer’s inexperience, and his companions being rendered useless. And then we discovered that to resurrect on the spot you need some special consumable scrolls – otherwise you’re thrown back to the start of the dungeon, and given they are in a timer you might not make it back to the boss room to claim your loot. Fortunately, the Scholar class has a resurrection spell that can be used on a friendly target, so nothing was lost.

Final Thoughts

My overall impression with Astellia is colored by the extreme nostalgia the title elicits in me, as I have not played traditional MMOs or JRPGs in a long time. This is a plus point in my view, as reinvigorating old concepts has a place in today’s video game market. I very much enjoyed the world design, artistic style and music score of the game, and I was compellingly intrigued by the depth of character development and party management.

That said, the game is not without flaws. There was some stuttering performance issues when entering new areas, particularly in the more populated low level zones – this is something the developers confirmed to us that they are working on improving, however. There are some questionable character design choices, and some silly ones like an Astel who looks like Donald Duck riding a hobby horse. Finally there’s a lack of polish on cutscenes and interactions with NPCs for side-quests, that adds to the feeling of “fetch quest” and linearity, because you simply want to skip the dialogue.

Will you enjoy Astellia?

With all of this in mind, the question becomes whether the pluses out weigh the minuses, and how interesting the whole concept is for you. Are you looking for an endgame-heavy MMO to bite into? This is probably a good choice, pending a review of monetization options. Are you interested in deep story and character choices? This is not the right game. Are you looking for a relaxing hobby to chill after a long day? This is definitely the game for it.

In short, for me: What Astellia lacks in polish, it makes up for in character development and party options, making a compelling case for getting to endgame, or having a leisurely and casual stroll through its many zones and landscapes. Polish can be added over time, but it’s rare that games change their core mechanics, so in this regard Astellia has a solid foundation.

Like how it sounds? Download Astellia here.

The post Astellia: A Love Letter to Classic MMORPG appeared first on Fextralife.

Astellia: A Love Letter to Classic MMORPG published first on https://juanaframi.tumblr.com/

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recentanimenews · 7 years ago

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Heroes of India and Saber Wars Come to "Fate/Grand Order" USA

The North American Fate/Grand Order servers have been ticking over pretty quickly, making it difficult to track when events will happened as compared to the original run in Japan two years ago. Those expecting a major New Year's bash may be disappointed to know that much of what Japan got at New Year's 2016, we already got over Thanksgiving.

However, you can log in now and play with Arjuna (Archer) and Karna (Lancer), both of whom hail from the Hindu epic Mahābhārata. Limited-time quests will net you Summon Tickets, along with the ability to test out their abilities for yourself. You can also summon up a few New Year's Craft Essences for a limited time.

The official Facebook page has also teased "Saber Wars" for next month. Help Saber Lily on her quest by fighting "Artonians" and pick up Ascenion materials along the way. The new Craft Essence "Purely Bloom" will also drop, which raises the holding Servant's damage by 100% (200% if the CE is maxed out) during the course of the event. Collecting drops and Artorium Points will also earn you rewards -- including a 4-star Saber Lily.

Also, if you noticed a few Servants looking a little more agile recently, it's not just you. Cú Chulainn, Medusa, Medea, and Saber Alter got updated attack animations.

The Arjuna and Karna campaign ends January 4, which is when the Saber Wars event is expected to begin.

>> Official Fate/Grand Order Website

>> Watch Fate/Grand Order -First Order- on Crunchyroll

Source: Fate/Grand Order USA Facebook page

-----

Kara Dennison is responsible for multiple webcomics, blogs and runs interviews for (Re)Generation Who and PotterVerse, and is half the creative team behind the OEL light novel series Owl's Flower. She blogs at karadennison.com and tweets @RubyCosmos. Her latest stories can be found in Whoblique Strategies.

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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thomasroach · 5 years ago

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Astellia: A Love Letter to Classic MMORPG

The post Astellia: A Love Letter to Classic MMORPG appeared first on Fextralife.

This is a sponsored post. Please note sponsored posts are only sponsoring coverage, our opinions on the game are our own and not affected by any business relationships with developers or publishers

Astellia: A Love Letter to Classic MMORPG

What is Astellia

Astellia Features

Classic MMORPG with a nostalgic but beautiful setting

Deep and complex progression mechanics, equipment upgrades, optimization

35-45 hours to get to level cap, solo dungeons available.

Unique party System: Astels

5 classes that evolve into further 3 subclasses each

Unique and upgradable skills for all classes

PVP modes

Astellia Monetization

“Play To Win”

Cash Shop

The sale of Cash Shop items for in-game profit has been eliminated.

Cosmetic items will not have performance improving mechanics.

AP Boosting Potions are not sold for cash.

Astel Card Packs are not sold for cash.

Dungeon Tickets are not sold for cash.

Beeswax (Item Sealer) is also available for loyalty (Zender).

In-game “Loyalty” Store

Logging in each day earns a currency called Zender, and this currency can be used to make purchases on the Zender Shop.

The Zender Shop provides users with a means to access items that are too advantageous to sell for cash.

Dungeon Tickets

Dungeon Tickets allow entry into any dungeon within Astellia, and they now constantly regenerate, regardless of whether you are off or online.

Unique daily quests have also been implemented to allow users to accrue more Dungeon Tickets.

The classes of Astellia

Class Progression

Stat Upgrades

Skill Upgrades

The Astels

Astel Decks

Astel Upgrading

Astellia World

Astellia Gameplay

Character Creation & Controls

Automatic Movement

Combat

Inventory & Skill Management

Connectivity

Dungeons & Endgame

Endgame Dungeon Experience

Final Thoughts

Will you enjoy Astellia?

Like how it sounds? Download Astellia here.

The post Astellia: A Love Letter to Classic MMORPG appeared first on Fextralife.

Astellia: A Love Letter to Classic MMORPG published first on https://juanaframi.tumblr.com/

0 notes