Friday, August 16, 2013

SEGA app game: Chain Chronicle

It has been a long while since Puzzle and Dragons was released in Japan. I've no idea how its US counterpart is doing, but PaD's success in Japan was never quite matched by any other apps in the region. And honestly speaking, there's no apps which has captured my attention like how PaD did for such a long period of time.



Of course, the chinese and western scene responded by copying PaD in its entirety (just short of the graphics and the name). Cheap move in my opinion. The Japanese, on the other hand, respected Gungho's ingenuity and tried to emulate their success by applying the business model into the games they created.

Recently, SEGA has released a game which, in my opinion, may finally be the game to come close to and even surpass PaD's popularity and dominance in Japan. Introducing, Chain Chronicle (チェインクロニクル).


It's....... kind of like Plants vs. Zombies, but with RPG elements where you will have to level up your characters and etc. Then there's a storyline to go along with the battles and etc. Here's a sample game play video.


Pretty simple, but that's sort of what you'll kind of expect and want from a cellphone app game.

What impresses me are the production values of this game. The art, the music, the events - everything's top notch and polished. They employed a similar cash system to PaD as well, where you can roll for gacha with either in-game credits, rl cash credits (magic crystals) or obtain some boss drops via event. And unlike a lot of the other PaD-wannabes, SEGA is not shy with dishing out the magic crystals to reward players (and tempt them to spend more stones). I particularly enjoyed the BGM at the title screen, so I'll just upload a few pictures of the cards as well as the BGM below.







It's available on both iOS and Android. For iOS, you'll have to download the game using a Japanese iTunes account. For Android, you can simply download the game here.



So a little bit on how to start out. For those who've played PaD before, you should know how players may prefer to redo the starting stages so that you can get a good roll off your first free cash gacha roll. It's the same for Chain Chronicle as well. But before I go into that, let's talk about the gacha, the cards and their rarity.

The cards are ranked from 1* to 5*, weakest to strongest. 3* are rare (R), 4* are super rare (SR), 5* are SSR. The * difference is a direct indicator to the cards' stats, their maximum level and their abilities. For normal gacha, you'll typically get 1* to 2* cards, and 3* is extremely rare. For cash gacha, it will cost you 5 magic stones. The lowest rarity for cash gacha is 3*. SR and SSR rumored to be within single digit percent chance, so SRs are okay to start things out.

Here's the main UI of the game: map where you grind and quest, an indicator showing your rank and stamina, and the bottom row which depicts the buttons for <Party>, <Combine> (levelling up and selling cards), <Gacha>, <Friend>, <Shop> and <Menu>.

Towns with a wine-glass sign is where the bar is located, and the bar unlocks new cash gacha with new SR and SSR characters in them. 

Going into the party option, you can set up your party of 4 there. The leader is what your friends and random strangers will see when they choose you to join their party. The party also includes 2 substitutes, who will replace your dead team mates. The total team cost is shown on the top right, and beneath it is the amount of cards you own and the total space you have.

There are four classes of character cards. Fighters (red), knights (blue), archers (yellow), mages (purple) and healer (green). They counter each other in a rock scis paper fashion in this manner: red -> red -> yellow/purple -> red, so build your team accordingly. Healers are neutral iirc. Also, try not to spread out the classes too much for your party so as not to dilute the type of mana obtained during the battle, which you'll need for the characters' skils.

Pressing on the info button brings up the character screen. Top shows the level, growth type, limit break and cost. Limit break is a feature where if you feed the character the exact same character card, you get to break past the max level and increase the stats. Next is the weapon, where its rank can be upgraded by equipping the character with better weapon. Pressing the weapon box shows the weapon's stats.

Skill is the active skill which you get to use in battle, and on the top right shows the mana cost. Ability is shown beneath it, gold is ability that is unlocked and silver is ability that is not. Pressing on an unlocked ability brings up a popup where you can see what it does exactly. Abilities that are locked typically will require some quests to do, so you can see the quest available for your character. Otherwise, some characters will provide you quest where you can earn a magic stone upon completion.

MC's a pretty shitty 3*, but he has 0 cost, so he's pretty damn awesome early game just because of that.



Combine option is where you either level up your cards or sell them. Slot your character card to the left and tributes to the right. Tributes can include other character cards, arcana cards (specially for levelling up cards), weapon cards and weapon upgrade cards. The first hexagon button on the bottom right is the sell option, and after pressing that you'll get to select cards to sell for cash and etc. 



Cash gacha on top, normal gacha on bottom. Notice you can select towns for different gacha sets for the cash gacha. For normal gacha, it does not matter. For cash, you'll see the SSRs for the town on the poster. You'll require arcana coins for normal gacha, and you can earn them via friend assists, friend usage and missions. 200 coins per roll.



You get to select friends or strangers for each battle. Friends net you 25 arcana coins per use, while strangers net you 10. At the end of the battle, you get to choose if you wanna apply to be a stranger's friend (if you choose to use them). The same applies for people who uses your character as well.

Here's what you see when you press the <Friend> button. Sort of. The first tab shows your friends, second shows strangers application, and last tab shows your ID and allows you to search for a particular friend using his ID. Here's the last tab and my ID. Feel free to add me if you want, though I may be running out of space soon.



Menu shows misc stuff like your arcana card library, stuff you own, options, change of name, etc etc.



Briefly touching on the battles, you get gold bonuses for fulfilling some criteria. The first is to clear it within a short amount of time. Second is not to have any party member dead (aka, no subs appear). Last is to clear the stage by using a special as the finishing blow.



So how to grind your first roll like retards to start off decently with SR or SSR? Well, two options. One is to either play the game till you do the free cash roll. If unsatisfactory, uninstall the app and install again (not sure if this works for iOS). The other is to prepare two devices with Chain Chronicle. You can simply use Bluestack + apk for that. Clear your roll on your main cellphone/tablet. If the roll turns out unsatisfactory, head to the <Menu> button and select the backup option. 


It shows you your account transfer ID. Set a password and retype it again in the two boxes and submit it. Log out of the game on your cellphone.


Head to the second device and boot up the game. Bottom right corner, transfer your account over. Then just reboot your main device and voila, account deleted. Tbh, I wish PaD will provide a service like this so that I can finally bid my iTouch goodbye.

Outside of the SSR, this blind healer is probably the best start you can get with a SR from the first town gacha. Heals far and heals hard with her ability. 



Last tips, here's what I feel a few 1* and 2* characters that are worth keeping in the beginning (esp if you're not planning to use cash). They are easy to limit break, so do it whenever you have the chance to.

Probably one of the two best healer for 1* and 2*. She has one of the ability of the blind healer, which is to increase her heal area.

The other half-counterpart to the blind healer. She heals more, but has comparatively smaller heal area compared to the first. Pick your poison. (Personally, I feel she's the better option since she is normal growth compared to the healer above who's early growth. She'll ultimately do more heal in the end.)

 He has three quests in his name, though not sure how good they are. At level twenty, his ability increases his attack when he's below 1/3 health. Kinda ok to use.

Probably the strongest 2* knight. While she has no ability, she heals off a chunk of her HP and eliminates her poison status at the same time, all for just the cost of a single blue mana. Pretty much the top tanking choice for a 2* knight.



That's all from me. It's brief, but I don't really have time to go through everything. Feel free to add me if you want. Hopefully, more people will get to know the existence of this wonderful app game.

41 comments:

  1. Looks interesting but cant read jap
    Will they make a english version too?

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  2. Interesting game, just started it, and I really like it. I sent you a friend request, ID is 133226085.

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  3. oh, looks good
    but I dont have IOS or ipad,
    what a bummer :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You csn download the apk and use bluestack on the computer

      Delete
    2. could i get clarification on these instructions??

      i downloaded the apk from mediafile, and have bluestack but the game wont work, it comes up with an error on the sega logo screen

      is it because the download file was intended for a android?

      or is internet connection required?

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    3. Of course you need an internet connection...

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    4. i have the same issues with bluestacks. The game doesn't start howeve i reinstall it again and again...

      not sure if it's just compatible with real IOS and Android...

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  4. I just started, and so far so good.. only problem is my japanese is limited, and I can't block text to search for words.. also, since there're no voice.. this is gonna be hard.. But then again, no pain no gain
    Tho I wanna know if there's any resemblance of a plot in this game, or is it just random?

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    Replies
    1. Not too sure. I didn't really read through the scenes just yet as I am not too good with my Japanese either. Moreover, you can just replay the scenes later, so they are not really that important to me now.

      Still, Corona's plot is pretty cute.

      Delete
    2. Oo
      same anon as b4.. and I got couple of questions.. sorry for this lol

      first, what is soul? also those soul dungeons, is it like the dungeons on PAD where it comes rarely? and if so, how rare is it? is it rare like skydragon dungeon level rare or is it like zeus level rare? also what's the difference between 1 and 3 souls?

      second, the coins for the 魔神ガチャ is different from the normal gatcha, how do I get those?

      third, I got a shitty first roll, a magician called ビルギッと。。 but at the same time, I got カタリス from the soul dungeon thing.. do i need to uninstall/reroll again?

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    3. Souls are AP points for the archer queen quest. 1 soul gives you 90 seconds to clear, 3 souls give you 200, iirc.

      By clearing or assisting in the archer queen quest.

      It depends on whether you want to. Tbh, I've no idea what those characters are.

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    4. Thanks for info!

      Delete
    5. I wouldn't reroll, since you got the archer queen (pretty rare, some people didn't get her even though they cleared all 50). There is SOME plot, though its largely skippable. Basically, I'm on chapter 3 of the game's main storyline, and really, I can sum up all that's happened in three sentences. The storyline is quite generic anyway, but still enjoyable at times. Side quests' stories are far better imo, some of them are funny and generally enjoyable.

      Delete
    6. Thanks again
      Oh also, was wondering if there are any point of saving the stones..? in PAD there's godfest.. is there similar event in chain? Or should I just spend it all everytime I got 5 stones?

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    7. There are stuff like SSR up, SR healer up and etc.

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    8. what is SSR up and SR heal up

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  5. I added you as well, ID is 135736025

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  6. My ID is 126,343,022

    ReplyDelete
  7. any1 hav any idea what to do with that purpley blue dotted ring?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i got 5 of them, can i use them for anything?

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  8. Move to Skype chat for now. For those interested, email your skype mail to the mail.

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    Replies
    1. So no more band then? Or are you just moving to skype for awhile?

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    2. I'll really prefer Band, but the English community is not too receptive about it. Band is pretty huge in the Chinese and Japanese community.

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    3. I'd rather go to band too.. cuz skype app in phone isn't as good as the one on pc..

      Delete
    4. Well since the skype app in phone are trash.. yes, I like whatever band is, more than skype for phone..

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    5. I am new to this game but i really enjoy it. Is the skype chat room still up i wanna join in. My skype name is scdryo and my game ID is 157,217,981

      Delete
  9. This could very well be a silly question, but I was unable to find an answer anywhere. After I installed the apk and ran the game, it asks me to update upon initial login. I am in the US. How do I go about updating it so I can play?

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    Replies
    1. here's the updated apk, i think u should download this one instead and try it again. http://cetranslation.blogspot.com/2013/09/chain-chronicle-ver103-apk.html

      Delete
  10. My doubt is how my friend have the lvl 65 on SSR and normally this card is at 60, because I have the same card as him and can t get over lvl 60! All quest of this all done! Really curious how I make it!

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    Replies
    1. I am pretty sure I talked abut limit break right? I mean, right? I typed all those stuff so people will read, right?

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  11. I didn t get the part of upgrade lvl supposed max lvl of the card 1/60 and what I saw few min ago with the card SSR lvl 65 as my friend and other I checked has one with lvl 72 SRR from the event like 1 week ago named KOROPATEIRON

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  12. Would it be possible for you to upload the latest apx? The ones I have on the internet do not work for US because they require updates...

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  13. I have a couple questions, can you get more of the green berry things that refill your AP in the game. And what does the golden ball with the wings around it do?

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    Replies
    1. Golden ball with wings can res you when you wipe. Green berry can get gotten by spending gem (not recommended if you're a free player) or through some special events/quests.

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  14. Thanks for the advices and I added you. ID- 133 035 932 (Hina)

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  15. Greetings! I want to know how to make bigger the team cost?? because I alredy have ssr cards and can't put them together in one single party cause I only have 44 points

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    Replies
    1. Level up some more...it's the only way to increase your team capacity...until then, just choose your charas wisely

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    2. And by level up, I mean your profile rank, not your chara lvls

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  16. but I am alredy in level 20 and still have the same team capacity...

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    Replies
    1. rank up some more...lol....it's the only way xDDD it's not like you increase your team capacity "every" rank up anyway....and level 20's still pretty low if you're going for SSR teams

      Delete