Terra Battle (by Mistwalker Corporation) Yep. Zones are only available during a specific day. So you have to wait before getting your new job. After that, you'll play with it whenever you want.
You're welcome. In addition to what I wrote above, since you're asking about job changing, the skill boost a character has carries across all their jobs, making later jobs even more powerful as soon as you unlock the new skills. Sort of. Some of these ores do drop as very rare drops in levels, and some are given as rewards for the first time completing certain levels, but, in general, the hunting zones have the best drop rates once you can reach zone 2. I would not worry about zone 1 except to familiarize yourself with the quirks of each hunt type because the drop rate goes up markedly once you reach zone 2 AND you don't have any need for changing jobs at the character levels zone 1 is designed for. Characters don't get their first "good" skill until L35, so not much point changing a character before you get them that high so you can turn around and give the L35 good skill to the next job as soon as you open a bonus skill slot. You can hold onto the job materials indefinitely so you can change on any day, you just won't be earning many of the rarer materials except on the right hunting zone days.
It's true! You can get boss cards from the Tavern. I just got one recently by using coins. Makes me think about the time I wasted trying to get that boss card from 4-3... Bah!
Some people here seem to be confused about what a "paywall" is. It does not automatically mean a button popping up to say "Give me money or you can't play any more". Developers openly admit - the guys who made Jelly Splash gave a long talk about this at one developers' conference, for example - that they design games to be purposefully unfair at certain points so that people will get angry and be tempted into spending money to get past the problem. There will always be some players who can still get past these obstacles, no matter how irritating they're designed to be. That does not make them okay. I'm just some guy on the internet, I don't have "proof" or any such thing that Terra Battle tips all the way towards that end of the scale. I'm just saying, when I cruise through ten levels of a game with absolutely no problems whatsoever, without even thinking about it - and I mean cruise, I don't mean scrape by - and then run straight into an enemy who kills me instantly without warning, that isn't good game design in my book. I'm not going to carry on posting about this since it's clear the majority of you think this is the bestest game evar, so... good for you, I guess. I like it, I'll carry on playing it, I'm not that interested in trying to prove anyone "wrong". But it is designed the same as far too many F2P games, as far as I'm concerned; that's not a good thing; and it is dependent on luck to some extent. Saying WELL I CAN BEAT IT ALL WITH MY EYES SHUT, LOLZ doesn't really do much to convince me that oh, right then, I must just need to git gud, huh?
It's too bad some people are having difficulty with some levels, hopefully the majority will attempt different strategies/combos of characters to try and defeat a level because once you do it is so satisfying. I'm in the middle of level 18 currently. There have been about 3 times that I got crushed by the game. Each time, a couple of visits to the metal zone, a more careful approach and plan of attack to deal with the level was all it took. I appreciate that the game constantly throws new game elements (monsters/traps/mini bosses) about every half a level. For that I commend them for great game design. I'm so used to playing autopilot F2P games (tiny tower, faraway Kingdom, kairosoft, puzzle dragon) that I'm glad someone made a challenging one with solid game play. Happy gaming.
We are talking about Sakaguchi here. Not newbie devs. FF Creator, Chrono Trigger creator, Blue Dragon creator.
What really helped when I started playing Puzzle & Dragons was watching videos of advanced players. It showed that I really wasn't playing optimally. Can someone upload a short video of them playing a higher level to help newer players?
Actually, even if you were right about the level that irked you in this game, they ARE okay. I find it remarkable how many free to download games don't strongarm people more than they do because it's the notion you shouldn't have to pay in a game that is asinine. Yet, somehow that's where we've found ourselves: Not only do most games need to be free up front in order to achieve large scale distribution, they need to be conceivably free beginning to end without a hint of "unfair" challenge or they will be slammed for not being fully accessible for the cost of free. It's a truly bizarre inversion where somehow it's wrong to want to be paid for your months of labor when you're a game designer, yet, at least going by the prevalence and vociferousness of the rants on these boards, the 15-30 minutes worth of currency it *might* take to grease the wheels in a game you like is more precious than a newborn baby's life. Actually, that's exactly what it means. If people can beat a level with nothing but what they got in game without paying, you have no point, and if they can beat the level with just commons, a rather unfair test in complainer crowd's favor, you really have no point. Either a level is so hard you cannot beat it except by blind luck without X "only available on rares" power OR you can beat it just fine for free. It really is that binary, and trying to justify your *feelings* by dismissing unequivocal proof you were wrong is just kind of odd. Having a challenging level is what happens ALL THE TIME in premium games too. That's the crazy part on these boards. One designer can make a premium game that has some next to impossible challenge at some point and the anti-IAP crowd will spend days swapping strategies and tips about how they were able to overcome the challenge by killing 1 million L1 boars for 1XP each and then beating it and praising the retro purity of the game's vision, but if that developer had made the exact same challenge but added in the *option* to continue or enable a buff for premium currency it's suddenly, "CRUCIFY HIM!!! HE WANTS ME TO PAY HIM TO HAVE FUN!!!" The real irony is that the anti-freemium crowd slams, and with some justification, the majority of free to download games because there is very little gaming involved. In too many of these cookie cutter games, the challenge has been dumbed down to the lowest possible level so as to never freak out the masses who they truly do want to keep playing with the well designed reward feedback loops in the design. And, yet, this title is a good example of why so many free games go down to the bottom of the LCD ladder, because when you do make a real game with real challenges, you're going to be accused of making a real game with real challenges to "force" people to pay you LOL
For me, it's the energy system in games like this. I'd be happy to pay for IAP if it was to get gear or characters. But when I'm doing what I enjoy in RPGs (grinding through an area), and I hit a wall where I can't play anymore because I ran out of energy... well, that just sucks. For the developer and for me. Because if I wasn't stopped from playing, maybe I would have purchased another IAP for gear or something. But when there's an energy system in a game, it feels like it's an old arcade game that you have to put quarters into OR just stop playing for a while. And I like the freedom to play when I want, where I want. That's what got me into consoles and handhelds and took me away from the old arcade. With this one, I'm giving it a shot, though. I haven't hit the wall yet. And that's mainly because I just don't feel like playing it as much as Monster Hunter or Dragon Quest. I enjoy it for a few battles, but then I'm tired and want something else. And if it stays that way, then I guess I won't really have much of a problem with this energy system, I suppose. But in general, my thoughts on the matter are, if you have a free to play game, the more your customers can play, the more likely they will spend money on it. If you stop them from playing, how many of us are actually going to spend real money to recharge an energy meter that will refill in a few hours? Most of those games just end up getting deleted on my devices. But this one will remain. For now.
I haven't once seen the metal zone open since I've started. How are you guys dealing with jobs? Are you trying to level up each tier at the same time or are you focusing on getting all the skills from one before moving to the next? I was planning to leap between them, like 1 to 15, 2 to 35, 1 to 65 and then back to 2 and then something similar between 2 and 3.
You can find the metal zoen schedule here: http://www.terrabattlex.com/zones/metal I level the guys up based on which jobs have skills I want, and then stack them on the strongest one
I laugh at people who complain about freemium. They shower you with gift energy, just spend one if you feel like doing a marathon. Energy bar helps with burn out tremendously. With even games like Diablo and what not, it is very easy to overgrind and quit the game due to burn out. Energy bar is perfect for people who play a hour a day and get along with rest of their lives. Developers who make non-freemium games are just plain idiots in these days. Just look at top 100 grossing: http://www.appannie.com/apps/ios/top/united-states/overall/?device=iphone I play all freemium games without paying a dime and do just fine, you just have to be patient. Now, on Terra Battle, this game has no chance outside of Japan: 1) Terrible art style, I understand some may consider it stylish but this type of artwork has zero chance against Puzzles and Dragons. 2) Game pace is too slow, when grinding through earlier stages, animations take forever. 3) The concept of making squares is not nearly as intuitive as match-3. Heck even Puzzles and Dragons can not compete with Brave Frontier in America, final fantasy style combat. 48 hours later, not even top 100, can you say dead on arrival in America? http://www.appannie.com/apps/ios/top/united-states/overall/?device=iphone It will probably do well in Japan for a few weeks due to supporters of final fantasy, and fade away in the face of Puzzles & Dragons, Monster Strike, Chain Chronicle (now that is a game worth bringing over!). Heck it can't even beat Final Fantasy Record Keeper! Hironobu Sakaguchi already had several commercial failures, time to retire old man, your way of gaming has no chance in 2014.
What do you mean "all on the weekend"? It's available everyday. (pretty sure I'm misunderstanding you lol)
Nice arguments. But because it's from Sakaguchi. It'll be fine. Last Story was one of the best selling game on Wii in the US. When players will heard it's from same dev. They'll download it. And TB already reached the 100k downloads not bad for a game at 100% japanese DNA. By the way. TB wanted to follow the same art style as Puzzle and Dragons. Glad they changed it. Too soon to talk about failure. Let's debate about this at the end of the month.
You play all freemium games and don't pay a dime. How would the gaming industry sustain if all gamers were like that? Please don't laugh at those of us who want reason to invest in games that are worth it to us. I mostly play premium games and I spend a lot on them. So, I would like to think that garners a little respect for my opinion.
While I'm tempted to dismiss this entire post as trolling, I'll bite that it's a genuine attempt at offering what you think amounts to constructive feedback... The art style used in the game has been incredibly popular for decades in the United States. Go into a Barnes & Noble, there's an entire aisle of translated manga. Stay up on the weekend, entire multi-hour blocks of translated Asian cartoons for older audiences on Cartoon Network. I was paying top shelf for imports of this stuff as a teenager before it gained such mainstream popularity. You may not like it, but I'm certain the art style is a major attractant for most early adopters. Puzzle and Dragons is what I would say has awful artwork. I played it as long as I did in spite of an overly busy interface and art, not because of it. Always thought the aesthetic was doing a fantastic job of recreating the feeling of wandering blindingly drunk through downtown Tokyo at night I discovered Battle Camp with identical core matching gameplay, a cleaner aesthetic, and with true multiplayer. Deleted PaD and never missed it. But what I really don't get is on what basis would you even use Puzzle and Dragons as a metric of success/failure? Yes, both are in the broader "collect and fight" genre that has seen enormous popularity on mobile in recent years, but trying to say a game that uses a novel combat mechanic either has to beat the king of money milking puzzlers just 2 days after launch in a handful of countries or it's a failure is a poor strawman indeed. It's no more solid of an argument than trashing Junk Jack or Terraria because they have no chance financially against Minecraft. It's a big world with more than 7 billion shaved apes, there's room for variations in a genre without any of them being a failure. What matters is if it makes enough money relative to the development and maintenance costs, everything else is just arguing on the internet Highly subjective and says more about you than the game. Been playing daily for a solid month, willing to bet I'll still be playing in six more if they keep developing it. Took more than 2.5 weeks before I even started using the fast forward for long battles, and then only when I'm in a hurry. Whether you like this "slow and deliberate" presentation is a personal matter, but if you've ever played through any of the many hits Sakaguchi has you would know this is hardly anything new. The game has nothing to do with "making squares", which may explain some of your disconnect with it, and while I agree the "shift and flank" gameplay is not immediately inuitive, neither is PaD, yet you seemingly worship that game. Let's be honest, Brave Frontier isn't even a game - I don't care where it is in the charts, its success just makes me sad for humanity. What immediately made TB jump out to me is that it was the first game I'd seen in ages doing something actually different with this genre. Every other game in this broad genre falls into one of 5 general types: 1. Practically not a game at all with largely automated battles (with Brave Frontier being king of the monetary success at not challenging anyone's intellect) 2. Match-3 with swap ANY 2 tiles 3. Match-3 with swap any 2 *adjacent* tiles 4. Match-3 with line drawing through adjacent tiles 5. Match-3 with PaD's style of freely shifting the entire board with skillful movement of a single tile. Gods forbid someone didn't make yet another iteration on one of these five thoroughly saturated game styles, let's immediately write them off for doing something new As others have said, give it time. The game is an original IP that has launched with very little fanfare except from a handful of gaming sites (it's only been reviewed twice), has no major publisher, and is relying on word of mouth more than instant recognition of an easily consumed product. Reaching top 200 grossing for ANY app (currently 176) is a huge hurdle and not at all something you should so easily dismiss.
