KonoSuba: God's Blessings on This Wonderful World! Fantastic Days (2020)
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Publisher: Sumzap
Developer: Sumzap
Producer: Yoshiaki Takagaki
Platform: Android/iOS
Overview:
In his latest bid to get rich, Kazuma becomes the producer of an idol unit.
Gameplay:
The core gameplay is that of a turn-based RPG along the lines of the ATB system of the old Final Fantasy games. You can take direct command of your characters, but the auto-battle feature is rather competent. You have basic physical attacks, skills (attack, buff and debuff), and a special skill that requires a full meter to deploy. You have a five-man party, three frontline and two reserve. Elemental affinity is a pentad of fire, water, wind, earth and lightning, plus a light-dark dyad. Characters can have a combination of affinities, which can influence your strategy. You should also be warned that characters have a number of their canon attributes, such as Darkness being unable to hit anything and Megumin passing out after casting Explosion. It's a fun detail but a bit annoying from a gameplay standpoint.
The Main Quest missions come in normal and hard difficulties. By meeting set conditions, you can get a rating of up to three stars. Once you three-star a mission, you can use skip tickets to quickly grind through, farming for materials (though hard missions can only be done three times per day). The Free Quest section is for more targeted material grinding. You have a limited set of missions each day that don't cost any stamina. The Battle Arena is where you fight monsters with infinite health for points that net you prizes. It comes in Arena and Arena EX mode, both with three rounds per day. Lastly, there are events, which typically have a set of regular missions followed by a boss battle similar to the Battle Arena. Depending on the event, rewards may either be doled out out via exchangeable tokens or via a gacha.
The Character menu allows you to set up your parties and kit them out. While characters gain experience from missions, the faster way to level them is with potions. You can also upgrade their skills and break their level caps if you have the requisite items. The Character Interchange menu allows you to give rewards to grind friendship rank (which gives status boosts, opens character story episodes, and unlocks new lines for the main screen), view the character profile, replay voice clips, change costume and change background.
The Smithy is where you craft weapons and accessories. After crafting, you can level up your equipment if you have the requisite materials. You can also sell equipment and materials you don't need.
The Gacha menu is where you get new characters. Usually there is at least two or three banners active at a time. If you manage 250 draws on a single banner, you can get the pickup character of your choice. The gacha system is fairly generous with a base 4% chance of getting a 4-star character. (Rarity goes from one to four stars, with the 1-stars being your starters.) You get a 3-star every event and there are a number of 2- and 3-stars you can trade in for. Multiple copies of a character can be merged to level up character skills or pawned off for Adventurer Medals.
Your main currency in the game is Eris. You have both free and premium crystals for gacha draws and a variety of medals that can be traded in at the Exchange Store.
Story/Characters:
The main storyline follows Kazuma's bid to cash in on a trio of dancers (game-original characters as near as I can tell) he molds into an idol unit. If you're a KonoSuba fan, you should know what to expect, basically fantasy Seinfeld. I don't know if Natsume Akatsuki did any of the writing, but it all feels like a natural extension of the in-story universe. Don't expect anything too big, but it's good light fun.
In case you're coming into this without any familiarity with the main story, they do have an abridged version of the TV series and the movie. It's also nice for a bit of review.
Graphics:
Everything looks quite nice. For dialog segments, they use Live2D to good effect and the battle models have a number of nice little details to their animations. We also get full animated sequences for special skills.
Music/Sound:
The original cast is all here with fully voiced dialog that doesn't slack off in the slightest in the delivery. The music does its job and is generally pleasant to listen to. The opening theme is pretty good, too.
Conclusion:
This game reminds me a lot of Princess Connect! Re:Dive, which is definitely a good thing. It's rather good in its own right, but for a fan of KonoSuba, it's a must-have. I strongly recommend it.
Rating:
Own It