Maplestory Blitz - Monster Card Guide (Continuation)

Hey guys! I've been playing more Maplestory Blitz this past few days and I've discovered some other monster cards that are quite good as well. I like to keep my guides for the cards you should use more average user centric, meaning cheaper and more affordable cards only, not those very rare, legendary rarity cards those high-end users that play all day, every day use. I understand the frustration of looking up guides online, and finding guides or premade decks that require Epic and Legendary cards for it to work.

Yeah, I'll just fork out 100 dollars on this game to actually get good

Because those guides aren't useful to me, a person that just trying out the game and is not yet sold on the fact that I'm going to have to spend a truckload of money to even get a semblance of victory in my upcoming games, so I'd rather work from the ground up. Start from the easily accessible cards first and maybe eventually cover legendaries? (let's be real here, I don't have that amount of time, money or even attention span to work for those cards, free to play) This post is a follow up to the previous one I've posted, since it's quite a ways away from now, a lot has changed in the world of Maplestory Blitz, hence, this update~

The Toy Trojan, I glossed over this card before, but then looking at its stats and using it in a few games, I must say, I'm impressed. The charge effect really allows you to pressure the enemy if you already have a monster knocking on their doors. Seriously, this card works to put even more pressure, forcing them to use monsters quickly, hence, bad mana management or forcing them to burn their spells. Whichever they choose, know that you came out on top regardless. This card is also good rush decks for like a Phantom or a Demon Slayer, given the low mana cost.

How did I miss this card? Toy Black Knight is quite weak as a standalone card, but when you already have monsters on field, you can really bring the pain, just make sure this card is on the backlines. Also, gotta love the card's descriptions, haha.

Panda Teddy, the effect is simple enough, until you read it really carefully, cause yeap, that says "another monster". Not enemy monster, not allied monster, but just monster, so that means, even if your monsters die, rest easy knowing that your Panda Teddy is getting swole and going to wreck all the monsters on that lane! Expect if it dies by an enemy spell or two.

Gettin swole! Get it? Cause Panda and this is a Red Panda... ok I'll stop

Ok, question, are all the monsters from Ludi just good in general cause there has been 4 cards so far and all of them are monsters from Ludi?

You've seen Panda Teddy, well, Mr. Bouffon is a stronger version of that, plus look at that card art! I must say the art team really did a good job with the artwork in this game.

I'm not saying you have to have this card, and I'll admit, amongst the other cards on this list, this is one of the weaker ones. But just know that if you have a couple of Mixed Golems in your collection, they're quite good at filling decks because of their stats and effect.

That card description tho

When I saw this card, the first question I asked myself, why have I not realized it existed until now. Like look at that card effect! Tauromacis is a great card if you're running buff decks, because most of the time all you have to do is heal him back to health and leave the rest to him.

Even if you don't have enough coins or shards to get good cards yet, don't worry, keep Maplestory Blitz around on your phone and just sign in daily to get the freebies. Their free to play model is quite friendly and by the time you know it, you'll be buy and crafting cards in no time!

And THAT'S IT! This post was never meant to be as long as the other posts but that's because Luminous is out already, he's a new Hero Class you can use and he runs along the lines of a Priest in Hearthstone. 

If you wanna know, Priest was my second favourite class after Mage, so yeah, this guy's excited~

He has a very interesting and also a bit stronger (IMO) than the other classes. So right now I'm getting him to level 10 so I can test out all his abilities and you'll hear from me in another blog post.

Until then...

HAVE FUN AND COLLECT MORE CARDS!! I guess?

Why I'm not playing Overwatch... Anymore

Excuse the clickbait-y title, but it's a question I find myself asking myself a lot lately, more accurately, since the Lunar New Year Event and now even more so with Brigitte's release. I've had a lot of games on my mind. But even though I love Overwatch, it hasn't occurred to me, for almost over a month now, that I should pop back in for a looksee.

Who's Brigitte you ask? This girl right here.

I play 5 of the 7 Blizzard titles in Battle.net (oops, Blizzard App) right now, and the only two I'm not playing are World of Warcraft (WOW) and Starcraft Remastered. So I've experienced Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone and Overwatch. Overwatch being special because I actually tried it on the Free to Play Weekend before actually making the purchase.

A list of Blizzard's current franchises on the Blizzard App

But out of the 5 that I have in my games library, I only find myself gravitating towards Heroes of the Storm (HotS) and just recently again, Diablo 3 (D3), after a 2 season hiatus. But never Overwatch. (Starcraft's a longer story but the TL:DR of it revolves around personal incompetence and the difficulty to maintain a high enough APM, self-loathing and multitasking problems. Why?

So here's what I've gotten to so far, after long, pondering sessions on the toilet seat (TMI, I know but not untrue) and multiple thinking gifs to demonstrate the amount of time I spent thinking about this subject, here's what I've gotten so far.

Just a heads up, I'll be using HotS and D3 a lot for comparison because I know those franchises a lot but just to shake things up, I'll also use Counter Strike Global Offensive (CSgo), to the degree of knowledge I have about it, as a game for comparison as well.

Player Incentives - Progression and Unlockables

What Overwatch lacks is the features that bring the player back to game daily, features which other games include in the form of Daily Quests and so on. The only form of progression you have, at the time of this post, is leveling up your account, which by doing so awards you a single, measly, loot box.

How it feels like after opening box after box of disappointments

You could also include the seasonal currency you get that allows you to purchase gold weapons but I've tried competitive in HotS and almost burned myself out of the game so I'll leave competitive to the players that actually go for that kind of thing and enjoy it.

And what do you get from that one measly loot box after leveling up?

4 cosmetic items with a 18.2% chance for Epic items and 7.4% chance for Legendary items. Which by the standards of the last Overwatch Anniversary Event means you have a 1.85% chance of getting the skin you want cause all of them are legendary (this isn't even including the probability of getting those legendaries in the sea of all the other legendaries), which are mostly what people want from the Loot Boxes anyway. And you only level up after playing 5 extremely long games, which take around 15-20 minutes per game, if not, you have to play up to 10 games, should your matches last between 5-15 minutes. Pair this with salty or foul-mouthed players that are pros at the blame game, the very apparent performance gap you and your teammates have against your opponents and unfair 5 vs 6 matches you'll have due to a missing teammate, there's only so much a person can take TO LEVEL UP ONCE. All for working towards a box whose contents you have no control over.

me, 100%

In Heroes of the Storm, you have a main account level, just like in Overwatch, each individual hero you use has their own level as well, the more you use a hero, the more they level up. Each time a hero levels up, you're awarded a Loot Chest (Overwatch - Box, HotS - Chest) and your account levels up as well, so your account level is the cumulative level of all the heroes in your roster. The difference here is that HotS also has Daily Quests, which once you complete award you Gold which you can use to buy new heroes. Daily Quests are what bring the players coming back day after day, and as your completing your daily quests, you're leveling up your heroes along the way. AND you can reroll bad Loot Chests using your hard earned Gold, which also gives you more incentive to check in every day. 

Overwatch's Lunar New Year Event

Overwatch's main attraction, which brought even yours truly back for a year or so, are different events based around real world celebrations or in-game crucial moments. The latest example would be the Lunar New Year Event for Year of the Dog. During which, new or unique limited time game modes are introduced as well as new limited time in game items are available which can be obtained from... LOOTBOXES!!! Overwatch allows you to buy specific items you want with Credits (or Coins), an in-game currency you get by getting duplicates from Loot Boxes. But for these limited time items, the cost is tripled that of a normal one of the same rarity. And should you get a duplicate of the event item, you're awarded the same amount of Credits as a normal item. Sure you get ONE complimentary Loot Box, courtesy of the Overwatch Team, but really, how much does that really add in the long scheme of things?

wait... Whut?

The incentives available in Overwatch to keep a person playing are very little, and the main events that are supposed to help with attracting players to continue playing do nothing to solve this problem. HotS uses a much more organic approach, by providing small, incremental rewards that keep a player engaged and invested. And these in-game items have no effect whatsoever in how well your character plays, they are simply cosmetic items that allow you as a user to customize the character to how you see fit. Seems very trivial, I know, but as Dota 2 and CSgo have proven, it's a lucrative business model.

Overwatch's Business Model

Heroes of the Storm's Business Model

Here's a diagram of how the business models of both games look. In Overwatch, there is very little you can work for as compared to HotS, which, judging by how interwoven the different currencies and ways of obtaining them are, makes playing Heroes of the Storm more rewarding. AND HOTS IS THE FREE-TO-PLAY GAME HERE.

Speaking of cosmetic items (nice segue, I know, I'm working on it)

Visibility and Accessibility of Cosmetic Items

Cosmetic items are what drive players to invest hundreds of hours on Loot Box hunting, they are a form of reward players get for their hours spent on a game. But for a game like Overwatch, you hardly get to look at the character skin you worked so hard for in game. The only times you get to the see the full skin while playing are when you die (which is from the person who killed you's point of view) and if you a get the play of game. Everyone else sees your hard-earned skin all the time you're in their vision range. 

One of my favourite Mercy skins, but also which I sadly do not own

This applies to Highlight Intros as well, since it only plays if you get Play of the Game, if you're a support player, that means no Highlight Intros like 99.9% of the time. Sprays are also hardly visible as there are so many different levels on Overwatch and so many facades, it's hard to notice which wall has a spray on it. That being said, a well-placed spray is still funny when you do actually stumble upon it.

... then back to salt

So I've selected the skin...

But I don't see most of it

In Heroes of the Storm, because of how the game is, you can constantly see skin you chose. The effects and such are always visible, and though I don't constantly go ohhh and ahhh at the changed effect or skin, there are those moments when I hearth back to base, I sit back and admire the amount of work put into the design of the skin which lead to me grinding to get it for myself.

Skin's right there

The same goes for sprays as well, it's laid out, on the ground for everyone to see. Banners too, which ultimately remind the players what they lack and then as they've worked hard to obtain it, the reward of their labours.

You plant a Banner if you capture a camp or objective, and it even has you name on it!

Sprays are there for all to see, completely visible for a duration of time, and I'm not including mounts

But Heroes is played from a birds eye view, Overwatch is from a first person point of view, these differences don't apply. Indeed they don't but the fact that it exists doesn't help Overwatch's case. Now compare Overwatch to CSgo, the same point of views and visibility but CSgo allows players to buy and sell skins they don't use. Which adds another method of acquisition for players that can't splurge on 50 Loot Boxes in one sitting. When you allow different and simpler avenues for players to get what they want, it encourages them to work towards it, given it's not as steep of a climb. 

Glad to know I can spend 10 cents or 300 dollars on a skin

I have to admit, being able to spend 8 cents on a cosmetic item in Dota 2 was what got me buying different in game items, which when you add up how much I've spent in total, it could easily amount to around 30 ringgit OR MORE. Now I'm not saying that Overwatch is bad for making the skins not visible and such, but the point I'm making here is that the visibility of the item affects how much the players want it. In order to counter this, they have to give players other ways of obtaining the skin.

Amount of In-Game Content

As a game that costs as much as it does, it should have other game modes that cater towards the single player experience. Because all games now require an always-on internet connection, to combat pirating and whatnot, I'm going to let that one slide. But Overwatch's primary gameplay experience revolves around its multiplayer experience, so there's very little you can do if you're on your own.

you, if you're looking for single player content

Overwatch delivers a solid multiplayer experience, don't get me wrong, but it's those times where that multiplayer aspect fails where the other features come into play to keep you enjoying the game. A game mode where all you have to focus on is the growth of one character you love and not care about what other people do, progression. Something that Diablo 3 definitely delivers. 

The game allows you to collect items and level up your character, and you keep at it, simply because you know you can get your character to a better spot,

better damage,

and better gear.

If not, give them goals to work towards, a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, in small increments within arms reach. A reason to keep playing the game they first fell in love with and wasted 2 days of their life, not doing anything productive in the real world because of the free to play weekend. Opening each loot box, watching with glee at the new skins they got to equip. Spending the first few Credits they got on a colour variation for a character they really connected with just because they liked the character that much. Entering a game with teammates all going through the same thing and treating each other nicely, because no one had ranks back then, everyone was just starting out. And how everyone just cheered when a teamfight went perfectly with 5 strangers you didn't know but all came together because they enjoyed the game so much.

But then again, how could you think Overwatch would have single player content? Like have you seen the posters?

There's no "I" in Overwatch, *checks Overwatch* Oh, thank god

So I'm not going to play Overwatch for now, but if there's anything I've learned from playing Overwatch, you'll just have to wait and see. Because things could always take a turn for the better.

THAT'S ALL AND HAVE FUN PLAYING THE GAMES YOU ENJOY!!!

Contrast - Review (Final Thoughts)

Having played the Portal series and Trine, I realized I quite enjoy playing puzzle based games. Not to mention those that were on the DS like Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright (although Phoenix Wright was not really puzzle solving so I ended up not finishing it) But the pure satisfaction of you solving an impossibly hard puzzle was too much a drug for me, I found myself playing portal over and over, especially those puzzles that were particularly tricky.

This is pure gold, couldn't pass up the perfect moment to post it =)

So imagine my delight when my brother showed me a game made by Compulsion Games,

CONTRAST!!! Wait that's not right...

CONTRAST!!! No, I mean

CONTRAST!!! (The right one)

One of the highlights of the game was the fact that although this game is played in a 3D environment, the game incorporates 2D platform like puzzles ,by use of shadows, into the mix giving the game a new dynamic that is almost unique to any other game. I could say no other game has done that before and I was intrigued. (Naturally) Here's the trailer:

When they started showing how you can jump in and out of shadows, that's when I was hooked, so now on to the review.

Storyline
The game begins with you standing in the room of Didi, a little girl that happens to be friends with you. And just like that the use of shadows is already introduced to you. The story revolves around Didi and how she strives to repair her parents' broken relationship. It also shows us the tough decisions adults have to make for the betterment of their children.

Here's Didi!

The story is fine, simple to pick up but at the same time keeps you hooked on the game. The only problem is, you don't control Didi, you control Dawn, a perceived imaginary friend of Didi with the ability to meld into shadows. And that's the problem, you don't feel immersed in the story because it's not your story, you are a bystander (and most of the time also assistant) to Didi and her life. Which kind of detracts from that experience. Another thing is that since you'll be assisting Didi through whatever puzzle, it seems more like babysitting than puzzle solving. It doesn't help that Didi can sometimes come off as obnoxious and annoying but adorable and funny other times. (much like a real child if they're going for that) And you're also playing catch up most of the time, Didi always getting ahead because she can squeeze into small spaces and you having to find your way around that.

Didi wants to get into the factory, and you're the one that has to do it

Despite the fact that the game had excellent storytelling, beautiful cutscenes and gorgeous visuals, being an observer instead of a main character in the game actually stopped me from being immersed in the story. And that's what I find a bit disappointing.

Art Direction and Soundtrack
The art of this game was spot on, the team having a very focused and well defined direction to how they wanted to portray the game. And all that hard work did well in their favour, the cut scenes and scenery all giving you a feel of the ambience and atmosphere in that world. This carried on to even small minute details like loading scenes and minor puzzles you encounter throughout the game.

The world, as I said, takes place in around the 1920s, with a old noir kind of setting. The streets being in the darker side of town, with burlesques and shady characters all around. Not the kind of place for a child to be roaming around in. The contrast (no pun intended) making you worry for Didi's safety as she goes roaming around unattended. The game makes excellent use of shadows (since shadows play a huge role in the game mechanics) as well, displaying how something two dimensional can still be visually appealing. And the soundtrack is awesome really bringing you into the world. Here are some pictures~

Sadly, there's no official soundtrack on their YouTube page, so you'll have to play the game for the full experience.

Gameplay and Mechanics

The fact that you could meld into shadows was the main attraction for this game, and thankfully I wasn't disappointed. (by the shadow part, others, we'll get to that) Just like how in Portal, you have to start thinking with portals, in Contrast, everything will make sense when you start thinking with shadows. The game introduces you to the mechanic at the start, and slowly adds new abilities as you progress.

Look ma! I'm standing on a bicycle to get to a ledge!

Other aspects come into play as well, like rearranging furniture to cast bigger shadows and shining light on different objects  to cast the perfect shadow. Once you get the hang of it, you'll really start having fun.

Nothing is exempted, any shadow counts as a platform

The freedom you have to use whatever it is for shadows is amazing and the fact that it's all up to your creativity means there are several ways you can solve puzzles.

Haha, look! I'm standing on a head!

This does not come with its fair share of glitches and bugs, however, and this is where the lack of game testers really show (it is a small game company to be fair). There were several inconsistent instances in the game which confused me a bit and made it harder to solve a puzzle. Like you instantly phasing out of the shadows when you pass through a window but other times moving along with no problem. Or instances where at some points in the game, there were minor indeliberate shadows that made certain areas impassable even though that shouldn't be the case. And just a heads up, should Dawn get stuck in between shadows and would be otherwise crushed if she stayed any longer, you'd be immediately phased out. You can dash through thin shadows as well later on, but with glitchy results in some cases.

Shadows are captivating and wonderful mediums for storytelling, as shown by Contrast

Another gripe I had with the game was there are quick time events without queueing you what will happen. So a huge part of the game was trial and error as well, if I was given enough hints and queues it would be fine but it was mostly experimentation.

One of my favourite puzzles, the Carousel!

The beauty and simplicity of shadows, Dawn jumping from horse to horse

Mostly set in black and white, it's amazing how much life they brought to the game

One last thing, the game doesn't make full use of the mechanics they have put in, as soon as a new one is introduced, they older mechanics fall off. This coupled with the fact that I started really getting into the game was when it ended. There weren't enough puzzles in my opinion, if they had taken those previous mechanics and made just three more puzzles with all the mechanics implemented my view of the game would be much more different.

All in all, the game did everything right except for being a game, the story simple to pick up with depth when played further, the characters appealing and memorable, the premise exciting (puzzle solving with shadows), and the art and soundtrack captivating and beautiful. The minor gripe I had with you not being the main character was not much of a problem with the game but a complaint actually. What really disappointed me was the lack of puzzles, and I feel if they had added a few more it would be a much better game. Contrast fails at being a game first while getting everything else right. But at the end of the day, a game is something people play, in this case I want puzzles to solve, the story, art and soundtrack all help to bring the game to life but are not what ultimately make a game, a game.

That being said, I would still recommend this game if you want a new experience, just like how Transistor was a unique game compared to the rest, so too was this one, just don't expect to be playing it very long. And not to end on a bad note:

Arghhh, I hurt my leg! (See how a caption can change your perspective, she was actually singing, and performing, haha =D)

As always, have fun playing games and you can give this one a try!