Clash Royale 2 vs 2

Clash Royale 2 vs 2 has been the most fun gaming experience I've had on my mobile phone to date. It reminds me of the time I've spent on Starcraft, or Generals, or DOTA - where you are about to pulverize your opponent's base as a group. And there's also the thrill of coming back from a game where you are about to lose your base, but a timely counter, a fireball, or rocket to a weak tower, gains you the win when time is down to 00:00. And what's great about it is it is happening on your mobile phone.

2 vs 2 requires team work and familiarity with what each kind of unit does, especially those you rarely use in your deck. It is easy to spot if there is synergy between two teammates or not. And once your opponent sees this, they can easily take advantage of the situation.

The only thing I hate about 2 vs 2 is when your teammate goes offline - perhaps because of a lag in his internet connection, and you are forced to handle two players on your own. But I guess it is part of the game, but I wish there was a way to level the playing field when this happens, maybe allow you to control your opponent's deck, too, just to prevent from being overwhelmed by two player's combined forces.

It would be amazing to see if this game can expand to 3 vs 3, 4 vs 4 or even 5 vs 5. You would probably need a bigger map. And I don't know if you would then be forced to focus on a single unit - then it would be too much like DOTA.

But the Clash universe has already made a big investment in getting their characters recognized, that might just be the next step when Clash Royale losses steam. Still, for now, 2 vs 2 is too fun to pass up. Wish the tournament for 2 vs 2 always has a free entry, that was, I don't have to waste gems on losses. It's already a tough environment, I've yet to get to 10 wins. But it's really lots of fun, and if I could forego the payment of gems, I'd be more willing to experiment with my deck combinations instead of sticking to tried and tested ones.

Thank you, Clash Royale development team for coming up with ways to make this game better. May the game play continue to improve.  

How To Beat Alteil Falkow Mission 5

Falkow's single player mission level 5 was really tough to beat. Props to the developers for putting up such a challenging mission. It took me several tries but I was finally able to find the right combination to beat Galdirea.

I start out with Carbuncle then Pucera. After that, make sure that the shield requirement of level 5 Refess will trigger. Then, plant Refugee Citizen to get rid of Galdirea's grims. Then, try to get Limier followed by Stronghold. Then use Turn to Dust and Chaos Absorption to try and thin out the opponent's deck. Simulacrum helps in trying to match the opponent's troops modified HP while getting rid of a card if the HP is less than or equal to zero. And if you still haven't zeroed out the cards in the deck, then speed it up with Magma Golem as another shield on the frontline.

For the SS lineup, Annette is really helpful in setting one unit of opponent's troops to max HP of zero. And you then add that HP to Pucera. The second one, you can add to Limier to prolong his presence on the field. The rest of the SS are worth 3 LP, hopefully enough to last Galdirea's assault on your LP. (Cause she gets to hit it for free every other turn or so).

Galdirea will also send one random grim from your deck out of the game. I tried using Mirelia to recover these but it just doesn't work. And the second SS of Galdirea prevents level 4 and above cards for a couple of turns so it's best to keep your units and cards at level three and below.

Hope this helps out other players who are struggling with that mission. Good luck!

The Current State of Alteil in 2016

Alteil until now remains for me as one of the best card battle games available online. They have made significant improvements since they transitioned from a Flash based game to Html 5. I have now been able to play and finish games against both AI and human players compared to matches I've tried about two years ago when the transition began. It has been a slow process, but given the limited resources of the team behind the game, it is actually amazing that the game has been kept alive after all these years, considering I was already playing this game since 2008.

While there are still some random bugs, overall, the game is now playable. You might have to wait a long time since the images for the cards are cached in your browser. If you have a single deck for your card collection, the wait time might not be that long, but if you've amassed cards from the 1st set up to set 13, then you can imagine how long it will take to store all the card images on your device. But after the first time you do this, successive logins should be quick to load.

There are many ways to acquire cards even in this new version of Alteil. There are single player quests that can award a new player 1-star to 3-star cards upon the completion of a quest. Card rarities range from 1-star to 5-stars (rarest). There are also EX-cards that can be considered like 5-stars and are available for purchase during certain events or occasions. There is also the Free Daily Lotto that awards a player a single random card if the player has participated in a match with an AI or human that has at least ten turns. Winning against human players will also sometimes give the player a card for a prize, as well as materials for card crafting. I haven't really tried crafting yet, because the results seem to be random. But there are a few players who are trying to build a database / guide of materials that will result in certain cards on a consistent basis. I hope they succeed. And finally, you still get a card for every 10 levels you achieve in your rank. But it no longer gives you four choices like the old Alteil used to. (I think new players will still appreciate being given a choice from four cards from each primary sphere since when you are starting out, you initially chose a deck built around a certain sphere.) Point cards are still available. These are special cards which you can exchange for a card of your choice depending on the card rarity minimum. 1-star cards are worth 10 point cards while a 5-star card is worth 50 point cards, if I remember correctly.

Mirage Master is gone. This memory game used to be the most viable way of earning gran, one of Alteil's currencies. Now, you earn FM or fight money for every match against a human opponent. I used to use FM for purchasing avatar related items. I think that FM can also be used to purchase cards, but I haven't really tried it yet. As a point of comparison, I think that you will have to amass a lot of FM compared to gran to buy the same card. Only Premium players can sell cards now. To be a premium player means paying for membership. In the past, you could actually sell a card in exchange for gran. That means that if you had a fourth copy of a certain card, which you no longer need, you could at least recycle this copy in exchange for gran. Now, you can still try to sell these cards, but you sell them to fellow players, no longer to a recycling machine. So, it is possible that the card is stuck in the store since no one wants to buy it, especially if it is a common card. I hope that they bring back recycling so that fourth copies of cards, or cards that I don't plan on using since they are not part of the sphere I'm concentrated on could be exchanged for useful gran.

I greatly appreciate the number of ways you can win in this game. There are many different types of decks you can build. There are many different strategies for winning. That is why there are still players who have stayed loyal to this game all throughout the years. A player could be using a discarder (a strategy that diminishes the amount of cards that a player can draw from his card pile) on his first match, and an energy-drain deck on another (a strategy that prevents a user from putting cards into play since each card requires a certain amount of energy). Another player could use a deck that uses small fast units while another could rely on a single unit that wipes out most units on the field. Alteil is filled with variety, and even now, I'm surprised to see new strategies after playing this game for such a long time. (Yes, I'm talking about you Kraken users) Other card battle games, say like Clash Royale are pretty much one dimensional. And the player who can send out units the fastest will more likely win. But Alteil is like a chess match. You have to think about your moves from the first turn up to the last. Otherwise, you will lose to a well prepared player who built a deck out of common cards even though your deck is stuffed with rare cards. Card synergy, timing, and creativity are necessary for playing a masterful match.

There are currently about 5 to 15 players who are active daily. I wish more players played this game. A growing user base is necessary for a game to succeed. There are plans to roll out the game in Steam and also as a mobile app and I hope that it happens soon and it succeeds.

There are still a lot of things I could discuss about this game, but it is best for a person to try it out himself/herself. Perhaps then, you too will discover this gem of a game called Alteil. 

Final Fantasy Record Keeper

For people who grew up playing Final Fantasy games on their SNES, Final Fantasy Record Keeper will be a nostalgic experience. I remember when I first played Final Fantasy VI - where characters like Locke, Terra, Celes, Sabin, Edgar, Cyan, Gau, Mog, and Shadow became the topic of conversation among friends. It was this series, in my opinion, that made the FF franchise a gamer brand. And with the recent drought of FF games, perhaps Record Keeper is Square Enix's way of trying to prevent the brand from fading from gamer's minds.

Record Keeper brings back characters from FF IV, V, VI, VII, and X (so far - and although their ads show Squall from FF VIII, I've yet to encounter any characters from that game). Come to think of it, I haven't encountered a FF VI character either. The main character, Tyro, looks like Strago's granddaughter - Merle. He's  a hybrid between a warrior and a mage - which is what makes him special. Other characters are either warriors only or mage only. Aside from him, what I have right now are Cloud and Tifa of FF VII and Tidus and Wakka of FF X. Not really a fan of FF IV, and FF V characters are more of roles (Ranger, Bard, Warrior, etc). Some of these characters will become important in certain stages because of their abilities - for example, a stage in the Shinra building where I'm trying to acquire Sephiroth (yes, the FF VII bad guy) has a boss that can only be hit using range attacks. So Cloud and Tifa - the members of my party which I've been using most of the time, become useless for that stage, and I have to rely on Wakka, the Bard, and the Ranger for offense. The Priest becomes the only FF V character that is staple in my party since it is the only one with mass healing capabilities at the current level I am in. Game play is similar to FF VI - but limited in that you can only have two abilities or spells equipped during any battle. So you have to swap out abilities depending on the battle scenario - which means your party has to die and you'll have to repeat the process with the new abilities to win. From a developer standpoint - this is smart, since it ensures that players will be playing this game for a long time. (As if leveling up multiple characters wasn't enough of repeat playability).

FF Record Keeper is the only free FF game on Google Play. The intro was pretty awesome, but the lack of depth in the story line is uncharacteristic of an FF title. There isn't even a villain - or an explanation for the fading records (or paintings in this case) except maybe, that the gamers are forgetting about the FF titles due to an abundance of other great games out there.

So what will keep this game going? If you love collecting equipment and party members and leveling up characters, then those would be the reasons for you to keep on playing. But mission wise, you save all of the paintings in probably three days of continuous play. (And with most games having stamina as a way of limiting gamer play time - that really says a lot about the length of this game. I remember the 90 plus hours I invested in FF VI - now that was a really long game with all those quests). Square Enix developers should still invest in the story. I think that the stories of the characters were the reasons I wanted to collect them when I was playing FF VI.

Still, if you just want to reminisce and can't afford a PS4 for the latest FF game, then try out Record Keeper. At least you'll get to see Cid and Mog. Kupo!