Punishing: Gray Raven

Haven’t played the new chapter yet but I have just finished Lamia’s backstory. She’s in a difficult position where she has never known anything ressembling human kindness but also grew up in an environment where… that was just how people lived and no one questioned it. Makes it understandable that she’d be torn between wanting to make the place sink for good and wanting to preserve it…

As for Lustrous… Oh man. I should not care for a cold, emotionless leader in a story that has no shortage of those already but there’s something fascinating about her. You can feel part of it is her repressing her feelings and another part is that she has simply forgotten how humans are supposed to act. But the fact she let Lamia live and grow up tells you she has just a tiny bit of residual empathy within her.

Other than that, the cold rationality with which everyone on the base accepts her starvation plan, including those first affected by it, shows that something had already gone very wrong in the "Golden Age". It’s kinda terrifying. Thus I loved the scene of Vera stuffing down Lustrous’ last provisions decades later (in front a probably starving Commandant but that’s Vera for you )

Yeah... especially the part where she requests that Lamia go out bring back an olive branch. It's clear that despite how unnervingly indifferent everyone in Atlantis is to starvation, there's some semblance of humanity left, however faint it may be. I do wonder how much of this is a product of the post-apocalyptic wasteland Lustrous grew up in and how much of this is just due to her ingraining as a scientist. Regardless, it's indeed pretty spooky.

New chapter! Yay!

...is what I'd say if I didn't feel dead inside after finishing what was basically a horror show in video game story form. I think it's one of, if not the most well-written chapter in the game (to the point where I was disappointed to see a gameplay node rather than a story one!) but I don't think I'd anticipated just how dark it would get. Special mention goes to the brutal ending of the first third of the chapter in particular which still manages to tear me up a bit, not that things get much happier from there.

Overall, 10/10. Would never read again.

Speaking of which, Liv's new frame is fun but... surprisingly complex. I pulled for her and while it's been enjoyable blasting everything to smithereens, between her prayer gauge and ult mechanics, I feel like it's going to take some time to actually use her properly.

Then again, maybe part of the issue is that her attacks are so blinding that I can't see the screen while I'm playing her.

Edited by Minus0 on Jan 24th 2023 at 12:19:19 PM

Not done with the new chapter yet, but the "porridge" scene − and the part in the shelter in general − has to be one of my favorite in the game so far. No action, no techno-babble, just… people being people and trying to live despite everything. It was bittersweet yet heartwarming.

I also really liked Roland’s Interlude. The Truman Show meets Zombie Apocalypse… it could unironically be a great pitch for a sci-fi movie.

Now I’m a bit upset that Kuro Game decided to spoil the end of chapter 17 before the patch even started. I was a bit confused seeing Liv crucified and tortured by herself out of nowhere. >.>

Yeah, the chapter is well worth the tears. It has its dark parts, but it also has quite a few poignant and beautiful moments in spite of how bleak things can get (spoilers for the end of the chapter: the part where Liv is viewing the alternate timelines and the ending where Lucia and the Commandment manage to break through and rescue Liv and the final few quotes before the chapter closes out were especially some of my favorites).

On a much lighter note, this came out semi-recently:

Edited by Minus0 on Jan 25th 2023 at 9:52:56 AM

Finished the chapter! Boy, that was intense. For once I’m glad to say that I actually cared about the Gray Ravens (except Lee, sorry dude, I can barely remember your face).

That was a rollercoaster with both hope and despair in droves, and yeah, maybe they have a weapon against the Punishing virus, but they can barely use it so it doesn’t help that much…

I agree that Empyrea is a bit tricky to play, at least she doesn’t seem to work that well as a support. DPS will have to wait until I ultima her, since she needs a lot of orbs…

I wonder if the Twins will come back more intelligent and "human" later on. It’d be a waste if they were gone for good after a single chapter.

PS: How sadistic do the writers have to be not only to kill off the boy but make his miss his suicide so that he suffers a lot more before dying? Like, dude, this chapter is already dark enough as is. =.="

I like the concept of Immunopolis, but good god the third level is so fucking hard.

Like, even when I managed to reach 30 scavengers, the flu wiped out half of them a few days before the end.

And we have to 3-star all three levels to get the rewards, like what the hell Kuro.

Do we have a date for when the PC Client will release?

The second test run has just concluded, so I assume it won’t be too long. My bet would be on Summer.

I admit I haven't touched Immunopolis yet, but I got a chance to try Norman EX-6 and uhm...

...yeah, that's not happening. Not until I get enough electricity to brute force my way through it at least. I expected it to be hard, but man, I can't even beat one of the substages with any of my teams.

I was lucky enough to get to test the PC client a couple of weeks back, and I will say it's really good though. Like, good enough that I realize just how inadequate the emulator is in comparison. Everything feels so much more crisp and responsive. It did seem like it was in a pretty good state, so I'd be surprised if we didn't see it out pretty soon.

Also I know I probably shouldn't double post after such a short amount of time but in my defense and considering this is tangentially related AAAAAAAAAAA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6AYTZBwfP4

Really looking forward to seeing some more gameplay! The first test was pretty good for what it was, but it certainly did feel a lot like a technical prototype / playground more than anything. Now that we're a little further along, I hope we'll get a clearer idea of what PGR's open world counterpart will look like.

…Yeah, I tried EX-6 and immediately gave up. There’s Nintendo Hard and then there’s this. Maybe on the last day, when I have all the buffs.

Hopefully the world is a little less drab and gray than in PGR. Those kinds of environments don’t really make me wanna explore them.

Okay, even on the last day Ex-06 is just fucking impossible. I can’t get past a single floor even with max buffs, I don’t see how anyone who’s not a massive whale can clear it in full.

Yeah, EX-6 is absolutely ridiculous and seems to be complete whale territory, even moreso than full clearing Babel stages imho. At least the bonus prize doesn't seem to be that make-or-break. 100 black cards and some scraps... woo.

Also, I probably should bite the bullet and make a Wuthering Waves thread at some point, but we finally got a little bit of new gameplay!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=7sPKkDQPLQ0

Seems like Kuro's improved on... well, just about everything. As expected, like PGR was to Honkai before it, WW definitely channels Genshin in more ways than one, but seems to shake it up just enough that it still feels like its own thing. The character redesigns, which were pretty bland in the technical test, look much more vibrant. Environment looks good, still a little on the gray side but that scene with the tree in the end was... chef's kiss. And the combat, as expected, looks superb. Special shoutout to the Dark Souls messaging system too. If PGR is the Dark Souls of gachas, seems like WW may well be the Elden Ring, and that makes me pretty excited.

Edited by Minus0 on Mar 26th 2023 at 11:10:01 AM

Yeah, so far this looks like Genshin with Nier Automata’s combat. The color palette is still way too drab, but otherwise the gameplay looks slick as hell.

Apparently you can summon creatures too, that’s a nice touch.

Edited by Lyendith on Mar 27th 2023 at 5:37:11 PM

I fail to see the point of the Recitativo di Fantasia mode, so far… I’ve been playing it a little everyday to farm Capriccio fragments, but it seems like an endless corridor of short fights with a "story" that goes nowhere and loops infinitely on itself.

Capriccio herself is pretty fun to play though, there’s a nice fluidity to her combos.

By the way, it’s nice that they’ve added vouchers to the free BP, makes it much easier to farm 6* weapon resonances − well, easier as in "it only takes a couple months to farm one instead of years". Thanks to that Plume will probably be my first Construct to break 7000 BP.

Edited by Lyendith on Apr 5th 2023 at 2:21:32 PM

Yeah, I appreciate that the BP shop is basically "Hey, here's a bunch of valuable things - have at it!"

Unfortunately that's a double-edged sword, since I've got no idea what to spend on, especially with the whole transcendent / Leap thing that got introduced.

Speaking of transcendents, for a patch that's all about them, seems like it did them dirty. The last stage in Norman went from being transcendent only to any regular construct team (thus, using transcendents will give you an attack debuff now). At least you can use them in construct teams now, but that -60% atk seems... pretty crippling. I'm honestly not even sure if they really have much use anymore? Apart from Babel and the occasional one-off event, I suppose.

Anyhow, still haven't checked out the new story yet but will at some point, and apparently the Wuthering Waves beta test is... *checks watch* a week from today. The beta test preview also dropped, actual livestream starts around 40:30:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX1oHV2_wfo

I appreciate that one of the upcoming boss fights is just straight-up Roland.

Edited by Minus0 on Apr 17th 2023 at 8:10:52 AM

I never understood why they bothered with Transcendants in general, honestly. Their Attack! Attack! Attack! style gameplay is fun but their use is so limited that they feel more like an afterthought than an organic part of the game. Even when they finally allow us to mix them with normal Constructs, the attack debuff is so huge it makes it completely pointless.

I still pull on them because it’s only 10 pulls and I like the characters − Pulao especially is a very welcome comic relief.

Okay, the Pulao event was… a trip. Both funny and adorable, with a surprisingly tough boss fight/rhythm game.

And doubly hilarious for a French player, since the hoodloom’s boss is called MC Solar.

Edited by Lyendith on Apr 28th 2023 at 12:30:57 PM

PC is coming, baby!

May 15, just 2 weeks before my birthday.

Well, I've been sold on this game, and since the PC client is coming, I may as well jump in here.

Anything I should be aware of?

Hmm, if you’re familiar with Honkai Impact there are a lot of similarities but…

• First, to farm ressources go to the event farming level rather than the standard ones. Every patch has an event shop where you can a. farm the Memories (dedicated buffs) of the latest unit and b. buy basic materials like weapon/memory upgrades, cogs (in-game money) and character xp. That’s were most of your stamina is gonna go.
• Play through story mode to get a lot of black cards (the gacha currency) early on, as well as War Zone and Phantom Pain Cage. Story mode will keep telling you that your level is too low, but don’t worry, you’ll be fine.
• As for must-have Memories, Da Vinci and Hannah are both extremely useful and it’s recommended to farm as many as you can, since a lot of characters can use them.
• All characters are farmable once you unlock them, but S-ranks take a lot of time to upgrade. I’d say, focus on one S unit at a time and upgrade it to SS, then focus on another and so on. Phantom Pain Cage is where you farm the fragments.
• Gameplay-wise, timing QTEs well is important to maximize the damage, since that’s how you’ll get most of your buffs and debuffs from support units. A team usually consists of an Attacker (DPS), a Tank (debuffer) and a Support (healer), but they recently added the Amplifier (buffer) class which will mix things up a little. Tanks and Amps can dish out quite a lot of damage too.

On the gacha side:

• In the event gacha, you have two options: a banner with a low rate but a 60-pull guarantee, or a banner with a higher rate but an 80-pull guarantee, if I remember. It’s usually recommended to go for the former.
• The weapon banner lets you select which 6* signature weapon you want to pull and has a 30-pull guarantee (with a 5* every 10 pulls), but they’re not a priority early on. 5* weapons are all farmable via co-op mode but err… that particular farm is extremely repetitive and tedious (especially since co-op is only open at certain hours) so, your choice.
• And of course, DO NOT spend your black cards on the basic banner, you will get plenty of purple cards for that. Beginners will get two S-ranks from it early on.

Regarding character recommendations, that will depend on your tastes of course, but basically:

• Physical: Alpha is more or less the only good physical DPS at the moment (except the Nier Automata team but that was only in an event), so you’ll have to do with her. Rosetta is a must-have as a tank in late game.
• Fire: Until recently there weren’t a lot of good ones, but Liv Empyrea and Nanami Starfarer (the unit that will get released when you start) are pretty powerful. Lee Entropy and Karenina Ember are decent but will become a bit outdated.
• Lightning: Vera Garnet, Vera Garnet, and also Vera Garnet. Usually works in tandem with Bianca Veritas, with Liv Lux as a support.
• Ice: Lucia Plume as a DPS, Chrome Glory as a tank, Wanshi as a support. There’s not really any alternative there (I mean there’s Changyu but… eeh).
• Darkness: Luna is the undisputed queen, the rest varies. As a tank, Kamui Tenebrion is a bit better against bosses while 21 is more crowd-control focused. The third slot would be either Vera Rozen (healer) or Selena Capriccio (amp), I haven’t used the latter enough to tell if she’s preferable.

And well… have fun. The game is relatively f2p-friendly and not too time-consuming. It’s just that… if you wanna get good, work on mastering the mechanics because the combat is very focused on reflexes and improvisation. It will kick your ass more than once.

PS: The game has an official Discord, so you can ask there for better advice (I admit I’m not nearly a top-tier player).

Edited by Lyendith on May 7th 2023 at 7:54:41 PM

I think Lyendith summed it up pretty nicely! The one thing I'd add is that the game takes a little time to warm up. It's obvious that Kuro matured over the development of the game. The first eight chapters are a little rough gameplay and story wise (some people love those too, though, so ymmv). At least for me, Chapter 9 is where things start to pick up a little, and by around Chapter 14 Kuro is in top form.

As far as attractions, there's story mode. It starts off a little difficult, but keep on top of your upgrades (level, weapon, memories, memory levels), be persistent, and you'll be fine. Later story chapters generally have you use trial characters rather than your own, so for the story at least, you won't have to worry quite as much.

Where the game can get a little trickier is the bonus modes. The big recurring ones that you'll unlock over time are Warzone, Phantom Pain Cage, and Norman War. Warzone is basically a "kill as many enemies as you can in three minutes" mode, where each week focuses on two out of the five elements. PPC is a boss rush mode where you try to beat bosses as quickly as possible. And Norman War is the rarest but definitely the hardest of the three - it's a mode with progressively harder levels, where each level requires you to tackle stages with different teams, each corresponding to a different element, and I can promise the mode gets really difficult really fast. Go as hard as you want to for any of these. There's also a guild system, but eh, its current version is a little lame. The upcoming patches will improve it quite a bit though.

As for upgrades, each character has a list of recommended upgrades on their character page that you typically can't go wrong with. Each new patch has an event shop that tends to be much better for farming resources than the resource stages themselves. One particularly nice thing for new players is the fact that these let you access 6* memories early on, and it's definitely worth grabbing them if you can. As mentioned, it'll take a while to max out a unit, so it's best to work on them one at a time.

As far as gacha, there are few outright bad units (except maaaybe Changyu and Sophia), so there's some freedom there. I would probably avoid transcendents / uniframes though. They have a place in some of the modes, but they're heavily crippled when placed in normal teams and their usefulness is extremely niche. Characters have 6* signature weapons, and while they're nice to have, they aren't strictly necessary. As mentioned, it's a very F 2 P friendly game and you can get decent units without spending any money.

Otherwise, have fun and enjoy the mald!

Norman is hard as fuck for sure, but it’s also more optional than WZ or PPC, since its primary purpose it to farm fragments for the CUBs (small Robot Buddies that give you some bonuses in combat), which is not a priority at all.

And yeah, I didn’t mention Uniframes for a reason.

All right, got the client and started. Using my USB cord + PS 4 controller since that feels best to me. Although, I noticed I won't be able to map everything?

Also, I'm so used to "X" being Confirm and "O" being Back that PGR doing the opposite bothers my muscle memory. Weird how that can't be changed.

EDIT: Lastly, when is the best time to cash in this selector ticket? Directly after the gacha becomes available or sometime after?

Edited by erazor0707 on May 15th 2023 at 8:03:09 AM