Pass The Time With These Four Attention-Grabbing Smart Device Games

Starting with a game I have already written about this year, I cannot enthuse enough about The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls: Starlight Stage from Bandai Namco Entertainment and developer Cygames. There are many rhythm games available to download on both the iOS App Store and Android Google Play Store, offering an astounding number of songs from every region and genre. For those who enjoy the Japanese idol scene or want an experience with higher graphical fidelity, then Starlight Stage, in my opinion, hits all the marks.

With 200ish songs available to play through (many of which are unlocked from the start) and almost 200 idols available to choose from, there is a lot of variety to work with. Given how you recruit idols as well, while you will need to be lucky to unlock rare variants of each idol through the gacha system, standard versions are obtainable through general gameplay such as completing songs and a free gacha-currency. This is important as the variety is even more prominent when you discover that each song has a fully 3D rendered music video with unique choreography, allowing you to put the characters of your choice in the positions you prefer. Many of these are for between 2-5 idols, but there are those (such as the one below) which go up to fifteen idols in one scene making for a spectacular music video.

The rhythm gameplay itself is easy to pick up, but on the higher difficulty settings can pose quite the challenge. When performing a song, the goal is to wrack up as many points as possible by tapping whichever of the five idol icons at the bottom screen has a note (scrolling down the screen) overlapping it. In typical rhythm game fashion, while a majority of the notes require you to tap, some need to be swiped or held for a certain amount of time. There is nothing revolutionary in the mix, but that is perhaps good as at least until you get to HARD versions of each song, you can still keep an eye on your chosen ensemble of idols performing on-stage.

Downloading The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls: Starlight Stage can be a bit of a challenge, however. You cannot download it through either the iOS App Store or Google Play store outside of Japan and need to rely on the use of an unofficial App Store such as QooApp. Furthermore, it is not localised, so you will not be able to enjoy the narrative – but actually playing the game is easy.

While I usually try and do a bit of research into each of the smartphone games I play, Epic Seven was downloaded onto my phone purely on a whim and looking at a few screenshots from its Google Play store page. I have sort of become hooked on the game, logging in at least a couple of times every day for a good half hour to partake in guild activities, progress through the storyline, and make incremental progress towards levelling up my characters to six stars.

Kicking off with a surprisingly good narrative for a mobile game, players are thrust into the shoes of Ras, the Heir of the Covenant who is tasked with protecting the game’s world of Orbis from the threat posed by the Archdemon. The main storyline is spread out over ten chapters, each of which are broken down into ten stages (+ additional levels), which serve as your path to getting your original heroes to the level cap of 50. There are then subsequent chronicles, including a second main storyline which is progressively being developed on a regular basis, continuing to provide ongoing story development for all the characters. Many of the characters you encounter in the story are unlockable either directly through the storyline or (usually) through the gacha system, meaning that Ras’ companions at least hold some relevance to his journey, even if they are antagonists he hasn’t met yet.

The gameplay of Epic Seven boasts side-scrolling RPG mechanics, as your characters traverse a number of picturesque 2D-layered environments to battle against monster and humanoid foes alike. Each character has access to three skills, including a standard ability, secondary ability (either auto-use or use-at-will) and a special attack. Even among each of the game’s six classes, there are characters which have very different approaches to gameplay. Using the “Healer” class ‘Soul Weaver’ as an example – using a healer like Angelica grants you access to more traditional healing spells which with the right equipment can almost make her a tank. Alternatively you can go for Elena who focuses more on team invincibility with no instant cast heals, or Aither who is a balance of the two. Given each character also has one of five elements associated with them, with their own strengths and weaknesses, it means you will also not just be able to rely on the same party composition of four characters for the entire game.

There is a lot of content on offer which has minimal barrier of entry and resets on a regular basis. Every two days you can dive into a Guild War against another random guild, pitting your best six characters against someone else’s six. Furthermore, you can battle players in the arena, tackle a monthly 100-floor labyrinth and take on incredibly challenging fortnightly bosses to earn points to trade in for exclusive character gear.

What is good about Epic Seven however is that, while there is some degree of Pay-to-Win as with most mobile games, it isn’t too bad and it is very practical in my opinion to be a top-tier player without spending a dime. The new user experience provides players with a lot of goodies, there is a good trickle of items through the daily gift and the monthly “Epic Pass”, and after a month I have not had any issue with prematurely running out of energy to play.

I was first introduced to Arknights through a format many would have, through a prominent Youtube advertising campaign using social influencers to push the character designs and gameplay mechanics. Typically I ignore any advertising for mobile games, primarily because while you have campaigns for great games – there appear to be just as many if not more overselling what they had to offer. But the allure of cute anime-style of the characters wore me down after awhile, and here I am with the game on my mobile phone.

Arknights is a tower-defense strategy game which sees you taking the role of a “Doctor”, tasked with guiding an army of “Operators” through various missions which involve protecting bases from a set number of enemies. With eight different types of operator to work with, each of which have their own strengths and weaknesses, there are many different ways to tackle each mission based on the units you have on you. You can protect the pathways leading to your base(s) with defender type classes, but run the risk of them being rendered useless later on if the enemy begins waves of flying foes which are best tackled by the (often weaker hitting) snipers and casters. However, the weakness of this class only being placable on elevated platforms needs to be considered. Fortunately, the type of scenarios where you are truly stuck don’t happen too often, complemented by a new user experience seamlessly weaved into the first few chapters, teaching players many beginner and intermediate-level tricks around party composition and base defense.

The game also doesn’t superpower players early on nearly as much as other games, meaning that even levels in the first couple of chapters might require a few attempts to complete with even a well levelled party. There is also a good variety of operators, and while some may eventually fall into underuse as you progress through the game, even three and four star operators can serve you well through most of the game. Despite the gritty, sci-fi tone of the game, the character designs are absolutely brilliant – and I for one would buy an artbook featuring them should publisher YoStar and developers Studio Montagne and Hypergryph offer one in the future.

Even though I would argue the developers are not as gracious with offering new players their premium currency as other mobile games, I still ended up with a comfortable assortment of 4-5 star operators to tackle most situations I was faced with. This is assisted by many of the gacha draws guarantee’ing a 5 star operator within 10 single or one 10x pull.

An airship cannot be this cute, correct?

Serving as the source material for the 2020 action-strategy game Azur Lane: Crosswave which was published for the PlayStation 4 and PC by Idea Factory International earlier this year; Azur Lane is the side-scrolling shoot-em-up developed by Shanghai Manjuu and Xiamen Yongshi and published internationally by YO-STAR last year. The main appeal of this game is its hundreds of uniquely designed anthropomorphic ships, all featuring cute anime-style visuals, and surprisingly good lore which has been adapted into everything from anime adaptations to several manga and light novel series.

The gameplay is very pick-up-and-play, perfect for those who might wish to play something in small bursts or while catching a bus/train to work. You take control of a fleet of six ships – three in the front row and three in the back row; and go up against waves of enemies through the firing of barrage upon barrage of bullets (fired automatically) and missiles (fired manually). The front row enemies are the only ones you directly control, while the rear guard serve only to provide special moves – giving them very little screentime. Azur Lane has a solid tutorial in-place, and the gameplay while easy at first does increase in difficulty to a more comfortable level of challenge a few chapters in.

As mentioned above, there are a lot of characters you can recruit through the game’s gacha system. These include your main front-row battlers which make up destroyers, light cruisers and heavy cruisers; and back-row support units. Many of the characters have Japanese voice acting, giving some life to their presence on the field. However, like many games of this nature, you can ultimately end up with a character you absolutely love the design of, but cannot practically use due to it being of low ranking and underpowered for mid/end game content.

This is not the only game of this particular niche available on the market, with Kantai Collection also featuring an anthropomorphic ship slant with regards to its characters. While both games have particularly strong lore and narratives; gameplay wise Azur Lane has the edge, especially with this being the only of the two officially available on the English market.

While not the most in-depth in terms of gameplay, Azur Lane is still a worthwhile consideration if you are hunting for a simple smart device game to enjoy.