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I've been attached to this game for a year. Haven't given a dime since I found out Qooapp considers lolis pedophilia, but, with my next announcement, that may change:
Haze Reverb is getting a global version for those of you needing the game to be in english. Accidently discovered it under pre-registration, so you can go there or wait until it releases here. As a final word on this subject, I implore you to assume the fanservice will be reduced or outright gutted for global--this is Google we're talking about, after all. That's why I may start giving the game money through Qooapp again--between someone who insulted you and outright evil, who would you rather give money for a good product?
UPDATE:
The English version, E.T.E. Chronicle, is on the way. Noticed it on Google Play and pre-registered instantly. Get yours while supplies last!
Review:
You can marry the loli. 10/10
Other than that? The game is genuinely good, though it has some staggering difficulty leaps for boss fights where, if your power-level (gross, by the way) isn't around 500 points or more higher, you're going to lose units, if not the entire battle.
I'm sticking to my rule of "it doesn't get a dime unless it can last a year", though.
INTRO:
So, you've looked at my rating for this game and are about to write the game off because it's "decent", right? Unwise. I will address some of the issues around the graphics and story later--"value" as a rating makes no sense to me, so I gave it a "good"--but I gave the sound a N/A because I never play these games with audio (if it's a global version, I automatically change the EN voices to JP and mute everything) because it isn't necessary. As a result, its rating came out as 3.0 but, really, it is a solid 4 out of 5.
Let me explain.
To make things easier on myself and reduce the length of this inevitable essay, if you have played Punishing: Grey Raven or Honkai Impact 3, you should already be familiar with the general mechanics of this game--you have two allies, skills to use, normal attacks to utilize while those are on cooldown, and an evade button. "Well, if it's just like those, I might as well play them, right?" Shh. Have a seat, grab a snack, and let me tell you why you're wrong.
MODIFIER GROWTH/PROGRESSION:
Similar to characters in the aforementioned games, these have a title as well--Modifiers, which is shortened to Mods in menus and descriptions (so I will do the same here). Furthermore, each is named after a god from five groups--Olympus, Nile, Shinou, Yggdrasil, and Asterism.
Unlike in the other games, the characters you get in Aether Gazer (shortened to AG from now on) don't feel like most of their kit has been scooped out and withheld behind the usual retarded "shard" system, requiring hundreds of duplicates just to get the "real" version of that character. There's none of that BS here. Hell, even acquiring duplicates is easier--aside from trying your luck in the gacha, you can buy a random assortment from the supply store daily for in-game coin, or save up and buy them from the Recurring Dream (a challenge mode) shop. You also have the option of getting them from the Intel shop, but I have never had any intel to spend, thus, I cannot tell you how you get any.
While the shard/duplicate system exists, increasing your Mod's rank from A or S all the way up to Omega, it only has two points of interest--bonus transcendence levels for Functors and the Omega rank. As usual, ranking up (known here as "transcending") grants extra base stats, but none of that is too important; the real reason you would want to transcend someone is that getting them to Omega results in the sigils (the equivalent of stigmata in Honkai Impact, or memories in Punishing), which normally only grant their effect with three pieces, only needing TWO pieces to gain the set effect. Getting to Omega rank lets a character use three different sets of Sigils at once.
Currently, there are 24 sets of sigils, with star ranks ranging from three to five. There are also 5 other sets with more unique effects, but they only come in 4 and 5 stars. Unlike stigmata and memories, there are (as of writing this) no "meta" sigils. What I mean here is that there are no sigils that are only useful to a specific Modifier.
Most sigils are inherently necessary to certain Mods based on their damage-type, resource-type, or certain other unique functions like healing, but what you consider necessary could differ based on how you want your Modifier to play. Better still, you can farm the currency to get the higher rank sigils or, if you have a high tolerance for RNG, you can farm them in sigil stages.
As mentioned before, sigils have effects that only activate in sets of three, and Modifiers only have six slots to equip them. Additionally, each sigil slot can only fit a sigil meant for that slot like the top, middle, bottom system in Honkai Impact. Sigils also come with the usual base stats , but also fixed bonus stats (known as fixed effects) that differ per slot it fits into.
I REALLY want you guys to pay attention when I say this--don't make the mistake I did--PAY ATTENTION TO THE INHERENT BONUS STATS A SIGIL GETS IN ITS SLOT. I didn't at first, so now I have a set of sigils--three on one side, three on the other--that is mostly 5-star but, because I didn't notice how the bonus stats worked, only some of them have damage while the rest are defensive. You can grant sigils additional bonus stats (known as enchant effects), but you have to level them to max.
5-star sigils can also randomly roll with an affinity for a particular pantheon (or "gen-zone") of Modifiers. If this roll doesn't suit whoever equips it, you can change it using reconstructors, which are farmable. Once the sigil's gen-zone matches the wearer, its base stats gain a 20% bonus. If you have enough reconstructors and you only intend to use this set of sigils for a single Mod, you can perform "clarifying reconstruction" which attunes the sigil to that specific Modifier, granting them 40% bonus stats from wearing it. NOTE: Clarifying makes it so that even other Mods of the same gen-zone/pantheon do NOT get these bonuses--not even the original 20% bonus.
3-stars have no slots for enchanting, 4-stars have one slot, and 5-stars have two. Each slot can roll double effects depending on what grade of module you use to enchant them--there are three grades: blue, purple, and gold; only gold can roll double enchantments.
As I originally said, farming 5-star sigils is pretty RNG, however, if you get a 5-star you don't want, you can deconstruct it and, using the currency you get from it, you can buy a specific 5-star for a specific slot. The modules for enchanting and reconstructing can also be farmed, so keep that in mind.
Sigils are a crucial factor of Modifier stats, so manage them well!
I want to end the sigil section with a small note. There are about four sets that I consider worthless. They aren't COMPLETELY worthless--they can help fill in sigil slots on a Mod you don't have anything for yet--but you will likely want to trash them as soon as you get them. These specific sigils (in no particular order) grant 900 hp, 10% more ultimate damage, 180 bonus attack, or 60 defense.
As you would likely expect, Modifiers can be leveled up to a set cap, then evolved (known as limit break) using material resources that you can easily farm. There's nothing world-changing here, except that each limit breaking allows you to level your skills five more times and is required for unlocking at least one of a Mod's codes.
Speaking of skills, Aether Gazer revolves more around the use of skills than Honkai Impact or Punishing. Here, each Modifier has at least three--I say "at least" because some Mods have skills that evolve after use or reset under certain circumstances--and an ultimate skill. Skill descriptions are very detailed and can even be reviewed in battle under the pause menu. I don't have any Modifiers leveled high enough to know what the skill max is--the highest I have is level 40 on Zenkibo--but I can tell you that leveling them requires an ever-increasing amount of "divine factor", which you can farm, as you would expect.
Skills themselves have the typical cooldown, but Modifiers have skills that consume their inherent resource--either Rage, Divine Grace, Energy, or Traces. The first three are a meter that charges from 0 (empty) to 100 (full); the last, Traces, is a stack of 0 to 4, usually--there are sometimes ways to increase the max number of Traces a Mod can have. The way these resources charge or stack differs, as does how they are consumed; keep in mind that there are sigils that prevent consuming a resource or refund some of it when used (is the Omega rank starting to look good yet?).
I have to say, I like the resource system. What I don't like is that some Modifiers consume their resources to use their abilities, but still have cooldowns on those abilities. Who does that? Why? The resource management itself should serve as the cooldown. I mean, the one case I can think of--Hodur, a ranged Rage-user--has relevant sigils that only increase Rage charge speed and lowers Rage cost. Combine this with the fact that you can roll Rage cost reduction and Rage charge speed, each up to 4 times max (5% per stack)...I think I get why the cooldowns are there. Sort of. Maybe the cooldowns are too long, instead?
Nevertheless, management of these resources further adds to the complexity of combat.
Now, for the really interesting part: Aether Codes. Aether Codes ("codes" from here on) are nodes that can modify how your Modifier functions in battle, changing how skills work, adding new functionality, or providing percentage damage buffs. Only three codes can be active at once. Each Mod has nine nodes split into three branches, and each node must be taken before the next can be activated. These nodes start out locked, but are unlocked through simply leveling the Modifier, their skills, and their weapon. There are two nodes that require "proficiency", which is gained through using the Mod in battle, and will take the longest to unlock. Once they're all unlocked though?
Let's talk about Shu. When you first get her, she's a sub-par burst damage-dealer whose ultimate maxes out the combo meter, which is great for sigils that gain stacks from it. Her resource of choice is Traces, and her ult gains additional charge when Traces are consumed by anyone on the team. Two of her code branches are really good, and the third, which lets her reset another skill's cooldown is actually decent, but its potential damage output is inferior to the others--although this branch would be better on a team of nothing but Wind damage-types as it allows her to reduce Wind Resistance.
My favorite branch for Shu makes her a much better DPS burst hybrid. Normally, she only summons wind spears with the use of Skill 1. But with her left-most Aether Code branch, she not only summons one on her target whenever she dodges and when she perfect-dodges, but when it hits it deals more damage, stacking 5 times, and every 3.5 seconds when these spears crit, she regains some dodge energy. I wish I had good sigils for her so I could roll dodge energy enchants on them. This is just one of her three branches, and she is just one of the many Modifiers the game has to offer.
By the way, some Mods have codes that are so good early in the branch that you find yourself tempted to use combinations of their tier 1 and 2 nodes. Off the top of my head I can name Zenkibo and--I think--Osiris.
To finish out this section on the Aether Codes, I want to say two things. First, I really wish you could activate any three nodes at will without being forced to choose the ones that precede them. Not all of them of are created equal and there are those I would skip if I could. This isn't that big of a deal, but if it were changed, I don't think it would break anything. It would certainly open up some cool combinations of codes. It's great, though, that you can freely reset the codes and activate a new combination.
Second, there are some Modifiers with at least one branch that is just worthless or otherwise clearly inferior to the other two. From what I've seen so far, it's rare that a Modifier has three good branches--like, for example, Ookuninushi and Zenkibo (who is free, by the way!). This isn't terrible, considering just how cool the other branches tend to end up being, but...it just feels like a wasted opportunity, you know?
"Wait, do Modifiers have weapons?" - Someone, probably.
Well, yeah, man. It also involves the only "meta" equipment I've seen so far, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Again, every Mod has a weapon unique to themselves. Maybe, as things progress, there will overlap with weapon types, but, for now, they're unique. These weapons (known as Access Keys) cannot be removed or changed, so there's no concern over having to gacha for low-rate kit-critical weapons a la Honkai Impact (in Punishing: Grey Raven you can farm these meta weapons, so I have less of an issue with it in that case). Instead, their attack stats are important and affected by their current and max level. You can limit break them with the same material used to evolve other equipment.
Where the pseudo-mandatory meta comes in is with the Functors. Functors are items that are equipped to weapons that grant bonus attack stats and unique effects. They are also restricted to a specific pantheon/gen-zone, but will work on any weapon possessed by those that fall under that group. There are three tiers of Functors, just like sigils--3, 4, 5-star. There are also the "meta 5-stars" that can only be obtained via gacha. Meta 5-stars possess effects that are wholly unique to--and only work for--a specific Modifier.
For example, Osiris, a scyth-user, has a meta Functor that activates all of her tier three Aether Codes (now that I think about it, I need deactivate the tier three I have for her and activate another tier one code) and boosts the damage of her third skill. Not everyone gets something like that, but many of these meta Functors are just as crazy. As far as the gacha for them is concerned, it's pretty standard fare...until a 5-star drops.
First, you can select the pantheon whose Functors you actually want, drastically reducing the chances of ending up with trash for another gen-zone. The gacha's 5-stars have a decent enough drop rate, costing 2000 premium currency for a 10-pull with a guarantee after seven of them. When a 5-star drops, it comes in a dormant state--it isn't active nor does it possess an effect. Instead, you can pay some in-game coin to awaken (known as "evocate") it. When you select evocate, you are shown a list of what "meta" Functors of the relevant pantheon it can become and are even able to read what they do and for whom. From here, you can choose what form you want it to take, but the decision is final.
As a system, it feels damn good. You don't need meta Functors, but once you get one, it only makes the Modifier better; it doesn't feel like something taken out of their kit to force you to roll the gacha or suffer. Functors can be upgraded, too. It's cheapest to just secure a duplicate, but there are transcendence crystals you can use, too, they're just harder to come by. Don't forget--Functors gain two bonus levels on any Modifier that has reached SS rank. Finally, I have no idea just what level the 4 and 5-star Functors max out at--the ones I have are all level 1. I'm certain the 3-stars max out at level 5, though.
There are alternatives for 5-star Functors if you don't care to try your luck. The Dimensional Variable (challenge mode) shop lets you buy one for each pantheon, but the mode only resets once a week. I do not believe this selection rotates; hell, I doubt there are even other non-meta 5-stars to rotate to.
Now, how about we take this knowledge to battle?
COMBAT:
Skills are where most of your Modifier's damage is going to come from. Sure, you can roll normal attack damage on sigils and stack it to max, but, skills will always be king. However, most have skills on long cooldowns and normal attacks will be your hold-over until those cooldowns end. Some Modifiers have skills with built-in resets, some have Aether Codes that grant them resets. Half the fun of the game (at least to me) is figuring out how these mechanics work, making them consistently work while under attack and managing your combat resource at the same time.
If all of your Modifier's skills don't consume resources on use, at least one will, so you'll also be managing their use rotations so that the one skill that inevitably does consume resources has the maximum amount when its turn comes. Sigils help toward that end (and the ones that do, also give extra skill damage), but I imagine you could min/max sigil enchantments and get the same stats those specific sigil sets would give while getting more relevant effects--except for Traces; Traces sigils have reset and bonus stack effects that I have yet to see them roll as an enchantment.
As a side note, your AI teammates' ultimate skills are your responsibility to manage. You have to keep in mind that everyone has a different way of gaining ultimate charge and, allies that share ultimate skill synergy can effectively double the speed at which they charge, if your team is built around it. For example, I have a team consisting of Shu, Osiris, and Ookuninushi. As stated before, Shu gains additional ultimate charge when anyone consumes Traces; Osiris utilizes Traces and generates/consumes them quickly, while gaining additional ultimate charge anytime anyone on her team takes damage and can damage herself with her first skill to feed it, and heal with the third skill and ultimate; Ookuninushi gains ultimate charge anytime someone uses their ultimate and can do some minor healing to the team with her bottom Aether Code branch; Ookuni shares ultimate skill synergy with Shu.
If I play as Osiris (as much as I love playing Ookuni, Shu just can't stop dying), Ookuni and Shu can ult about three or four times in a boss fight. It feels damn good. I mean, it sucks that Shu keeps dying because she's the only one with less than 10k health but...how could I pass up on leveling and gearing Ookuninushi?
As cool as all of that may sound, remember that you only play one of the three Modifiers on the field and you cannot switch to either of the others. The two that will be controlled by AI should always be outfitted with codes that even a baby can use, so that it isn't wasting the Aether Code's potential and underperforming as a result.
There's another element to combat outside of skills and normal attacks, but just as important, and that is the Modifying level. I believe I mentioned it earlier, calling it a combo meter, but it really is akin to a combo system. The more you attack, the higher the Modifying level goes, from C all the way to S and, for 10 seconds, Omega. Taking damage costs you an entire Modifying level, so evasion is important. Perfect-dodges are even more important as they help you gain Modifying level progress.
As Modifying levels increase, you gain bonus effects. Nothing too crazy. You gain some bonus attack, starting at +2% (B) and maxing out at +10% (S and Omega). Along the way, you also gain Mod Index Multiplier gain rate maxing at +60% (S) and +100% (Omega). I only just discovered what this bonus does while going through the tutorials for this...essay. Bosses and minibosses have a bar beneath their health that increases as they take damage. This bar is called their Mod Index Multiplier. Therefore, we can assume that the true value of the Modifying level is that keeping it high allows your team to fill this bar faster and more easily, so you can lock down these enemies more frequently and safely DPS them for a bit.
That brings us to the what exploiting the Mod Index Multiplier rewards you with--Modified Mode. Typically, bosses/minibosses are annoying, mobile, and generally dangerous bastards. By filling the Mod Index Multiplier, you effectively "break" the target, bringing it to its knees, and separating it from the outside world for about 10 seconds. Except, your team of Modifiers will be there to beat on it like a giant drum for as long as it lasts--which can be extended via Modified Mode Bonuses (I'm pretty sure the only way you can get this bonus is by having two Modifiers from the Olympus pantheon on the same team). If your team has Mods from the same gen-zone/pantheon, they will gain effects relevant to Modified Mode.
A target dragged into Modified Mode supposedly "loses all Resistances" but, testing it in the tutorial, the difference in damage while in Modified Mode and outside of it seemed to hardly differ at all (I did test with her ultimate and the damage was about 500 points higher with the mode active). If you want more damage in that mode, your best bet is the sigil set that grants an extra 50% damage in Modified Mode, although that set should be saved for an Omega rank who has the slots to spare.
Make no mistake, Modified Mode is worth it. Isolating a boss from what allies and effects it may have in play on the outside is huge on its own, but getting to deal a little more damage for free, without the harassment, on a target who's nice enough to be sitting still for it all? That's priceless.
Since we touched on Resistances, I want to tell you about Control Resistance. Typically, only bosses have these three little dots above their health bar. Each time it is afflicted with a stun, freeze, etc., these dots are filled in. Once they are, they turn into a filled bar that slowly empties. During this time, it cannot suffer any more hard control effects. There aren't that many Modifiers that can inflict these effects but, the best part is, you get two of them for free and shards to push them to S-rank. "Surely it can't get better than that?" Oh, man...let me enlighten you. One of the two you get for free? Her name is Leviathan, and she can strip them of their control resistance. Granted, the skill that does it must have the appropriate code unlocked and, even then, it only cleanses a single marker at a time.
I still call that cool as hell though. I personally haven't leveled my Leviathan, but I've used her before thanks to Dimensional Variable. She's cool--some pun intended--but I don't think her skills flow well. Constantly being able to CC a boss as often and you want/can is incredibly powerful. Because of that, she's on my short list to get leveled; she'll see action eventually, but there are a couple of others deserving of my time and resources.
Do you guys like evading? Do you suck at it? What if I told you that there was a function for when you mess it up or just can't get it right? That mechanic is called break-fall. In cases where you get caught off-guard and hit with a single or even multi-hit attack, you can still evade follow-up damage by hitting the evade button, which lets you teleport a short distance away from where you were hit. It takes some doing to get it right, but it's worth being able to do it when you need to.
Anyone that tells you the gameplay in Aether Gazer lacks complexity shouldn't be trusted. The only mobile game with more complex combat is Punishing: Grey Raven.
"Okay, but why didn't you rate gameplay a 5 (or whatever) if it's so good?" Ah. You got me. How about move on to...
THE FLAWS:
See, some Modifiers have skills that can buff themselves or their team. The problem is that there is no indicator for what buffs, and even debuffs, are affecting your Mod. There is no indication of their existence or even their duration. Sure, this can be fixed "soon", but that doesn't change the fact that this oversight made it into the final product and the public's hands.
"Yeah, that's terrible, utterly unpla-" Shhhhhhhhhh. I wasn't done. The targeting system is fine, though I absolutely hate that when an enemy comes out of Modified Mode alive, if you had them locked as a target before or during, the lock-on is removed after. This is a massive pain in the ass, especially concerning a particular boss who regularly spawns a large number of its own mobs. I don't think this issue has gotten me killed before but, really, it's so. Damn. Annoying.
Something that another commentor mentioned is that dodging an attack and activating time-slow doesn't make you immune to the attack when the slow ends, which I kinda like and hate. I mostly hate it because certain skills send you toward the attacker, or pull them toward you, and you just get caught up in the very attack you dodged earlier. This is at its worst in boss fights, especially when the target has super armor during the attack.
"Well, that's nice and all. Hope you got that out of your system--can I go no-" Quiet, you. While that's all there is to be said about the problems with the gameplay, I have yet to start in on the story. It's...passable. I mean, you can read it without having to turn your brain off, but it's not like it needs to do alot of heavy lifting here.
This is mostly due to two factors. The first is the lack of visual involvement as the story is being told. Characters are just barely animated as they speak, key story elements are delivered on a black screen at times, splash art is incredibly rare. The list goes on. The second flaw in the storytelling in this game is that...well, I don't know where the problem lies. It could be a dumbass localizer (wouldn't be the first time one of these awful human beings ruined something intentionally); it could be that they ran it through a terrible translator; maybe it was just bad writing, pure and simple, /I just don't know. What I do know is that the way some things are delivered, the way some scenes are described...it isn't great.
It's a shame, really. This is the first game of its kind in a while whose story I paid attention to, and this is what I got. Meanwhile, I read the story for Nanami's Starfarer construct in Punishing: Grey Raven, "Her Last Bow". It was everything Aether Gazer's story was not.
There's plenty of good here. If the problem with the story/writing prevents you from giving this game a try, so be it. From all of the reviews I read, precious little was covered in any serious detail, so I give you this.
For reference on my point of view on this game, I'm currently level 63. I have been debating doing this review for as long as the game has been out. I had been hoping (mistakenly, apparently) that someone would do a proper review covering this game's faults and successes, but here I am possibly wasting time on something only three people will bother to read because I refuse to appeal to the TLDR mindset. If you wish to reply with one for those who "need" it, feel free.
Haze Reverb
3.5I spent more than three hours trying to roll Qu and Yin in the same free 10-pull to no avail. Why live/10 game.
Aside from that, there appears to be no translation shenanigans (it seems to be largely machine-translated, which is fine) and no censorship. Yet. For both.
(Do note that they have changed the names of the girls, for some dumb reason--the original names were good, why waste the effort? I haven't seen the max affection lines yet, so I'm still concerned about changes there.)
Send them a dollar if you feel so inclined; I, however, will wait until this version survives for at least a year.
When I get Mo, they get some dough. Equivalent exchange.