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For what it is, it's great! Provides a seamless way for downloading games outside of your region and somewhere else to post about said games. But, I have a lot of problems with it, too. For one, NSFW. There might be a feauture to turn off NSFW from popping up in my feed whenever I launch the app, but I haven't found it yet. But, some users post uncensored NSFW content without marking their content NSFW. No matter how much I click the 'Not Interested' option, the poster always reappears on my feed. I also just don’t understand some how some posts show up considering all of 'em just show half/fully nude women (and, sadly, sometimes girls) despite nearly all of my games centered around a male-majority cast. And being very not straight makes the posts more uncomfortable and a lot more annoying. More problems relate to posting issues (like odd spacing when adding a game, media, or links) and showing updates for games or apps that don't need updates. But, those aren't as big to me. Plus, I have yet to experience any difficulties with downloading any app or game for the past 3 years or so I've use the app!
Main thoughts, I'd say that (overall) the game is very nice, especially for it being so early in its release. There's nice artwork that looks similar yet sets itself apart from Happy Elements' other games, fully voiced story lines (I'm a fan of voice actors, so it's always an added bonus to be able to hear their emotion flowing through their lines!), and pretty high quality animations and effects. A nice mix of casual and involved gameplay, cool characters with unique abilities, attributes, and powers from different backgrounds, my gay self is blowing up at the seams with excitement! But, there are quite a lot of glitches that interupt game flow 'n such, leaving many players unable to even open the game.
[IN-DEPTH REVIEW BELOW *very wordy, sorry;;]
I will say, I'm gonna draw a lot of comparisons to HE's other games (mainly Ensemble Stars) due to the three games being very similar, and this game feeling like a lovely mix of Basic & Music because of how much more fleshed out the game seems with it removing a lot of prior flaws 'n such.
To start, the game has 4 different *sectors; Blue North, Green East, Red South, and Yellow West, all of which having their own group of (abnormally attractive) heroes.
The gameplay is very similar to my experience with *HE's other games, like Last Period and Ensemble Stars. The game leaning more to Ensemble Stars (obviously, these boys are gorgeous), but with more hints of Last Period to give off the battle-game feel and vibe to match the characters and story. The gameplay itself is a turn-based battle system with waves of enemies to battle. The battle system is simple, with it being fast-paced while also sprinkling stuff like a simple type advantage system (like the weapon triangle in Fire Emblem or type advantages in Pokémon, for those who are familiar with that) involving the 4 different elements/power types (like Ensemble Stars!! with Volume, Performance, and Dance or Music's 4 elements, like Glitter), meaning your heroes have a weakness type, but also a type it's more resistant to and strong against. You battle in QUESTS (like PRODUCE in Basic or LIVE STAGE in Music) using your team of chosen 4 heroes with up to 3 add-ons on each hero called 'frames'. Frames are one of the two pullable types in this game's gacha (the other being heroes), even going as far as being very similar to the heroes, having better art the higher the rarity. The frames power up your characters, provide bonuses, and offer skills to your heroes in battle. The frames, like your heroes, come with an element/power type, and matching the two can have great effects! But, matching your heroes with frames with that same hero in it will give them a new skill (if in the main frame slot, sub doesn'tgive you a skill), so it's up to preference how you choose to take on quests. And, each hero and their other variations come with bonuses that are applied in battle when using certain characters together in a certain order, so that's another nice detail.
Speaking of frames, I want to bring up a relatively overlooked problem relating to them and the gacha. Like I mentioned, there are two types of things you can pull from the gacha: Heroes & Frames. But, the problem is that, when you *order, you're pulling for BOTH. There is no way as of launch to pull for one type, even within the lower rarity gacha. The problem seems rather minor, but will definitely get more annoying as the game progresses and you really only need or want a new hero or just a frame. Seems as if the more complex the game, the harder the gacha gets in HE games.. Problems with the Orders aside, the gacha itself is very comparable to HE's other games (which is a whole other problem within itself). The rarity system is ranging from 1* - 4*, and the combined pull rate for the highest rarity, being 4*, is 2%, and individual pull rates being .5% (at least so far with the Orders at launch, as focus or birthday orders in the future may have increased rates). The gacha uses the main in-game currency, being gems, at 300 for a 10-pull (guranteed 3* or higher on your first) and 3o for an individual pull (that's what I'm calling
'em at least), but also regular coins for the lower rarity gacha (like scout tickets in Ensemble Stars where you can't pull higher than a 4* card) using 3,000 for 1 pull, and 30K for 10.
Back to gameplay (the more simple/casual side, at least), there are a lot of features from Basic & Music that were implemented into Helios. There's a customisable room for up to 4 heroes of your choice (like the Office in Music except you can save up to 100 different room layouts and reload 'em whenever) with purchasable furniture and decor using home tokens that are earned from sending your heroes off on patrols to protect each of the 4 sectors at once (like Work in Basic using both the work from Ensemble Stars! and the new work from Ensemble Stars!! to do 4 at once) for a time period of your choice (30 minutes - 10 hours) to run in the background (in case y'all haven't played Basic, you can still use the heroes you put on patrol in QUESTS, it's just a time-waiting farming sort of thing), with higher time spent patrolling giving a larger total of rewards. Though similar to Basic's work system, there's more (optional) interaction with enemies that show up every now 'n then in any of the sectors you've sent out patrol on that can easily be beaten by literally just rapidly pressing two buttons to contain the threat and save citizens, leading to more personal rewards from both the enemy and the citizens. Though, there are these medals that are used to *evolve heroes that can only be found (with the slightest chance) on story quests and on patrols that don't even drop every time, even at 10hr intervals. And with there being 4 different medals matching the 4 different sectors, there's gonna be a problem if you just want to evolve your heroes but can't because you don't have the 5 or so medals of the hero's sector. Speaking of hero growth, this game, unlike Ensemble Stars, has you have to spend coins to level up, stack duplicate frames, and upgrade heroes/frames outoside of quests (like in A3). I don't personally like this feature, since there might come a time where I just want to use my level up tickets really quickly to level up a new hero I got only to realize I need 30K coins just to level up to 40;;
Final thoughts, I highly recommend Helios Rising Heroes! It's a nice mix of HE's previous successors, and an even nicer mix of casual & more involved gameplay and idol & battle games. The characters and story is nice, their voices all very unique and expressive. The animations and effects expressed through sprites, the menu, and even the focus orders are all just amazing and show just how much work was put into the games and making everything speak for itself and oozing with charm. It's easy to pick up and put down, and so far seems like it'll meet a lot of high expectations and hopes. Especially hoping they improve on tbe gacha and fixing the glitches! I want more people to be able to play this and would love to see the game grow.
*HE stands for Happy Elements, which is the company behind the game.
*Sectors are basically units/idol groups like from Ensemble Stars, or troupes from A3, etc.
*Order is what the game refers to the gacha as, like Ensemble Stars calling theirs 'Scouts'.
*Evolving a hero is just like blooming a card in Ensemble Stars by reaching a certain part of the idol/hero road.
[This review is written from the perspective of a casual (or someone who plays more for fun and boys rather than maxing out everything/being well-ranked), who started with Year One "Ensemble Stars!", not "Ensemble Stars!! (Basic/Music)", aiming to point out the good & the bad of the game, and to help and give advice to new players in a (hopefully) more in-depth and unbiased light.] *also, 'HE' stands for Happy Elements, which are the devs.
The game itself is filled to the brim with cute, attractive, eccentric, and different idol boys that can satisfy any fan's tastes. There's such an array of characters with different personalities, appearances, and voices (from familar seiyuu) that can appeal to anyone! There really is an idol for anyone and everyone! But, in comparison to its previous successor (now known as Ensemble Stars!! Basic), it can be pretty taxing to play. Though, upon first glance, this game is generally easier and more packed than Basic: You've got more value in gameplay, being able to see your favorite boys dance and sing! Materials are generally easier to farm, idol rank ups and cards are easier to level up, and there's even more value to cards, with some that give you MV outfits to wear in the MV while you play in addition to just blooming your cards for new artwork! But, there's also lots of difficulties and questionably difficult, at that; The scouts now allow you to pull an off-focus 5* at a 1/15 rate (getting a 5* you probably weren't aiming for), while the focus character (that used to be the only 5* on their own scout so that scouting was more fair to F2P players) has a chance of 1/1 still and the coin system (which is used to trade coins gained from scouting to get a card of your choice) only works for people who pay money, as you get only 1 coin for one scout, and the coins needed for a 5* is 300. Speaking of scouts, they require dia, which is harder to obtain in Music than it is in Basic or even the older EnStars (I suggest clearing each song at least 10 times to reach B in the clear category, as your first clear gives 5 dia, and so does your tenth clear). With the implementation of the separation of free and paid dias, HE made it more difficult to get paid dias, which so happens to also be the only currency used to buy the MV outfits in the shop. You'd expect that all the dia you purchase would be considered 'paid dia', but, more often than not, the paid dia in the packs you buy come with 1/3 free dia, meaning that (if you're wanting an MV outfit from the shop) you'll have to spend more money on more packs for MORE paid dias. Not to mention that events are worse because not only are there rewards exclusive to only events (such as MV stones required to unlock event MV outfits, which also can't be bought/unlocked by paying with diamonds on the characters' idol roads, and stones can't be farmed) which are difficult to get because of the points system, but you can not farm EXP as easily as in Basic because of its 4 Office Work (because there's work for the New & Old Basic) compared to Music's 3 - 5 (that only gives you a minimum of 250 points per work in an event w/o spending BP, and around 250 EXP), , but your BP (also your only source of gaining event points for the event) also takes double the time it takes to recover LP in basic (Basic = 2 1/2Hrs Full, 15 minutes for 1LP (not used for work, which provides EXP using AP), Music = 5Hrs Full, 30 minutes for 1BP(also needed for Office)), which sucks because the event in Music is always one day SHORTER than Basic and the points you gain is not too much, either. Spending 10 BP for a song will only get me 21K points and 100 Event Passes (which allow you to give a go at the event song, for those types of events, and get more points (100 Passes = 10K, 500 Passes = 50K, 1000 = 100K)). Sounds like a lot, until you realize that the points needed to reach ONE 5 star in an event is 3.5M (Basic's is 1.1M points for one 5 star), which is more than triple the amount in comparison to Basic, despite all of the downs. This alone makes events frustrating, even if you choose to spend BP wisely and spend gems. I sure hope they balance that more.. I'm glad that they've removed ranked card rewards, but this feels a lot like the feeling of ranked for casuals and F2P players. Also, piece of advice I've gotten from another, spend 1BP (or 3BP for the Tour missions) for each song if doing a song for the Event instead of 10BP (1BP x 10 songs = 1000 EXP > 10BP = 400EXP) so you get the same points, but more EXP and the same (or more) amount of points 'n stuff fron 10BP in addition to getting quicker level-ups to refresh your BP! And, always do your office work! Even if you spend 0BP, you'll still gain 250 points for each work session! And, only when you're comfortable/think you can try speeding things up, go up to 3BP or 6BP (if you're feeling lazy or need sleep and don't want to waste any BP)! Though Tour events tend to be easier with the fact that mission progress can be carried over to other repetitions of the same day (ex. A mission for Day 12 requires 2 full combos, but you only get one. But, if you choose to do the day again, you'll still only need only one more full combo), always practice your songs to get at least a full combo when you have no BP (as harder songs with good combos give more points than the same combo from an easier difficulty), try to clear as many missions for each day in the Tour events (to be able to move onto the next day and get at least one 4* & 5* of your choice) to reach the *star requirements that block reaching the cards (*1 star is earned from completing 1 mission, and, though you don't need to complete missions to proceed on to the next day, there are road blocks that require 30 stars (for the 4*) and 77 (for the 5*), and knowing what missions to prioritize in terms of repetitions in case you miss them (ex. There will be missions needing ONE song with a certain performer, while others will require the 4th song with its original members, so you should do the 4th song one on your first run so that you don't have to revisit it and do all of the songs again), keeping in mind that mission progress carries over between repetitions, so missions requiring a specific center (unit/type) will have less of a priority. And, the most helpful tool for non-Japanese speaking players, I suggest following @doublerainbow82 on Twitter for translations on nearly everything from both Basic & Music, which will prove to be helpful! To summarize, I think that the game itself is fun! Good boys all around, but to get those boys is a difficult task, and surviving not getting them can prove to be a challenge with the game making everything an obstacle. With that, good luck, Producers!
The old version of EnStars was a lot more simple and easy in most aspects. The events, however, were a tad difficult with cards you may want being a ranked reward, and points are already hard to keep up with for a casual. The new EnStars Basic fixes a lot of issues resolving the events, but made the easier aspects of the old game a lot harder. Idol ranks require a lot fans, which is harder to get on Basic compared to Music. Music in general is easier, whether it be the events, the farming of materials, the list just goes on. It'd be nice if materials were not only hard to get (especially the idol stones and fans), but also if the games were more balanced. Otherwise, the game is lovely! Though Basic has its flaws and downs in comparison to Music, they do have a 1-UP in events and EXP farming, as Music is more than 3x harder in getting a single copy of a 5*. If you're a casual and don't care for rhythm games, Basic's for you! You'll be able to get cards easier from the events by managing your WORK in both the new and old EnStars to get EXP and refresh LP for Live Events, farm materials relatively easily, and still see your favorites dancing in MVs unlocked in events at 1,450,000 points! If you enjoy a bit more rhythm and fun, then look into Music! It has a lot of interactivity, but comes with difficulty in gaining EXP and points for events.
As a fan of Ensemble Stars, I quite easily fell for this game! Though it is very similar to Enstars, there are also many differences. For one, while Enstars uses 2D animated sprites for stories, this game does not, but it makes up for it by not only animating sprites during lessons, but for event sequences, transitions, and for sleeping events. Speaking of which, this game also seems to have a lot more interactivity and customization options available, like allowing two characters on your home menu in-game (who also appear animated on the title screen!), petting characters before sleeping events, and even having better (in my opinion) LP (well, it's called BP in this game) events, as it feels more like an interactive battle of bands. Overall, this game has such charm and charisma, and, if you hadn't been able to tell, I really enjoy the animations and transitions in this game!
Personally, I like the game a lot! It's a very nice time-killer, but, like all games, it needs a little more work. For starters, since the gacha isn't % based, you can keep getting the same characters over and over, which can get annoying if you actually want a new worker. Even if you 10-pull, there isn't an increased rate to get a 4 star (which is the highest star rating in the game) or 3 star, as for as I know, and it is heavily advertised to buy the 4 stars you want with the in-game purchases. There are also bugs in playing the game itself, like when I press and hold for the hammer, which doesn't respond until I try it three or so more times. You also can't rotate furniture, but I personally don't care much about it. Besides all of that, I'll continue to play and wish for this game to improve!
Project Sekai Colorful Stage Feat. Hatsune Miku | Japanese
4.4another rhythm game that is harder to play in Android devices;;