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IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER FOR THOSE CONSIDERING IMPORTING
Truthfully for those who are curious about importing this game, unless you understand Japanese you will be missing out on a large part of the game itself as a lot of it is story based. And dont think you will really get that much enjoyment out of the game itself if you are just playing for the battles. Wont help too that one would not be able to read the skills and what they do with the monster girls either. So thats one thing a potential importer should seriously consider before purchasing the game. Since seriously its 70% story. (Spoken / Text)
Been playing a bit more and finally got through all the introductory story bits getting to the main real dungeon. Unfortunately seems like there are only 2 dungeons. The starting one which you will go back to later when you unlock more skills and the second dungeon which is unlocked after the whole long introductory story parts. It seems to work on the floor system so you just go deeper into the dungeon. With that being said dont expect this game to be like a normal JRPG with a world map and wandering around. Everything is done from a 2d map area selection system.
While the game isnt bad, its nothing really to write home about either. Though the characters seem to be amusing and the battle system is pretty straightforward stuff.
Capturing the monster girls with cards am sure will be something else fun to do on the side and necessary considering they have skills which supplement your character from. The skill categories that they have are Main / Sub / Map and fall into the categories of being active skills (player activated) or passive (active all the time).
Leveling them up = keeping them in your party can have 8 active at once I do believe and skills can be toggled between Main and Sub when out of battle. Leveling up the monster girls increases the ability of the skills that they have though it costs money each time you raise their level at the card shop once the exp cap has been reached. The exp they earn (represented by a heart) is different from the normal player exp. Then there is the final level unlock which is where you fight the monster girl and if you win she becomes fully leveled up. Pretty expensive though and if you fail I think you lose the money paid, but does not result in a game over like normal battles.
Example of one of the first monster girl card skill set.
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Stats Up
Main character status parameter up (Ex. Attack, Defense, Speed etc)
Main
Defense is raised for # turns
Sub
Auto defense is activated lowering damage taken when players life drops under #%
Map
None
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Your character does not gain any skills actively from leveling up. Only thing that changes is stats and certain levels obtained will increase your AP count. So skills learned comes from the girls you meet in the game and getting the heart icon to fill up to full by fulfilling requests from them or advancing the story and from the monster girl cards.
One issue I do have is the fact that you just have a single character for the battles. Which my guess is this is how the game is going to play out pretty much. With that being said means there is a lot more focus on leveling up and obtaining skills to best suit the situation. Its something different from the usual party system that folks are used to. With how the story setting is written pretty much looks like thats going to be the case for the whole game a single party hero.
Its not bad per say, its just something I personally dont care for as much as it takes out a lot of the fun of having a well balanced party.
Though Id say for those who are curious and dont mind spending money on an "odd" JRPG this is a title worth checking out. Ill be sure to play this one to completion.
Currently grinding away to max out my monster girl cards. The larger issue is just money at the start of the game. I think the prices for bringing the 2 cards you can capture once you get the 2nd dungeon unlocked is like this
Lv 1 - 2 = 200 G
Lv 2 - 3 = 500 G
Max Lv = 1000 G
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2 cards = 3400 G
money generally gained from enemies is pretty low at the start so takes a while unless you go selling things like the 必殺ミカン for about 100 G a pop which are dropped from the pigs with spears on the second floor. Since you can only carry 10 of those items its usually good to sell some before you fill totally up. Generally keep it around 5. But the drops are kinda rare so its not like you will be overflowing with them. The next set of monster girl cards are even more expensive to upgrade. D:
In closing am actually having fun with this game surprisingly enough. The battles become a little more interesting once you get more monster girl cards to supplement your skill regiment (active / passive). Also am amusing myself by fighting monsters Im not really supposed to yet gaining exp and money a bit faster. Plus captured one monster girl that I shouldnt exactly have yet due to the level difference, but its not like it breaks the game. The extra stats boost she provides to accuracy is useful though.
I still think Imageepoch needs to go under though.