July 20, 2016

The WHITE CAT PROJECT (白猫プロジェット shironeko project) Game Review

こんにちは、みなさんー！

While everyone else around the world is catching Pokemon, we are extremely excited to bring to you one of Japan’s most popular mobile games! It has been running for 2 years now, and still tops the charts as one of the most downloaded apps in the apps store.

Introducing…

The WHITE CAT PROJECT (白猫プロジェット shironeko project)!!!

Follow the hero of the story as he embarks on an adventure to the World’s End – a place no one has ever reached.

Game Mechanics

This is a one-touch combat control game – meaning to say, you just need to use one finger to play the game!

You can move the characters simply by dragging them across the screen. To activate a skill, press and hold and select the skill you wish to use. Simply tap the screen simultaneously for continuous attacks. Swiping/ flicking the screen will allow one’s character to dodge attacks.

The leveling system is quite unlike most RPG. In most games, you will only level up the more you play the game. However, in 白猫, you level your characters via a unique feature called the “Soul Board”, using various elemental runes to clear nodes on the board. This will enhance the characters’ different skill sets.

Classes and Characters

As you journey along with the main protagonist, you will be joined by many friends like Airisu (アイリス), Kyatora (キャトラ), and Kyle (カイル). At the same time, you can also gacha (ガチャ) for more characters of various classes. There are currently nine different classes:

Swordsman (剣士)
Martial Artist (武闘家) – we call this the Puncher (lol)
Warrior (ウォリアー)
Lancer (ランサー)
Archer (アーチャー)
Mage (魔道士)
Cross Saber/ Dual Swords(クロスセイバー/双剣)
Dragon Rider(ドラゴンライダー)
Valiant (ヴァリアント)- we call them ‘Transformers’

Some notable characters in each class are:

Din (ディーン) – Swordsman

2. Vi Vi (神気ヴィヴィ) – Puncher

Brad (ブラッド) – Warrior

Almond Peak (アーモンドピーク) – Lancer

Farfalla (ファルファラ) – Archer

Karen (カレン) – Mage

Tina (ティナ) – Cross Saber/ Dual Swords

Tsukimi Rider (Chakuma Tsukimi (ツキミライダー(茶熊ツキミ)) – Dragon Rider

Judar (ジュダ) – Valiant

Why is 白猫 FUN?

Truth be told, none of the admin staff at Bunka knew about this game until one fine day, our dearest Andrea mentioned a “Hunter X Hunter” event, whereby you could “gacha” for characters from the series. This caught Billie’s attention, and a few weeks later, everyone else started playing (ok not everyone).

1. Graphics

I think what attracted us to the game was the graphics. For a mobile game, it’s bright, vibrant and the art is beautiful. Characters are intricately designed – from facial features to clothings, and special attack actions based on what their theme is (this will be further discussed in 5. Themes.)

2. Voice and Music

The game and storyline are fully voiced by famous, Japanese voice actors (seiyuu), for example: Suzumura Kenichi, Ishikawa Kaito, Mizuki Nana and Kugimiya Rie.

Intense battle music also gets your adrenaline pumping. It was quite a surprise for us too when we heard Jpop music playing in the background while waiting for battles to start.

3. Playing with Friends

As if the mechanics are not already awesome enough, you can even play with your friends! If battles quests are too difficult, you can invite friends into your game via an auto-generated number. This real-time game-play really brings the game to another level of fun because you can strategise together in order to ensure your victory.

4. Themes

白猫 also features uniquely themed characters for limited periods of time – from cute, to cool, to downright silly. For example, the Burger (バーガー) who summons burgers as an action skill and Riko (リコ) who can summon Glico Pocky boxes to heal herself… Like, WHAT?!

5. Town

It probably wouldn’t be surprising to tell you that there is a town-building element to build gold and soul mines, inns, restaurants, weapon storages, skill research buildings and training centres. Each building has its own purpose – like enhancing power attacks, special skills and so on. Characters can also be seen walking around town, and when you tap on them, they will jump with joy and you will see an increase in friendship (we will talk about this next)

6. Character’s Friendships

As you fight battles with your characters, your friendship levels will develop. By increasing the friendship level of your characters, you will unlock special stories. After you have maxed the friendship level, you can “Awaken” your characters which will enable your characters to become even stronger!

7. Events

Periodically, there will be new events organised. For example, every Spring, there will be an event called, “Chaguma Gakuen” (茶熊学園). It’s a school-themed event where new sets of student characters will be enrolled in a school, replicating Japan’s real-time school commencements.

Sometimes, there will also be collaborations with famous anime series such as Hunter X Hunter and The Seven Deadly Sins (七つの大罪), which is another compelling reason for anime fans to join in the fun that is 白猫!

Currently, there is a 白猫 Second Anniversary: Soul of Knights event, and we are dying to collect all the cool, new characters!

8. Gacha!!!

This is the whole point of the game – collecting characters and weapons! It’s kind of like Pokemon, if you think about it… Gotta catch-em all!

There are three different types of Gacha:

Foster Gacha: New characters/ weapons are introduced into the game via votes and polls.
Event Gacha: Characters/ weapons introduced previously are re-introduced into a different class (see Characters and Classes).
Gentei Gacha (Limited Edition): These characters/ weapons are only available for a limited period of time, often for special commemorative purposes.

9. (Guild) Offer!

No time to play the game, or going to bed, but want to earn runes and gold? Send them on Offers! These are expeditions which take from minutes to hours to complete. Upon completion, you will gain rewards: runes, gold, souls and friendship points!

How will it help in learning NIHONGO?

Well, it’s a Japanese game! While reading Japanese may come across as a daunting experience, it may be helpful if there was audio to help you tide across words that you do not know how to pronounce. This is where 白猫’s charm as a fully-voiced game comes in. Characters will voice-over the story as you read it.

How to download?

On the Android Play Store, it’s simple. You just have to download QooApp, then download 白猫プロジェット from QooApp itself.

On the other hand, for the Apple Store, it might be slightly tougher. You will need a Japanese iTunes account to download the game due to regional locks. You can create a new iTunes account with a Japanese mailing address and you will gain access to the Japanese App Store. Log into the App Store using a Japanese iTunes account, search 白猫プロジェット and you will be able to download the game.

Tips and Tricks

You will be entitled to one free gacha roll in the initial stage of the game. Depending on your luck, you will gain characters of varying rarity: from ☆2, ☆3, ☆4. Of course, ☆4 characters are the rarest and stronger than others. If you’re feeling really determined from the get go, you could keep trying from the start (deleting, reinstalling the game over and over again) until you get a character that you like.
Once you have gotten a ☆4 of your liking, you can shy away from leveling the Main Character’s stats (he is really lousy, so please do not waste your runes on him). Focus more on the ☆4 as stronger characters will enable you unlock more islands and fight tougher enemies.
Send your characters on guild offers when you’re sleeping! The rewards are really good and you definitely need more runes when it comes to leveling more characters.
Don’t neglect your town. The buildings may seem insignificant, but they can boost your characters’ stats and allow you to have more characters in your party.
If you happen to have a ☆4 weapon, do try to level them up to the highest level. Although they may not be your character’s designated weapon, a ☆5 weapon (excluding Memorial Swords) grants the character a bonus, third skill which may be useful!
On your friend list, search for friends to add by using the おすすめ button! Adding strong friends will help you tide across initial quests as you aren’t that strong yet.
Some event quests may give you buildings which may provide a special boost to your characters. Do remember to build and level them up quickly as they may also give you mission rewards.
Keep including characters that you like in your party as you can swiftly increase their friendship levels and level them up to 100. It’s ‘cheaper’ to level them to 100 in a single shot than node by node.