I just recently started playing Touken Ranbu Online after watching the Hanamaru anime. I’ll be honest, I’m glad I only discovered the game when I did as they’d just, a few months earlier, released the English version of the game!
I’ve really enjoyed playing it. I feel it’s quite ‘relaxed’ as far as games go, which is nice. You do get a
little ‘tense’ when you’re not sure if your swords are going to be able to make it through a battle
(particularly if one of them has some light damage already and you just need him to hang in there a little longer to reach the end of a map…). Also, the events and campaigns they have in a constant stream tend to keep things interesting and add a little ‘intensity’ due to their time limit. (I haven’t actually progressed too far on the regular maps due to this ‘constant stream’ though...)
My favourite parts of this game are:
> The dialogue that shows up for a random duty whenever you set duties for the day. Depending on the swords you’ve assigned to that duty, they may ‘talk to each other’ or it’ll just be some random lines related to this duty for that character.
- There’s also the dialogue that’ll appear if you have specific swords on your team when you head into a particular sortie map; as those swords have some history there. It’s nice to have these little ‘dialogue
surprises’.
> The backdrops. Some of them are really pretty and I enjoy the seasonality of them.
- The backgrounds in certain maps (particularly event maps) are also very pretty. The art in this game is beautiful.
> The moments when you get a new sword warrior to join your team. For me, this hasn’t happened for a while now. My last sword was Mikazuki. (I was so-o happy when he came up on the forging screen! Still trying to find Kogitsunemaru, but… I’m glad to have Mikazuki ~ who is my 57th sword. ^-^)
> The apologetic konnosuke when something goes wrong with the connection. While it’s irritating having the connection go for a loop, I do appreciate the little pop-up message.
- I also like the maintenance screen when they’re performing maintenance. So sweet. ^-^
One thing that I found interesting was how my opinion of the characters changed as I got to know them in the game and not just in the anime. Kasen was the first to take a little bit of a ‘dive’ in popularity with me. I’m still very fond of Kasen, but when I started working with him in the game, he… wasn’t exactly the easiest to please. I learnt very quickly to try to not put him on horse or field duty… He’s not too unhappy about sparring, but… still. (Really wish we had the option of laundry duty as seen in the anime…)
Other characters improved their standings. One character that springs to mind is Yamanbagiri and another is Taikogane. I had previously been fairly indifferent to these two, but having had them as my ‘attendant’ in the game (by being the leader of Team 1) I felt I got to grow closer to them and really enjoyed seeing them when I logged into the game.
I really appreciate that this game works so well for the free player. So long as you put in the work, you can gather things in the game. You may not have an ‘edge’ in the events, but that doesn’t make it any less fun. (By the way, that sword pun was not planned, but I’ll take it. ^-^)
If you play Touken Ranbu Online, let me know what your favourite things are about the game. You can find my Contact details on the About page.
One last thing, don’t forget to check out the Downloads page for the Touken Ranbu Online printables I
made for you and do come back next week for a sort of ‘part 2’ to this post.
Until next time, keep enjoying your fan side of life!
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