Ooh, you're playing A3? I'd love to hear your opinion on the gameplay, user interface, and overall enjoyment of it after you've had a chance to explore it. I have limited room left on my phone for new apps, and am not convinced that A3 is going to be my cup of tea. TIA 😁
I meant to answer this last weekend and then everything went sideways so I’m going to do it now!
I’ll be honest, I’ve never really played a game like this before. Before I got sucked into Cybird’s Ikemen series last year (omg it really wasn’t that long ago wtf it feels like forever), most of the games on my phone didn’t really go beyond Candy Crush kind of level of involvement. So getting into this one was interesting to say the least!
I didn’t pay much mind to the hype I was seeing on Twitter about it because I wasn’t interested in downloading another game to suck away my time. But it came and I told myself to try it. Clearly forgetting that I have two modes: don’t care about the thing and it is the only thing I care about. That being said, I’m not sure if going in blind helped or hurt me for the beginning but I’ll put a few of my thoughts under the cut!
My ignorance aside, I really didn’t know what to expect going in and I definitely would have done some things differently. I’ve got a bad habit of wanting to get into the meat of games right away and forget that, even though you shouldn’t, if the game offers you that free set of pulls, do it until best boy comes home. But I wanted story so I just kept going and also didn’t really have a best boy since I hadn’t paid attention to anything online.
User Interface
Colour me mildly confused and overwhelmed when I first logged in and saw so many things (also shush, Itaru, we all know you’re gamer trash but we love you still). The game will give you prompts and tips as you’re going through the prologue and first starting, but as I was playing after I’d tucked into bed I wasn’t the best at retaining and struggled a little.
That aside, once I buckled down it was straight forward enough. Everything is nicely labelled for what it is and the first time you go in, it will give you another explanation of what to do. Easy enough to follow and it all is laid out rather well. Even when you go into any of the menus, everything is still straight forward and easy to figure out where you want to go.
Gameplay
There’s...a lot to do XD. Story, Actors, Plays, Earn Cash are all their own different thing to do. I found it very time consuming to bounce through all of them in the beginning because every time I was almost out of energy, I’d level up and find myself going right back into it to use up my energy again. I actually quit MLQC’s because I got to the point where it felt like too much grinding trying to level up once you hit a certain point but this one at least made it a little more interesting for me in that there were so many bonuses along the way.
Story is exactly that. Main story chapters are here, along with the backstage stories you unlock from different cards, and a couple other types. They flow really well and it’s super easy to find them. I also love that once it’s unlocked you have it and can reread it as many times as you want, no having to go back and replay anything to try to get a scene.
Actors confused me a little bit just because you’ve got so many things to do with these damn cards. But again it didn’t take long to pick up all the things they wanted from me and it’s just a matter of buckling down and doing the things.
Plays gives you various ways to level up both your rank and your cards (outside of consuming the weak). It’s obviously slower for the cards because you get a set limit of experience but it also unlocks the backstage stories for characters along with their minichats. Thankfully, I can just let this run with minimal effort because when you level up and suddenly have 200 energy to burn it gets a little tiresome.
Earn Cash nets you the coins you need to spend to level up your characters. It also will give you some items that are required for training characters. Along with some of the damn cutest interactions between characters I’ve seen yet. And you can’t go wrong with all their cute little chibi avatars.
Overall Enjoyment
I honestly had no idea what I was getting into with this, but if my rank says anything, I’m in deep. So god damn deep and it hasn’t even been a month.
I absolutely loved the story. Every time I ran out of chapters I was distressed because I needed more. So back to the plays I went, maybe spent a few gems if I was desperate enough, and leveled up hard and fast. They do an amazing job of making all these guys so unique and engaging that I had to know more about them. Watching all of them grow and come together and just seeing them succeed was so damn good. I’m finished with the main story now, but I’m constantly going back to read parts again because they’re just so god damn good (Chapter 19 in the first act will remain my favourite because Citron, you loon, I can’t stop laughing). They make these characters believable, their stories just pull you in and you want so much more.
That being said, the grind was god damn real the further I got on. Obviously it gets harder to level up as you go on, I get that, but I was hitting it hard to get more chapters and it was never enough. But even when I was grinding, I didn’t mind it. I had enough cards to cycle through and level up in the various ways that I was still getting new things every time I would practice. I’m at the point now where that isn’t so much the case but I don’t mind it because I just turn it on and let the boys do their thing.
I think the only thing that I haven’t completely enjoyed is the main character’s love obsession with curry. I only really bring it up because it’s slammed home almost every time food is brought up and it seems overdone to me for something that’s supposed to be quirky? I could probably count on one hand the amount of times, when she’s in charge of cooking, she makes something other than curry, even when the guys protest how often she makes it. It only takes one of them saying they don’t mind it and she seems to take it as everyone loves it as much as she does. I get that it’s her ‘quirk’, that she loves it and, I mean, we’ve all got our favourite foods, but when she could happily eat it for every single meal that seems to be pushing it beyond something meant to get a laugh. The one time she got seriously called out on it, she tried to get around it by saying that she was making different types so it should be okay right and that just struck me as completely childish for someone who is responsible for several teenagers. But that’s honestly my only true pet peeve with the game and really it’s just a personal problem.
Overall, I’ve seriously enjoyed this game. Each group brought in it’s own flavour to the story so it never felt like you were going through the same motions as the last and I love all of them so much. I cannot wait for them to give us more content even though I dread the thought of how horribly the fave does not want to come home from the gacha and how that probably won’t change.
I hope I’m the future you do some sort of continuation of A New Friend. It was super adorable and made my heart go uwu
Hello, friend! I do actually have a little sequel planned for it because kittens, but it might have to wait a little bit because there’s characters that would show up in it that haven’t made appearances in the storyverse I have it set in and I don’t want to completely spoil them.
But! There will be a sequel with their new kitty friend and her kittens don’t worry! And this made my heart burst this morning reading so thank you for sending it!!
The problem I'm facng is that Sirius' route was so good that now idk who to pick. Ray and Lancelot were okay, but all the routes I really want to play aren't released in the NA yet. Do you have any other routes you like?
Hi, anon!
Hmmm. Well, honestly, so far, I’ve enjoyed almost every route I’ve played but for vastly different reasons. I suppose it depends on what you were looking for in a story?
Fenrir’s route has a much more outgoing MC and is a lot more lively and fun with her far more involved in the war than any other route so far.
Edgar’s route definitely has the most drama out of any of the released routes so if you’re looking for that, he’s your man.
Kyle’s route was a slow burn like Sirius’s with an MC that comes into her own, in her own way and gives you a non-soldier view of the war.
Jonah’s route is honestly like a game of cat and mouse with a lot of misunderstanding and learning on both sides of the relationship.
Loki had a mostly lighter route with a needier suitor and also gave us our first look at the neutral parties but also someone with closer ties to the Tower.
If I had to pick one to do? It would probably be Edgar or Kyle. Edgar isn’t one of my top favourites but his route was good barring a few situations where I wanted to shake his MC a little. Kyle is also good for that view of the brutal truths of war and was just well written and well done. A lot of the routes also help to fill in some gaps about other characters and Kyle does a good job of that for Lancelot and Ray both.
Hope this helps you a little and that you enjoy whatever you pick!
does the zero route have anything triggering or is it just stuff you think they did bad?
Oh! It’s not triggering so far as I can tell! It’s more a personal peeve honestly. And just me being sad over a lack of sprite and translation word choices.
Hi there! Are you planning on updating your Stardew Valley fanfic? I just started playing again and was reminded by your fanfiction and I'm so eager to see it continue!
Hi! Mm, I do really want to keep working on it and I do plan to in the future because I have a lot of ideas and love wrapped up in that idea. But I’ve learned from experience that multiple big projects going on at once are hard for me to juggle and I lose interest (and motivation) fast when I do that. But I will come back to it (and Sirius and Celeste in general my god I abandoned my children) soon enough!
Helloo!!! Im still a newbie to the cybird game world and was confused on how birthday events work?? Is there any way to do them without spending like $20+?? Cause from what i see, it doesnt seem possible- and if you can, how?? Its all so overwhelming!!
Hello! So two things right off the bat: this is going to be long because I’ve spent a lot of time playing this game to the cheapest I can. That being said I have spent a lot on this game during events. There hasn’t been an event yet that I haven’t spent money but it varies from event to event how much I drop.
I made a post once before about this, but I feel like I can flesh it out some more so on to some tips and tricks with Tasha!
So there are two types of events in IkeRev, story and collection. You didn’t ask about collection, but I might do another post about it because with Kyle’s route coming soon, it’ll be the next one we have and it’s completely different rules and strategy for that one. But for now! Story Events!
But for Story Events there’s a few key things to think about: Friends & Cards, Duels, Lucky Time & Bonuses, Love Points, and Items.
1. Friends & Cards
These two go hand in hand. Once you join an event, you want to get 20 friends as quickly as you can so you can start tapping in to the extra points they’ll bring when you duel. The later you join, the harder it is to fill this list. When you’re picking friends, to either send requests to or who to accept from, players with 5 star cards in their first slot are going to bring in the most points for you (30 while 4 star is 25 and 3 star is 20). If you have a 5 star card, put it in your main slot even if it isn’t your best boy. You can swap back at the end but people do play favourites when choosing friends and if you have a 5 star in the second slot but not the first people might pass you over. And try to keep the 5 star card in the main slot through the whole event. If you want to swap to hear lines in battle or with other characters for a new card from the event, that’s fine. Do it for a set of duels, but swap back. It’s not really fair to your friends to change like that mid event so try to be polite if you can! Don’t sweat it if you don’t have 5 star cards though. There’s plenty of people who will still accept your request because the extra points add up in the end no matter what!
2. Duels
Now, the game will give you a notification when your meter is full, but when I first started playing the game, I set alarms for every five hours. At the time, my phone was normally on silent so I wouldn’t hear the game notification; I heard the alarm loud and clear. It was easier and lord did it train me to pay attention for every five hours. Also at the end of your day, do as many duels as you can before bed. Your meter doesn’t have to be full to do them and these extra points will add up in the end! Now, as a new player, you’re going to want to really pay attention to the people you’re dueling. Some people are traps. They might have 4 star cards in their hand but they might just have terrible gacha luck. Always do single duels. It’ll sting less if you get a draw and you’ll get the most out of your friend points. They don’t stack if you do multiple duels. You get one bonus from a friend no matter how many duels you do. So just try to do them one at a time unless you know you can beat whoever you’re going up against.
I don’t have actual confirmation on this, but from what I’ve seen in Story Events is that the people you’re paired up against are those that have similar Love Points to you, not Beauty Points. So if you get a rash of good luck and amass a lot of points, you might find yourself up against people who are older players and have far more points than you. So always do single duels and try to remember names of people you know you can beat and those you know you cannot. The more you play, the easier it’ll be to recognise people. I’ve been playing since launch and there’s some people I avoid like the plague because I know I can’t beat them. Just keep cycling through duel partners until you get one you can beat! Or take a hit and get the draw points and wait the hour to see if it’ll give you new partners next time.
3. Lucky Time & Bonuses
Before you join an event, Cybird is kind enough that you can check to see when Lucky Times are and what bonuses they’re offering this time. I always check these, Lucky Time first since you’ll get double points for both the points you get for the duel and secret duel (friend points don’t double). A common trend is that the first Lucky Time will be 24 hours after the event begins. There have been some that it’s been later and that sucks when it comes to the bonuses. For myself, I made my own agenda/day planner and specifically put in a calendar page to track events in IkeRev, but what I suggest is putting reminders in your phone for when Lucky Time is. In the hours leading up to Lucky Time (and this really depends on your time zone), I usually will do just enough duels so that when Lucky Time starts I will have a full meter. It nets me a few extra points and I know I’ll still have a full set for when it starts. And a wonderful friend just mentioned to me that if you have a secret duel ready before Lucky Time, sit on it until Lucky Time starts. It’ll net you 200 points instead of the usual 100 so it’s another boost!
As for bonuses, being able to see them before you start an event is a fucking godsend because you can decide right there and then what you want to go for. Early Clear Bonuses are where you’re going to be dropping money if you want them. You need to decide up front if you do or don’t because you have to commit if you do. Usually the first one, for birthday events, needs to be attained within the first 25 hours for when you enter an event and the second at 72 hours. This is why you check bonuses before diving straight in. If you don’t like either of them or don’t think you can commit to it, start the event right away and just start earning you some points! If you do want the first one, don’t start the event immediately. Wait a half an hour or an hour and then start because that will give you a little more time in Lucky Time to make sure you have enough time to do Duels and still read the required story parts to get the bonus. If you want the second bonus but not the first, you have to make the decision if you want to wait for the first Lucky Time or just start right away. The Lucky Times are usually spaced out far enough that you’ll only hit one of them when trying to get the Early Clears. But that’s your call on if you want to wait and try or just go right into it!
For ranking bonuses, well, this one is harder since you never know how hard or easy people are going to play the event. Sometimes people lose steam and the border between the tiers is a lot lower than you would expect. Sometimes it’s stupidly high, especially if it’s a top 200 instead of the 300 we see on a lot of events. Take a look at these and plan as best as you can. Check the border for bonuses button on the ranking screen if you’re curious and set reasonable goals for yourself when it comes to them. As much as everyone wants to be top tier, it’s not always easy to get there without spending money.
Bonuses are always the deciding factor on if people want to spend money on an event or not. It’s best to look at them and decide what you want right at the start. Deciding half way through you want to try can end in heartbreak because you might not get it and then you’ve spent money for something you can’t have.
4. Love Points
Ah, the bane of my damn existence right here. So this is what Story Events run on. The more you have the easier it is to get through the event. But how many do you need to get through the different parts? They sometimes follow a standard but I’ve seen a pretty steep rise in points going from event to event all this year of playing. If you’re curious about how many points you need to clear endings, the best way to find out is to ask people. A few blogs on here are power houses when it comes to events and will finish within the first few days so if you ask nicely they’ll most likely share with you how many you need to get through the ends. Some only keep track of final points, others how many you need to get the Early Clear bonuses. 9 times out of 10, you can ask me. At the start of events, I usually have a rough idea of how many you’ll need and I don’t mind sharing as I play through. I won’t have exacts until I play routes but I can give estimates and update them as I go through.
Generally, we see the first ending clearing between 7500-8000 if you’re doing the Premium ending (which you should be if you want that first Early Clear bonus). The rest get tricky, depending on how many routes there are and this can be frustrating because you never know if it’s going to be a simple double or jump to 20,000. It gets messy when there’s more than four routes and full clearing on those can see point values getting close to 60,000.
But do your duels as much as you can and just keep amassing them!
5. Items
Alright, so I’m guessing this ask is mostly from the fact that I posted I made second rank on the Sirius Birthday Event. In full honesty? I started saving Tea and Cake sets in January for this single event. Before they dropped Clash in Cradle on us, I had 62 tea sets saved for Sirius. I used some in that event, bought more, and just died inside at how much I was spending. But I digress.
I played events like normal and on Lucky Time I buy the smaller item set. 800 crystals for 6 sets. It’s not that hard on the wallet and I would usually only buy one each event and then I sat on them. If I could afford more, cool, I would throw a little more money to buy another set and just use a couple on the current event to boost my numbers. Because Tea and Cake sets are the single most important item for Story Events. Use them only during Lucky Times so you can get the most out of them. I burn through my friends list every Lucky Time because I use my tea sets then and I max out my points as much as I can during it. I also sat on every single one the game gave me for login bonus. They only give one every two weeks but they do add up after a while. I also didn’t use my crystals for anything I didn’t need to and sat on them to use for buying Lucky Time sets. You get 100 every two weeks and if I didn’t need closet space, I just kept them. Since they’re free, you need 300 to pull on the gacha and I decided the Story Event sets were what I wanted more. But that’s your call!
Another thing I invest in is the Secret Tea Party. You get 900 crystals across two weeks time and another Tea and Cake set! It’s not that expensive in the grand scope of things and mine lines up with my pay day so once every two weeks I buy it and get more crystals and more goodies! It’s a good way to spend just a little and get things for the long run!
If you start the event on the first day, you’ll get both a Love Potion (500 points) and a Tea and Cake set. If you start after the first day, you only get the Love Potion, which still helps but those tea sets are what you want.
Love Potions are the other item you can buy if you want to boost your points. Single ones are 150 crystals for 500 and they are guaranteed points vs the 150 crystals for a tea set that can net you more points provided you win all your duels. A set of 27 is….3500 I think? I can’t remember but I’ll correct if someone can remind me! That will net you a lot of points but it’s a lot of money to drop so it’s not the best thing to get if you’re trying not to spend money.
If you want to save money, buy the smaller sets and try to save as many as you can that the game gives you.
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I know this is…a lot. But it’s what I follow and I manage to get through the events well enough. I’ve missed a lot of Early Clear bonuses because of it but I just accept that not all of them are for me and keep going. I knew at the start of the year that May was going to be a mess because we have not only Sirius’s birthday event but also the anniversary event is right around the corner and it’s a two parter with bonuses linked between the two of them. So I still have almost 30 tea sets saved for that nonsense. But following this, there’s only been one event in the year of playing that I haven’t been in the top tier and I chose not to go hard on that event. I was still in the second tier and I didn’t use a single item in the whole event.
It is possible to rank and do well, you just have to be patient and play smart. I went into Sirius’s event wanting to be in the top ten and then I decided to be stupid and go for second spot for my second in charge guy. Don’t be like me. It’s a dumb way to play.
Another thing you can do, is check IkeRev’s Japanese twitter. If you go back far enough, it will show old events and sometimes you can see some of the bonuses so you can decide in advance which events you want to try a little harder on. Then you can start saving early for when it finally rolls around to us!
If you’ve made it this far, I love you and hope I’ve helped a little. If you have more questions, feel free to ask. I’m more than willing to help and share because I know the events can be odd. If you want to know about collection events, let me know! Because I have some good ways to earn hearts without spending a damn penny. But I’m going to stop typing this essay now and just pray I helped a little bit!
hello~ i have a question about you beautiful oc celeste! does she have a favorite flower? and if so 1 what is it and 2 is there a reason why its her favorite type of flower? I apologize if this was already mentioned in a fanfic
Hi, nonny! She does! Bluebells! They were also her mother’s favourite and Celeste would always pick them for her whenever they went on walks and she saw them. They bring back a lot of fond childhood memories for her and she’ll always love them
In response to your IkeVamp question: Im a classically trained musician / teacher, so I just HAD to see what Herr Mozart’s deal was! ☺️ P.S. I absolutely LOVE your writing! Celeste and Sirius are adorable.
Hi! Ooooooh! That makes complete sense for why you would choose him then! I hope he lives up to your hopes!
Aw thank you! This made me smile so much! I hope you have an amazing day!
