User blog:Kitahara/Review on participated events

With the end of the 2015 Winter Event came a lot of blog posts and summaries regarding the event. While I didn't think the event was remarkable enough to warrant its own dedicated post (maybe because I've already been through a few), it did spur me to reminisce about the events I've been a part of so far:

For the record, I'd like to say these are just my opinions. What I say here doesn't necessarily reflect what others may think. And to be honest, I think thats what makes it interesting - we all have difference experiences and perspectives on the events! While I'm kind of writing this just for the sake of writing, if you want to share your own opinion on an event, feel free to comment below!

Spring 2014 Event


Personal: I may be a bit biased in enjoying this event, for the same reasons newer players liked Winter 2015 - it was my very first event. First experiences always have a bit of uncertainty, but also carry a LOT of excitement. Also, being just below HQ 80 at the time resulted in the easiest time of my life at E4, which is quite contrary to what the higher level admirals experienced. It was a fairly 'simple' event in regards to planning/strategy, but the lack of complexity was what made it so easy to sink into and enjoy. Although I didn't get to experience E5 due to going overseas the day after I cleared E4, it was pretty unlikely I had the ships and levels to get past BB hime and sink Wake-chan anyway.

Gameplay: The excitement of experiencing an event for the first time was compounded by the simultaneous introduction of artillery spotting and the quicker battle animations. Being able to launch double attacks in the day absolutely blew my mind at the time. The speed at which torpedoes and planes attacked also felt far more engaging. (For those who haven't seen the old animations, here is an old video of mine which contains a battle or two. Just don't watch the whole thing else you'll kill yourself with boredom.) Seriously, can anyone imagine having to clear the tough maps without artillery spotting anymore? I couldn't go back to the pre-spring event days. Artillery spotting is god damn fantastic. Praise Helix for Artillery Spotting.

BGM: The BGM we are introduced to sets a good pace for the event, but the true gem is Enemy Fleet Spotted!. I think even now, this BGM is still my favourite in the game.

Conclusion: As a newer player, I thought this event was pretty great, with a modest difficulty (not faceroll ez, nor impossibly difficult) for the maps prior to E5, and no shiplocking or extremely strict formation rules. The changes to battles were fantastic, and of course hearing Teki Kantai Miyu drove hype levels to the max. 9/10

Summer 2014 Event


Personal: I feel sorry for anyone that started with this event as their first. I know for a fact that many newer players were unable to participate in the MI section due to a lack of viable carriers, and quite frankly the AL section was boring as shit. While I went into this event with a better looking fleet than before, the hype was not nearly as strong, and the AL portion only made it worse. To be fair, the MI section considerably better, but eh...Doolittle again tips the scales for the worse.

Gameplay: The big change in this event was the introduction of ship locking, forcing players to be incredibly cautious with who they deploy lest they lose the ability to use those ships later on in a harder map. This resulted in a LOT of ships of every type being required, and a considerable amount of planning to be done before even tackling the maps, taking a lot of the fun out of the event (and flat out denying some people of progressing further). As mentioned previously, AL was boring as shit. Either needing to sneak past flagship-grade enemies with fragile DDs, or face those nasty Wos with a bruteforce fleet, all to just bully a little child. MI was where the event truly began. Experiencing combined fleet for the first time was exhilerating and helped bring back some of the hype that was lost from AL. That said, even for Kancolle the maps felt extremely repetitive, and needing to kill the boss 8~10 times really didn't help. Then of course, there was the infamous E6, locking your previous ships out, and essentially requiring you to bring 2 freaking CVLs to one of the hardest battlefields ever implemented in the game. Given my grand total of...uh, 2 CVLs who got expended in the AL portion, beating E6 was out of the question for myself. Seriously, though I have far more CVLs now, I hope we never have 3 sets of shiplocking ever again. Even more experienced players had trouble dealing with that shit.

BGM: If there's one thing the devs don't do wrong, its the music. Even the map BGM was different (and admittedly great!). The Hoppo BGM was also badass. The MI BGMs weren't too bad either, although I think AL did beat it in that aspect.

Overall: The devs really outdid themselves with this event...in almost all the wrong ways. They made huge mistakes with the multiple ship locks, and the progression of the event was pretty poor. The air battles in MI were pretty fun to spectate though. Experiencing combined fleet for the first time, along with the BGMs, saved this from being really shit. 5/10

Fall 2014 Event


Personal: When the event was announced as being medium sized, it was a relief to know it wouldn't be as full on as the previous event. But either way, somewhere between this event and the last, my fleet had managed to reach what I dub 'superpower' status - having several copies of each class at a high level (80~90+) with enough of the highest tier equipment to load each ship for sortie, making any map conquerable in a relatively short period of time. As a result, confidence was at an all time high and I dived in without waiting to be spoonfed information by the wiki.

Gameplay: This time, there was nothing new introduced. But the devs really must have felt bad about the last event, because this time the event was far, far easier, being a complete cakewalk for the more experienced players. Having much easier stages and one less shiplock to worry about made this a more pleasant event. While the event was a little too easy in my opinion (demolished the EO by day 2), I think it was much more accomodating for the newer players, especially compared to AL/MI.

BGM: Both the E1/E2 boss BGM and E3/E4 boss BGM were both able to draw out some excitement without being overbearing, which I felt was pretty reflective of the event's difficulty. Not the greatest BGMs, but certainly good enough to turn off iTunes in favour of listening to it ingame.

Overall: Short event, but a pleasant and enjoyable one. The EO could have been slightly tougher, but thats a very minor issue. No huge positives, but no huge negatives either. 7.5/10

Winter 2015 Event


Personal: Following the results of the previous event, confidence was no longer an issue with event maps. Yet I was much more hyped for this event than for Summer/Fall 2014 (probably due to Yuu). Again, I jumped into this event without waiting for information, challenging myself to clear everything on hard before the majority did. I think the devs are finally getting the right idea on how events should be handled, and in my opinion, this was the most well polished event so far.

Gameplay: The introduction of a voluntary difficulty selection finally puts to rest the debate between more casual/newer players and the completionists - the less hardcore players can experience all the maps and receive all ship rewards, while the completionists can still do their hard maps for rewards that are more for bragging rights than for practical use. The only problem with this is due to difficulties being locked once cleared, farming for certain ships can be a problem if you picked a difficulty too hard for farming, or a difficulty that has a lower/no drop rate for the ship compared to another difficulty. Besides the difficulty selector, everything else remains pretty much the same as the prior events. The complete removal of ship locks is another blessing, and I am fairly confident in thinking this greatly helped newer players clear the event. Can't speak for the other difficulties, but I felt the hard mode stages were pretty well balanced. Challenging, but with much nicer odds than Summer E6. If it wasn't for the difficulty lock after clearing, it'd be perfect.

BGM: Well I think it goes without saying, the anime OP/ED pretty much stole the show. Incredibly fitting for E5's final dance, bringing emotions to a fever pitch when playing on hard.

Overall: The devs definitely seem to be on the right track with events now. The inability to change difficulties after clearing loses a point (yes I am incredibly salty about not being able to get a 2nd Akashi or get Isokaze), but otherwise it was handled pretty well. Hopefully next event will allow difficulty switching after clearing, but otherwise I have no complaints if they keep everything else similar. 8.5/10