Friday 19 October 2018

TWEWY Final Remix: a mid-term review

My thoughts on TWEWY 10 years ago (in Chinese)

10 years has passed...

I finally got the English version after mistakenly bought the Japanese version. Took me ~40 hours to finish the main 21 days + secret reports, which is basically most of the old material. It would be good to have a mid-term review here.

Note that this is a review from the perspective of a TWEWY veteran who have already finished the original game and at least one version of the in-between remixes designed for pads. The game has already received enough praises -- I want to highlight my thoughts on the differences between the versions.

Gameplay:

Took me around 25 hours to finish the traditional story line and 40 hours for the secret report. I cleared most boss noises at ultimate - would be significantly easier on hard.

I skipped all possible conversations as I know them inside out anyway. It's easy for me to find a suitable pin set as well. I expect new players to clear the main story line within 40 hours and secret report within 60-80 hours.

Control:

It's good to have a grip-based control. It is naturally very hard to use, but it is good to have one at least. The only problem is the conversion between the two control method easily get stuck in the grip detection screen. Not sure if that's a problem from switch directly.

One may notice that with the HD battlefield the character now has a greater flexibility, and as a result a few blind spots occurred in some boss battles (neo cantus especially).

Mechanics:

With MPP completely taken away from the game, one problem occurs: BPP seems too easy to get while getting SDPP is too slow -- are there any compromise between the two? Old players eagers so much to finish the mastery collection swiftly.

The main game play is basically the same, but there's another bug around: in conversations when you have more than 3 choices the first option is always shown as uncompleted even if you read through that part. Not a big problem though.

Tin Pin Slammer:

I expect a multiplayer mode but meh. AI still suck as hell except the battle against the prof and the wizard which is hard as hell. AI's full potential to react is even better and they can hit you harder without getting you stunned. They can put you in very hard situation if they want, but they does not seem to happen frequently.

It seems like in high quality battle the hammer is simply unreliable. I start taking meteorite as means of escaping [when hit by AI without getting stunned] and spikes the practical way to stun opponents. That seemed to work in many different situations, but unfortunately we do not have a chance to test that in a PVP situation.

Music:

The new tracks are not very noticeable in the first 21 days. I liked the option that you can choose between the original OST set or the switch music set, but so far the difference is small. I think we will get more new songs in the new days.

Of course, all the old songs are great.

A new day:

Errr...despite the extremely messy chaotic Shibuya map, the new part is quite disappointing to play, at least on the battle part.

It is fine to have extra battling conditions, but having every battle to be a split battle is simply stupid. That forces players to choose penetrating attacks or otherwise the player would easily be flooded by the swarm of noises -- the new gem-currency, split-generated pp and new pins are also likely to break the original system in the sense that `everything in the old system is now useless just go ahead and grab all those new stuffs' --- that's a big no from me and probably also from other old TWEWY fans.

I'm kind of expecting an explanation throughout the 7 days, not something in a parallel world but having the full explanation in the secret report. That is not a good way to complete a story.

*

Well...I haven't really finished the new story line so I should not say too much about those. However I am really expecting more.

As usual I am not that kind of players taking the most recent standard on every single game, but you got to admit that the way they present things, and the depth of the context is no longer at the top using the 2018 standard. From the best RPG in the DS-era to a very well made RPG in the switch store, TWEWY final remix is still a good game that I would definitely recommend to every one of you.

Saturday 13 October 2018

Thoughts on Simon Marais 2018

This is the second time I am involved in this competition...and again of course, not in the role of contestants. Here are some short comments.

A1. Very good -- it is not that kind of idiotic question like last year. However I read the question as "find n for one can tile a n*n square with non-congruent dominant rectangles". This is another question, of difficulty in another dimension.

The main problem is still very easy. You can either look for family of solutions mod 3, or family of solutions mod 4. Both can be easily found.

Difficulty rating: Easy [2/10]

A2. A very nice setup. Once you realize everything can be scaled you can lower the dimension and the rest is simple by drawing some graphs.

Difficuly rating: Easy [3/10]

A3. Not very hard but tricky to write down a precise proof since the DE does not seem to have a short analytical solution. One would like to estimate and bound the solution curve by extending bit by bit on the interval 0
Difficulty rating: Moderately easy [4/10]

A4. The recurrence relation is easy to obtain, while the sum is hard to get. Partial credit is still better than nothing for an A4 even if this is not Putnam.

Difficulty rating: Hard [7/10]

B1. Oh come on standard linear algebra. One replaces min by max and it could look a bit more intimidating...

Difficulty rating: Super easy [2/10]

B2. High school surd exercise? One can make simpler and much stronger claims using density.

Difficulty rating: Super easy [2/10]

B3. The speed of the two slower spiders is a strong hint on how you should use them. Otherwise this is really a non-trivial claim.

Difficulty rating: Moderately hard [6/10]

B4. Comparing with the one last year, the object of interest this year seemed...not very useful at all. It's just like an ad hoc matrix just for fun...whatever.

If you looked for the case m=2,3,4 then you should be able to see through what's happening with m=5, and more importantly why is it a mess for m>5. Easy partial credit, but who dares to take the open problem?

Difficulty rating: Moderately easy [4/10] for partial credit + ???

*

Much harder than last year, and it is closer to what it should have been. The spreading of part A is desirable, while that for part B is dreadful. Would really appreciate if they decide to add more questions to widen the breath and difficulty spectrum.

Sunday 7 October 2018

18夏番短評

推介:
千緒的上學路 (8)
異世界居酒屋 (7.5)
工作細胞 (7.5)
高分少女 (7.5)

合格以上:
後街女孩 (7)
Persona 5 (7) (未完)
利根川 (6.5)

一般:
異世界召喚 (6)
京都寺三條 (6)
遊戲三人娘 (6)
殺戮的天使 (6) (未完)

令人失望:
Phantom in the Twilight (5.5)
Island (5)
百鍊霸王 (4.5)

18夏基本上沒有甚麼聲勢浩大的作品,從結果來看也確實如此。然而這季也有各種精於單一方面的作品可以滿足不同觀眾的口味,我這季一共有十幾套看到最後足以證明上季新番的多樣性。以下是一些簡單評點。

工作細胞(7.5)

本季主流霸權之一。將原作細胞種類大幅簡化,將精力放在介紹(舔)某幾種細胞上:香菜實力演出冒失鬼,很好很好;每集硬要把血小板拉出來賣一下萌,舔舔戳戳。深入淺出的內容讓觀眾非常好接受,就算與實際有所落差仍不失為一部上佳的入門科普作。另外OP的疊字運用也非常洗腦,讓大家以後都記得Hataraku一詞~

上學路(8) vs 遊戲三人娘(6)

同樣是輕鬆搞笑番,我是不明白為何這兩部一定會被拿去比較:兩者搞笑的點非常不同,很難說那部比較搞笑。上學路的核心是千緒所謂的「中下之道」,身懷一身好武功卻只想過平凡的高中生生活,兩個看似互相予盾的想法碰在一起才讓短短的上學路變得如此精彩。

三人娘的話動機比較單純,格局也限在比較日常的小遊戲上。類似的風格看兩三集也還好,看多了就會膩。一集中放三四五個小單元重複類似套路的話只會加速這個看膩的過程。至於作畫風格和搞怪的OP雖然創意十足,但沒有內容的番劇也沒法用這些拿到錦上添花的分數。

一個讓我一直笑,一個笑不出來,這就是分別。當然這是個人意見。

異世界魔王與召喚少女的奴隸魔術(6) vs 百鍊霸王(4.5)

本季的穿越系代表。一套是剛好合格,另一部則是破記錄的爛片。百鍊甚至爛到BD銷量算不出根本沒甚麼好奇怪的,我寧可買書使都不一定想碰這個。

異世界魔王與召喚少女的奴隸魔術是標準的滿級轉生,內向性格被後宮衝擊逐漸改造也是十分套路。劇組很早就下決心要賣肉到底,各式各樣的福利也能滿足大部分的宅宅(雖然被某網站聖光得很厲害)。我比較不滿意的地方是整個劇情非常倉促:經常剛解決了一件事情,第二天還沒醒就有人破門而入說大事不好云云。主線推得太快導致世界觀沒法完整舖陳:前面說這世界太家都很低等,立馬就跳一個120等的聖騎出來;150等主角竟然可以用魔法用到沒MP等等。當然我沒說動畫斷在這裡不行,但有些作品本來要塞進12集又想自然結束就不容易,此乃天命。

百鍊霸王……怎麼說呢。各種搭不上線,各種黑人問號。感覺是銅器時代的樣子,除了武器和軍隊配置外處處都是超越同時代的影子:超高的城牆和細膩的紡織技術,隨便拿得出來的幾萬軍隊……我說作者要不要先多考據一下?男主手機每次都要要給電量給一下特寫,可是從沒說過要如何充電;兩個世界的關連一兩句就輕描淡寫地帶過,被趕出異世界隨隨便便等個半集又回去了……諸如此類隨興的設定到處可見,作為穿越福利的戰術碾壓和全世界都是兄控系列也對不上我的口味。對我來說唯一亮點大概是聲優賣力演出吧,其餘的就算了。

利根川(6.5)

完美詮釋福本風格的作品。有點日常風又不太日常,因為觀眾全都知道這是限定猜拳的前傳。黑衣人在辦公室裡ざわ ざわ...,看倌們也私下在ざわ ざわ...,就這樣渡過了13集。的確利根川是個很優秀的人,與黑衣人和會長的互動也很有趣,不過說到尾這番還是福本粉絲限定,如果抱著看默示錄或者那場打二十年的麻雀一樣的心態來看的話可能會失望。

高分少女(7.5)

如果你是街機黃金時代的見證者,你一定會身同感受。晚生了十年的我對街機也略有考究,這作品絕對是這方面的精品。動畫一如漫畫原作那樣講究細節,奇特的人物畫風(說復古又不像,要我說不如是韓風)也完美的繼承過來了。這沒有甚麼好奇怪的,以小學初中為主軸的作品根本不用賣萌賣肉--街機要的就是熱血,是青春!

當然無口大野真的十分魔性,漫畫到尾真是一句都不說反而顯出押切蓮介深厚的側描功力。其他有關三人的互動相信其他人比我看得更透徹,在此我就不多加描述。

京都寺三條(6)

看上去的感覺比小說更差。男主的機掰程度比小說更明顯,雖說是作者刻意展示京都風而為,看了卻讓人不太舒服。推理部分與美術有關的部分當然算的上是福式推理,但剩下的部分則未免太稚嫩了。小說黨過來看的話可能略有失望,沒看過小說的話看完動畫則可能對那厚厚的小說打退堂鼓,這部說是失敗之作也不為過。

異世界居酒屋(7.5)

到異世界就是要吃!這番原作出現比貓屋更早卻遲一步被動畫化真是可惜了。比起貓屋這邊的設定更有利餐廳建立推動自己的文化:這邊不需要鰻魚一世,因為大家都會吃;啤酒也一樣,可惜我到現在還沒機會試一下這個越後之秋……啊不對是總之先來一杯生啤。因為是居酒屋,整體的氣氛比貓屋更為歡快,動畫也成功利用有限的時間把世界觀從內到外描述了一篇,稻荷大神和先王兩集更是神來之筆。總的來說是個各方面都很不錯的作品。

說到這個番當然不得不提每集兩節的真人出演。中間的真人煮食節目是很好學……可惜有幾集的料理實在不太對我的口味。用芽菜裝成意粉做拿玻里麵、用麵包粉沾蝦裝炸蝦等實在是……嗯,不行。我是覺得與其自欺聆人,用同樣的材料其實也能做出更好的正統料理。不過此人廚藝功力相當不錯,要跟他學如何煮食絕對沒問題。片末的作者帶你白吃白喝不用我多說,因為採訪對象是真的餐廳,端出來的賣相絕對一流。光看的話絕對是一種享受(或者折磨,如果你在餓的話),不過有廣告成份在,真去吃是否一樣好吃就不得而知了。

特別提名:Island(5)

正港的工三小之作。只有凜音能看……