What is Shironeko Project?Shironeko Project is a free, Japanese 3D mobile casual action RPG that you can play solo or with up to 4 friends. The learning curve is very simple and easy to jump into, everything being able to be done with one hand. Basically, you go through quests, slay monsters, get loot, and from there you have a lot of freedom with what to do with said loot. You can spend it on upgrading characters you've acquired, upgrading weapons, expanding your town with more space or new & better buildings, selling it for more gold, etc. There are always big updates every 2-3 weeks adding new characters, weapons, events, campaigns, and etc.
While the game is entirely in Japanese, nearly all the menus and buttons have pictures and are color-coded. The UI is VERY friendly. Don't let this scare you away! My friends who are unable to read Japanese have very few problems playing the game, and enjoy it!The game is extremely anti-pay-to-win in nature, you attain EVERYTHING through actually playing the game. The only thing you can buy with actual money is jewels, HOWEVER, ~$10 gets you 50 jewels, which anyone, at any level, can make in a mere
hour of playtime.
How do characters/weapons work?New characters and weapons are mostly obtained through the Gacha Shop. You spend a certain amount of jewels, which you get for completing quests, on what is basically a slot machine in nature. You have a chance of obtaining either a two star, three star, or four star character/weapon depending on what Gacha you're using (the weapon Gacha is cheaper than the character one). Obviously, four stars are going to be rarer and generally better than their counterparts.
Every character and weapon has their own unique skills and autoskills. Autoskills are a passive effect
(ex. immunity to poison), while regular skills have to be cast with SP
(ex. a healing skill). Characters always have two skills unique to them, and weapons may or may not have a unique skill
(most 4 stars usually do though). Characters also have their own unique leader skill
(ex. all swordsmen in the party get faster attack speed). Leader skills only apply when that character is set as the leader of your party.
There are 8 classes of characters in the game, all with their own unique weapons:
Swordsman
Uses swords as the name implies. Swordsmen deal good damage at a good speed. They can charge up their attack to perform a "charge slash", an attack that does double the damage and has better range. If you dodge an enemy's attack via rolling, you can perform a "counter-slash", dealing a TON of damage.
Fighter
Uses gauntlets. Faster than swordsmen, but with less range. They can charge up their attack to ram into the enemy.
Warrior
Uses hammers. Has the slowest attacks, but deals a lot of damage. Has no special charge up skill.
Lancer
Uses lances. A bit slower attack speed than swordsmen, but can put up a shield around themselves for protection. You can use "Just Guard" with the shield, which stuns enemies. "Just Guard" is performed by putting up the shield right before an enemy hits you. They do well on quests with straight, linear paths due to their attacks being forward, stab-based attacks, not swiping attacks.
Archer
Uses bows. Fast attacks and great range, but their defense is weak. Can charge their attack up to 3 times to amplify its damage as well as give it entry power.
Mage
Uses staffs. Somewhat slow attack speed, but great range. Their defense is also subpar, like the Archer's. Mages are mainly used for healing and buffing the whole party, although there are some mages that are great for offense as well. Instead of rolling, they teleport.
Cross Saber
Uses cross sabers. Extremely fast attack speed, but at the cost of lower damage. Has no special charge up skill, but they can perform a similar action to the Swordsman's "counter-slash" move, called "counter-edge".
Dragonrider
Uses spears. Slightly slow attack speed, but deals great damage on par with a Warrior's, alongside having a lot of health. Dragonriders move at a much faster speed than any other class due to them having a dragon mount, and can fly over obstacles such as conveyer belts or traps. They are a very useful class to have with you, and as a result, their individual cost is a lot higher to have in your party.Resources
There are four resources in this game that are used for various things. All of them can be acquired from completing quests
(gold can also be generated from buildings in your town).
Runes, Gold, and Souls - these are the main resources. Runes are used in conjunction with Souls to level up characters. Runes are also used in conjunction with Gold to level up weapons and buildings in your town. The great thing about leveling up characters and weapons is that you can just save these up to level up any future characters you get really fast! You don't need to upgrade a character or weapon the instant you can. Runes come in various colors, and there are also weapon runes which are more rare and used for more expensive upgrades.
Jewels - these are used in the Gacha Shop to try and get more characters and weapons. They can also be used to instantly finish upgrading buildings in your town as well as instantly finish Guild Offers. Jewels are received from completing a quest and its sub-objectives for the first time. Completing a quest fully (very easy, most can be done in under 5 minutes) gives you 5 jewels on Normal and Hard difficulties. Completing a quest on Nightmare gives you 7.
Will I still be able to have fun with veteran players even if I'm new?Yes! Your "Rank" and characters' levels are completely separate. Your overall Rank slowly goes up every time you complete a quest and has no impact on your strength. Characters are leveled up through runes you get from completing quests. Leveling up a single character to level 100 doesn't take very long. The fun part is leveling up all the new characters you get and finding the one you like the most!
You manage a town too!?Yes, on a flying island to be exact. As your rank goes up, you'll get the ability to expand the space in your town so you can fit more buildings in. There are tons of buildings to choose from that can perform tasks such as produce gold, increase the relationship points you get with characters after each quest, strengthen certain classes, increase your party size, increase your inventory size, etc. There are also a ton of decorations as well to spruce up your town. You can walk around in your town as well as visit other people's towns, such as your friends'!
What are Guild Offers?When you expand your town out to a certain level (I started playing before this was added, so I'm not sure what exact level is required, but it's a low one, 3 I think), you get access to three airships. You can accept Guild Offers from the blimp now in your town, which allow you to send members not in your active party off on missions to gather runes, gold, and souls for you. Depending on what the specific guild offer entails, it'll have a better chance of success if you use certain character types. You can just hit the red "Recommended" button (オススメ) to have it done for you. Upon arrival, there is a chance where you'll fail, succeed, or succeed but with monsters at the mission site. If there are monsters, you can just leave without fighting and still get all the loot you would have. But, if you choose to fight them and win, you have a chance of getting an accessory ring which can be put on characters to give them various effects (some good, some bad, there's always demerits counteract the positives).Other InformationAnyway, if anyone is interesting in playing or having trouble downloading/playing, please post! I'd love to have more people to play with, it's more fun with people you know than with randoms.
Google Play Store
iTunes App StoreNote: You need to use a Japanese VPN in order to actually download the game! You don't need the VPN to play though, only for the initial download.Check out this guide if you're having trouble.
