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Tsuri Spirits review Ace Angler review

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  • Tsuri Spirits review Ace Angler review

    Excerpt from the diary of Briareos Kerensky, newly appointed angler of the Oceanography Institute.
    Day 1.
    I don't usually write diaries, but I've decided to see for how long I can keep this up...not to mention this new job, I don't particularly care about fishing in any kind of incarnation, but there are no fixed hours or minimum time requirements.
    Got to meet my partners for this job today and they explained my tasks. We've got a supervisor from the institute, the ship's captain, and two kappas posing as human kids; they don't seem as insufferable as most children are, and one of them is in for the money more than anything else.
    Me? I have to fish the aquatic creatures the institute wants. Seems easy. The Oceanography Institute distributes the request on wanted posters, like the old west. Weird. Anyway, they gave me three coloured fishing rods, and I have to match it to the colour of the fish. But not the outer colour, the colour that shows up on the sonar beefore I cast. Seems easy enough.
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    I was afraid there would be a tall language barrier, I mean, the workplace is in Japan, but the immigration office game me an automatic translator...at first it didn't work, but after downloading a patch, everything worked perfectly. I can't seem to find any indication that this line of work is available outside Japan or it will be made available in the west though. I've heard there's something similar for the Asian region, so maybe that's why.

    Excerpt from the diary of Kappataro, older kappa brother.
    Day 1.

    My plan to pose as a human kid to learn how to fish is going great. This new guy saw through me and my brother's disguise but he didn't report us. Looks like a cool guy, if a bit inexperienced. However, he was able to clear all the missions sent by the institute with ease, getting S ranks in but a few tasks. He also barely switched fishing rods, I thought that would be a disadvantage, but when the institute favours speed over technique, I guess that waiting for the sonar to show fishes' colours is worse than using the wrong rod.
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    Excerpt from the diary of Ushio, supervisor from the Oceanography Institute.
    Day 1.

    The new guy seems good enough. We gave him materials and money based on his performance, and if he wants to go on, he'll have to spend them at our store for better rods. Sucker. He did complete all the tasks at the Coral Reef in a single day, and was quite fast at that...it almost felt the whole ordeal took less than an hour. Let's see how he fares in the next stage...I mean location.
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    Excerpt from the diary of Briareos Kerensky.
    Day 2.

    We went to a new location today, and despite the new scenery and fishes, things haven't changed much. I must say that everyone freaks out when the Oceanography Institute delivers wanted posters for peculiar fishes but it's not like they have to do anything...I also think fishes around these parts are strange. Fishing kinda works like an RPG: fishes eat the lure, and you only catch them when their health is gone. Sometimes they fight harder, but you just need to push a button on the rod, continue reeling in at the normal speed for a short period of time and you're OK. Reeling itself isn't that good without a special harness that was on sale...limited edition, they say, but it's a plastic contraption that imitates a fishing rod and nothing more. Not to mention that you can use an automated rig and just hold down a button to reel fishes in, instead of furiously waving your arms around. It makes the game...I mean the fishing rather mundane, but at least you don't end up with sore shoulders.
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    Back to the fishes, the institute calls larger preys "bosses", again like an RPG. And those are really weird fishes. I mean, have you ever heard of fishes that attack you with...what look like options from a shoot'em'up and you have to defend by waving your rod around? Well, I that's what the electrocution function on the rod is for. It needs to charge by reeling fishes in, but when it's charged you can deal some real damage to the fish. Also some of the fishes sparkle and they charge the rod when caught.
    Yup, something strange is going on here.
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    Excerpt from the diary of Katsumi, captain of the fishing vessel Tashio Maru.
    Day 2.

    As the captain of the fishing vessel Tashio Maru, I must say I'm impressed with the new kid. He aced all the tasks given by the institute and even easily defeated a rival angler that popped out of nowhere, wearing a cowboy hat...well, he has blonde hairs and blue eyes, I guess that's how all foreigners dress. Anyway, the next location is farther than usual and an old man upgraded my boat to a faster model.
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    Excerpt from the diary of Briareos Kerensky.
    Day 4.

    Work is starting to get a bit monotone. I barely switch rods anymore, fishes catch the bait anyway if you cast right in front of them. I get materials from completing missions, and those go into new rods or upgrading existing ones. I can also summon bosses I've caught previously to help against new bosses. This job's weird, and the weirdness is what keeps me going. Like this old guy that upgraded the Tashio Maru into a submarine for out next trip.
    Previous day I met another fisherman, or angler, as they like to be called, a dude; don't remember or care about his name. Today I met a lady angler, Nanami I think. Much nicer to have around, but why do they have to dress like rejected Pokemon trainers?
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    Bosses also have the Legenday Pearls, and I need to collect 10 of them for some reason...I don't know, maybe they are like the Dragon Balls, you get one wish when you have them all? Yeah right.
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    Excerpt from the diary of Briareos Kerensky.
    Day 6.

    I took a couple of days off to try out new things, like the arcade center in the Oceanography Institute. There's a machine you can get tokens from every one in a while, and you use tokens to play the arcade games around; the same tokens are used to add new stages, rods, and fishes to the arcade machine. You can buy collectible card packs with fishes on it, and in this arcade game is a bit more rewarding than actually going out in the story mode...I mean in the real ocean. Fishing trips in the ocean last for half an hour, and it's hard not to get S ranks everywhere.
    The game in the arcade center has the same basic mechanics of the fishing trips but there are no coloured rod, you need to pay for single-use rods with tokens, and fishes are harder to catch. The game also goes on as much as you want. There are some nice touches, like a special stage where you fish out Don-chan from Taiko No Tatsujin, and even prehistoric creatures. Can you imagine fishing out plesiosaurus in the real world?
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    Anyway, this arcade game has a lot of potential, if you like fishing. I think it's meant to be played once per day in short bursts, or even with longer intervals between sessions. It's OK, but there's noone else playing, it doesn't go online, and frankly I can't see myself collecting everything there is. I also don't like that I don't see fishes' life bars like in real life, even with the best rod and costant electrocution fishes just snap the line and bye bye tokens.
    Am I saying stranger stuff than usual?
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    Anyway, I think what this game misses is a collaboration with Darius. I would have loved to fish out huge battleships that approach fast.
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    Excerpt from the diary of Katsumi.
    Day 7.

    After another upgrade to the boat, we took to next location, the Ultra Prehistoric Ocean. And then a plesiosaurus skeleton came back to life and the kid fished it out. Strange things happen around this kid...but the pay is good, so I don't complain much.

    Excerpt from the diary of Chuta, younger kappa brother.
    Day 8.

    We went to the Dragon Palace today! The Dragon palace from the folk tale! And there we met fishes with Japanese-styled armours, clothes, and some even had jobs, like ninja. No treasure unfortunately. Just like the deep sea base with all those mechanical fishes...you'd guess that a deep sea base had something valuable, but no...and Ushio from the institute always takes away the bounty the institute itself put on fishes...makes no sense. We continue to collect Legendary Pearls, though, so this might finally lead to money.
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    Excerpt from the diary of Katsumi.
    Day 9.

    We went to an undersea volcano and fished dragons.
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    Excerpt from the diary of Katsumi.
    Day 10.

    They upgrade my fishing vessel into a spaceship and the Briareos kid fished out a Galaxy Whale that was going to devour the Earth. I'd say I'm done but the pay is still good.
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    Excerpt from the diary of Briareos Kerensky.
    Day 11.

    So...that happened. I mean, we got the Pearls together, a space fishes appeared, I caught them, and the world is saved. A lot of new fishes have appeared across the ocean but I don't really feel like continuing working here. It has become a bit boring, especially during fishing trips as all you have to do is to cast the lure in front of a fish, and the reel it in. I know, I've been using buttons to do it but it's not like I can go around swinging my arms all day long. It's a good thing you can keep buttons down rather than mashing them, otherwise I would have destroyed my thumb.
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    A last trip to the arcade machine didn't produce many results, I did catch some more fishes, opened other card packs, unlocked new stages, but...I don't know, I've already seen planet-devouring space fishes, and this whole thing has worn itself out.
    Despite being a bit boring, I did enjoy my time here...I came to appreciate how well defined fishes are, and there are a ton of species to catch, and never had troubles with the rods. Everything worked perfectly from start to finish. Maybe not when reporting tasks at the aquarium, you have to submit reports one by one to get pieces of puzzles representing the various bosses; same thing for the missions in the arcade machine: why can't I submit everything at once instead of mashing the A button?
    Everyone at the institute said they'll wait for me to return, but I doubt I will...maybe I'll come with some friends to show them you can catch fishes wearing Japanese armour or space sharks, but I don't think it will last very long.
    Anyway, this concludes my report on my days spent as an Ace Angler.
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    A quick recap: Tsuri Spirits, or Ace Angler outside Japan, is the home version of an arcade game; th home port adds a short-lived story mode (around ten hours) and plenty of collectibles in the recreation of the arcade original. You can play with motion controls (there's a plastic cradle that mimicks a fishing rod on sale too) or entirely with buttons, but the game doesn't support the Pro Pad. The game lasts as long as you want to collect everything, but fishing mechanics can get rather repetitive and mundane after a short while.
    The game is only available in Japan, but a patch adds a complete English translation; currently there are no news for a western version, but probably there will be one for the Asian market as this port is mostly the work of Bandai Asia.

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