"Is It Wrong to Play Mobile Games About Dungeons?" - (DanMemo, or "Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in the Dungeon: Memoria Freese") - [Review]

By: v.o.lynnCrunchyroll has been pumping a lot of ad space into DanMachi's mobile game, which has been translated for US audiences.The basic core of the game feeds off the plot and screenshots from "DanMachi" and "DanMachi Gaiden: Sword Oratoria", the twin plotlines of the Hestia and Loki Familias. Fans of the series will cheerfully recognize and either watch or skim past the main storylines while grinding the main levels. For those who haven't seen the series featuring Ais and Lefiya, it absolutely does its job in making the player WANT to watch it, if for nothing other than the instant gratification.At some level, DanMachi (the original series) doesn't actually feel like it spends a lot of time actually picking up girls in the dungeon. But the mobile game does have certain dating sim elements with small choices that don't really seem to matter very much in the grand scheme of things.Your team is built on a Gacha card system, and while in-app purchases exist (and the game tries HEAVILY to push you towards them) you can still ignore them and successfully enjoy the game. You gather "Falna" drops to level up your character's stats, and Exalia books to bump their numeric level (it goes so much faster than the original series), and if you start with a higher "star" card, you'll probably want to level that character and add them to your main team.The gameplay of the main quests are in three-part dungeon duels, but other minigames are being introduced from time to time. "Monsterphilia" arrived sometime during the first two weeks of launch, allowing you to battle against random dungeon beasts. "Rampage" is the quest for April - a proper dungeon crawl to fill out your crafting skills and remind you that auto-battle doesn't work for every scenario.There are lightweight sidestories, written by the original creator of DanMachi, that you can discover in the character section and the limited-time quests as well. With the advent of Season 2's greenlight, the odds of getting substantial development on the hanging plot threads from either series feels unlikely, though.(Sure, Tiona, you do that.)There's already a call on Twitter for a wider English release for locations like the UK. It's not clear exactly how much hands-on translating Crunchyroll did for the game. There's been transcription errors, typos, and even the odd Japanese screen that have made it through to the other side with updates.One feature that didn't make it through to the English version is the "touching" part of the "interact" screen. Apparently Crunchyroll figured that nobody would notice, or if they did, they could download the original Japanese version of the game if they were truly that hardcore. The original Japanese release has been out for almost a year, having been released June 2017, and there were fans who sought it out in Japanese to try it.The fact that it's missing actually drives more curiosity around the absence of the feature than leaving it in but after reading through the articles, I understand the choice to leave it out. There's a precedent for it (Fire Emblem Fates) and quite a few underage characters (NOT. DEBATING. THIS.) so it's unlikely that they felt comfortable with where that sort of character treatment could go. Crunchyroll also subtitles shows like "Love Tyrant" as well, though, so the weirdness of suddenly choosing to censor things is real.A few final hints:SAVE YOUR PLAYER ID. It is the only way to recover your account if you delete the game from your phone.TRY EVERYTHING. You get Iris for each new thing you complete for the first time, and then bonuses sometimes from the guild page.LEVEL YOUR CHARACTERS. Even if you have 4-5 go-to characters, you'll want to have back-ups leveled for Rampage, as well as a pretty decent level to get all the Iris or other bonuses you can from the character quests (you have to include the main character in the party in order to "Successfully" pass the level).SWITCH YOUR MAIN CHARACTER. When you are in the main square, causing each character to mingle with the other six NPC's on the screen will bump their character rapport with whichever character you are. This can unlock skills and Iris on their character page.YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUY IRIS, BUT IF YOU DO, SEE TIP NUMBER ONE.YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUY IRIS. IN GENERAL.Last but not least - THIS GAME IS BIG. It's a 3 gig monster and their tech team suggested that it's usually best if you have an additional 2 gigs to keep running. If you're like me, then you may not have the space. (I've been clearing my photos and screenshots every few days. I do not see this as a long-term solution.)