Mobile Game Arcana no himitsu (2018/07/02 - 2019/04/26)

AKB48 アルカナの秘密



Official site :
https://akb48-arcana.jp/

Comercials :

Code:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoYkAEXZBc4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39b22Zzw1MA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzZshoGzCo0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nksJ73d9XgA

More infos:
https://app.famitsu.com/20180420_1282366/
It looks like it is a mix of adventure, puzzle and poker.

Story : (Thanks @sscrla : from the general thread)
The library that seemed to be ordinary at first seemed to be a magical place to seal and protect the powerful magical book in a "secret room". The face of the table is AKB 48 members who work as a librarian in the library. But behind the scenes we fight against evil magicians and we protect important magic books. It is your responsibility to guide those fights and assist you with full use of their abilities.

As of today (18/04/21) the game is not released. It is planed for summer 2018
it is holding a pre registration campaign, from 18/04/20 till 18/06/20
to register, you have to :

• Fill the form with your e-mail adress (see bottom section of the official site)
• Folllow the official Twitter : @arcana_himitsu
• Add Line friend : https://line.me/R/ti/p/@pqv9786g

Keep in mind that the game is officialy limited to Japan only. (IE if it detects a fraud, your game acount might suffer consequences)

Game released on 2018/07/02
https://twitter.com/arcana_himitsu/status/1012594273999466496

Game rules, and how to play
Check my posts from here

 

Starting today, you can try out the "Chain Poker" battle system on their website.

https://akb48-arcana.jp/pre/trial/index.html

 

I've been playing the Chain Poker a couple of times and I'm still sad that I can't play this game

 

Has the game been released? I'm trying to update the wiki on games right now.

 

Oops, I paid liitle attention to this.
I think it is released now
A few days ago, there was an event won by Shitao's fans.
I just didn't figure how to install it

Btw it is from the same editor who runs SKE48 passion for you and HKT48 Eiko no labyrinth

 

I checked their twitter page and found out it was released on 16th July 2018. As most apps, it is probably available through the QooApp store (haven't checked yet, though).

 

OP updated but ...

I understand they did a release event from 07/02 to 07/16, shouldn't we consider release from the start of the event ?
https://twitter.com/arcana_himitsu/status/1012594273999466496

 

Yes, you're right. I'll change it on the wiki.

 

I can't find it on the usual sites, the SKE and HKT games don't look available either.

So I went a bit through the official site
On PC, it is required to switch your browser to adaptative view or use a mobile device user agent.
Assuming there are some IP restrictions, a VPN can be usefull

The big yellow button is the acount creation, then:

Here they are asking for your mail.
In the lower section, there are some advices to eventually configure your e-mail client to not block their domain.

I didn't try farther

 

Update
It seems there is no APK, it looks all playable from your internet browser.
So far I managed to create an acount and started the game, but I am stuck at the character name creation page.

 

That sounds like a lot of trouble. I guess it's not really worth it for international fans to through all that trouble :/

 

Another update
*Works better with bluestacks.
here is the acount creation form:

after this you get a recap screen and you can launch any game.
Next time you log in, use your mail adress and password.
You also recieve an e-mail wth a clickable link to verify your acount

A tutorial wouldn't hurt, the game looks rather complicated

In short, throw your cards to inflict damages, depending on combinations, more damage are occuring
You can use the girls special powers (which I have little clue about)

worth it for the game experience but that's all, like any free t play, it relies on an online shop and I bet this is where things get much more complicated than games that comes from Itune store / Googleplay

 

If you send me a couple screenshots of screens you think are crucial to understand gameplay, I can try translate the screens, to use as a tutorial.

 

Here is a 5 mins gameplay
There was a tutorial on 1st login, i couldn't figure how to restart it. (if it is even possible)

if the video does not show watch the video here
There are lots of thing i don't get at all, such as some cards disapearing without producing any effect etc ...

Second one with some menus

if the video does not show watch the video here

 

I Managed to run it on my phone, so it's screenshots time !!
btw I can confirm it won't run with non japanese IP.
I also strongly advice to cut your device synchronisation and set it to Japan Time zone to avoid various troubles.
The game recommands to run it on Chrome. I'm using Firefox and it works fine.

Main interface:

• Each battle will use some stamina, when the bar reach 0 you can't play anymore and you have to wait till it refills (1pt every 3 minutes, a counter display when the bar is not full). Like many other game you can refill it with rubies (I suppose, I did not go this far yet)
  
• Rubies are used to refill your stamina bar or restart a lost battle, also used in the call menu (more screens coming later)
  
• Gold are used to buy some cards and other stuff, you gain some with each battle won and you can sell your cards

Menu detail:


Quick how to play:
Choose dungeon



There are 3 choices:

• Main dungeon
• Day of the week dungeon (harder, provides extra rewards / loots)
• events (I did not try yet)
• sometimes there are more

In main dungeon

Here is your game progression with each stages. Each stage has 3 goals:

• Win the battle to earn a "clear"
• Win and complete the goals to earn a "completed" (see this post bottom for goals details)

Choose your stage

Yellow numbers on the right indicate the amount of stamina the battle will use.

Then choose an assistant

(I picked the level 50 / rank 13 one)


Here are the assist details. One important thing is the last line which describes the card special power.
Push the highlighted button to accept

Your battle Team stats (your Team + assistant)

One thing to pay attention when composing your teams is their colors / symbols. Each card has 2. It determines the attacks they can throw.
My team is a bit random and as you can see for this battle, my weakest attacks are heart and spade. while my strongest are clover and diamond

Battle field (see my videos above)

Heart is an important attack (when possible), not only it inflicts damages, but it gives some HPs back. The amount is variable depending on the attack strength.
In this battle, i had to defeat 6 waves of monsters. Each wave is 2 to 3 monsters. Final wave was a boss. It seems there is not allways one.
When the girls cards are glowing, you can use their special powers. See each card describtion to know what they do.

Basic battle:
You throw a card, depending on the color / symbol / card value, the girls are hitting the mobs.
You have a very short time to throw your cards, do it before the sandglass turns or you will recieve some free hits from the mobs.
In my case above, if I sart with a diamond card, 4 girls will hit. And if you throw a card which color / symbol doesn't match wih any of the girls, no hits happen, but the card stays in play and you can use it for the next combination.
If you can make a combination (1 pair, 3 of a kind, etc ...) more damage happen. the number of extra hits also depend on your team, and the attack nature depend on the last card you throw.
Still with my team, if I manage to assemble 4 jack cards and the last one is a heart, only Ikumin will hit for normal damage then only Ikumin will perform extra damages (because 4 of a kind) and gives some HP back (because last card was jack of heart).
So yo have to think some when choosing your cards.
When the counters above the mobs comes down to 0, they will hit you, lowering your HP bar. You can also notice the mobs attribute next to their HP bar (here, they are diamond and spade, there's a fifth one: a black star)
There are 2 kind of jokers.
1st is a blue card with no particular sign, when you throw it, it turns into a random card. If not used immediatly, it will flip after a turn.
2nd one is a white card with a fairy, this one completes your current cards combination by performing the most powerfull attack possible. Exemple (and still in the case above, if I throwed the 9 of clover, then the 9 of spade then a fairy, it would result in a" three of a kind combo" ending with another 9 of clover. (2 girls with a clover would hit instead of 1 with a spade)
Sometimes i choose a cards but it won't land in the deck and won't produce any effect other than lowering the HP bar. I did not figure how this work, maybe it was in the tutorial.

If you lose your fight (happened to me a lot at the beginning) a menu will be prompted and will ask you if you want to continue at the cost of 5 rubies.
If you say yes, you will be able to continue from where the fight stopped. (no restart from scratch which is nice)

btw I'd appreciate if someone can start a game from 0 and record the tutorial.

Victory

Here is a battle reward sum up.
Bottom part are extra loots if the 3 goals are achieved. If I am not wrong you have to:

• Use at least 3 different combinations (I'm not too sure on this one)
• Clear the battle with less than 24 cards
• Win without using a continue

Your cards gain experience too


And finally your quest progression

 

There are some daily log in rewards.
2 weeks ago, there were more, Possibly because my acount was freshly started.

I have no idea for now what these items are for and how to use them.

Cards menu:

• Team formation
• Holding cards list
• Ehancement
• Sale
• Album

The Team sub menu:

You can compose up to 6 Teams, the upper left slot with pinkish background is your team leader. so the one the other players can choose as assistant.
In each slot you can add 3 supporting cards. I suppose all their stats are added, I'm not completly sure i did not look close enough.

The holding cards list:

Here are all the cards in your inventory. the one you won, the one you bought etc, you can store up to 50 cards (it is expendable). If you collect more than the limit, they will wait to be claimed in the gift menu.
the ones with ghosts (these are named Naturas) are used to power up your cards. It increase their level. I don't know yet how exactly it works.
In this menu, you can set some cards as your favorites or lock them to prevent from accidentally deleting.
On the top right corner, the cards used in your teams are marked with a "Me" (the katakana in yellow), and the ones used as support are marked with a "Sa" (katakana in blue)

The ehancement sub menu:
In this you can power up your cards, just pick one then fill the slots with ghost / rabbit like or whatever card without a girl preferably, you can use up to 10 power ups. It costs some gold
Here is one of those detail and the process to power up 1 card.
I picked random powering cards, without really checking what they do (the animation is nice)


The sale sub menu:
You can sell you cards for some gold.
1st pic is the cards available for sale.
Just fill the slots.


The album sub menu:

It is self explanatory. There are 2 lines

• members cards
• videos

You have to unlock the videos. I don't know how since I did not unlock any at the moment.

 

I think i figured why some cards disapear without dealing any damages..
It can be because of the chain system.

And here is how I understand it.
you throw a card to start a chain
the next one must be either the same color or the same number to continue the chain.
If your next card doesn't match, the chain is broke, the card disapears, no hits occurs, the chain count resets to 0, you loose some HP, the card on the left of the battle field is removed.

Any way next menu
*skipping the guild menu because I am playing alone for now*

Call menu:


In this section you can buy your cards, at the cost of rubies, gold, or something related to I-sky

You have 3 options (the 3 blue buttons)

• Push menu (or something like that)
• Event limited
• Free

1st option: push thing
Basically, you choose a Team, then choose either 1 or 10 cards (cost 15 or 150 rubies) by hitting either of the 2 pink button at the bottom
And after a nice animation:

Just pick which card you want to flip, or all five will, depending on your spending choice.
Result

push the pink button if you want to spend 15 more rubies for another random card

In this 1st option you can choose to spend rubies or use some tickets (the brown buttons right under the blues)

You have 4 kind of tickets, I think you can win those in the daily dungeons or during events.

2nd option: event limited

I did not try at all, because the I-sky logo tells me that it involves dropping real money in your I-sky acount, which is likely to not accpet foreign credit cards.
Anyway, it has 3 sub options:

• I-sky coins
• Birht month
• Events

3rd option: free

It is similar to the push thingy menu, but more random since you can not choose the Team you want, and it costs some gold. You can choose 1 or 10 cards too.

Shop menu:


This one is self explainatory so i won't go into details.

In this secton you can buy :

• Rubies (cost I-sky coins)
• Some stamina recovery items (cost rubies)
• Increase your card inventory (+5 slots for 5 rubies)
• buy skip tickets (I don't know their use yet, each ticket cost 10 rubies)

And that's all for the 6 main menus (the ones in main screen deck)

Also, that's all for the basic, there are still tons of things I did not explore yet.
Feel free to ask any thing, Maybe I have an answer.
Have fun.

 

I went as far as needing a stamina refill, you go normaly into a fight starting process and after you select your assistant this board is prompted

and it's not completly what I was expecting.
Without surprise, you can use rubies (2nd line). I suppose 1 ruby for a full bar resplenishment.
or (1st line) you can use some stamina recovery items which are

• bottles: recovers 20 stamina each
  
• cans: recover 50 stamina each

Just choose the amount of items you want to use (from drop down list), then hit the light blue button.

1 card overview:

1st line says : C [Normal 1] Girl's name
on the card itself there are 2 things you have to pay attention:
top left corner are the 2 card symbols: it determine the kind of attack it can perform. here they are clover and spade
bottom left corner there is a letter (D,C,B,A or S): it determines the maximum level the card can reach. A C card can't go higher than level 30.
Of course the higher the level is, the better the card stats are.

On the right part of the screen there are the card stats with:

• it's attribute: this one is clover. I concluded it is it's main attack, so why the clover symbol is on the very top left corner
• the card level and it's experience bar. the next 2 lines are the amount of experience points required for the next level
• the card stats : Health Points, Attack Points, Resilience

And in the bottom part.

• left part says 9 call (skill name ), and skill level one (looks like it's upgradable)
• last line is the skill describtion: in the above case, it will change one random card in your hand to a 9

 

Wow thanks for putting so much effort into this!!

 

Today, this cutie poped on my screen

Her name is Lamia and she says she has cheap rubies for sale.
I declined her offer because .... no I-sky coins