Playing from outside Asia

[xnclout]

Sharing this info because someone asked me about this game, and there seems to be lack of English info out there - not surprising, given this seems such a niche game.

 

This can be played with a non-JP account, same as any other game from JP region - use a JP region account to download/activate the game on the relevant consoles, then play with your main account (UK in my case). Bear in mind this means anything purchase-related is unavailable, so you would be strictly playing as a free-to-play user. I haven't looked into nor had the desire to look into getting around this, maybe there's a way to top up the virtual currency and other stuff from outside the game on PS4/PS5 platform using the unique player ID assigned to your account, dunno.

 

The game is effectively a mobile phone gacha game outside of the core battle mechanics. So you may want to take this into account if you're considering this just for trophy hunting, or trying to estimate how much time to sink into the game. The controller scheme also reflects this. You can only move a cursor around and "tap"/"drag across" the screen with X. None of the other controller buttons do anything meaningful were it actually ported as a proper native console game. It has it's share of bugs as expected of a mobile quality game, but nothing game breaking that can't be fixed with relaunching the app that I've come across.

 

The game seems to run on servers in Asia, probably Japan. Run on, as in, the game launches an instance and runs in the cloud, then streams the audio/video to the console you're playing on. It doesn't actually run on the console. The console app seems to be nothing more than a glorified remote player, with some added features such as trophies for the PS5 version. Bit like streaming PS3 games to PS4/PS5 if you're on PS+Premium, I guess. This does mean the further away you are from Asia, the more likely you will hit issues either with the initial connection setup, or with the video/audio stream once it's up and running. Also, input lag.

 

Main issue I've come across when launching the app is error code 86360202 where the game thinks the internet connection is not strong enough. I'm guessing this is down to latency as a result of the above. In this case, I just keep trying to reconnect, just give it a minute or so between each attempt so you're not triggering other protection mechanisms, and it eventually connects. Once it's actually connected, it's mostly ok other than the odd video/audio glitch, and can stay connected for hours as long as you don't let it idle timeout. Though it can get laggy at times depending on internet traffic conditions. This probably means it's only checking the latency or other connectivity requirements at app launch only, and not once it's connected.

 

There does seem to be some sort of idle timeout in the game, where if there's no controller input for something like 10-15 minutes (I've not measured it exactly), it will disconnect your session. It gives a warning when it's about to happen. I'm assuming this is to preserve resources on the server side where the game is actually running. So if you're letting the game play by itself with the built-in autoplay/auto-battle feature, whilst you go off and do/play something else at the same time, you need to keep prodding the controller every few minutes to make sure it doesn't disconnect your session.

 

Unlocking trophies on the PS5 version is not like normal games. When you meet the requirements to unlock the trophy, the trophy doesn't unlock immediately. You then need to go into the trophy icon in-game, find the relevant achievement in the list, and tap to unlock the trophy. I suppose this means someone dedicated could theoretically reach the requirements for all trophies first, and then finally go through the whole list at once, unlocking all of them in a short 5 minute span or something, to get an unrealistically high fastest achiever entry.

 

The PS4 version does not have trophies. However, because the game runs remotely and progress is tied to the remote ID assigned to your account, progress is actually shared between the PS4 and PS5 versions. You can see this ID on the in-game title screen once the remote session is connected. So you can play the PS4 version, reach the trophy requirements, then hop over to the PS5 version and unlock the actual trophies on that side. Useful for running the PS4 version on a PS4 in background whilst you play something else on a PS5. I've not attempted trying to run both versions at the same time, so do that at your own risk. ? 

 

Other than trophies, only difference I've noticed between the two versions is the framerate it allows you to stream at - PS5 version can do 60fps with a 30fps option you can change to once in-game, whilst PS4 is 30fps only. But this does mean that in my experience at least, as someone halfway across the globe from Japan, the PS4 version streams more stable and is more likely to connect for me when launching it.