Some Samurai & Dragons impressions..not really sure why anybody likes it. 90% of the gameplay consists of of Facebook Strategy Time-Waster gameplay. Build buildings, wait minutes/hours for progress unless you spend money. Repeat endlessly as time required increases..you know the drill. Even uses the same bog-standard resource system (Wood, Iron, Stone, Food...)
Once you get sick of the monotony you have monster cards/units you can control by making a small party out of them, sending them out to conquer areas, and leveling them up. Typical Facebook game so far, all it's missing is the Energy system (but to be fair, what's the difference between waiting an hour for energy and waiting an hour for a queued building to finish upgrading, really.)
And it's really deserving of it's own point: this aspect of the gameplay seems suspiciously web-based. It's natural for there to be a delay given I'm playing the Asian/HK version from the US, but there's a good 5-6 second delay for every submission/update in this part of the game, feels a lot like those iPhone/Android games where it's an integrated browser.
The only real switch-up is the Dungeon gameplay. You have a set number of dungeon runs you can complete at any given time (cap seems to be around 10 + bonus runs, not sure what the regen is) in which you play a 3D dungeon crawler with up to 3 allies and kill monsters, and a boss, to win. The experience differs depending on how many players there are.
1 Player: Very challenging, each hit can take up to a good third of your life away and you'll need to make a lot of use out of the dodge mechanic. A bit unforgiving even in the first, lowest-level dungeon.
2 Player: Probably the sweet-spot, this keeps the game's difficulty in tact while giving you an ally to split up the hoard of monsters.
4 Player: Clusterf##k. Everybody just spams the basic attacks and none of the monsters have any chance. Not sure if any of the further-in dungeons are more ambitious.
While it sounds far more palatable for 1-2, 3 tops players, bear in mind that when you die (which is incredibly easy given the high damages and the cheap boss attacks you sometimes cannot dodge), you're dead for good. And the only way to revive is, you guessed it, money. Completion rewards you some packs of cards for that dungeon you can open, which can reward weapons, some gems which can create weapon 'skins', and you can unlock new skills and such. It's different, but I don't know if I'd really consider it much fun. It's monotonous in 4-player and unforgiving for less.
The last real feature or selling-point for the game is the fact that SEGA brings in some of it's franchises in the form of event cards you can buy, currently for the month of February is a Shining Blade set, and the JP version runs the gamut, including Miku cards for one example. The downside: Beyond a small allowance of CP (only there to get you hooked after a taste), they are only obtainable with money. How much? Maths:
500CP = $39 HK. $39 HK = $5 USD. (Bear in mind buying the PSN cards would be more expensive than a direct conversion, 200HK from play-asia is $30 USD).
A single card from the Shining Blade pack: 300CP. Or, roughly $3 a random -card-. From a set of 35 with four rarity tiers.
S&D is probably the best example of a money sink game I've ever seen. It's main form is a town-building Waiting game where you pay money to do it faster, it's second form is a dungeon fighter where you pay money to revive (and likely pay money to get additional dungeon runs), and its third form is a card game of sorts where you pay literally $3 a piece with no option of earning them in-game. And the game isn't even fun to play. I don't get it.
