i think this might be the best IF i’ve ever played (currently tied at the top with the fallen hero series, and please don’t ask me to choose) and it’s not even finished.
@burninglights what you’ve achieved here is nothing short of spectacular. everything in this game works, because your writing is just that good!
your characters are deeply well-written and feel very much like real people, with real personalities and their own flaws and strengths. everything from the action to the more intimate scenes makes me feel like i’m watching a movie rather than reading text, because i can see every scene in my head so clearly.
i do not have enough words to voice how much i love this game and appreciate your work.
Hey. If it’s not too much trouble, could anyone please share some tips about stat distribution, such as should I minmax in order to win most matches or distribute points evenly, which attributes are more important than others, stuff like that? Just started playing, won a couple of matches, lost the third and it left me surprisingly salty.
You’ll always lose to Deepal.
I usually focus on athleticism, endurance, finesse, and tactics—they work really well together. In the first few chapters, I build my character by prioritizing two of those stats, then train up the others over time. I just make sure at least two of them are above 30%. Also make sure to rest, condition is also important.
If you want to win the challenges in the first week, you’ll need to invest in Agility, Strength, Finesse and Endurance. You’ll have to create your playing style in such a way that the above stats are atleast 25 or above, as winning each challenge increase your relationship with your team and the coaches.
Agility, Strength, and Finesse also come in handy outside of tennis.
And if you want to comfortably win the matches, then the password for beast mode is: unleashthekraken.
Later on in some challenge matches (including Deepal rematch) beast mode may not be available, but your stats will be high enough (especially if they’re >31) to still win.
Thanks, but I want to beat them fair and square. I’ve been prioritizing serves and volleys + finesse, tactics is also close to 30, but I have endurance of a paper tissue, probably gotta do something about that. Also thanks for the tip about resting, been completely ignoring this.
You can get away with dumping one or two stats to develop others more, which will be beneficial for the higher checks. I think three stats at 32 or more is better and I suffered when I didn’t have that.
I have been loving this story a lot. Sports/romance is definitely an underrated genre and I applaud you for bringing out the best of both worlds. I genuinely have a hard time picking between G and S so I chose bothand it tugged on my heartstrings to tell S about the hookup. Sports writing in this is phenomenal, while I’m not a tennis player I can see that the love and care is there. And being a soccer player competing at high level for most of my life, I appreciate that determination to win. Characters in general are amazingly written and breathing with life. I’m also a POC and R and Deepal’s exchange after we got paired as doubles hit so close to home. Phenomenal story. Can’t wait to see more.
Note that most of this information is provided in the game itself: click “Show Stats”, then select “Glossary and Important Information” and then “Explanation of Stats and Skills”. This will provide you with a breakdown of the stats but also, more importantly, what typical play styles are there for tennis, and what stats it’s best to focus on in order to perform well with given play style. Pretty much all of them are viable and should let you win the matches, if you play to your MC’s strenghts.
I read it, but it’s not what I asked for – like what percentages on how many attributes should I aim for, whether to minmax or spread points more or less evenly, is there a dump stat, things like that.
Well, that guide covers such topics, if a little indirectly – i.e. the stats it lists as important for a play style, you’ll want to focus on them evenly, while the ones not listed for that style can be your dump stats. The thing to mostly remember is that there isn’t only a single universal build that’s viable and you should follow, but it can be any of the described playing styles. Or even your own tweak/spin on any of them.
these are her stats after character setup in Ch.1, before the trials. And by the time Ch.5 rolls around, after the first round of official matches, she’s like:
she’s able to win all matches the game throws at her like that, so long as during the matches i pick the options that align with her strengths (agility, tactics, strength, endurance) and avoid the ones which use her weak spots (S/V obv, and finesse for now, but she’s actively working on improving that one and it should be fairly usable in Ch.6 onwards)
On a separate note, there’s one pretty important aspect of Endurance that’s not mentioned – having decent or high endurance means your MC will suffer reduced condition loss from the matches, which means you can squeeze some occasional extra action on weekends instead of resting. So it’s probably a good idea not to neglect that one. Other attributes though, you have quite a bit of flexibility with them.
Adding on the not mentioned part of skills, I think if you choose to catch up on your readings over the weekends, you get a slight increase in Tactics along with intelligence/or class performance (atleast if you prioritize readings consistently on weekends, though I’m not entirely sure).
It is probably not that. :> Your school readings don’t really affect your grasp on tactics, but from week 2 or 3 onwards the game gives your MC passive increases to skills, to reflect result of weekly trainings and experience gained in matches. The catch is, this growth only affects skills which are below certain (and increasing slowly over time) threshold. So, in scenario where Tactics is a low skill for your MC, you’ll notice it slowly increasing each weekend. Meantime someone with low endurance will see it slowly growing, and so on.
To be exact, the skill bonus threshold is 26 on the first week of classes, and increases by 1 point with each week.
I’ve been prioritizing serves and volleys + finesse, tactics is also close to 30, but I have endurance of a paper tissue, probably gotta do something about that. Also thanks for the tip about resting, been completely ignoring this.
