A Year in Heaven:

The 1-year anniversary of Heaven Burns Red has been the biggest extravaganza ever.  All sorts of new mechanics and updates were provided to the game, which came with all new sets of rewards for everything you've done until now to fulfill those mechanics.  A year's worth of loot in a day.

The result was a tsunami of new SS Memorias.  I finally completed my collection of all base SS Memorias in the game, as well as all Squad 31-A SS Memorias ever released, by getting base Megumi.  I also got base Satomi, Kanata and Maria.  From here I can use my last three positroniums I've collected in the clock tower and skill evolve all evolvable skills.  That will take months, though, because the supply of nordstrom crystals, like usual, is too small.

In addition, I got belly-dancer Vritika, who's extremely beautiful.  She comes with prehensile animal ears and a tail, something I didn't even notice before getting her.  This costume on its own justifies her inclusion into my wonderful hall of fame.

Those were the brand-new SS's.  I also got a brand-new character, Hisako from Angel Beats.  But she's only an S-ranked Memoria so not actually usable in battle.

The rest was limit breaks.  I got a swarm of limit breaks to all my favorite SS's.  Samurai Inori moved up to level 3, base Maria to level 1, tuxedo Tsukasa to level 1, base Kanade to level 1, base Muua to level 4, base Ichiko to level 4, base Yingxia to level 3, goddess Yingxia to level 2, base Yuina to level 3, base Sumomo to level 4, base Yotsuha to level 3, plus I got a lot of 2.5's and 3.5's, meaning my future protean shards have their work cut out for them.

I also got three new eternal daphnes.  These are the last of the easy-to-get eternal daphnes, so I hope I chose the right SS Memorias to give talent unlocks to with them.  Santa Misato, Goddess Yingxia and swimsuit Mari.  Ninja Mari probably would have made more sense, but I find Ninja Mari isn't really compatible with the rest of the ice squad, while swimsuit Mari works great in her fire squad, so. . .

There's a new ability called master skills now.  Each character has their own distinctive skill that can be unlocked by fulfilling various objectives, then you have to use a rare item to purchase the skill from there.  Only a few of my characters have met the unlocking criteria and I don't have enough of the rare item to buy it, but someday!

If I log in for the next 9 days I get another free SS Memoria on top of all the others.  Plus I still need to complete the new event and new suppression missions, at which point I'll get more loot.  Oh, and I need to fight a bunch of Orb Bosses cuz that will give me more rewards.  Luckily I do have weeks to do all this in, I don't have to do it all the same day the content comes out.  But wow, this is an anniversary to remember.

Thanks to the anniversary I've collected most of the SS Memorias in the game.  I have 112 currently, including 12 level 4's, 8 level 3's, 19 level 2's, 32 level 1's, and 41 level 0's.  Also, 16 of them have eternal daphne's.  These are the characters I seriously intend to play with in battle -- pajamas Hisame, fox Miya, swimsuit Sumomo, magical girl Tama, swimsuit Tsukasa, samurai Inori, swimsuit Yuina, shrine maiden Megumi, goddess Yingxia, santa Misato, swimsuit Mari, red riding hood Karen, datenshi Chie, phantom thief Jamie and idol Erika.

All these limit breaks have increased the level caps on a lot of my characters, but that doesn't mean I've actually gained the levels.  That will take a lot more time and effort.  Once I've gained all my new levels and skill evolutions and skill levels and master skills, maybe then I can take on Apophis.

SAOAGGO volume 14 is now in my possession.  God knows when I'll find the time to read it though.

I finished Anju's route in Limelight Lemonade Jam.  It was perfect.  Anju's speaking style is so splendid.  She draws out words to buy herself more time to think, and is always indecisive.  It leaves you on tenterhooks to find out what she'll actually say when all is said and done.  Limelight Lemonade Jam was the best-selling visual novel of 2025 in Japan for a reason.  This is high art.  Rarely can a down-to-Earth romance set in the real world, modern day, with no supernatural events or powers, be this compelling.

The other girls of Limelight are nice but I doubt they'll live up to Anju.  I'll slowly chip away at them, while I'm also slowly chipping away at all my other visual novels.  I know what I'll be doing in 2026.