$130 More:

In my fever to get imp Yayoi, I did 100 rolls.  In my desire to get wedding dress Charlotta and Seira, I did 110 rolls.  If you get to 150 rolls on a character, you can choose the SS Memoria you're aiming for and get it automatically for free.  I had already acquired the SS Memoria, but I could give them limit breaks if I got to 150, which in both cases was already most of the way complete.  So I decided at this point it was more efficient to go on rolling until I'd cashed in on the benefits of my previous rolls.  As a result of this further $130 investment, I got wedding dress Seira to limit break level 1, imp Yayoi to limit break level 2, an eternal daphne for wedding dress Seira and another one for shrine maiden Risa, who have recently proven their worth in tough battles, magicat Tenne to limit break 3, rococo Sumomo to 2.5, thunder Yuina to 2.5, shrine maiden Risa to 2.5, sheep Yotsuha to 2, and 5 protean shards, which gets me halfway to a limit break of my choice.

The two eternal daphnes are definitely the best aspect of this deal.  Now I have 31 SS Memoria with eternal daphnes.  These are the seraphs I can really rely on to take on the toughest opponents.  Bringing Seira and Risa into the fold gives me a lot of flexibility for future squad formation.  (Buffers and healers are useful pretty much anywhere).

But this doesn't do justice to what my $130 purchased.  Half of what I purchased is paid quartz that I haven't used yet.  This vast reservoir of paid quartz will get me many new SS Memoria in the future, so hopefully I can keep my 'all SS Memoria in the game collected' status for as long as possible.  (Wouldn't it be great if it were all the way to the end of the game?  What a dream that would be. . .)

I made a new fire squad to try and make idol Erika useful, and she was pretty effective.  The problem is the new squad was still weaker than my previous fire squads, which makes the whole effort sorta pointless.  But it did provide proof of principle that the potential I saw in idol Erika wasn't wrong.  It feels like only goddess Yingxia was a straight-out mistake.

Miya completed her training and got her new master skill, which awards +2 sp to the whole party every time she uses her exclusive skills.  Her exclusive skills cost either 14, 12, or 7 sp, based on various factors -- and the master skill generates a 12 sp benefit overall, so either Miya refunds the entire cost of her ability now, or even gives the party a profit for firing her arrows.  That's crazy good for a character who was already one of my strongest.  I used the extra skill slot Miya got for reaching title badge 10 to slot in her master skill without having to take out any of my previous skills, which makes her all the more overpowered.

I also unlocked Isuzu's master skill, which is cool, but I can't buy it for lack of shards.  If I did have shards I would get Yayoi's master skill bubble destroyer, since she's suddenly my most important character now, so it wouldn't help Isuzu anyway.

Love Live! Nijigasaki movie 2 came out and it was decent.  I don't like Nijigasaki that much, or the idols in this movie in particular, but Love Live! is such a solid franchise that even its weakest portions are worthy.  I've already watched the movie twice.

Witch Hat Atelier is a great anime:

After watching the first two episodes of Witch Hat Atelier, I'm convinced this will go on to become a great anime.  I gave it the ranking of #180.  To make room I combined Demons Crest with SAO, since it's the same damn story -- kids playing a VRMMO get stuck in it and now it's like real life -- written by the same author.  At that point it may as well be the same franchise.

Now all my ranked anime have properly actually aired, which is how it should be.  Mao and Witch Hat Atelier have been spectacular and are sure to make the spring season enjoyable.  None of the other debuting series this spring have impressed me.  Nigetsuri is the only other watchable one.  The rest of the good series this spring are all continuations.

I made Coco, the heroine, a wonderful character and gave her the theme song of Star-Stealing Girl.  It's extremely fitting since the first thing she did was 'steal' the knowledge of how to create magic.

The art and animation of Witch Hat Atelier is top notch.  The way she moves is so natural, and I love how many small movements there are per frame.  You can tell the makers of this work wanted it to sparkle, like Kimetsu no Yaiba sparkles.

Spring season series are still debuting, but I don't have much hope for any of the remainder.  I'll go on trying and seeing though.

If I keep up the good work, I'll complete Miya's master skill training tomorrow.  I'm also making good progress on Isuzu's master skill training, but I don't have any spare shards for her even when it unlocks.  Similar to Gig Mode, I've now acquired all the available loot in the Clock Tower.  I did Hell Mode up to the point there was no further point, which is the same as completely clearing Hell Mode.

Israel is still bombing Lebanon and the strait of Hormuz is still closed, so it looks like the ceasefire has already failed.  It never made sense for there to be a ceasefire in the first place, as the two sides can't possibly come to an accommodation they hate each other so much.  Either Iran or Israel must cease to exist, because the Islamic Republic of Iran is too fanatical to accept any other result.  Israel needs to nuke Iran into submission.  This has always been the obvious solution from the beginning.  None of these talks will ever get anywhere until Iran fears Israel.  And nothing America or Israel is currently doing scares Iran in the least.  Therefore no talks can possibly succeed.

Gig Mode Victory:

Gig Mode is too difficult for me on hard mode.  I don't understand how any human, honestly, could play on hard mode or higher.  But the game is more forgiving than that.  It only requires you to be able to clear normal difficulty to get all the rewards available.  I reaped the final 19 lifestones from gig mode and used them all on the latest event boss, getting plenty of tokens to buy all the event loot available.  Even on normal difficulty it's possible to reap all the rewards in the game, so that's good enough for me.

Due to my efforts in gig mode, I reached player rank 130, which gave me my latest eternal daphne.  I used it on imp Yayoi, who's way stronger than I initially thought.  I was just collecting her as a collector's item, the last SS Memoria to top off my collection of 154 SS Memoria.  But it turns out she's possibly the strongest Memoria in the game.  Her Mega Destroyer technique only costs 8 sp and has no use limit.  Her Friend-Calling Dance ability gives everyone, permanently, 40% up to exposed enemy damage and +1 sp regeneration per turn.  I put her in my critical penetration squad, so that 'exposed' status will always be active, because everything counts as exposed to critical penetration attacks.  She gives a permanent free +100% buff to everyone's sp attacks that cost 8 and under.  So I put her in a new fire squad where 5/6 of the characters' exclusive abilities cost 8 or less -- swimsuit Adelheid, hot springs Isuzu, wedding dress Ichiko, wedding dress Seira, and imp Yayoi herself.

With six henchmen, which requires a couple turns to set up, her Mega Destroyer technique does 500% extra damage, on top of the +100% dp damage it already does, and the +100% skill attack for being an 8 or under sp attack.  Oh, and it gets two stacks of multihit, each of which do 3 additional hits that are 25% normal strength.  So if my math works correctly that's another +150% damage.  Oh, and don't forget the +40% damage due to the enemy being 'exposed,' because it's a critical penetration attack.  And don't forget the +50% damage innate to an attack being a crit, and the -50 to the enemy's defense due to the attack being an automatic crit.  It's absolutely overwhelming.

Imp Yayoi's potential isn't done yet.  At level 3 limit break she extends a broken enemy's down status by an additional turn.  (basically giving the party an extra turn).  At level 4 limit break she gives the party a free bar of overdrive.  I only have imp Yayoi at level 1 limit break.  If I gave her a healthy helping of protean shards she could become a true monster.

She's the best buffer and the best damage dealer in the game.  It's totally absurd.  Who needs an admiral when you can have an imp?

I currently have a backlog of 11 characters stuck at 2.5 or 3.5 limit breaks, so my first priority for protean shards has to go to them.  Tomorrow I'll get the protean shards I need to elevate one of those .5's to a round number, probably admiral Aoi.  I keep praising how strong she is so I should at least give her the opportunity to shine at her brightest.  But someday I'll get imp Yayoi to full strength, and she'll be a terror when that happens.

Sadly dandy Misato, who I thought was going to be an important ally going forward, has been totally sidelined as a result of all these new acquisitions.  I can't find a spot for her in any of my three fire squads.  The main problem is she's limit break 0 and all her competitors are limit break level 4.  Not much can be done about a gap as wide as that.  I've given out 29 eternal daphnes now, and Misato didn't turn out to use her's well.  The two gravest wastes of daphnes are idol Erika and goddess Yingxia, though.  Idol Erika couldn't be helped, I had no idea that she would soon be superannuated by the strictly superior admiral Erika.  In the same manner, Goddess Yingxia is hopelessly inferior to rider Nanami.  They both buff lightning attacks and skill attacks in general, but Nanami buffs people more in both cases, by a wide margin, while also doing damage to the enemy.  Yingxia should dig herself a hole and bury herself in it, she's so embarrassingly weak.

I have enough shards to acquire another master skill, but I want to purchase Miya's and the requirements to unlock her master skill are crazy.  I have to use her exclusive skill 221 times in battle.  It's an expensive skill too, requiring at least 12 sp.  I'd have to battle a very long time for that to happen.  If I put her in dungeon runs I could at least get credit for 5 'uses' per use, by multiplying the battles by 5 per battle in the dungeon.  But my dungeon party currently consists of a bunch of new recruits trying to learn their new skills.  I suppose I could shove Miya in regardless and say she takes priority, but the skills people are trying to learn are things like Mega Destroyer, which are also pretty darn important. . .

Surprisingly, Trump and Iran have declared a ceasefire, where negotiations will resume.  I don't see why Iran would negotiate since they're completely in the winning position.  Trump already ruled out using nukes against Iran, which is the only serious threat we pose to them.  Meanwhile they pose a serious threat to the world economy and have already shown their willingness to act on that threat by closing the strait of Hormuz.  When one side has leverage and the other doesn't, why would you agree to a ceasefire and disarm your most effective weapon?  With the strait of Hormuz open Iran has no leverage again.  It's stupid to negotiate from a position of weakness, so logically these negotiations shouldn't be occurring.  But I've never understood Iran's reasoning, they seem to be totally insane.  They want to enrich uranium to nuclear bomb levels but not make nuclear bombs.  They want to close the strait then open it again as a gesture of 'goodwill' during negotiations.  They were okay with a ceasefire after the 12-day war with Israel when they were winning after Israel's duplicitous sneak attack.  Then they got hit again by a second duplicitous sneak attack less than a year later, and learn nothing, signing up for another ceasefire.  Iran is so contemptible.  They're so strong, but their brains are so mushy they lose all the same.

This doesn't mean I don't have an equal share of contempt for America.  We spent trillions of dollars on this military, putting our nation $40 trillion into debt, so that we could be militarily defeated by a nation that only spent $8 billion on their military.  That's fraud on the most massive scale in human history.  If a product doesn't do what it advertises it can do, it's defective and the consumer should be able to return it to the producer for a refund.  I want a refund on our $40 trillion debt.  None of our weapons do anything.  We can't defeat anybody with them.  Low cost missiles and drones drove our entire navy, air force, and army away from Iran's shores.  We couldn't get near them with anything.  We ran out of missile defense and drone defense well before they ran out of missiles and drones.  What were we thinking, stockpiling all these hyper-expensive anti-missile missiles, when there's such an obvious solution, which is just to shoot more missiles at lower expense than you can shoot them down?  Did that never occur to anyone when they were buying these toys?

Once again I find myself incapable of supporting Iran or Iran's enemies.  Both sides always seem insane, stupid and evil.

The $155 Victory:

Through good luck and free rolls, I acquired two of the remaining 3 SS Memoria in Heaven Burns Red I didn't yet own (magician Isuzu and street clothes Yingxia).  Taking this as a sign from God, I resolved to get the last missing SS Memoria at any price, and be able to declare victory over the game.

I've beaten all the anachronies with 3 stars, I've beaten the main scenario last boss, I've beaten all the events and secret bosses, I've beaten everything in the game -- except this one missing SS Memoria I hadn't collected yet.  For one brief shining moment, before they release new SS Memoria, I can declare total and complete victory over the game.

So I started spending, and rolling, then spending, and rolling, then spending, and rolling.  $155 later I got imp Yayoi and won the game.  But that wasn't all my $155 got me.  It got me 5 protean shards, imp Yayoi limit break level 1, sheep Yotsuha limit break level 1, hot springs Isuzu level 2, shrine maiden Risa level 2, tuxedo Karen level 2, celestial Seika level 3, reindeer Bon Ivar level 2, schoolgirl Hisame level 2, swimsuit Mari level 3.5, and two eternal daphnes, which I promptly used on cute Karen and wedding dress Ichiko.  That gets me to 28 talent unlocked SS Memoria in all.  I have 27 max limit break level 4 SS Memoria, a lot of whom overlap with those 28.

That's a healthy clip of $13 per SS Memoria.  I also have 11,000 leftover paid quartz, so it's actually cheaper than that.  I'll use the paid quartz in the coming months to try to extend my 'own all SS Memoria in the game' victory for as long as possible.  I never actually intended to own all the SS Memoria in the game, but when I kept getting closer and closer to the goal, when such great fortune fell into my lap, it would feel remiss to not at least once shoot the moon.  I'm so happy I completed one last trophy to put on my trophy case.  The greatest game ever, my most beloved game ever, the most expensive game ever, and the game I succeeded at most.

I also completed the duello minigame.

Chapter 5 Part 2 Act 2 beaten:

The best thing that could possibly happen in the story happened -- Karen overcame her split personality.  She's now the sweet, cute, kind, beautiful, talented and strong girl I always knew she could be.  Karen left her demented personality behind but is now willing to fight as her cute self, with an all new cute scythe and cute SS Memoria.  Which the plot itself gave me near the end of the main scenario, and then was vital to defeating the last boss.

I've wanted to play as cute Karen since the game started, years ago.  The progression of her psyche didn't come easy, it took months and endless debates with psycho Karen, and then a tearful farewell that made me want to cry too.  It was the perfect resolution, the well-earned resolution only a perfect writer could come up with.  I respect Jun Maeda so much.

That I got to defeat the last boss of Chapter 5 with cute Karen was the cherry on top.  What an unforgettable experience.  Cute Karen was allowed to reach limit break level 4 for free, and the last dungeon gave me a lumen crystal which let me synthesize her memento to max, and the last dungeon had a 'memoria level +10' book which let me get her 2/3 of the way to max memoria level.  They really wanted to make it easy and fun to play with the new cute Karen.

Cute Karen is strong enough that she makes sense in my ice squad.  She isn't strong enough to compete with red riding hood Karen in my fire squad.  But strength isn't everything.  Cuteness is everything.

The main scenario had two other subplots -- Bon Ivar going to live off the land with amnesia for a while, and awakened Tsukasa solving the mystery of the countdown.  They were both good stories, but they're nothing compared to the first ever time you can play as cute Karen.  Bon Ivar raging on Karen in the infirmary made all my camping in the woods with her worth it.  It was all for that one scene.

I haven't slept in days, I've been playing HBR nonstop.  The only pause was to watch the Final Four of March Madness.  But after that it was right back to the main scenario of HBR.  What a game.  I genuinely spent Easter in Heaven.

Maria Event Cleared:

Heaven Burns Red dropped a lot of new content on top of the main story expansion, so I've been doing all the side content first.  I spent $19 to most efficiently use my remaining paid quartz, and it paid off handsomely, getting me shrine maiden Megumi limit break level 4.  Now my entire plot party, Squad 31-A, is max level limit break.  And they're all fire element, so they work magnificently well together.  They're probably also my strongest party.  I'll be wielding them, at least, for the main scenario that's coming up next -- magical girl Tama, diva Ruka, red riding hood Karen, swimsuit Tsukasa, shrine maiden Megumi and fireworks Yuki.  This would be a great time to stop spending money on the game, since my main squad is already at full strength.  >.<.

I also got ninja Monika, a brand new SS Memoria.  I got really close to collecting every single SS Memoria in the game.  I think I'm only missing streetwear Yingxia, magician Isuzu and imp Yayoi.  Out of hundreds.  *sigh*.  So close and yet so far.

I also got base Yotsuha to limit break 3.5.  She's strong so levelling her is genuinely useful.  I maxed out ethereal Kozue's memento.  I acquired Charlotta's, Sumomo's and Adelheid's master skills.  I got base Charlotta's exclusive skill to introjection level and base Vritika's exclusive skill to skill evolution level.  I also gave Charlotta and Vritika 5 reversions, which gives them an extra skill slot, to accommodate their newly introjectable base skills.

I upgraded all my luck charms to max, got a full set of max power dark and thunder bracelets, and have almost maxed out my spirit charm levels.

I improved a lot of characters' title badges via the new 5-round endurance arena challenge.  Miya is the latest seraph to reach level 10 title badge and get a new skill slot.  It's embarrassing that my secondary fire party actually got a higher score in the score challenge than my primary fire squad 31-A party managed.  But that has to be nothing more than a coincidence.  >.<.  I kept getting close to the black trophy high score of 100,000, but everyone fell just short.  96k, 92k, etc.  But it's high enough to get all the practical loot available.

The plot of Maria's event was pretty simple.  She was an orphan who ended up being taken in by a church, so she became a nun by default.  Then Cancer attacked and everyone else in her church was killed.  She has survivor's guilt and takes it out on the Cancer, but true healing comes from her friends in Squad 31-X, who tell her it's okay to live.  Given that Charlotta has survivor's guilt a hundred times worse than Maria, Maria's story is kinda trite.  Charlotta is part of Squad 31-X too.  If I were Maria I would realize how silly my guilt looks in comparison to Charl's life and get over it already.  As expected I still don't like Maria.

The new song that played during the event, Melancholic Blue, is pretty catchy though.  I've listened to it before and rejected it, but now I've warmed to it, now that it's been incorporated into the story.  I'll kick out some sad 1-star song to make room for it in my hall of fame.

I'm only one player rank away from my next eternal daphne, which I'll probably give to wedding dress Ichiko.  Tomorrow I get a free SS Memoria, which will be the all-new wedding dress Seira.  And next week I get another free SS Memoria.  The benefits from Chapter 5 Part 2 Act II aren't done yet.

Normally speaking it would take months to get all these limit breaks, master skills, reversions, title badges, etc.  It's so fun for all this to happen in a couple days.  Like my opportunities are boundless.  New content is so fun.  It's well worth all the money I've spent on the game.  This remains the best game ever made.  And I haven't even played the main scenario yet. . .

Ayaka Route Cleared:

Ren'ai Karigurashi is by Asa Project, the same people behind Ren'ai 0 Km and Ren'ai Karichaimashita (who would have guessed?).  So I knew with high probability this would be a good game, and it was a good game.  I've already cleared the route of the best girl, Ayaka, and promoted her to my fictional character hall of fame.  She received 'It's a Beautiful Day' as her theme song, and Ren'ai Karigurashi made my silver rankings.

Ayaka is a beautiful girl with pink hair and yellow eyes, who styles some of her long hair into a braid around her head like a circlet.  At Takuma's insistence, she calls him 'Onii-chan', despite them being childhood friends and not relatives.  She's a good cook and nice to those around her.  She's a little crafty and manipulative, getting people to do whatever she wants because they all like her, but that's the reward for being nice.  For instance, she gives baked snacks to her friend, and cooks a cake for her father.  Then asks them for favors.  ^_^.   Cute girls who call people Onii-chan can have all the favors they want, if you ask me.

The other girls in the visual novel aren't bad -- Rito, Hiyori and Kyou.  I can probably play all their routes to completion like one is supposed to play a visual novel.  But I'm already looking beyond their routes to my next Asa Project game -- Futamata Ren'ai.  Nekonyan has been translating Asa Project games and bringing them to America one after the next, and I've liked all their other entries, so I suspect Futamata will be great too.

It's like last year's explosion of Yuzusoft games all over again.  Though Yuzusoft is superior to Asa Project, Asa Project is reliably good and that's good enough.

Meanwhile, Heaven's new main story expansion has been released.  So many ancillary events have been unleashed at the same time that I haven't even touched the main story yet.  I've already gotten four new SS Memoria -- kimono Akari, photographer Irene, sports car Maria and wedding dress Charlotta.  I also got red riding hood Karen and thundercat Byakko to limit break level 4 (max).  Swimsuit Megumi reached limit break level 1.  I also gave Byakko an eternal daphne, and upgraded the mementos of waitress Kozue and yukata Isuzu to max.  My first two characters have reached title badge rank 10, which gives them a new skill slot, Hisame and Megumi.