Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-26811478-20150913035730/@comment-30214985-20161015202015

1.  What is your name and which server is your citadel in?

I'm erimus here (my usual handle, sumire, was already taken). When I started playing, I looked up the Wikipedia entries on all the available servers to see what part of Japan they were, and I chose Suou province, because it seems to be where some of my great-grandparents came from (Eastern Yamaguchi).

'''2. When did you start serving as a saniwa? Please display your battle records.'''

I started on July 31, 2016.

'''3. Which starter sword did you pick? What is he doing now?'''

I picked Mutsunokami because he seemed like he'd be the most fun to hang out with, and I figured he'd get a kick out of having a gaijin saniwa. He's still one of my highest-level uchigatana, although I don't particularly favor him any more. (I still like Mutsu, but I find his voice a little bit grating, and the Tosa-ben makes fanfic about him hard to read.)

'''4. Who is the first among your swords to reach the maximum level? What do you think of him?'''

At the moment, my highest-level sword is CCP (lv 89), but about a dozen other swords are right behind him. I'm actively leveling them up to work on World 7, so any one of them might hit 99 first.

'''5.  Who do you have in each of your squads, and how do you use them? If you haven’t unlocked all four teams yet, briefly describe how you plan to organize them.'''

While I'm logged in, Squad 2 is often my spare CCP (lv. 8) or spare Hotarumaru (lv. 6) doing expedition A1 over and over. I'm trying to stockpile help tokens for the future and replenish my steel supply, so the other two expedition squads are constantly doing B4 (Kakakakaka and a mid-level uchi, often Yamambagiri) and C2 (Jiroutachi or Ishikirimaru, plus whoever happens to be at max sakura fubuki.)  And then before I log out, I try to send a team to D2.

6. Without considering the performance of the swords, which type of sword do you prefer?

Wakizashi, maybe? I wish there were more of them.

'''7. Next, we come to the usual questions. List the swords that you like and your thoughts on them. '''

Nikkari Aoe was one of my pre-game favorites (because of all the sexy fanfic), and he reinforced that by being my first wakizashi and frequent MVP.

Ishikirimaru was my first oodachi, he has a nice voice, and, of course, he goes with Aoe. I used to hate his Moe Howard haircut, but I'm used to it now.

I also really like Tombokiri's voice. He hardly ever gets MVP, so I need to put him as team leader if I want to keep him in sakura fubuki state. So I end up hearing his voice a lot.

Shotas and younger-brother types aren't really my thing, but since you've gotta have tantous, I favor Sayo (cold and bloodthirsty!) and Midare (transvestite!). I thought I would like Yagen more, but his voice is so deep and manly, it feels weird coming from this delicate-looking child in short pants.

I feel like CCP and Izumi don't really need more fans, but they're both so attractive and charming and strong!

'''8. Are there any pairings that you like? If there, please list them. (No limit on type.)'''

I'll read anything (BL, sword x femsaniwa, genderswap...) but IshiKari is probably what I've read the most.

9. Is your citadel an employee-friendly citadel or a black-hearted citadel that works your swords to the bone?

Something in between, I think.

10. Have you ever done anything weird to your swords?

One time, Horikawa got medium damage, but since I'd already completed the five-repairs daily mission, I wanted to wait until the next day to repair him. Until that day, I didn't realize that if your team leader is damaged enough, you see the "damaged" version of their sprite even on your main citadel screen. So for the rest of the day, I made fun of Zombie Horikawa hanging around my citadel.

Also, I keep thinking of Midare as a girl--if I'm not careful, I find myself using female pronouns for her, I mean him. (I also keep thinking that her, I mean his, name is pronounced "Ran.")

11.Have you ever broken a sword?

No.

I felt like I was going to saniwa hell just for thinking of deliberately destroying a spare sword out of curiosity, but reading everyone else's responses, I see that it's common behavior. ^_^U

'''12. Who loses troops the most in your citadel? And who is the most skilled at making troops?'''

I just started World 7, so... who loses troops the most? EVERYBODY!

I don't pay attention to team leader when I make troops.

'''13. Another common question: have you ever done something with all of your might in order to get a particular sword? '''

During the smithing campaign, I used up all my ofuda and all my resources smithing the 324 recipe over and over, but I didn't get Sohaya or Oodenta. : (

Every day, to fulfill the smithing daily mission, I make three swords with the 350-510-350-350 recipe and hope Nagasone will come, but he hasn't yet.

'''14.  Are you superstitious? (www)'''

No. Probably the only "superstitious" thing is that I feel bad about dismantling swords. If I get duplicates of rare swords or my favorite characters, I'll refine them with themselves or with another character that they have a relationship with. Like, I got about 5 Ishikirimarus in WTE5, and I used them all to refine my existing Ishikirimaru and Aoe, even though their stats were already maxed. I feel like in the refinery, the two swords are becoming one, instead of one sword being destroyed.

'''15. What made you join the TKRB fandom in the beginning? How about now?'''

I'd heard about this blatant fangirl-bait game and seen pictures of the pretty, pretty characters, so once, when I was bored and looking for some BL, I tried reading some tourabu works on Pixiv. But I didn't know who any of the characters were, so I had to constantly keep looking them up on the English Wiki.

Eventually, I started reading the game part of the Wiki instead of just the character pages, and that's when I learned that even though I'm not in Japan, I actuallly could play the game instead of just observing the fandom as an outsider.

'''16. What do you think of the current maps? (For example: which map is good for training/grinding, which maps do you get lost in the most, which map do you want to burn?)'''

I like to grind 4-3 with medium-level swords--the enemies aren't too tough, it has lots of nodes to build sakura fubuki status, and there's a 50% chance of getting steel at the end. If I ever accidentally KBC that map, I'll be devastated.

17. Are there any game systems or improvements that you hope DMM will implement?

I'd like them to introduce more naginata. If they don't, they might as well just change every place that says "naginata" to "Iwaotoshi," like "Sword types: Tantou, Wakizashi, Uchigatana, Tachi, Oodachi, Yari, Iwaotoshi."

Oh, I know what--I wish we could save custom configurations of teams and equipment, so I wouldn't have to manually equip the new party when I'm taking a break from my team of newbies that I'm leveling up and switching to my 6-4 Nihongou-hunting team.

18. If DMM cooperates on an event with another game/anime/etc., what would you like to see?

I couldn't think of anything I particularly want to see, but I tried imagining a collaboration with the works that I follow.

I suppose Kurage Hime could add a side character who's a TouRabu fangirl. And I'm sure the mostly-female world of Yoshinaga Fumi's Ooku would enjoy an influx of touken danshi. And I watch Korean dramas... if they did a Korean-drama remake of TKRB about a modern girl surrounded by the personifications of famous Korean swords, I imagine it would look sort of like Scarlet Hearts: Ryeo.

'''19. Have you spent money playing TKRB? If so, how much? If not, do you plan to?'''

Now that I've been playing for a while, I'm planning to buy space for more swords. And I see it's only 100 yen the first time you buy an expansion for more troops, so I'll probably do that, too. (I wish I'd realized that back when there was the Increased Gold Troops campaign.)

20. Is there any merchandise that you would like to buy or see?

I don't even know where to start...

'''21. Have you done any fanwork (fanfiction, fanart, etc.)? If so, what?'''

No, although I'm thinking of doing some kind of craft project. I'd like to make some dolls or amigurumi, but the toudan's hallmarks are their beautiful hair and costumes, and that would be really hard to render nicely.

22. What do you think you are like as a saniwa?

I don't show favoritism--for a long time, I tried to level up all my swords equally whether I liked the character or not. (As a result, my saniwa level got disproportionately high, so my swords were often hopelessly outclassed in PVP.)

Now I have too many swords to level them equally, and I realized that I need to keep some swords at a lower level for things like map 1 and 2 in WTE5, but I still choose my team leader based on who would benefit the most from the stat and anti-fatigue boost, not who I like best.

23. If the government asked you to choose a sword to kill yourself with in terms of emergency, who would you pick?

OMG, what a question! I think Hasebe would carry out the mission faithfully and do a good job. But maybe I should try to choose someone who _wouldn't_ kill me--Yagen is famous for not killing his master, right? ^_^

24. The government has asked you to write a report: how would you describe the situation in your citadel?

Kakakakaka!

25. What do you think of the Retrograding Army?

Nothing in particular. Um... they have good artwork? They look suitably evil and monstrous, but in a cool way, not a nightmare-inducing way.

26. Lastly, please say something about TKRB from the bottom of your heart!

I'm super-grateful to Nitroplus for creating such a fun, pretty game, to DMM for having easily-circumventable region blocking, to all the fan artists and writers for the wealth of works they've shared, and to everyone who's worked on the wiki for helping me play the game.