The New Denpa Men (22nd July 2024)

[Julius]

Timed Switch exclusive. 

Quote

THE NEW DENPA MEN is basically free to play and will be available on Nintendo Switch on July 22, 2024.

WiFi radio waves flying around you. DENPA MEN is a small creature that uses these radio waves as its home.

You can't see them with the naked eye, but you can find them and catch them using THE NEW DENPA MEN.

THE NEW DENPA MEN is an RPG where you can adventure with such people as your friends.

Unlike other RPGS, your adventure companions aren't in the game, they're all around you! In addition to the main stage that can be played at any time, there are also event stages that are open for a limited time. 

In addition to adventure, there is plenty of fun to be had, such as decorating your base island, fishing for fish, and more!

 

Edited June 18 by Julius

[Dcubed]

F2P? Nah, I'm good.

[Glen-i]

55 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

F2P? Nah, I'm good.

Oh, it is?

I'm out then. Denpa Men is bloody hard, which is great, but not when they hover microtransactions over you.

Edited June 18 by Glen-i

[darksnowman]

Claims to be completeable for free so paying your way might just be for the impatient. 

Says in-game there will be an event on the 25th. It'll be interesting to see what sort of support this is going to get. 

[RedShell]

Man, am I addicted to this.
Seriously, I've not been so utterly hooked on a game since Vampire Survivors!

It's not even all that good, but the quirkiness and weird vibes are just completely irresistible.  The game just has such a great retro/Lo-Fi charm to it, and its incredible Engrish translation is the icing on the cake. Not sure whether it was translated using AI or done manually, but either way, it's gold.

Soundtrack is great too.
Check out the hyper battle theme:

While the F2P setup is disappointing for sure, it's certainly not the worst I've ever seen. And in a way I'm actually quite glad it's repeatedly putting the brakes on for me (as someone who never makes any in-game purchases) or I'd be playing this even more than I already have.
Even by only using the freely available stamina I'm somehow at Hero Lv. 100 and starting the post-game adventures.

Still have a long way to go as far as collecting gear and items is concerned though, the RNG drop rates in this game can be pretty damn evil, we're talking Monster Hunter levels of grinding required, probably worse actually.
And it looks like online battles against other Denpa Men teams will start in September, so that'll no doubt keep me glued to this, alongside the island decorating, fishing, searching for/breeding/training new Denpa, playing the slot machines at the casino, etc.

[darksnowman]

Yeah, the wonky way things are worded matches the look of it.  I've been on it every day so far but more sparingly than you, @RedShell—around nine hours according to the in-game timer. One evening it gave me two hours of unlimited stamina so I stayed on a bit longer. Wouldn't say I'm addicted but once you're on it, it is quite moreish. 

Have you had much joy with the fishing event? I did the first stage of it quickly enough but I wasn't getting the required fish at a good rate for stage two so I haven't went back to it. There doesn't seem to be any trick to it but I don't know, maybe you're supposed to use different bait but the descriptions don't exactly spell it out.

I've done up to the trials. Didn't score the legendary equipment from it so I'll have to get back in there some time and see about figuring out the requirements... easier said than done with the obtuse wording.  Been wondering if it'd be a good idea to revisit the earlier locations to see what goodies are to be had in those higher-level spots. Still just using the first eight Denpa Men I caught, no breeding yet and haven't even used a boost item. I've hit the lvl 40 cap (meaning no exp from the trials, boo!) so my next objective, if/when I can afford it, is to limit break them again once their happiness is maxed.

The sailing bit was the only part so far I tackled over two days since it was a large open area to explore. If I'd realised where the shrine was, I could probably have pushed on and made it to the healing point in one go. But of course I headed around the map instead of just beelining it due north. Would have saved me using the teleport item (1J!) too. 

I'd like to spruce up the island if the gold starts to flow a bit more freely as I get deeper into it. Binned some veg as I didn't see the water option at first. At the moment, I'll be content to get through the main adventure (for free) then see if I want to keep at it after that. I saw one of the vendors does items that keeps your plants watered for longer and even forever. These will be good eventual purchases, especially as some I have already are on a 24h timer. The coliseum looks like it'll yield some good equipment too once it opens next month.

[RedShell]

2 hours ago, darksnowman said:

Have you had much joy with the fishing event? I did the first stage of it quickly enough but I wasn't getting the required fish at a good rate for stage two so I haven't went back to it. There doesn't seem to be any trick to it but I don't know, maybe you're supposed to use different bait but the descriptions don't exactly spell it out.

Yeah, I finished it pretty quickly because I've also done a lot of fishing while playing this (at Lv.60 ) and having a higher fishing level makes catching easier/quicker. Regarding bait, I haven't actually found a use for any of the different types at all! So just ended up sticking with normal type the entire time. Anyway, it's definitely possible to complete the event by only using normal bait.

As for getting the required fish, I believe it's mostly down to luck (like pretty much everything else in this game ) but I did observe that rare types seemed to spawn more frequently in the northern area of the map. Also, if you're ever in a situation where a normal fish shadow has gone for your bait rather than the rare red or white shadow that you wanted to target, you can just wait until its 1-5 nibbles are over (it uses exactly the same fishing system as Animal Crossing ) and it'll then disappear allowing the rare fish to take the bait instead.

2 hours ago, darksnowman said:

I've done up to the trials. Didn't score the legendary equipment from it so I'll have to get back in there some time and see about figuring out the requirements... easier said than done with the obtuse wording.

I know, right?
Well, if you do want to know, off the top of my head the requirements are...

SPOILERS bellow, in white text as the spoiler button doesn't work for some reason.

• Land a critical hit on the first boss. Requires luck as critical enhancing gear is hard to obtain beforehand, you can try boosts as well.
• Don't allow any Denpa to get KO'd on the second boss.
• Kill the 3rd boss with a dark element attack. An easy way to do this one is give all your team a dark bracelet.
• And finish the 4th boss battle within 3 turns.

Once you get all the legendary equipment you'll also be able to unlock...

...the last enemy type on stage 1. And obtaining the voucher for it (plus all the others on that stage, obviously ) will unlock the fairy gear, which is a great set to use as it increases voucher drop rate by 100%! Not that it guarantees voucher drops, far from it. But it certainly helps a lot, so I'd definitely recommend going for it ASAP.

BTW, if you're ever struggling with any of the enemy voucher drops let me know and I might be able to send some your way, I have quite a few duplicates by now, especially from the early levels.
Bronze vouchers only though, as unfortunately it costs jewels to send silver and gold ones.

4 hours ago, darksnowman said:

Been wondering if it'd be a good idea to revisit the earlier locations to see what goodies are to be had in those higher-level spots.

I did that as much as I could, and it can definitely pay off but at the same time you need to be careful as some of the enemies/hazards behind the level doors can be real tricky with a lower level hero/team. I lost some pretty nice items on a couple of occasions due to not being able to clear the stage. 
It's great going back to them now though with my almost maxed out team, enemies which were a huge threat before get obliterated in seconds!

4 hours ago, darksnowman said:

Still just using the first eight Denpa Men I caught

Same here, apart from 1 gold colour Denpa which I got via a rare catch. I highly recommend using 3J to get yourself a golden Denpa as soon as possible though for its +10% gold bonus skill. It's not huge amount (especially as the coin rewards are so small for most enemies) but over time it makes a difference and the cost of limit breaking gets pretty steep later on.
I believe that if a gold Denpa unlocks its SP colour the bonus also increases to 20%, but can't be sure as my one unfortunately hasn't. Even so, I'm currently rocking a +39% gold bonus with my team due to various equipment unlocks. Ka-ching! 💰

5 hours ago, darksnowman said:

The coliseum looks like it'll yield some good equipment too once it opens next month.

It does indeed. But I get the feeling it's going to be difficult to get hold of, although perhaps not as much as the stuff in the casino.

[darksnowman]

On 8/4/2024 at 7:00 PM, RedShell said:

Yeah, I finished it pretty quickly because I've also done a lot of fishing while playing this (at Lv.60 ) and having a higher fishing level makes catching easier/quicker. Regarding bait, I haven't actually found a use for any of the different types at all! So just ended up sticking with normal type the entire time. Anyway, it's definitely possible to complete the event by only using normal bait.

BTW, if you're ever struggling with any of the enemy voucher drops let me know and I might be able to send some your way, I have quite a few duplicates by now, especially from the early levels.
Bronze vouchers only though, as unfortunately it costs jewels to send silver and gold ones.

I highly recommend using 3J to get yourself a golden Denpa as soon as possible though for its +10% gold bonus skill. 

I'll highlight the white text if* I'm unable to puzzle it out. 👍Reckon at least one of them is about beating it within three turns, and the first one said something about breakings its shield. Maybe with a higher level team the trials can be steamrolled.

You've definitely done a lot of fishing. Think I'm around lvl 10.  I used albino bait on a white fish shadow then out of curiosity, normal bait on another, and caught the fish in both instances. Maybe it took longer to reel in with normal bait? Not really sure. Unless the type of bait has some bearing on what the shadow might be, you are probably right enough about sticking with normal.

I've only got about two vouchers per area so far, but I haven't replayed any (except the first one now). I'll let you know if the drops don't happen, thanks!

I went back to the first cave to see what else is up for grabs. Had to do it twice because I forgot opening the blue chest after the boss boots you back to your island. My lvl 40 party had no bother going beyond the lvl 21 door. I actually got 2J in there, so when I get another I'll spend it on one of the catch events to see if I can get a goldie as you recommend. 

Have you tried the August ghost area? I might do runs down it and leave the story parked for now to see if I can get all the ghost equipment down there. Needing to top-up your oil kind of puts a different spin on it—even if it was extremely lenient on my first exploration. I wasn't much the wiser after listening to all the old mans long stories  but it appears it boils down to running it for drops.

*when I'm inevitably unable to puzzle it out, more like.