Kantai Collection; or, "My Flagship can't be this cute!"

[Code: PIRULUK]

So...... If you've spoken to me on chat recently, or been up-to-date with what's new and happening over in Japan - the land of the crazy - You'll know what I'm talking about. Kantai Collection, commonly shortened to "Kancolle", is a browser game from Japan. This thread, therefore, is but a means for me to spread the love and chat about the game.

Information

The title translates to "Fleet Collection", and is a game about naval warfare. The objective of the game is to build a strong fleet of ships, upgrade them, and finally use them in combat against enemy ships, known as the "Deep Sea Fleet".

Kancolle is a browser game through and through; animation is minimal, there's a heavy focus on resource management and time-based events. That said, the art is gorgeous - but I'll get to that in a minute. What's really intriguing is the level of thought put into the game - The stats and/or equipment of the various ships have a close correlation to actual events during their period of service. For instance, the Light Cruiser Yukikaze has an abnormally high luck stat - a reference to the fact that despite her participation in numerous front-line sorties during WW2, she was never sunk.

As for why this game is popular in Japan, the reason is exceedingly simple. Let's meet the ships:

Shimakaze was a unique Destroyer built for the IJN during WW2. She is famous for being one of the fastest Destroyers in the world, as well as for the distinction of being the sole Japanese Destroyer armed with type-93 Torpedos. This is her in Kancolle.

This is Kongou, a Japanese battleship built in England. The last Japanese capital ship constructed outside of Japan, she was also the first ever battlecruiser of the Kongou-class.

With these two images, it should be abundantly clear why this game has soared to popularity. I could expound on the merits of the game for a long time, but it would be much better to find out yourself by playing the game. There's a reason this game is getting huge, with multiple official mangas, a metric ton of fan-art all over the place, an upcoming Summer 2014 anime and an upcoming PSVita game, Kan Colle Kai. I'll just leave some in-game screenshots here for you to enjoy the art:

The fact that it's a card collection game(a la Legend of the Cryptids) might raise some concerns - can't blame anyone there - but I can assure you, this is rather different from the cash cows which are the mobile-based "Card Battle" games. Did I mention that every ship is voiced? Also, it's not pay2win, which is always a plus in my opinion.

This thread's purpose is just to find others who love this game, and of course to promote it to people who haven't heard about it. If you're interested in playing, I'll drop the link to the English wiki over here:

http://kancolle.wikia.com/wiki/Kancolle_Wiki

Registration guide: http://kancolle.wikia.com/wiki/Tutorial:_How_to_Register

[Tenshine]

It kind of reminds me of Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio, probably 85% because its girls and ships and 15% because one of the characters is also named Kongou/and is Kongou class.

I think I'll check this out.

EDIT: I checked out the wiki, and it seems they are doing a cross over event at the moment.

Edited January 8, 2014 by Tenshine