Heart Mates

Edit 27/01/2012: I just realised, after one whole year, that it should be Heart Mate, not Heart Partner orz.

Edit 2/10/2012: As GungHo forbids the use of images taken from the official website, the images posted here have been removed =w=. Time to look for new ones...

The Heart Mates are perhaps GungHo's way of addressing the burning need to bring Emil and his friends home and snug the player's desired NPC(s) into his/her bed, hohoho. Essentially the aforementioned gang made available as pets, they come in alternate appearances, dressed in the costumes that come with the lottery they appear in (kinda like cosplay if you ask me =3). According to the official descriptions, they are the power of their characters' heart/soul materialised.

Like the Guardian Spirits, they come one character per month, though in alternate lotteries (if the GS comes out in the first half of the month, the Heart Mate will appear in the second half. So it's GS -> HP -> GS -> HP...).

FYI, just as the lotteries with the GS also come with the Nekomata alternate costumes, those with the Heart Mates usually come with a pet as well, except for those carrying Tita and LILI (they have AS houses instead). In addition, from Tita, Belial, R'lyeh, LUX and LILI's HPs, their lottery page also provides a brief introduction of the respective characters.

With the introduction out of the way, let's take a look at these Heart Mates =3.

Guardian Spirits - The moe personifications of 2011

Edit 23/07/2011: Made a mistake with the Guardian Spirits' quest. You don't need to have any of the GS with you at all for them.

Edit 2/10/2012: As GungHo forbids the use of images taken from the official website, most of the images here have been removed. Time to look for new ones~

Following the Nekomata family, 2011 sees the introduction of a new series of familiar pets, the Guardian Spirits (Japanese: 守護魔 Shugoma). Released once per month through the lotteries, these lovely new additions are named after the traditional names of the months in the Japanese lunar calendar (all notes on their names found in this post are all copy-pastaed from this link and other wikipedia entries).

Like the Nekomata, they have their own quests in the game, but unlike the Nekomata quests from which we get our beloved cat spirits, you are rewarded instead with a item related to the Spirit(s) involved. Another difference from the Nekomata quests is that the GS quests are (in Japan) available for only 1 month each, after which the current one will be taken down and be replaced by the next one. In addition to the quest rewards, depending on which Spirit, with 2~3 EX Tickets (obtained also from the lotteries), the player can exchange for another special item.

Like their feline counterparts, the Spirits have a number of skills up their sleeves to aid their master in battle, though many of the Spirits have skillsets for directly engaging the enemy. Unlike the Nekomata though, they don't provide extra carrying weight and capacity.

Now, without further ado, let's welcome them with a round of applause...

Nekomata (Catty) alternate costumes! \o/

Edit (2 Oct 2012): As GungHo prohibits the use of images from the official site, most of the images here have been taken down. Time to look for new ones~

The Nekomata, or Cattys as they are known in idECO, are sometimes considered to be as much a mascot of ECO as the 6 (now 8) race representatives. In this light it's no wonder that GungHo would continue to go the extra mile and keep them attractive, at least in terms of appearance, to us players. Since late April 2010, ECO has been releasing alternate costumes on a monthly basis for our beloved cat spirits through the lotteries (thus further ensuring their sales and showing the Koreans how to do business without screwing with the game settings.... ehem). This post is dedicated to showing off those costumes (and make fans die of massive loss of nasal blood, fuhuhuhu).

I'll keep this updated whenever a new costume is released =3. The images thus are arranged in the order that they are released.