CALENDAR Upcoming Korean Dramas: Brace

By CHRISTY QIU

Staff Writer

Korean dramas, or K-dramas, have experienced a surge of popularity in the past few years. With attractive actors, a wide variety of genres, exciting and fresh plots, and wonderfully selected soundtracks, what’s not to like about K-dramas? K-drama fanatics can satiate their craving for new K-dramas with the new ones that air towards the end of 2016 and early 2017. And for those who have never watched a K-drama I welcome you to a world of light-hearted comedies, pure romances, and action-packed thrillers. However, beware of the consequences: obsessions, celebrity crushes, and insomnia due to binge-watching marathons.

NOVEMBER 2016 DECEMBER 2016 EARLY 2017

Release date: Nov. 4, 2016 Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Ju

This drama unites YG entertainment company, labelmates, and co-stars of Cheese in the Trap, Lee Sung Kyung and Nam Joo Hyuk. Based on the true story of a Korean weightlifter, Lee Sung Kyung portrays a female weightlifter who falls in love for the first time.

Entourage

A very anticipated K-drama, Entourage is packed with a star-studded cast. It stars Cheese in the Trap’s Seo Kang Joon; Running Man’s Lee Kwang Soo; Kim So Hee, former Wonder Girls member; Amber from the girl group, f(x). Entourage is a black comedy that reveals the truth behind stars and the entertainment world. Release date: Nov. 16, 2016 Release date: Nov. 21, 2016 Night Light

Starring Jin Goo, a great actor who established himself in Descendants of the Sun, and UEE from the girl group, After School. This drama, a story of avarice, is bound for great ratings. Release date: Dec. 2, 2016 Goblin

In the fantasy genre, Goblin tells the tale of a goblin and a grim reaper seeing the dead off into the afterlife. Goblin stars Train to Busan’s Gong Yoo, Hotel King’s Lee Dong Wook, My Love from the Star’s Yoo In Na, and BtoB’s Yook Sung Jae. Release date: Early 2017 Man to Man

Produced by the same writer from Descendants from the Sun, Man to Man gives the audience a glance into the lives of a popular actress and her bodyguard. Starring Cheese in The Trap’s Park Hae Jin, Man to Man also features a cameo from Descendants from the Sun’s Song Joong Ki.

Legend of the Blue Sea

One of the most anticipated K-dramas, The Legend of the Blue Sea, stars Lee Min Ho. He achieved the title as the best K-drama actor. In addition, it starts Jun Ji Hyun, who is an acclaimed actress. This drama entices the audience with the love story between a mermaid and a nobleman. With the hottest and skillful actors and actresses and wonderful storylines, these K-dramas are destined to do well to capture the hearts of viewers. Korean dramas offer beautiful, heartfelt moments as well as outrageous over-the-top absurdity. Which one will you watch? Which one attracts your attention the most?

cqiu@apachepowwow.com

By JUSTIN CHEN

Staff Writer

Clash Royale has become one of the most popular games on the app store. Produced by Supercell and released on Mar. 2, the mobile game is a mixture between an online battle arena and a collectible card game.

The objective of the game is to win more crowns than your opponent, which can be achieved in many ways. Each player has two arena towers which guard the crown tower. Destroying an arena tower grants you a crown, while destroying the crown tower grants you three crowns and the win. There are two lanes in the battlefield, and you must destroy one arena tower before attacking the crown tower. At the start of the battle, you are given four cards and five elixirs. An elixir is used every time you place a card, and you replenish one elixir every second, but you can have a maximum amount of ten elixirs at a time. Cards are used to destroy the enemy’s towers, and each one has different abilities and cost different amounts of elixir. Cards range from tanks, which can soak up a lot of damage, to attackers, who can deal tons of damage if not dealt with swiftly. They also have levels that represent their strength, and have different rarity types. If you win a battle, you are granted a chest, gold, and trophies. Chests give you cards and takes a certain amount of time to open, and your amount of trophies determines your skill level. There are two types of currency in the game: gold and gems. Gems can be bought with real money, and are more rare than gold. Gold can be used to upgrade and buy cards. Clans are groups of players that band together in order to donate cards and battle each other. You receive experience for donating cards, opening chests, etc, which helps you level up. Your king’s level determines the strength of the arena and crown towers. Finally, there are nine arenas that you can be in, depending on your amount of trophies. I believe that Clash Royale is engaging and fun, however it feels too much like a pay-to-win game because players who have large amounts of money spend it all on gold and gems. In turn, they are able to get extremely high level cards that can just wreak havoc on average level cards. Many players, including me, find it unfair to have to fight against such strong opponents that are guaranteed to win against your team. Furthermore, there are cards in the game that are just way too overpowering and need to be made weaker. For example, the princess is a legendary card that is amongst the hardest cards to obtain in the game. Its attack range is incredibly long, and can even shoot the enemy’s towers from your side of the field. If played correctly, this one card can abso-

lutely demolish your team. Its only weakness is its hit points, but that is easily compensated for it only costs three elixir. Finally, my last concern about Clash Royale is its repetitiveness. I believe that the game is slowly withering down to a bore, and that soon enough everyone will quit playing the game. I think creating new game modes will help put an end to boredom. For example, what if you could play cards with unlimited elixir, but only have five cards at once? That would be an interesting twist to the game, wouldn’t it? Overall, Clash Royale is surely one of my favorite games, however it could use some improvements to make it an even better, more enjoyable game.

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CAMPUS FOCUS cf.powwow@gmail.com October 2016

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR HALLOWEEN TRADITIONS?

By WILLIAM WANG

Staff Writer

Halloween at its core serves to protect us, just as it once did as the tradition of the ancient Celtics. As an outlet for insanity, Halloween allows us to go crazy for one day out of the year so that we can stay sane for the other 364 days. “I usually dress up with my friends and get together to eat pizza and party at someone’s house. After, we go to Monrovia to go trick-or-treat” — Amanda Ung, 10

“I like to dress up in outrageous costumes and go trick-or-treating with family and friends. I especially like my Stay Puft Marshmallow costume.” — Douglas Nguyen, 12

“I’m usually stuck trick-ortreating with my younger brothers as we trick-or-treat around various places in Arcadia, but otherwise it’s sort of fun.” — Vanadium Wang, 11

“I like running around the neighborhood with my friends in matching costumes like psychos while trick-or-treating. Afterwards, we give the candies we don’t like to other trick-or-treaters” — Elisha Wang, 9