Ahoy there! Do you love card games? Not the usual ones like Old Maid or Poker. I mean trading card games with fantasy elements, like elves and fairies. With Knights, dragons and scary monsters. It even has some pirates, like me. Well me lads, if you do, I got a card game that you’ll surely like. Tis’ called Shadowverse. And don’t be underestimatin’ this game: it’s very hard at the beginning, but once you master the game you’ll surely to have fun.
The Gameplay
The gameplay is easy enough to understand: each player has 40 cards in his or her deck. There are three kinds of cards: Followers, Spells and Amulets. Followers are creatures that you’ll use to attack your opponent or your opponent’s followers. They got three numbers on them: the green circle represent the cost of play points you’ll need to pay to use them, the blue sword represents the attack power of the follower, and the red shield is the follower’s life. For each player, you can only have five followers in any given time during a match. Once you have five you cannot use play points to play a follower, but if for some reason that a follower is summoned to you while you have five followers already, that new one will be Banished instead.
Unlike Followers, Spells and Amulets only has a green circle on them representing the play points needed to use them. Spells are powerful magics that affects other cards or the players. Amulets are basically the same but may stay in the game for a certain period of time. Also amulets take up space where followers ought to be, so having four followers and one amulet, for example, will stop you from playing more followers or amulets until one of your followers are killed or your amulet disappears. And just like followers, should an amulet be summoned to you while you already have five amulets, or followers, or any number of combination of the two, the new amulet will be Banished.
During a match, you get one play point orb representing the available play points you have for that turn. As long as you have play points, you can use any number of cards. Both you and your opponent starts of with one play point orb and you get one more at the start of your next turn. As the match goes on, your play point orb and the number of play points you can use increases.
Each player has twenty lives and the objective is for a player to reduce the opponent’s life to zero using his cards. At the beginning of each match you’ll be presented with three cards from your deck, and you can pick as much as all three to replace only once. Once the match begins the first player draws one card, while the second player draws two on their first turns. From their second turn onwards they can only draw one card from the beginning of each turn and the game will go on until one of the players surrenders or have their lives reduced to zero.
The Graphics
The graphics and artwork used in the game is quite pretty and very detailed, drawn in a mix of the familiar anime style and some western style art. Ordinary cards only displays the usual artwork but some special versions of the cards have animated or special artwork.
The Learning Curve
Now comes the important part: the learning curve. Basically, this game is hard and you’ll definitely struggle with learning to play the game at the beginning. The good news is that the game has a solo player mode with a nice story mode and practice mode where players can practice playing the game. The game is also generous with giving away free bonuses at the beginning. Sometimes it can be frustrating and there’s nothing you can do if the match turned for the worst, but you can get better with practice and finishing the story mode has some bonuses. The game also gives away free cards and in-game credits that can be used to purchase or unlock more cards, though what cards you’ll get is based on how lucky you can get. New players must concentrate playing solo mode before considering trying out the arena or multiplayer mode, where older players with more advance cards and decks can beat you fairly often if you’re not re
The Pros
A nice trading card game with beautiful art and addictive gameplay.
The Cons
Luck plays a major role in both acquiring new cards and during matches. While forming a deck and deciding what game mechanics you’ll use as the core theme of your deck requires a lot of thinking, there’s no helping when the world goes against you and puts a vital card at the very bottom of the deck during a match. You’ll lose a lot, I can guarantee it, before you find the right formula.
The Verdict
Shadowverse might be a little too hard for some people, but practice makes perfect and this game isn’t an exception. So if you’re willing to put up with the hard difficulty or if you like challenges, this game is a great pick.
