I have a glaring weakness for anime card games, which has been delightfully exploited by Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle over the last little while. The upcoming card battler from XSeed and Marvelous has a lot going for it, from social links to collectable decks, all wrapped up in a pleasant narrative. I’ve only played the first few chapters, but I’m really digging Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle.
You play as your own avatar in Champion’s Battle. You’re a new student at Tensei Academy who has befriended a group of students who love the Shadowverse card game. After learning how to play it, you learn that the school’s Shadowverse club is in danger of being disbanded due to a lack of members. It’s up to you to recruit new members and win the national Shadowverse championship to prove the club’s worth to the student body president, so that the club can stay open. It’s the kind of story that you’d be used to seeing in anime like this, but it works quite well in Champion’s Battle. The characters are tropey but likeable and the conflict is properly scaled for a card game. This could change later in the game, but for now, it’s perfectly contained.
“In the first few chapters alone, I had no shortage of people to duel, which let me try out different decks and obtain all sorts of cards.“
I hadn’t heard of the Shadowverse card game before playing Champion’s Battle, but apparently it’s quite popular. I can see why, as it’s easy to learn but deep enough to keep you coming back to it. It’s similar to Hearthstone, in that you play characters who have an attack stat and a health stat, with the goal of reducing your opponent’s defense points to zero. The big difference comes from the clever evolution mechanic. Each card can evolve into a stronger form of itself, but you can only evolve after a set period of time, and you can only evolve a set number of times in each match. This makes every evolution a matter of strategy, which makes matches a lot more interesting.
There are a number of deck archetypes that you can use, each with their own playstyle that differ wildly from one another. You can level up each archetype and get rewards for doing so, which further incentivizes you to try out new decks as you pull new cards from packs. I’m quite impressed with how different each deck is, as each has entirely different focuses that obtain victory in their own ways. The art for the various cards is excellent too, which makes it more exciting to get new cards that you take a shine to visually.
There are tons, and I mean tons, of people to challenge. Winning nets you cards, money, and deck recipes, which is a great way to get new decks to experiment with. In the first few chapters alone, I had no shortage of people to duel, which let me try out different decks and obtain all sorts of cards. Outside of the card game, there’s a lot to do so far. There’s a social link system that has you grow closer to the various characters you meet, as well as side-quests that range from quizzes to card battles. Plus, buying and opening packs is always thrilling, as it should be.
I did run into some small performance issues between matches when running around the school, which is strange since the visuals don’t look as though they’d be especially intensive. The card battles themselves have no issues though, it’s only when you’re running around outside of battle.
I can’t wait to play more of Shadowverse, as it’s gotten me interested in a card game that I’ve never played before. The plethora of fun mechanics both within and outside of the card game itself have me ready to dive-in, and if you’re looking for a new card game that’s easy to pick up, you should consider diving in too when Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle releases on August 10th.
