Usually when I get a game, I try to put out impressions pretty quickly, just because hell, I tend to get games early and I like giving you guys the dig on new stuff from Japan asap. I got High Speed Battle: Card Hero last week and I was going to post impressions, but I realized I had no idea what I would talk about.
To be honest, I'm still scratching the surface here.
The game -- to me anyway -- is a lot like Virtua Fighter. The game has a plethora of cards with mildly different "rules" attached to each one, each card is useful in a variety of situations and the strategies seem almost infinite, even in the super simple Spd rule set (I'll get to this rule set business in a bit)
So, back to the reason I didn't post impressions: the beginning of the game kinda lies to you. Well, actually, it doesn't lie so much as it doesn't tell you that what you're playing is the equivalent of some kids finding some cards and making up their own rules that vaguely resemble the actual game. They do this to ease you in to the game, but it took a while to get to the point where I was playing the game the right way. Even knowing the right way, however, I still couldn't grasp the sheer amount of depth involved with the game.
The game has 4 different rule sets from what I've found on the net, and while I've only actually played the Spd rule set, I've seen video of the Jr Sr and Pro rule sets and they seem to be completely different with Pro matches lasting up to 20 minutes.
Spd rules are fairly simple. You create a deck of 10 monster cards and 4 magic+super cards for a total of 14 cards. When the match begins, the game randomly shuffles your monster cards and you put 2 of 3 drawn cards face down into play. The computer player does the same thing and the match begins. Cards turn over and the winner of a pre-game coin toss starts playing his cards. Here comes some boring explanation (well, more boring, sorry, I'm not a very entertaining writer).
There are 2 main types of monsters, ones that attack at close range, and ones that attack from far away. "That's it? Why are there so many cards then, sp0rsk?" Because this game is all about this whole "freedom within a set of rules" thing all good games have. There are Close up monsters with far away special moves, far away monsters that attack SUPER far away, there are monsters that can attack more than once, there are monsters that can attack 2 people at once, all of which while being balanced to perfection.
Actually, let's back up a bit. Let me explain monsters.
Monsters have a few different variables. Attack distance, Leveling, HP, Attack Power, Special moves and "Wild Card" properties. Every monster is made up of a different combination of these things so let's take a quick look at a couple of cards.
You can see that Spartas is a bit weaker than Heatron, but that's because Spartas is the shit card you start with and not a card you actually play with, but I put it in here for comparisons sake. Heatron is a pretty straight forward card but it has one little wild card that increases his attack power one round when he is healed. The thing about this is that you have to use a special card to heal. A card that costs 3 "stones" to use. So from a strategy perspective, Heatron isn't a card you would want to start a game using, even though he's good damage sponge.
There are tons of cards with tons of combinations and building your deck is no easy task. It's almost like trying to make your own batting line-up in baseball except you can't decide the order.
Earlier I mentioned stones, you start every game with 1 stone, and you get more stones when you get killed IN SPD RULES. There are other ways to get stones in Jr - Pro rules. Stones are used in special attacks, special cards and leveling up.
Gah, as you can see by the length of these impressions the game is just a deep dark hole with seemingly no bottom. I'd explain more, but your's and my brain might just explode.
TL
R folks: The game is fucking awesome. It's the Virtua Fighter of card games. Hope and pray every night Nintendo translates this. I can't give you online impressions cause the game won't even let me online yet. I don't have the necessary training . If you want me to keep going just say so.
P.S. Excuse typos and shit, I've been playing tour guide for my family all around Japan the past few days and I'm using my last bit of waking energy to tell you guys this game rocks.
To be honest, I'm still scratching the surface here.
The game -- to me anyway -- is a lot like Virtua Fighter. The game has a plethora of cards with mildly different "rules" attached to each one, each card is useful in a variety of situations and the strategies seem almost infinite, even in the super simple Spd rule set (I'll get to this rule set business in a bit)
So, back to the reason I didn't post impressions: the beginning of the game kinda lies to you. Well, actually, it doesn't lie so much as it doesn't tell you that what you're playing is the equivalent of some kids finding some cards and making up their own rules that vaguely resemble the actual game. They do this to ease you in to the game, but it took a while to get to the point where I was playing the game the right way. Even knowing the right way, however, I still couldn't grasp the sheer amount of depth involved with the game.
The game has 4 different rule sets from what I've found on the net, and while I've only actually played the Spd rule set, I've seen video of the Jr Sr and Pro rule sets and they seem to be completely different with Pro matches lasting up to 20 minutes.
Spd rules are fairly simple. You create a deck of 10 monster cards and 4 magic+super cards for a total of 14 cards. When the match begins, the game randomly shuffles your monster cards and you put 2 of 3 drawn cards face down into play. The computer player does the same thing and the match begins. Cards turn over and the winner of a pre-game coin toss starts playing his cards. Here comes some boring explanation (well, more boring, sorry, I'm not a very entertaining writer).
There are 2 main types of monsters, ones that attack at close range, and ones that attack from far away. "That's it? Why are there so many cards then, sp0rsk?" Because this game is all about this whole "freedom within a set of rules" thing all good games have. There are Close up monsters with far away special moves, far away monsters that attack SUPER far away, there are monsters that can attack more than once, there are monsters that can attack 2 people at once, all of which while being balanced to perfection.
Actually, let's back up a bit. Let me explain monsters.
Monsters have a few different variables. Attack distance, Leveling, HP, Attack Power, Special moves and "Wild Card" properties. Every monster is made up of a different combination of these things so let's take a quick look at a couple of cards.
Code:
SPARTAS Heatron
Close up Attack Close up attack
Lv 1: HP 3 Attack P2 Lv 1: HP 5 P2
Lv 2: HP 4 Attack P3 Lv 2: Hp 5 P3
Wild Card: P+1 when healedYou can see that Spartas is a bit weaker than Heatron, but that's because Spartas is the shit card you start with and not a card you actually play with, but I put it in here for comparisons sake. Heatron is a pretty straight forward card but it has one little wild card that increases his attack power one round when he is healed. The thing about this is that you have to use a special card to heal. A card that costs 3 "stones" to use. So from a strategy perspective, Heatron isn't a card you would want to start a game using, even though he's good damage sponge.
There are tons of cards with tons of combinations and building your deck is no easy task. It's almost like trying to make your own batting line-up in baseball except you can't decide the order.
Earlier I mentioned stones, you start every game with 1 stone, and you get more stones when you get killed IN SPD RULES. There are other ways to get stones in Jr - Pro rules. Stones are used in special attacks, special cards and leveling up.
Gah, as you can see by the length of these impressions the game is just a deep dark hole with seemingly no bottom. I'd explain more, but your's and my brain might just explode.
TL
R folks: The game is fucking awesome. It's the Virtua Fighter of card games. Hope and pray every night Nintendo translates this. I can't give you online impressions cause the game won't even let me online yet. I don't have the necessary training . If you want me to keep going just say so.P.S. Excuse typos and shit, I've been playing tour guide for my family all around Japan the past few days and I'm using my last bit of waking energy to tell you guys this game rocks.
