A Shadowverse Review From A TCG Player
After listening to my besties recommendation of this game i finally decided to give it a go. For context I first started my tcg journey with magic the gathering (primarily the commander format and the standard format on arena), then later on got into pokemon pocket on another friend's recommendation and then i decided to learn yugioh with master duel. If anyone knows how yugioh is like, especially master duel, you know how cutthroat it can get. As a beginner I had to suffer slowly grinding and developing a trauma against ranked play due to facing meta decks off the bat despite only being on 3 precons stapled together. I persevered and eventually got myself more meta decks. Recently however with both a new season of ranked and a format largely dominated by a toxic deck (kewl tune, it has hand knowledge, turn 0 plays, topdeck manipulation, and extra deck ripping), I've gotten tired. Listening to my besties compliments to this game on comparison, I decided to finally give it a shot.
- Back and forth gameplay
By far the most appealing part of this game to me is the proper back and forth gameplay. If you build your deck right you always have a chance to wipe your opponents board and threaten some damage and they can do the same to you. This constant board wiping and proper resource grind is genuinely so fun and makes games actually interactive in that sense.
- Turn order is generally well balanced
Coming from yugioh and pokemon pocket where turn order itself can actively effect who wins before the game even starts, both sides generally having the same capability to win is so refreshing and I like how the bonus point helps catching up to the going first player.
- A pleasant onboarding experience
The tutorials are actually pretty decent at teaching you the gameplay and how relevant decks actually work. In addition, newbies get so much free stuff that they actually can make a meta relevant deck pretty quickly. I also like that the matchmaking system is pretty fair all things considered and generally matches players of equal level which is nice.
- The bait isn't that bad
Going in I somewhat expected a good amount of you know what bait but its refreshingly not that bad. only a few characters are overtly designed that way and for the most part they still dress pretty well. I like that theres a good number of female characters not designed that much for fanservive and still seem fashionable its pretty nice. Also compliments for making one of the main leaders who are "bait" male (im bi lol) so that was really nice. I enjoy that the little fanservice there is is on both sides of the gender spectrum.
- Actual incentive to keep playing
I like how much free to play friendly this game is it gives an actual reason to keep logging in. every day you can open 6 packs off the gate so its really nice and the fact each pack puts you closer to a garunteed rare card is such a good incentive.
- The devs are goated
I like how active the devs are in trying to maintain a balanced format. Off the bat in this ranked season bibatii got nerfed and what i like about it is it means the devs are actively working to keep the meta healthy and are not afraid to give quick fixes to do so. Actually using the online format to quickly deliver updates to the meta means you don't really sit in a boringly stagnant meta for too long.
Some gameplay stuff I like:
- The fact that they try to maintain a circular meta where each class can counter each other is super fun and makes gameplay feel a little more fair and not too one sided
- They actually put trackers for stuff in front of you so you know exactly what you get when you play the card is genuinely just solid quality of life stuff
- The timer isn't too stressful and it resetting every turn instead of constantly rushing you is very refreshing coming from master duel.
Overall with solid aesthetic work (love the animations) and an actually engaging gameplay loop I find shadowverse to be a rather pleasant game to play. Its been fun.