Howdy, TCG fans. For those that remember, Gate Ruler was a pretty neat game that was totally not Buddyfight. I tended to enjoy the aesthetics and theming a little bit more than the game that directly "inspired" it, and recently a friend of mine and I have gotten around to playing with my leftover bulk.
Gameplay: The local scene died for me a little before set 3 released, so I've been working with mostly set 1 and a little set 2. I never got to compete much in the competitive scene, but I think this game is really well-suited for kitchen table play, once you get past deck building. I loved that there were so many different ways to approach the game. The notion that some players would use a resource system, while others wouldn't was absolutely novel to me on release, and I loved that (while not necessarily competitive) one player could be essentially playing an entirely different format with another and still keep a game going.
Deck Building: The deck building itself may as well be a game on its own; only having access to the early rulers meant I would be constantly counting deck cost, trying to navigate around the 16 counter requirement, while still maintaining a cohesive strategy. Personally, I love it.
Theming: Being a multiverse-driven game, I love that (at least from what I could tell, early on) Lovecraftian entities were the major enemy. On top of that though, I got to play around with themes that work from a narrative perspective, but that I hadn't really seen in other game: Corporate suits working alongside evil wizards and dragons. Militarized yokai, the Susanowo from Naruto operating like an Evangelion unit. The Grand Cenobite from Hellraiser working under a giant space demon robot. Sure, why not? Yeah, there were lots of anime girls too, but the art was incredible.
Art: Almost all the art in this game is breathtaking. Even the stupid designs. I know there was some art borrowed from Force of Will (a game I never got into, but always admired the art of), but outside of those Space Tourist characters, the designs always managed to wow me. This game probably has the best dragon art I've seen in any TCG aside from maybe MtG.
...That said, the game is completely and utterly dead. Not a surprise, given the saturation that the card game market has nowadays and how complex it is to introduce to a new player. On top of that, it's a completely new, independent IP. It was always going to be an uphill battle. I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this game: What did you enjoy? What did you feel was a failure? Did you have a favorite deck or character?
Aaaand finally, if anybody is looking to offload some of their Gate Ruler stuff, I'm interested in trying to build up a few different decks so my friend and I have more variety. I've been having a lot of fun trying out Genesis Summoning and Abyssal Concerto, but I'm a sucker for Superheroes, and I see that was a deck I completely missed out on. The usual storefronts have some stuff, but for some of the more widely played decks, the staple cards are just completely unavailable.