Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle

Genre: Collectable Card Game

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Wireless), 2-10 Competitive Tournament (Online)

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Review:

Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle, released on Nintendo Switch in 2021, is a family-friendly game that takes the Shadowverse Collectable Card Game, released on PC and Mobile Devices in 2016, and reimagines it in the trappings of an anime-style JRPG. By outward appearances, this game has the look, sound, and feel of a modern JRPG, and even has a quaint school-focused story, but the gameplay here is still 100% focused on the core card-based gameplay.

Since one of the major changes to this version of Shadowverse is the presentation, it shouldn’t come as a great surprise how good this game looks, yet it still manages to be quite a surprise nonetheless – characters are depicted with cel-shaded 3D and have some really nice character models with great animations to them, the school you’ll be exploring seems straight out of an anime, card attacks and effects often have 3D visualizations, and “hero” cards will often play a cool 3D intro to really sell this particular card as something really special. What’s more, the game includes occasional anime-style cutscenes that are really well-done. This is all backed by a decent (but not especially memorable) JRPG-style soundtrack, with solid, full voice work for character conversations in the main campaign (though not for lesser NPCs). Everything even down to the menus looks extremely polished. This is without a doubt one of the best-presented card games I’ve ever played.

The game allows players to freely explore school grounds and its surrounding town, and has a story to progress, but it’s a fairly typical anime-esque plot that isn’t going to drive your interest very much. Rather, the exploration gives players an opportunity to scout hidden nooks for cards and currency (which can be used to buy randomized card packs), as well as for new opponents to play against so you can score new cards as well. Vendors not only sell card packs, but also individual cards and card sleeves that change the appearance your deck’s card backs.

For the deck building, players are given a wealth of options allowing them to either hunt down cards based on pre-built decks you can collect recipes for, or build your own deck from scratch. There are over 600 cards spread across seven different deck types, so you have a lot of variety to choose from. However, your customization options don’t end there, as you can give each deck its own unique header image based on one of the cards in your collection, and assign it its own sleeve.

The gameplay itself is fairly user-friendly, and those who are new to Collectable Card games should find it to be pretty easy to pick up, and the game’s campaign does a good job of explaining its mechanics. However, that’s not to say that there’s no complexity to be found here – not only does the game feature seven different classes of cards to make for different types of decks, but Shadowverse has a mechanic that lets you “evolve” a creature a select few times during a match, meaning that the strategy here isn’t just knowing how to build a killer deck and knowing which cards to play and when, it’s also being smart about your use of this limited evolution ability.

However, having said that, this game’s mechanics aren’t anywhere near as nuanced as something like Magic: The Gathering or Hearthstone, for better or worse. On the one hand, it’s nice to not have to content with Magic: The Gathering’s absurdly complex rules and Hearthstone’s aggressive microtransaction-pushing meta, but it would have been nice to feel more like I was finding clever combinations of cards rather than simply choosing one of a limited number of deck concepts and throwing cards into a deck that best fit that concept. However, if you’re new to Collectable Card Games, the relative simplicity of this game will make it much more approachable than most games in the genre.

Also, while this game was created specifically for the Nintendo Switch, it still bears some marks of a game that was originally intended for PC and mobile devices. First, while the gamepad controls here are decent, this is clearly a game that is much better-played with touchscreen controls, and those who play the game in portable mode will want to make good use of this feature… though unfortunately, you won’t have the option to use this feature exclusively, as the touchscreen isn’t used outside of card battles.

Also, there is one other issue pertaining to the display of information. Players will need to tap a button to look at the details of what a card does, and this can get very tiring as things go on. There’s no way to set the game to show this information by default, and while those using the touchscreen can simply tap any card to get more details, this process is more tedious when moving a cursor using a gamepad.

Finally, there’s the issue of price, and I keep going back and forth on this one. At $50, this seems a bit pricey for a Card Game, but since this game has everything players need, and has zero microtransactions, there’s an argument to be made that in the end, players will save money by not having to buy pricey card packs, and the level of polish on display here is on-par with a full-priced JRPG. However, the other other side of this is that $50 buy-in makes for a barrier of entry that will make for fewer players to challenge online. In the end, I can’t say whether or not I feel $50 is a good price for this game, but I certainly don’t feel it’s an unquestionably great price.

However, while I have my fair share of complaints and criticisms of Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle, I still have to conclude that this is an excellent version of a solid Collectable Card Game, with a surprisingly excellent presentation. There are areas where Shadowverse could do with a bit of improvement, and some players may balk at the game’s price, but overall, if you’re a fan of the genre, this is a game well worth checking out.

tl;dr – Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle is a family-friendly Collectable Card Game presented in a way comparable to a JRPG, complete with anime-style characters and story exclusive to this version of the game. There are some issues with various elements in the game, but overall this is a solid entry in the genre with a surprisingly fantastic presentation. If you’re a fan of Collectable Card Games, you should definitely give this game a look.

Grade: B

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2021 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Card Game

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