When it was first revealed that Disney and Squaresoft (now Square-Enix) were going to make a crossover game, many dedicated fans of both companies were skeptical. However, after 3 games, 4 promises of upcoming games, and tons of fan service in the way of anime, manga, and plain old collectors schwag, Kingdom Hearts has found its own unique place in all of our hearts (horrible pun not intended). Now, the series is evolving again with the introduction of the
Kingdom Hearts Collectible Trading Card Game by Fantasy Flight.
Fantasy Flight has been known for great games with immense cult followings such as Call of Cthulu and A Game of Thrones, but this is the first time they have attempted to tackle something with such a humongous fan base. This has left a lot of Kingdom Hearts purists out there worried that the TCG won't do their favorite series justice, and that it will more so be a victim of “slap a big name on it and sell it” syndrome. I recently got a chance to play the Kingdom Hearts Trading Card Game quite thoroughly and I can say honestly that there is no need to worry. The Kingdom Hearts TCG is enjoyable to both Kingdom Hearts newbies and veterans alike.
The game itself is relatively simple. Players take turns trying to win in one of two ways. They can either reduce the opponents “Heart Points” (aka life) to zero, as is the win condition in many TCGs, or they can increase their own “World Count” to 13. Players increase their world count by playing world cards, special cards that represent the location they are currently dueling in, and mimicking the travels that Sora and the other Kingdom Hearts protagonists took over the course of the Kingdom Hearts videogames and manga. World cards also tend to have special rules printed on them that change the way the game is played. Of course, opponents will try to impede this progress by playing “Dark Cards” which represent villains and the ominous shadows known as the Heartless (and later even stronger creatures called Nobodies). Dark Cards work to hinder world progress by putting a road block on player travels. I'll talk about this more later.
Overall, it mimics the video game perfectly. You win when you either reach you final destination, or when all your opponents are defeated, and the forces of darkness hinder you as you go. Trading cards have always been an important part of Kingdom Hearts canon and considering the borders of the cards, and the stat boxes on the cards are done in the exact same style as the trading cards in the videogame, it feels almost like the game sucks you in to the world of Kingdom Hearts itself. If that's not what a Kingdom Hearts fan wants in their card game I don't know what is.
Even Kingdom Hearts Villians play the Kingdom Hearts Card Game
The Kingdom Hearts TCG, like many other recent TCGs, uses a player card system where you choose a specific card (a player card) to represent your persona during the whole game. This player card will include information such as your base attack, base magic, starting heart points, and level. The higher level your character the more powerful his attack and magic points are, but oddly enough the lower his HP will be which was probably added as a function of game balance. The player with the lowest player card level goes first, and if the levels are tied, the rulebook explicitly states that the youngest player gets to go first. Feel free to completely ignore this rule, however, and simply flip a coin in the case of level ties like any other sane card playing individual.
Players start the game with 6 cards in hand, and throughout most of the game they will keep 6 cards in hand. Unlike most card games, Kingdom Hearts doesn't have a static draw limit like “draw one card per turn”. Instead, during the draw phase which starts every player's turn, players immediately refill their hands up to 6 cards. This makes card acceleration a lot less important in Kingdom Hearts and makes it usually correct to play as many cards as you can. It also gives the game a very aggressive feel, which is good considering the video game itself was an incredibly aggressive button mashing fest of pressing X as fast and as hard as you can to slaughter the minions of darkness that surrounded you.
After the draw phase, players go on to the action phase, which is the generic “place whatever you can on the field” phase that every TCG has. Players can play one world card in this phase. The world card overlaps whatever world card that was previously played. The special rules of the previous world card immediately end and the new rules of the current world card immediately take effect. Players will want to try and play as many world cards as they can, because each time one is successfully played they not only gain 1 heart point, but they also get one step closer to the “World Count >= 13” win condition.
Another thing players can do during their action phase is play dark cards, which have their own peculiar set of rules and are played on the opponents current world card. Players can have no more dark cards in play than the level of the opponent's current world. So if the opponent is currently at a level 1 world you can play 1 dark card, but if he is at a level 3 world you may play 3 and so forth. In addition, you cannot play any dark cards with levels higher than your opponent's current world count. This means that while high level worlds increase your world count and win you the game quicker, they also open themselves up to much larger dark card attacks by the opponent. In addition, this means your opponent can play much more powerful dark cards on you the closer you are to winning the game so a certain amount of planning in world card and dark card play is required. As long as the opponent has any of your dark cards sitting on his world, he cannot play world cards during his turn, and his progress is effectively halted.
To get rid of dark cards, players can take an action (once per turn) called battle. In battle, a player card's attack stat is compared to the power of the dark cards squatting on his or her world. If the player's power surpasses the power of the dark cards, the cards are killed and then they can play world cards that turn as per normal. During battle, players can play attack cards, which are quick effects that generally increase your attack value in some way. Players can also play magic cards, which are also beneficial quick effects, but unlike attack cards Magic cards cannot be played unless your player character, or a character you control on the field has a magic stat equal to or higher than the Magic card's level.
Friend cards, the character cards I spoke of before, can be played during your action phase as well, but you can only play Friend cards that have a level equal to 1+(the highest level friend you currently control) so the power of your friends generally increases in a linear fashion. In addition, you can have your friends participate in battle alongside you, adding their attack stats to your own for the duration of that battle. Whenever a friend is used in battle it is discarded at the end of combat.
The only other option players have to rid themselves of the dark cards squatting on their world card is to escape. If the dark cards are just too powerful and nothing will allow you to defeat them in your current state, you can use the escape action once per turn. When you escape, you discard your top world card (reverting the current effects and rules to the world card underneath) and all the dark cards that were squatting on it. Unfortunately, when you escape you also lose one heart point and lose ALL of your friends on the field, so it isn't recommended you do this very often.
After you are done with everything, you need to do in your action phase, the game steps over to the challenge phase. In the challenge phase, you go into direct combat with your opponent. Challenges are resolved the same way battles were resolved, in that the person with the higher attack wins. The loser (no matter whose turn it is) loses a heart point. Considering you can lose a heart point on your turn, your opponents turn, and by escaping, and that some higher-level cards have HP as low as 4, a couple bad turns can cost you the game.
The final phase in the game is the discard phase, and it is a bit different from other discard phases you might find in other TCGs. In the discard phase, you can discard as many cards as you like from your hand and from play. This allows you to refill your hand as much as you like next turn (up to 6). This is also the phase that “end of turn” effects end and generic cleanup happens but because of the strategic implications of purposefully discarding cards, Kingdom Hearts wins the award for “Most Strategic End Of Turn Step In A TCG Ever”.
The game continues like that until someone reaches 0 life points, or increases their world count to 13. As you can guess, this means that there are two basic deck archetypes, an HP aggro deck and a world rush deck. Fortunately, though there are many ways to build each of these decks. You can build control types that stall your opponent on either worlds or friends while you hack away at their HP or build up your own world totals. You can build a blindingly fast beat down deck that uses powerful dark cards and many attack buffers. You can even focus on combos that keep constant cards flowing your way to make your world production unstoppable. The goals of the game are simple so deck building is also simple, yet incredibly flexible and challenging. Since new deck archetypes are created every day, the metagame in Kingdom Hearts rarely gets old.
I know I have talked about the flavor of this game before but let me really drive it home. This game IS Kingdom Hearts. It is not a card game about Kingdom Hearts. It is not a random product with the Kingdom Hearts logo slapped on it to sell. This game is everything that Kingdom Hearts is. The same Disney artists you know and love drew all the art, the flavor text is true to the game and the whole game just seeps Kingdom Hearts flavor from its pores. You can't get more immersive than this game does. If you are a Kingdom Hearts fan, you don't even have to read this review. Pick up a starter pack and play the game. You'll love it. I don't say that about many card games but this game is an instant success for anyone who has played Kingdom Hearts before and enjoyed it. When it comes to how this game scores with the fans, it's a perfect ten.
However, the world isn't made of only Kingdom Heats fans, and for that I need to pull myself back and look at some of the downfalls of the game. For one, even though the game is genius in its simplicity, some people would say it lacks depth. The whole game really works off of a “get your attack as high as you can” mechanic and that's what is going to be your basic goal for most of the game. That's fine and fun, but some players dislike the fact that there aren't more indirect convoluted ways to win. Maybe that is just a function of only two card sets being out and time will evolve the main game mechanics, but that is yet to be seen. Secondly, if you are not a Kingdom Hearts fan the whole flavor might seem a little childish to you. Disney characters beating each other up isn't exactly something everyone can sink their teeth in to.
Let me tell you though, fan or not the community for this game is amazing. I think it goes with the territory. It's kind of hard to really like a game about Disney characters and be pretentious to the extent of being annoying. You don't have to look too hard to find playgroups, but you do have to work a bit to find new players. People tend to look at Kingdom Hearts with a skeptical eye, and they have many pre-conceived notions that it's going to be crap before they even play it. Fortunately, all it takes is a few games for them to come around.
If you are a Kingdom Hearts fan buy this game. There is really nothing more to it than that. You'll play it, collect more, and become obsessed just like you did with all the other Kingdom Hearts games you played. If you aren't a Kingdom Hearts fan, well I'm not going to say that the game appeals to everyone because it doesn't and going in without a bit of a crash course on the world might alienate you more than welcome you. If you have even casually heard about Kingdom Hearts, try this game. I honestly think you will enjoy it.
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Presentation Rating = 9.0
As I said before this game is Kingdom Hearts through and through. They successfully capture everything that made Kingdom Hearts great and converted it into a card game.
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Gameplay Rating = 8.2
The gameplay is pretty basic but it's fun. You won't find incredible amounts of depth, but you will find many different deck archetypes and several different deck matchups. For a game that only has two ways to win and one important stat there is an incredible amount of variety in deck construction and gameplay.
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Support Rating = 7.8
Fantasy Flight really goes all out for this game with “learn to play” videos and community support over their website with forums and much much more. I just wish that tournaments and set releases were a little more frequent, then I could give them a solid A+, but instead they will have to settle for a B.
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Innovation Rating = 7.0
Every game has a category where it scores a little low in and Kingdom Hearts is no exception. Other than the most strategic discard phase ever, and the interesting take on a draw phase, all the mechanics in Kingdom Hearts have been done before. Luckily though, Kingdom Hearts refines all of its mechanics until they fit the game perfectly so that's nothing to be worried about.
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