If you’re unfamiliar with Shadowverse, it’s a digital collectable card game that came out in 2016. Its success led to an anime series, which this new game is based on.
You are a new transfer student at a high school, and make a new friend, Hiro the protagonist from the anime, who’s obsessed with tracking down the Shadowverse club. You and your friends set out to join the club which is on the verge of being shut down. You must help save it by recruiting members and winning nationals.
If you think this sounds a lot like the plot to something like Glee, you’re not wrong. Like in the anime, the first story arch is painfully dull and drags on for way too long and this is likely to put a lot of people off. It does get better as things get much weirder and the story leans in more to the Shadowverse universe.
Luckily, while going through the motions in the story, the gameplay mechanics are spot on. Moving around is pain-free thanks to being able to fast travel anywhere, locating people is easy with the excellent map system and the card game itself has already been perfected in the mobile app. Also, there’s an option to fast forward through the dialogue, which is definitely a recommendation early on.
The battle system is fairly typical of CCGs, if you’ve played Magic, Hearthstone, or Runeterra, you’ll know roughly what to expect. Its main standout feature is the ability to evolve anyone in your deck, making them more powerful, getting a free attack, and adding a bit more depth to the strategy. The animations within the card game are well done, it seems like a small feature but it really adds to the card battles and is too often overlooked. Although battles early on won’t give you too much struggle with your starter deck, it gives you a chance to learn the cards in other decks, collect new cards and build your own decks.
The main positive about Shadowverse as an RPG instead of the mobile game is that it gives you a sense of closure and achievement. There’s an end game here, whereas in the mobile version, the endgame is to be the top-ranked player, which for 99.9% of people, just isn’t going to happen. If this is something you value then this is going to be the version for you. If, however, the challenge of playing real players is more your cup of tea, you’d be better off sticking to the mobile version as that’s got a much bigger install base.
Overall, Shadowverse: Champions Battle makes an excellent CCG more accessible but it’s just let down by a dull story early on. Stick with it though and you’re in for a real treat.
Shadowverse: Champions Battle is out now on Nintendo Switch.
