Shadowverse Review: The Anime Hearthstone

Shadowverse is easy to write off as just another card game, one that uses anime to trap weebs with its art. I’m guilty of judging. But I’m also guilty of biting the lure, and I have no regrets. Shadowverse’s embellished style and little twists make it the Japanese Hearthstone; a comparison that shows up 35 times on the Steam storefront. It’s a sign: Shadowverse is worth installing to find out what the buzz is about.

First on the agenda is the campaign. It’s where you’ll learn the deck archetypes, .e.g. Forestcraft, Bloodcraft, Dragoncraft. There are seven deck types altogether, portrayed by exaggerated characters you get to play as during the campaign.

Surprise, surprise, the story is lackluster. It’s not bad but it’s not great either. What does make the story interesting is all the characters form an intertwined drama: one overarching narrative that made me feel like a detective pinning up images with string on an evidence board—only to put it all away by the endo of the campaign. Thanks cliffhanger.

But this is a card game. The story is there to galvanize a duel, not wow players with literary brilliance. (I always wondered if “I’ll kill you,” is followed by characters whipping out their binders and dueling in the middle of a spooky forest; I like to think so.)

Card battles are deceptively simple: familiar enough to anyone who’s played a card game (*cough* Hearthstone) with enough nuances to not avoid being labeled a clone. Each match starts with players drawing three cards and gaining one orb point per turn; orbs are needed to play cards. You then summon creatures—some more voluptuous than others—and attack your opponent’s health pool to whittle it towards zero.

One of Shadowverse’s central mechanics—and what largely sets it apart—is evolve. After three turns you have the option to spend an evolve and buff the stats of one of your played cards (as well as morph the artwork to make it even more flamboyant), typically increasing its strength and defense by two or three points. Knowing when to trade in and evolve is a hefty tactical decision; knowing when your opponent will evolve requires prudence.

But, if cards only became stronger through evolution the mechanic would be as bland as Shadowverse’s story. Good thing cards aren’t just artwork with attack and defense points.

Many cards have secondary effects, typically tied to the deck they hail from. In my Shadowcraft deck the card Ghost Rider has the special ability Last Words: when he’s killed he’ll bestow Ward on a random ally—turning them into a shield that protects my health pool.

My Ghost Rider’s ability won’t show up in just any deck. Each deck has cards with exclusive abilities, which decide how you want to play. Runecraft decks have some cards which become stronger when you play spells. Whereas Dragoncraft Decks become stronger when players have seven orbs.

To bring it full circle, some spells are activated when you evolve, or carry over when you evolve your card. So evolving becomes a matter of knowing your deck’s specialized playstyle, your cards special abilities, and predicting what cards your opponent will play based on their deck.

Since there are so many competing ways to play, balance is a constant debate. But a specific deck can be rectified with new expansions or fine tuning already existing cards. The true balance issue I see is inherent in one of Shadowverse’s rules.

The player who goes first is given two evolve points, while the player who goes second is given three. I can’t decide if going first is equally advantageous to having three evolve points. In my own experience, I prefer to go second because the extra evolve has saved me countless times. But I am also a scrub, and games that don’t use default decks—and haphazard player-made decks—may circumvent the extra evolve. I’ll learn once I’ve fully explored Shadowverse.

There’s plenty to do: missions, arenas, PvP, deck crafting, card creation, card destruction, opening packs. I can’t say I’m anywhere near a competitive level or able to start posting up deck guides.

If you become trapped in Shadowverse’s snare you end up theorycrafting decks in the MMOs.com Discord, deciding which cards to turn into vials so you can create other cards, and climbing the ladder to prove you’re the best. There’s enough going on to consume your time.

But you can also play casually, start up your tablet while watching HBO or whatever, hop in for a match or two, and then go about shitposting on your favorite site. It’s how I’ve been playing Shadowverse and it's become my go-to game when I need a cathartic moment.

My biggest problem with Shadowverse is its UI. And it’s easy to explain the UI’s issues: Shadowverse is “mobile port” par excellence, meaning little was changed to cater to PC players.

It’s not obvious where missions are, where you go to open card packs, where to find your ID to link your account to both your phone and tablet. When you quit a match you can’t just exit to the main menu. No, no. no. There’s “Missions,” “Battle Again,” “Select stage,” none of which are where I want to go. So I have to load through two screens which seems like a nitpick but it’s a simple oversight.

The game’s UI design kind of makes sense for mobile devices, where your field of view is measure in inches—though I struggled to read the cards on my Nexus. It doesn’t translate well to a 1080 monitor.

I can tolerate the UI but I could see how some players might be driven mad. Here’s a pro tip to ease your existential UI dread. By default the game is set to 30 FPS. Lucky me, I stumbled accidentally on the setting that let me switch it to 60 FPS. I recommend you do the same.

If you can get past the UI, Shadowverse is a card game with elaborate artwork and surprisingly in-depth mechanics. When you lose, you realize you evolved too quickly or not quickly enough, or you should have played this card or that card. Rarely, did I feel cheated. When some player uses an overpowered card—Prince of Darkness—it makes me want to shout “BS,” but I also immediately felt hungry for RNG to let me do the same to another poor noob one day.

So, I’ll keep playing. Because Shadowverse is the refuge for disgruntled Hearthstone players, who also like anime. And while I’ve yet to play Hearthstone, I do like Shadowverse's art.

Final Score: Great / 7.5/10 / B / 80% / 4/5

See our Shadowverse Review Game Page to see user ratings/additional information.