Japanese arcade card games - How do they work?

Lord Jezo

While in Tokyo these past two weeks I visited many Japanese arcades. Along with being simply amazing and full of life (sadly not seen in Ameircan arcades for over a decade) each one has a floor devoted to these card game things that I had never seen before and could not quite figure out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYCzBhAdzdU

and this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn2502GwT_o&feature=related

I couldn't stop watching, I had no idea what they were doing or how it worked but I had never seen anything like it. Along with the RPG style games they had soccer ones and baseball ones set up in huge areas for what I suppose is massive team play.

How do these things work? Do you buy random cards like Magic and use them or people buy just what they want? Do your guys level up and are the stats persistent or is each game a new one?

I wish something like this existed here, but I suppose if it did it would be vandalized instantly and destroyed. There is The Eye of Judgment for PS3 but compared to the intensity of what was going on in the arcades in Tokyo, it's pretty

Viscountalpha

Not going to happen. No one in the USA cares about arcades anymore besides the rare few people who run places like Ground kontrol ( http://www.groundkontrol.com/ ) and Las vegas pinball hall of fame. ( http://www.pinballmuseum.org/ )

At some point, they may return but the way people beat on the machines in the states? I doubt it.

Last time I was at gameworks, I was horribly disappointed. The talk on the internet is that the managers have let them rot for the most part.

metal_spider

Lord Jezo wrote: »

How do these things work? Do you buy random cards like Magic and use them or people buy just what they want? Do your guys level up and are the stats persistent or is each game a new one?

I'm speaking only based on my experience with the WCCF series (Football/Soccer games) and the Sangokushi Taisen series(Romance of the 3 Kingdoms RTS-like).

You normally buy a starter deck over the token exchange/information desk/customer service counter.

Each starter deck will usually contain the bare minimum of common magnetic cards needed to play, together with a separate user profile storage card which is thicker than the standard playing cards. Profile cards are inserted into a designated slot at the machine and keep all your player data like wins/losses, battle rank and individual unit experience levels (if applicable). The normal playing cards can be sold and traded just like one does with actual cardboard ones in Magic: The Gathering; they are not tied to specific players.

"Well, okay. How do I get more cards to expand my playing experience then?" you ask. At the end of each game (regardless of victory or defeat), a random card will be ejected from the machine itself just before the Continue screen comes on to prompt the player to insert more coins for the next game. Also, buying/selling/trading with other players.

The tabletop arcade games are able to read any of the cards being placed on the playing area and can detect realtime movement, consequently reflecting the change in card positions through onscreen troop movements or switching up formations in a sports title. Most games have a Rating Maximum which limits one to how many powerful/rare cards he may put into play. Example: Your army is only allowed a maximum rating of 8, you can either place 8 lousy 1-point units, 2 rare 4-point uber-units or any other combination in between; game doesn't allow you to start until the cards in play fall within the rating cap.

These games have a pretty decent-sized following over here in Singapore, but I don't think I've ever seen that Lord of Vermillion one around.

a Ferret

Fascinating. I'm definitely going to be looking for these when I goto Japan.

darkmayo

These are awesome machines, ran across both Lords of Vermillion and Sangokushi Taisen when I was in various arcades in Tokyo (Taito Game Center in Akibahara had both if I recall) my friend ended up finding out there was two DS game on the Sangokushi Taisen. We ended up finding them both for sale at the Mandarake in Akibahara. He loves the shit out of them. Speaking of which if you are a gamer and are going to Japan go to a Mandarake location, you will Jizz.