Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Sword Girls Open Beta Review

       Sword Girls is a free-to-play online collectible card game in which you choose from four starter decks and you battle through dungeons and other players in order to create the deck that suites your play style the most.



      Its been a long time since I played a card game, let alone a online one. This review is based on a open beta build of the game so some things are not fully integrated yet and some other issues will not factor into the review. This game is not for everyone, especially people who like fast paced action or strategy. This game is a mix of strategy and luck as your turn is based off or a coin toss and everything other then the cards you place is automatic. This for many people is a major turn off as most people will just write off this game as solely luck based, and yes that is part of it a major part but if you understand what you are doing you should be able to win at least 75% of the time if not more. The one complaint I have is a little one but it has to do with which cards your follower cards attack, there had been a numerous amount of times that a strong enemy card was down to one hit point left but my first attacker wouldn't target that one card. I have lost a few matches because of this but it really isn't a big deal since my play count is pretty high. Battling is a major part of this game as it should be but there are also other various things that one can and need to partake in to maximize this games potential. That is a area called the lab, and in the lab you are able to; craft new cards, send character resource gathering, train cards to have better stats, and a few other modes that help to deliver a pretty good "free" package. Now a major part of this game is crafting and yes you must farm dungeons for materials and then farm the vs modes for other essential materials to create the cards. This is all well and good and for the most part its solid but it does feel like it takes a large amount of time to gather resources for some of the better cards which is a good and bad thing. Most free to play games turn into a pay to win scheme but Sword Girls is different because everything that is obtainable in the game can be crafted, paying real world money lets you do these things at a faster pace. Though for people wanting to spend money and get a certain card that is not possible as like most card games your money buys booster packs that come with random cards, but the inclusion of materials in these packs is a nice feature. Honestly this is actually a pretty good game, the only downside is the time that needs to be invested to have a decent deck.
     Now for the main reason why people will play this game, and that is the card art which is surprisingly excellent to say the least. The cards run the gambit of uber cute girls to sexy women and monstrously hot monster girls. There is a card that will satisfy anyone's fancy, and if it doesn't then your fantasies are too f**ked or your just not into cute cartoon girls. The music is all right, you can tell it wasn't the main focus on the game but it does its job fine. Visually this is the best F2P game I've played period, and while the game is not super fast paced and it is a type of game that most people shy away from it still is a nice fun experiance while it lasts.

8/10
+Great Artwork
+Tons of cards and new episodes are on the way
+Big player base
-Long search times for vs matches
-Major time investment

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