Alteil: Game or Farce?

Ah…Alteil. The game that made me came out of my MMO shell. I have so many mixed emotions about you. At times you’re good to me, and at times you’re horrible. If this game were a person, I would honestly have to classify it as bipolar. I’m in love with your concept, but I detest the way you work. Quite a paradox you are. Anyway, I’ll get to the point before I drive you all insane (if I hadn’t already). As you can probably tell, this is going to be the longest review I’ve done so far. Grab something to eat and drink and come back in a bit. This article ain’t going anywhere.

Alteil is a web based Trading Card Game (though it wrongfully has the “trading” in it, more appropriately “collectable” should be what it falls under) built in Flash. Its story driven, but I can’t be bothered to go into the plot since they can’t be bothered to get the stories from the Japanese version translated soon enough so I can read it (they cards are heavy in flavor text, but you need to be a crazy collector to reveal what plot points there are)…also, I don’t really like going into fluff…unlike how I seem to be padding now. BACK ON TRACK! I’ll start breaking this down.

Gameplay: Unlike other card games, this one doesn’t have a deck per se. you use a File in Alteil terms and one file is made up of 30 cards. 25 are the ones that go in the main file, while the other 5 are your Life Points (which will be known as LP henceforth). The LP value can be no lower than 6 and become no greater than 16. The object is to get your Rival Iczer (the term for opponent in Alteil speak) down to 0 HP first. As you drive down your opponent’s LP downward, you will more than likely trigger Soul Skills (referred henceforth as SS) which vary in effect.

Now since the opponent is trying to get you down to a 0 LP, the first reaction might be to stock your SS lineup with a bunch of 3 LP cards. Truth be told, 3 LP cards tend to do anything from minimal effects to doing terrible things to you (or overpriced skills not really worth the trigger). On the flip side, the good effects more than likely land on the 1 LP value or two LP value.

The cards that will be dealing most of this LP damage will be Units. You can controls up to nine of them at ones, placing them in a 3 by 3 area and have stats. Hit Points (HP), Attack (AT), Defense (DF), Agility (AGI) and Range (RNG). HP is your Unit’s health. If this hits 0 or less, they’re dead.  AT is the damage the Unit deals to other Units. DF determines how much less damage a Unit takes when being attacked and can be increased to the point where units deal nothing to it. Agility determines who takes their action first (in case of a tie its random) and finally, RNG dictates how far back your Unit can reach other Units and how far back they can attack with allied Units in front of them.

There is another Unit type called Characters. If you played Magic the Gathering, think of Characters like the Legend rule. For those not in the know, the Legend rule dictates that only one of that particular card can be out at a time. So you can’t control two of the same Character at once and you and your Rival cannot control one each. Grimories (Grims henceforth) are the cards which do various things. Okay, I spent more time on that than I thought, then again, if you didn’t want a lengthy read you wouldn’t still be here (assuming you didn’t just close the window, scroll all the way to the bottom or hit the back button by now…then again, I did warn ahead of time).

All cards range from level 1 through 9. All Iczers start with five Spirit Points (SP henceforth) and they go towards increasing one of the four Spheres or to play cards. These are Gowen (Red), Falkow (Blue), Refess (Yellow) and Lawtia (Purple). Gowen is about raw power and explosiveness. They also possess effect damage cards and are famed for their low in cost, but hard and fast hitting Units. Falkow is the thinking man’s Sphere. They work on the premise of manipulation, forcing enemy Units not to react (and punishing them for it) and of course bouncing stuff back to your Rivals file. Refess is the Sphere of tanking, healing and are known for being slow, yet deadly if they can establish a steady field that works together and Lawtia is the master of death, and able to do what all the other Spheres can do, but at greater cost. They’re quite tricky and have the most flexibility of all the others, but not without a learning curb (though not nearly as bad as Falkow).

When you place SP into a Sphere, you can’t get it back once you have played a card or skipped a turn with any SP in Spheres. Speaking of plays, no one has a “turn” per se. Both players play cards (set) and activate them at the same time. Grims get priority over Units (assuming the Unit has an Open Skill). Alright, now that I got the basics out of the way, onto the main event.

The Good: The game is strategy based and since you aren’t using a deck in the traditional sense, you can’t draw into a bad hand. Only real luck in this game is Soul Skill timing, hoping to win the AGI roll so your unit acts before the Rival Iczers does.

The game also has its own little way of trying to discourage same tactics in matches. If you and your Rival play the same card it creates a Backlash. If you get into a Backlash, both of you have to send the card to the Cemetery. Still, this won’t stop people from playing the exact same file but it does try to enforce a diverse Metagame and causes you to play your cards carefully.

As an added bonus, an average game can be anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes at most.

The Bad: The game is too reliant on its opening. When it comes to starting plays for the first few turns, only Lawtia seems to have the most diverse and makes the opponent unsure of what exactly they’re up against (as opposed to the other three where you can hazard a guess before the file really gets going). If your opening is bad, or if you’re disrupted within the first few turn, it can easily be game over (Falkow is excellent at this via sending your Unit back to your file).

The Ugly: This is where I place all my emotion that I was attempting to hold back through the first part of the review to prevent going into bipolar territory.

First off is the upkeep of the game. As of now, you convert Pot Cash (Pot Games currency) into Gran. Gran can be earned by either doing this Mini Game called Mirage Master once a day or just by playing once at least once a week. Now, before I go further into that, you need to know how much Gran is in dollars. One Gran is akin to one cent, so that means 100 Gran is a dollar. Packs on average cost 150 Gran ($1.50). Those packs contain on average 5 cards…that’s right, nearly $2 for five cards. That adds up REALLY QUICK when you know that in order for certain cards deemed good to be ran (and honestly, this game has balancing issues up the Yin Yang that would make League of Legends players GREATFUL their game isn’t as bad as this could be, and they are LOUD about balancing), you need THREE COPIES OF A SINGLE UNIT. Grims, you can get away with two or even just 1, but do that with most Units and you get nowhere. No character is under 3 Stars…higher stars means less chance of getting a card. Now I dare you to complete a playset of 5-Star Units without spending no less than say…$200.

Normal set boxes cost roughly $21. Those yield 75 cards. Sounds good, right…WRONG! Even in the Gold and Silver boxes you have zero protection from getting more than 3 copies of cards a pull (the only plus about Gold/Silver boxes is that you’re guaranteed at least one 5-Star card). Sure, you say you’ll just trade them off for things you need from other players. Remember when I said the “trading” part in the game was undeserving? I say this because YOU CAN’T TRADE CARDS WITH PLAYERS! The only way you can “trade” in the cards for new ones is Recycling them. The rate of recycling is scaled horribly against you (yes, they need to make money, but this is too much when you consider other factors) .

1-Star = 5 Gran

2-Star = 10 Gran

3-Star = 30 Gran

4-Star = 150 Gran

5-Star = 300 Gran

EX = Either 30 or 300 Gran

But don’t worry they got a way to circumvent this. Point Cards. You get these with Fight Money (FM henceforth) which is only obtained by fighting. It costs 2500 FM. If you win, you get 60 FM and if you lose, you get 20 FM. Assuming you have one hell of a hot streak it would take you about 42 wins to get one Point Card. If you happen to be a punching bag it would take 125 losses to get that much. Wonder how many Point cards it takes to get ONE card? It varies.

1-Star = 10 Point Cards

2-Star = 20 Point Cards

3-Star = 30 Point Cards

4-Star = 50 Point Cards

5-Star = 60 Point Cards

EX = Cannot be obtained with Point Cards

Now isn’t that some bullshit? I’m not even going to bother to crunch the numbers on how many games you would need to play to get 180 Point Cards. They have events you can partake in now and then to get at least 5 point cards, but good luck having the tolerance for it.

Through Levels 1 through 14 you get to choose a card from the four Spheres to add to your collection. They’re quite pathetic on average. Once you reach level 20 you will only get a gift card every 10 Levels. The higher you get, the more rare the cards you can pick from (remember, Rare doesn’t necessarily equal good). Once you get to Level 100, your choices are all 5-Star cards. Sounds good in theory, but it also locks you out of the possibility of getting those missing (and essential for some files) 3 and 4 Star cards. Also, leveling is slow as HELL in this game. Level means nothing in terms of collection, but just an indicator of how long someone has been playing. RP determines on average how much a person has won/lost.

Another thing that got me, when I was searching for reviews, a lot of them are dated. A good deal of the ones I found were GLOWING with praise. I’m convinced to this day that those who did praise it were either super rich, were employees, bribed or so blinded by their love of all things Anime that they couldn’t see the rotting core!

What further leads me to believe that is the balancing issues. Faeries use to be quite viable, now they’re not so much. Faeries were fairly cheap (in Alteil terms anyway) to put together and make a winning file with. I barely use them now. I’m convinced that they were picked on because they were popular (the Faerie faction pack got in stock, and let all sorts of people get and play them) and affordable. The testing team claims they said this was for the best of the game. Honestly, I think they just throw their feces at random cards to buff and nerf and how much. It would explain why Return is still a nuance.

Lastly, the Replay slots. They give you 5 of them so you can save your battles and show them off. Great for getting file help and tactical advice. Really, you get 10, but since Alteil is like “let’s make them bleed out their bank accounts more and have them pay to access ALL the replay slots even though the cards cost an arm and a leg! HERP, DERP!” its really only 5. Thanks, you bastards.

 Judgment: As of now, I’m just playing sparingly. I had much love for this game during the beginning, but I can’t say I love it now. Then again, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy myself at any point (that would be a lie). Before I decide to flee fully I await the Alteil 2 format to come to the States. I expect some major changes such as much lower prices on everything, more cards from a single pack (without the cost hitting the roof), Tanking being an actual tactic and requiring either a lot LESS Point Cards to get a single card.

Only time will tell if I will stick around. I feel my faith in this game has been unrewarded. It has a long way to go to become viable, but honestly, I cannot recommend this game for anyone to play as is. I’ll keep my eye on the game now and again…waiting…watching for Alteil 2 before I give my final judgment.

I apologize for the Ugly side being so long just feels so good to let it all out in the open in a place where I can’t be banned for it (not sure how trigger happy the testers are to criticism, but at least they can’t have me banned for telling them off offsite. The 5/27/11 Nerf/Buff rounds made me believe retarded monkeys test these things out.

Parting Wisdom: If you wish to try this game out, and quite possibly become a lifer, please take my advice. It’s too dangerous to go into that game without it (for your wallet and sanity).

-          Avoid picking Refess (the Yellow Sphere) as your starting file. It sucks as of posting this review. It might be fine at first, but once you get to the common area (and unless you’re willing to spend) you will struggle tremendously.

-          Only buy boxes (Gold or Silver) and packs (Faction and Gold ) during sales.

-          The Card Lotto is only your buddy during the beginning of your Alteil life and only when your collection is small. Even then, wait for Rarity Up and Hyper Rarity Up before you go really crazy on it. If you plan on buying boxes from different sets you REALLY need to stay away till Rarity up.

-          The EX Lotto is a LIE! It might offer you cards that were once only available through older EX packs, but unless you’re loaded you’re a fool to pursue this venture. This is for high rollers and morons only (since we’re talking 100 Gran a pull Take 99 Spins on that and not get what you want, you’ll hate yourself).

-          Take it slow in Folrat (the starting area). Pick mostly private battles so you level up slowly, so you can start to get a feel for the game. Once you reach Level 15, you’ll be tossed to the wolves. The Gowen deck will have the easiest time fighting in there with the least amount of modifications.

-          The Return mechanic is busted in this game. If you see Falkow (Blue Sphere) know that your Level 1 through 3 units are highly susceptible to these files. They could make you weep tears.

-          If you get angry at the game, do not try to recycle cards in hopes of getting something that might help (known as Ragecycling by some) .Luck is a harsh, cruel mistress. Her loyalty is only to the Alteil staff and she has no reservations proving this to you, especially if you think you can beat her.

-          Do not fall in love with any 5-Star cards. The odds of pulling them are not only low, but most require to be played in 3’s to be any good. You could spend $100 in packs/boxes and still come up short.

-          Do not invest in the Potions in shop. They’re not worth it at all. Your Gran is better spent on cards.

Well, I prattled along with this longer than I thought. If only I had the money to review something more…fun for me. Alteil has its moments, but I await the shift to Alteil 2 in the States. If nothing improves, then I wash my hands of the game. Still if you enjoy it that’s fine, but I stick to my convictions on this matter till something changes for the better in my eyes. Perception…isn’t is a hoot? Don’t take my word for it, try it for a bit, then tell me if you agree or disagree and why.

There are things I left out, but I try to keep my reviews short. Exact rules and such can be found on site. To its credit, the community is small, but friendly.