Alteil

The dragon Zangadylan, drawn by Yuji Kaida of Godzilla fame.

Alteil is a free-to-play, story driven, Flash based card battle game. It originated in Japan, where it claims to be the most popular online card strategy game, and has since launched in other languages around the world, including an English version in the USA.

You may have noticed some of Alteil's ads, which parody the ever so curious ads for Evony.

The game is 100% digital; this has its ups and downs. You can't take your deck out to the park to play with friends (unless you bring your laptop), but you don't have to worry about cards getting lost/stolen, or where to store your huge collection.

Alteil roots itself in an epic fantasy story about four colored kingdoms, wars, a monster, etc. Every single card has a flavor text that contributes to the story, and some even talk to each other mid-battle, giving them some character depth. The story progresses as Alteil launches new expansion packs.

Alteil's biggest hook is its card art. The cards are illustrated by big shot artists in the gaming & manga industry, such as Gundam, Guilty Gear, Tales (series), etc.

Tropes used in Alteil include:

• Action Girl: No-nonsense hunter Cassandra, who is also known for Dual-Wielding with a cursed sword and a holy sword at the same time.
• Aloof Big Brother: Alphonce, Verlaat's older brother could be the template for this trope. More of a Bishonen than Verlaat, Ineffectual Loner, Noble Demon, and possible Stealth Mentor.
• Badass Normal: There's a population of players who can consistently and easily defeat the GM's in combat.
• Belly Dancer: Catgirl Kurina fits this perfectly.
• Big Bad: The Triad of Chaos wants to end the world.
  • Man Behind the Man: Envoy of Chaos / Elgandi, official boss of the Triad of Chaos.
• Blood Knight: Dical, although he's technically a Centaur instead of a person on horseback. He lives to fight, even against his former top student, Zagar.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: You can play the game for free forever, getting all cards, even. Just don't expect to expand your deck as quickly as those who are willing to dish out dough. Oh, and there are also some cool customization stuff you can get with cash, but it is entirely optional.
• Butt Monkey: The card Animated Dead has been largely declared useless by the majority ever since the beginning of the game. However, the GM's refuse to fix it, causing many laughs.
• Catgirl: Even Cat girls are present in this game, like any other Japanese work. Notable ones include Belly Dancer/Kurina and Dance Macabre/Lelein. More will probably arrive in the future.
• Child Soldiers: Other than the obviously child-like Magic Dolls, many main characters are thrown into the War of the Sun and Moon when they are too young. Even the leaders of the two sides, Verlaat and Eskatia, are both teenagers when they are given the responsibility to lead their respective kingdoms into battle. Final One Arius is another good example.
• The Chosen One: Lapierre was chosen by the sword Lantylit, Rivera is chosen to be the next Beast King, Athira is chosen by Lavato itself, and Arius is also called the chosen one specifically. Verlaat is considered to be the chosen one by the True God Church because the sun rose in the middle of the night when he was born, but considering their Church Militant status, it's not clear if that's a good or bad thing.
• Church Militant: The True God Church is quite brutal.
• Color Coded for Your Convenience: There are four factions and four colors: Refess-Yellow (Solar Kingdom & True God Church), Lawtia-Purple (Duchy of Crest & Abyssal Forces), Gowen-Red (Heierrat Mecenary Kingdom & Beltorat Kingdom), and Falkow-Blue (Wizard Kingdom & Mermaid Kingdom).
• Critical Existence Failure: Losing your life points allows you to use special skills.
• Cute Witch: Diondora, Mirelia, Catherina, basically every female magic-user Mook from Regus.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Abyssal Centaur Dical is an honorable general and teaches children in his spare time, Verlaat's mentor Riza is actually a vampire, and Eskatia herself, arguably one of the most good characters in the game, wears Gothic black armor and goes by the title Moon Princess.
• Damsel in Distress: Miffyre.
• Does Not Like Men: Cassandra in particular.
• The Dragon: Belfyna is Annarose's Dragon.
• Eldritch Abomination: Its name is Batora.
• Emotionless Girl: Mirela is unflappable, but it's probably because despite looking like an 8 year old girl, she's actually a sorceress several hundred years old.
• Empathic Weapon: Lapirre's trusty holy sword Lantylit, which can take any shape including a whip.
• Evil Sorcerer: The most evil is probably Galdirea, who likes to corrupt his enemies and take control of them. Oh, plus he works for the Abyssal Forces, which want to summon Batora.
• Evil Weapon: There is a type of sword called a Soulblade that fits this perfectly, right down to literally draining soul... or Soul Cards from the user. There are a few examples in the game, most notably is Difora, Cassandra's Soulblade, which she dual wields with a holy sword in the other hand. The Duchy of Crest also mass produces Cursed Swords they hand out to their soldiers (and then get out of the way).
• Expansion Pack: A new one every few months.
• Fanfic: People write their own little stories with the game's characters on the forum.
• Fan Service: Female characters often get alternate artwork that coincidentally has them in bikinis or other sexy outfits. Resident Catgirl Kurina's bikini shot actually covers more of her skin than her normal outfit, as a minor subversion.
• Fatal Flaw: Nice guy Prince Verlaat's inexperience and noble Princess Eskatia belief in Treacherous Advisor Annarose essentially cause the War of the Sun and the Moon, which destroys the lives of most of the main characters and almost results in the end of the world.
• The Four Gods: Azure Dragon-East/Vodore, Red Phoenix-South/Sanaf, and Black Tortoise-North/Ladol.
• Funny Animal: Plenty of animal-people fighters.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: You can have every character kill each other. You can place mortal enemies side by side, and face friends against each other.
• Handsome Lech: Suave general Vordore is one of the four main Regus generals, but he's mostly known for his suggestive dialogue with the female characters.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Lapierre, the Captain of the Shrine Knights, often shirks her duties to spend quality time at the bar. She's usually shown with some kind of alcohol in her alternate artwork.
• Holy Hand Grenade: The best example is Like The Hand Of God, which kills anything instantly.
• Hot-Blooded: Dandan and Blaze Knuckle best fit this, at least in the story. It's arguable gameplay-wise. Zagar, Lapierre and anyone from the Solar Kingdom who isn't a bigot are also candidates. Literally, the Volcano Wyverns have flammable blood.
• Idiot Hair: Lapierre.
• Impossibly Low Neckline: Chaoslady/ Annarose.
• The Lancer: Ibert is Dilate's Lancer.
• Loads and Loads of Characters: Over a hundred character cards that all have roles in the story.
• Metagame: People discuss this endlessly on the forum.
• Manipulative Bastard: Most of the villains and some of the heroes from Regus fit this, but Galdirea probably takes the cake, seeding a mermaid-corrupting plague in the best friend of Balzelda, just after she was left in charge of the Mermaid Kingdom.
• Medieval Japan: The game has some old Japan elements, such as samurai girls and the occasional kimono.
• Meganekko: The virtuoso Rutina manages to fit this perfectly, strangely, while also being a deadly assassin.
• Meido: There's an entire card type dedicated to maids, known as Magic Dolls. They're actually Golems (or Robot Girls). They more equipped for battle however, armed with various weapons, and come in several useful models!
  • Magical Doll (no suffix) is listed as Magical Doll, Maid in the costume list.
• Obake
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Night Lycanthropes do monster out at night, (actually a key game mechanic), but here Lycanthropy is a disease with many forms (or strains). Fenrir Lycanthropes turn into wolf-men, but Dagon Lycanthropes turn into Fish men, Lilith Lycanthropes turn into Snake women, and so on. There are also Day Lycanthropes that monster out when touched by the first rays of morning dawn. Angels are actually a form of this (there are several Angel-like strains of Lycanthropy), so, this is also a case of Our Angels Are Different.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Unknown Knight / Aano with her super-hero persona Unknown Warrior / Justice.
• Spell Book: They're called grimoires.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Chaos Lady/Annarose (when looking at the partner menu) "She looks like the kind of person who controls the Duchy of Crest from the shadows but... that's impossible"
• Take That: Alteil has made a few ^{[dead link]} ads that parody the infamous advertisements of a different online game, Evony.
• Teen Genius: Lion Baron Zagar was one of these at the military academy, so was Verlaat's brother Alphonce, Fellana, Sumer, and basically the entire cast when they were in school. Other than Backstory, Diondora also is one.
• Took a Level in Badass: Yuni when she becomes the Gun Princess and Lapierre when she becomes the Holy Knight. Athira not only becomes Athira Shin, but in his Shin version he can take a level in badass on command to power up. When Brave Soldier took a level, not only did he power up, he graduated from being a Unit (the game's mooks) to a Character, named Dilate.
  • The MAIN-character, no less.
• Troll: Averted. The community is surprisingly lacking on the trolls.
• Tragic Hero: Poor Verlaat, he has the best intentions but all he does is start world wars.
• The Vamp: Sexy manipulator Annarose Vamps both men and women. Ironically, she occasionally hangs out with actual Vampires as well.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Several cards have abilities that are only useful in potentially one or two certain deck builds, or are just so entirely situational that they aren't really necessary in 99% of your battles. Example: Solar Prince / Verlaat has an ability that makes the battle time for the turn morning. In reality, there are only a handful of units who actually benefit from such as ability.
  • It's worth noting that EM files (Eternal Morning, after Verlaat's ability) are very viable files for Refess.
• White-Haired Pretty Boy: The first prince of Folrart, Alphonce, disappears under mysterious circumstances after possibly killing he and Verlaat's father.
• Zerg Rush : Called the "Gowen Rush" by the community, since it's mainly done with with a bunch of Gowen (red) cards.
  • Also Carbuncle and Shrine Knights, which get stronger, the more you get on the field.