Sword Girls

Sword Girls (Korean: 소드 걸스) was an online Korean digital collectible card game developed by Zeonix (제오닉스), released in 2011. The game art was influenced by manga art style. The original Korean server shutdown suddenly in 2017 without any prior explanation and remain closed. The Korean website is also inaccessible. There were online Japanese and English version as well but all have since shut down, leaving the several smartphone spin-off games as the only ones available for play. The online version has a connected smaller version called Sword Girls S for smartphones. There are fangame versions that are available to play.

Summary

The four main factions in the game are the public girls school life of the republic Vita, the royal kingdom's major power Academy, the justice-upholding knight nation of Crux, and the mixed faction of night-dwellers and witches Darklore, and their interactions with and against each other, which all take place in the background of a continuing war against the technology-driven Empire of Lazion and the unfolding mysteries of otherworldly entities. There are also neutral cards which are not associated with any of the factions. In the continuing Korean version, later story episode releases have introduced a fifth new faction, Empire (of Lazion).

The online game's card lore each tell a part of the story of various girls in different factions, ranging widely in story content such as from a Vita tennis club member's daily life to a Darklore vampire family's internal power struggle. The online game's story updates are released as "episodes" in form of booster packs and new craftable cards; each new episode contains many new cards featuring older characters and introducing newer ones to the game's lore.

Gameplay

Gameplay of the online version consists of three types of cards in a deck, Spells, Followers, and the Character card. The deck consists of Spells and Followers and the Character card is the representative card of the player and if defeated will result in the player's loss. In order to win a duel against either a CPU or enemy player, one must reduce the opponent's Character card life points to zero. There are several modes of gameplay available in the online version. The main game mode is dungeon exploring in which an unlocked dungeon can be selected to be played and replayed in order to unlock further dungeons. The second mode is Player vs Player, in which one can randomly be matched up against another online player. The third mode consists of material gathering expeditions, where the player sets a Follower card to collect materials off-screen in real time while which the player can continue playing the other modes but is unable to use the chosen Follower card until it finishes its expedition. Followers and Character cards alike can have their stats raised to become stronger versions of themselves by giving them material gifts and other cards to consume. Focusing on a Character card's specific stat by feeding them specific materials and cards can allow that Character card to evolve into a different form, gaining new effects and visuals.

Spin-off Media

The Sword Girls game has gained several smartphone game spin-offs including a downsized mobile version and several light novel adaptations, the latter of which follows a different canon from the online game's story by introducing original characters and male characters (which have near to nonexistent focus in the online version), but uses the same setting. There was also a manhwa adaption of the game that also followed a differing canon from the online version and used a male protagonist. Additionally, physical copies of the cards from the online version have been produced but are only available in Korean and lack individual card lore details that the online cards have.

The following physical pre-constructed decks and booster packs have been released:

Decks:
  • Vita : August 31, 2012
  • Academy : August 31, 2012
  • Crux : June 2013
  • Darklore : June 2013
Booster Packs:
  • Freshman Reception : September 14, 2012 (152 cards: 24 RRR, 20 RR, 48 R, 60 C)
  • Witch's Tower : December 29, 2012 (100 cards: 16 RRR, 12 RR, 24 R, 40 C)
  • Artificial Vampire God : March 30, 2013 (103 cards: 17 RRR, 12 RR, 24 R, 50 C)
  • Advance of Gyoguk : June 2013 (112 cards: 10 RRR, 13 RR, 27 R, 54 C)
  • Depression of Nika Bell : September 2013 (85 cards: 10 RRR, 14 RR, 20 R, 41 C)

In addition to those cards, several promo cards were released as well.

Digital version

The Japanese and English online game are no longer officially supported as of 2013, but the Korean online game no longer works as of November 2017.

References
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.