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Fantasy Behind the Card #14

Tonight we are going to cover the 2cp Earth Forward known as Serafie, from World of Final Fantasy.  Her ability / ex burst, is that when she enters the field, each player can select a forward from their break zone and add it to their hand.  This ability is much like her duty in World of Final Fantasy, where she manages the various Mirages (your monsters/characters) and allows you to swap them in for different kinds or to edit your team.  

In both the TCG and World of Final Fantasy, she gives you access to members of your team for you to choose swap in or out to be more effective in certain combat situations.

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Excited to be working on my Patreon goal reward! The DreamWalker of Lotia

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Fantasy Behind the Card #13

Today’s card is the 4cp Earth Forward known as Kimahri.  His special ability is Ronso Rage, which allows him to use an opponent’s forwards ability that is in play.  No matter what their cost is to play their ability, Kimahri only has to pay an additional Kimahri card and 2 earth cp.

This is much like his character in Final Fantasy X, in that he can adapt to using abilities that monsters inflict the party with.  Much like “Blue Magic” that is throughout the Final Fantasy universe, it allows the Blue Mage (Kimahri in this case) to be very flexible in combat by adapting to many different situations that may arise.  In the TCG, this allows Kimahri to be able to Jecht Shot in some games, Omnislash in others, or even Red XIII’s Cosmo Memory, which Kimahri would be able to use at a significantly reduced cost.

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Fantasy Behind the Card #12

Today’s card is the Sage from Final Fantasy 4, Tellah!  He is a backup, that when dulled, will be placed into the break zone, but inflicts 9,000 damage to an enemy forward.  This ability relates to his dramatic battle with Golbez in Final Fantasy 4, when he seeks out revenge for Anna’s death.  While his normal elemental magic against Golbez fails to make an impact, Tellah uses the last of his energy and life force to unleash Meteor, temporarily defeating Golbez.  This costs Tellah his life =(

1:22 in the video to get right to the scene.  Video credit goes to YTUser  Hawelo92

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Fantasy Behind the Card # 11

Today we have a unique type of card, one of the Four Fiends (From Final Fantasy IV) that makes his debut in the upcoming Final Fantasy Opus II.  His name is Scarmiglione, and is the Earth Elemental fiend.  For 2 earth cp, he has quite the interesting ability for a forward.  You can use this card in the attack and main phase of BOTH players, much like the “Flash” ability that some may be familiar with in Magic the Gathering.  This can create some unique opportunities, especially with other earth cards like Golem or Kefka.

This card’s lore comes straight out of Final Fantasy IV. When Scarmiglione is first defeated on Cecil’s quest to become a Paladin at  Mount Ordeals, Cecil and the party cross a bridge to find a tomb.  But before having a chance to enter, the party is ambushed by a mutilated Scarmiglione.  When this 2nd battle occurs, your party is considered ambushed and you are found at a disadvantage (Your frontline and backline are reversed).  This ambush is very similar to how the card plays out with his “back-attack” ability.  **Card above was from the FFXIV Fan Fest Germany opening, tried my best to be accurate =) **

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Fantasy Behind the Card # 10

Hey look, we made it to #10.  Our 10th card is the fan favorite  villianous Ancient from FF7 known as Sephiroth.  He enters the field as a dark crystal character at a whopping 8CP.  Armed with First Strike, when Sephiroth enters the field, he may break 1 backup in play.  

It should be no surprise that not only is Sephiroth powerful at 8k, but he comes with first strike.  Known to be the most powerful SOLDIER that has ever been in the ranks of Shinra, his skill and speed are legendary.  Armed with Masamune which he has honed, it would be no surprise that he gets the jump on his opponents in combat.

Now, if this is a spoiler -- well, sorry but it’s time to get from under that rock.  but incoming spoiler! 

 Sephiroth is very well known for his assassination of Aeris, the other ancient that (is a backup in this TCG) but also plays a support role in the game FF7.  His ability in the TCG mirrors this perfectly.  Jump video to 0:42 if you are in a rush =)

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Fantasy Behind the Card # 8

Today’s card is 1-002R, the 5CP cost Auron.  He is a forward that prevents backups from being broken via opponent’s summons or abilities.  This is very relevent to his character in Final Fantasy X, because as his job states (Guardian), he is a Guardian of the summoner Yuna, and former guardian of High-Summoner Braska.  His job is to protect Yuna (typically a backup in the TCG) from harm, as she goes through her pilgrimage.  He is known to be one of the best guardians, with a very powerful sword arm and has an uncanny ability for survival.  

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Fantasy Behind the Card # 7

Tonight’s card is the Earth Backup, known as  Kefka Palazzo from Final Fantasy VI.  At 4CP, he has the ability to dull, choose a forward that you control, and then enhance it’s power by 5000 until the end of the turn, where it will meet it’s doom and go to the break zone.

Kefka only has 1 goal in mind -- murder and destruction.  All of his plotting, plans, motivation and speeches are based on genocide or extermination for the sake of entertainment and elimination of those around him.  When the Empire is trying to invade the city of Doma, he poisons the water supply with allied troops in the vicinity, just to succeed.  Friend or foe can die alike.  The +5000 power derives from Kefka’s ability to not only manipulate magitek technology into test subjects, but also his power to absorb and abuse Esper Magicite energy.  Most of his power is simply known to be both chaotic and volatile, which is the result of him empowering your forwards in the TCG.

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Fantasy Behind the Card # 6

Today’s card is of Orran, the Astrologer from Final Fantasy Tactics.  For S, 3 Ice CP and dulling, he can dull all the forward that the opponent currently controls.  This ability is called Celestial Stasis, which comes straight from Final Fantasy Tactics, in which you are saving Orran from a band of thieves and bandits and he activates at will.  

In both the card game and video game, this is an aoe ability that disables enemy targets.  In the TCG, it dulls them, so that under normal conditions they may not block or be considered active.  In Final Fantasy Tactics, the enemies have a chance to be immobilized, disabled, and stopped.

** In the english version of FFT, the ability originally was called Galaxy Stop.  There were many typos or translation changes in the original version of FFT, much like many of the other Final Fantasy games (as well as the 1st wave of the TCG as well)

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Fantasy Behind the Card # 5

Since I was busy over the past few days and did not post, I figured I would post a bonus card today.  This post is covering The Emperor, a card that is stubborn and revolves around a gimmick where, after defeated, he may return to play to hinder the opponents progress once again.  

This is relevant in a couple of ways, 1 which i don’t think was intentional at all, which adds to the fun.  In Final Fantasy II, the Emperor is encountered as a boss fight 3 different times, which in a game against someone in the TCG, you are likely to encounter him 3 times due to his return gimmick.  The 3 different versions of him are The Emperor, the Emperor of Heaven (Light), and the Emperor of Hell (Dark).  This again supports the fact that he exists 3 times, as he can reincarnate himself via the different ways he manifests.  In the TCG (as of Opus I) however, there is only his standard Emperor card.

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Fantasy Behind the Card # 4

Today, the card is Dark Knight 1-054C.  For 2 Ice CP, it can deal 1000 damage to all the Forwards the opponent controls.  This area of effect damage is much like the “Dark Wave” ability that Cecil and other Dark Knight’s can utilize in the Final Fantasy series, as shown below.  Much like in the video games, the Dark Knight has to sacrifice resources in order to inflict aoe damage (HP in the video games, CP in the card game)

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Fantasy Behind the Card # 3

Today’s card is the (3) cost Delita.  When he enters the field, you must break a character you control.  This seems very relevant to Delita’s character in Final Fantasy Tactics, considering that as a character, he will take advantage of any thing or any person to advance his pursuit in an Ivalice free of class and “preordained” consequences.  Throughout the game, Delita dispatches anyone who threatens to either betray or hinder his progress in this goal, whether it be spy, lord, friend, or foe.

Northswain Strike is a holy-elemental sword ability that has the chance to instantly KO any target in Final Fantasy Tactics, which can be utilized in the TCG for anyone blocking Delita’s advance.   

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Fantasy Behind the Card # 2

Today’s card is the 5 cost backup Yuna.  When she enters the field, she returns an opponents forward to their hand.  This is much like how in Final Fantasy X, she would be required per her duty as as Summoner to visit various villages in Spira (the field), and ward off threats such as Sin, typically making the threat fall back or retreat.  

Her ability gives her the option of choosing if a card going into the break zone is instead removed from the game.  This is much like how Yuna performs the sending, a Summoner dance ritual that sends the spirits of the dead to the Farplane so they do not become fiends.  

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Fantasy Behind the Card #1

We are going to kick off this series with the Opus 1 Common “Ninja”.  It should be no surprise that it is a wind element, considering Ninjas are notoriously fast and agile.  The combat text reminds me of what Ninjas are notorious for in the Final Fantasy games - throwing tools or weapons at their enemies.  In this card, you are discarding 1 card from your hand, and basically using it as a weapon to deal 2k damage.  Unfortunately, you do not throw the card at your opponents face, but onto your discard pile. 

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In the past couple of months, I have gotten ridiculously infatuated with the new Final Fantasy TCG.  Found a nice LGS for FF Tuesday nights, working on my foil set, loving deck building, etc.  Anywho, I particularly enjoy that a lot of cards have some added flavor to them which connects back to the games that they originate from.  I will be working on a series that highlights these in future posts, and hopefully I can get a nice run going.  These will all be of my opinion of course, but that’s half the fun.

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Well, it’s been about 400 years, but I wanted to get back on here and start typing more articles and get back to covering my hobbies.  Quite recently however, I did get my own youtube channel going (Banner art provided by Kayla Kelley)  Right now the videos are focusing on 2 games that I put most of my gaming time into, Overwatch (Closed Beta at the moment), and Final Fantasy XIV.  For FFXIV, I am doing an overview of the minions that you can collect in various ways, and hope to do mounts after that.  Overwatch will focus more on replays and fun moments that occur in matches.

Come check it out, subscribe, let me know what you think, and I look forward to putting up videos on a regular basis

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKxuPF0RUYAugAHPvvmme_A

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Square unveils new Dissidia: Final Fantasy

A brand new Dissidia title coming to arcades was just announced at JAEPO 2015! It's a new 3 vs 3 battle system rather than the 1 on 1 combat we had with the prior entries. As of now, the only newcomer appears to be Y'shtola from Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

Please take note of the new graphics engine implemented =)  You may watch the teaser here, enjoy!