(It counts as anime because I only like anime-style CCGs and it also counts as the reason why I haven't been watching or blogging anime recently - brb my energy just refilled)
1. Valkyrie Crusade
I would recommend this one the most. I played this for quite a while and when I stopped, I was nearing the level cap with high tier cards. My highest rank was in the top 400 but the guild I was playing in was full of god tier monsters who regularly ranked top 10. They also talked on Skype for guild battles.
Pro: Beginner friendly~ It's easy to pick up and pretty straightforward once you hit your stride. The UI is nice too.
Con: The town building simulation might throw you off a bit at first but I like decorating so. The battle AI is also terrible, but the battle mechanics aren't interesting enough to keep you engaged either.
Pro: Simple strategy & active forums~ Instead of looking at stats like HP or ATK there's only two things that matter in a top level deck - the rarity and the skill. Although some less rare cards might have a useful skill, generally its replaced quickly by a rarer card even if the skill is less useful. As for the skills, there's a pretty definitive list of skills that are top tier so all you have to do is keep your eye out for them. On forums, there's also a generally accepted ranking of which skills are the most useful to least useful.
Con: It might be too simple for some people. Also, to really put up a fight in the rankings, there are a few card skills you absolutely must have in your deck so luck really plays a part in it.
Pro: Good quality CG art~ The focus is on fanservice
Con: It's more CG based than painted, and the focus is on fanservice. Most of the players I've talked to are guys so...whatever floats your boat.
Pro: You can get very far without paying cash~ The cash currency, 'jewels', are easily obtained in events and giveaways so as long as you're active you can get quite a bit. Most people also agree that it's easier to get rare cards from event/boss drops than the cash summons so you can save up jewels easily too.
Con: As with most free to play games, if you're going to play for free you're going to have to be super active. You have to fight bosses called Archwitches literally hundreds of times to make a dent in the rankings. The alliance battles also take up lots of time, and when I stopped they had changed the mechanic to be very unfriendly towards different time zones. This would be where cash items come in.
Pro: VC is one of the least intensive of the free to play model. If you want to be in the top tier of players and come first in event rankings then definitely cash helps. But if you just want to do well in events without fighting for the ranks, then it's pretty feasible to get rare cards and a good deck without paying anything extra. Although you may not be able to max out your cards or get a UR deck, you can pretty much get a copy of every SR and sometimes UR event card.
2. Ayakashi Ghost Guild
The second game I'd recommend. I had a decent deck by the time I stopped, with most of them 5* with a couple 4*. Again, the guild I played in was super hardcore though, and coordinated often on FB.
Pro: Variety of events~ It cycles through different types of events, which makes it nice not only because of the change of pace but also because the cycle lets you predict which kind of deck you need next.
Con: The events more or less the same format for each one, just with different cards.
Pro: Variety of skills~ You don't have to look at the stats at all and sometimes even rarity gets thrown out in favour of useful skills. The elemental rock paper scissors plays into this a lot more than VC, with skills and decks specifically for targeting another card type.
Con: It's a lot more complex. You really have to keep track of what kind of deck you want, which can switch depending on the boss for the event. The skills also level differently depending on the enhancements it goes through, and even the entire process of enhancing your cards with feeder cards is kind of a pain. Percentage differences in the effectiveness of a card's skill can determine whether or not that's a good card.
Pro: Gorgeous art~ It has both female and male cards, unlike VC with girl only fanservice types. Some of the painted rare cards are so nice.
Con: It kind of loads like a web browser sometimes? Unlike the smoother UIs of Valkyrie or Million Arthur.
Pro:Active forum and users
Con: Much harder to get into top tier without cash items. There are less item giveaways compared to VC, and the amount of time you have to put in just to play free at a high level is insane. I've read comments on the Ayakashi wikipedia about people setting their alarms for when their stamina finishes charging.
Con: Unfortunately it's necessary for them to go that far because miscalculating the amount of stamina you need to finish an event can led you to miss out on rare boss cards. It's not even about your deck any more because even if your deck can take on the boss, it doesn't mean anything when you run out of stamina before you can meet the boss.
4. Million Arthur
I signed up for this game before the English localization was out, and I think one of the only reasons why I stopped playing was because I stopped playing everything else. Maybe I would've continued with this if it was the only one I played. I had some nice cards~
Pro: The UI and designs are nice and easy to use.
Con: The newest Japanese sequel looks cooler? But this one is pretty good. You get connection problems sometimes although that might be because I'm not in the SEA region. (No but seriously Million Arthur 2 looks so nice)
Pro: Gorgeous art holy shit. Unlike other card games, even the low rarity cards get backgrounds. Plus MA gets crossover events with different characters too. You can load them all up in a deck of 12 and watch all of them fight.
Con: The fighting is boring but it's almost all auto so it's pretty fast and straightforward.
Pro: That Square Enix quality. One of the biggest strengths it has over other card games is that Final Fantasy plot heaviness. It has fully voiced scenes, characters with actual personalities, and events where things actually happen. And something that not even other games have is the starter character you pick actually influences which story plays out. And I love my Technosmith Arthur, she's the best. She's not some generic RPG heroine who's only purpose is to be a gender swap. I also like that although your character is the chosen one, they explain the many other players - which is where you get the name Million Arthur. We've all pulled the sword from the stone. It's little story things, but I enjoy it.
Con: I didn't really like the limit breaking mechanic where it was almost imperative that you get several copies of the same card to max it out. This makes fighting each event's Faeries such a pain.
Con: The Faeries are probably the other reason why I stopped playing. The equivalent of Archwitches in Valkyrie, they're bosses that you stumble upon while exploring. You really have to constantly be fighting them and hoping for drops. Like not even just for rankings, just for enough cards to limit break them.
4. Chain Chronicles
Pro: A storyline with dialogue choices although with the 'but thou must' kind of gameplay your character might as well be a silent hero. Character side stories for literally every character.
Con: The storyline is so meh and so are the main characters, especially when you compare it to MA. A kind of typical hero, typical amnesiac waif, typical 'hey listen' pixie guide. Some of the other characters have more interesting personalities/backstories
Pro: Lovely artwork once again. The style of it is less CG and more similar to AGG. Plus 3D sprites!
Pro: Battle mechanics with 3D sprites!! I like the battle mechanic for this the most - for the super easy quests you let the AI do its thing, but for most of them you're engaged in controlling each character. It feels more RPG-ish or even tower defence titles than card battle.
Con: As of the time of this writing, the English localization is fairly new, so although the user base is quite active, most of them are active on the Japanese version.
Pro: AP takes 8 minutes each to recharge. This is a pro for me because I do not want to be constantly checking back or missing out on a full AP bar. I can use it up fast and forget about for hours which is great for things like work or you know, sleep.
Pro: Units level up with experience from battle! Finally, I love games where the sole levelling mechanism is not endlessly farming for very specific fodder. It's true that especially with your higher level cards, relying on battle exp isn't going to take you very far but it's great for the beginning levels or when you're out of fodder/money.
Con: As of the time of this writing I've been playing it for about a week and the highest rarity card I have is a 4 star. No 5 stars, but my team is all 3 stars. I'd say it's pretty difficult to get a 5 star, but I also feel like in these beginning stages my 3 stars are dealing pretty well with the battles I'm doing. Primarily it's the difficulty in levelling them up that's making me fall behind.
5.Brave Frontier
I'll be real I got sucked in because there was a Vocaloid crossover event and I pulled Rin on my first try and I love my Kagamine twins. Same deal with Chain Chronicles, where I haven't played very long so I'm still in that 'super obsessed stage'.
Pro: Really easy to get good units. Like I said, I got a special event 4* (the highest you can pull from rare summons is 5*) on my first try. Not long after that I got the second Kagamine twin, and right now I have another Len. Gems are relatively easy to come by, especially in the lower levels and it's not uncommon to see beginners with really nice units.
Con: The hard part is evolving them. Maxing them is slightly better, there are easily accessable dungeons for level fodder. But evolving them is another story. Certain evolution fodder is only found in one place, on one day of the week, in a totally not beginner friendly dungeon.
Pro: Loving the sprite artwork and attack effects. The 6* complicated designs look awesome if you manage to get them that far and their Brave Burst even more so
Con: Energy takes 3 minutes to recharge. I'm still a beginner without too much energy, so that means I have to check back too often for my liking. I quit these games the first time because it ate up too much time. Hopefully it'll expand as I level up
Pro:Wide variety of events and dungeons but the basic battle mechanics is the same
Con: Daily dungeons. I really do not like daily dungeons where you basically have to plan around one day of the week and if you missed it or was busy well better wait for another week
Con: I don't like the sphere and item mechanic, where you can make your own upgrades and potions. I realize it adds another depth to the gameplay but honestly it's really hard to get the materials for higher level spheres and in the meantime they just take up a lot of space.
Pro: Best part about this game is the user base. In games like these, it's all about the stats and boy are there players out there who love their stats. And I love them for it. There's well made calculators and spreadsheets and like three different forums and a wiki so you can min-max to your heart's content.
6. Defenders of Texel
Another game that I played for a while, although I think the only reason why I played it for as long as I did was because I had one really good unit.
Pro: Very easy to get cash items. They give them away often, especially for events
Con: Very easy to use up cash items. It's hard to get to the top of events without cash items but once you do you need a ton of them. Generally I'd have to save up for a certain event type.
Pro: Different event types. They have a regular cycle which they go through
Con: There's really only four types and it's a regular cycle
Pro: Interesting pixel concept and the units have flashy attacks for the higher leveled ones
Pro: Active user base, with trading function - although I like CCGs more, the trading adds a level of complexity so it's up to personal preference
Con: It's hard getting top tier units even with the trading, and most people obviously prefer to have the better side of the deal to any trade. Without top tier units, you kind of lose interest.
7. Devil Maker Tokyo
I played this more casually than the other ones, but still ended up with some pretty nice cards from summons. I didn't get very far into though and to be honest I can't remember some of the opinions I have about this game.
Pro: Yet another CCG with gorgeous anime artwork. It's got a great UI as well, and the story line map of Tokyo is really nice.
Pro: Vaguely interesting storyline? I was vaguely interested, but at least there was a story to be found in it. Again, I couldn't get very far into it to be really invested, but it looked kind of promising and the fact that it was focused in urban Tokyo was interesting.
Con: The main reason why I stopped playing was it was too complicated. There were too many factors in the cards aside from your basic stats and skills. Then there are different mechanics for messing around with all these different stats. Also there's a variety of events from regular special dungeons and event dungeons that change on top of the regular storyline. It's hard to tell what you should be doing sometimes.
Con: On top of the complexity, the user base for this one I felt wasn't as comprehensive as Valkyrie or Ayakashi. Or maybe I took one look at the complicated stats and left the forum. There a limit to how many numbers I can deal with for an iPhone game.
Pro: Cash items and summon tickets are relatively easy to get as long as you log on every day and participate in the basic events.
Pro: Although there are time limit bosses like Archwitches/Faeries, they weren't as central of a part of my gameplay experience so I enjoyed that break.
8. Lies of Astaroth
This one I played for a while, but it seems they updated some new areas for play after I stopped. This one had a lot of in-betweens for me. They weren't pros but they weren't cons either. Just kind of in the middle.
Pro: Simple to pick up and play. The battles kind of resemble more 'legit' TCG like Magic the Gathering, but whereas I stayed away from those kinds because they looked too complicated, this one is more welcoming to newer players.
Con: After all those games with beautiful anime artwork, unfortunately Astaroth's art isn't fantastic in comparison. It's pretty decent, but it's not at the same level. Plus, it's more fantasy inspired than anime.
Con: When I was looking for a picture to use as the header, there were promo screenshots that informed me Lies of Astaroth had a 'uproarious fantasy based story'. So either the story was so faint I couldn't even remember it or I have a really bad memory. At least I could remember that was a story for Devil Maker and that it had potential. This one I was actually surprised to be reminded that there was a story at all.
Pro: I like the user interface, it's clean and simple and easy to use.
Con: I couldn't really find a big user community. Whereas in the other games where an active user base was immediately available and I could check card strengths and such, in Astaroth I kind of just winged most of it.
Con: When I left, one of the newer game mechanics was ughhhh limit breaking. I really don't go for that. Just max them and let them rest please.
Pro?: Like I said, a lot of things about this game are in the middle-ish. Things like getting rare cards where it's not easy to get the highest rarity ones, but it's not excruciating or the game mechanics where there's a lot of different things you can do, but it's not headache inducing to keep track of them. It's the kind of thing that's kind of easy to play so you kind of keep playing it.
10.Chaos Drive
I don't like Chaos Drive because it's the only game that I couldn't find a horizontal header picture for. Jks, but I honestly didn't play this game for very long so I couldn't tell you some of the deeper mechanics but I'll give you what I got.
Pro: Nice graphics! The artwork is less light and cute but more grungy, futuristic sci-fi. The sci-fi element is definitely a nice change from the usual high fantasy atmosphere. There's really lovely pixel sprites for the bosses and your own player character.
Con: I don't remember it in vivid detail, but the general sense I got from this game was bright and flashy and blue and black and FLASHY. For those who do not like flashing and brightness might prefer the more stationary UIs of the games above.
Pro: I can't speak for advanced players, but it was pretty easy for me to get some decent cards. They had a beginners/log in bonus where you could get summon tickets. These tickets can also drop from the bosses where you could try to summon the boss as a card. That was a plus, since it's not every game where special tickets can drop from anything.
Con: The focus of the game is on guild battles. Now, that's not a con in and of itself. The downside here is that guild battles are scheduled. Yup, the bane of anything ever: time. Here are two options: a winning guild with active players and probably good rewards or a guild with relaxed schedules and requirements for players. Basically it tells you to choose between doing well and sleeping.
Con:This won't be a con for everyone, but the reason why I stopped wasn't because I had decided on sleeping. I probably would've ended up deciding that anyway, but I stopped because I couldn't even make that choice. The game started crashing every time I tried to join a guild battle, and since the whole point of the game was guild battles...sorry but I have like a million other games to play.
Honorary Mention: Guardian Cross
MA would win in terms of UI, where it's not as dark and cluttered and nodes all over the place. A win in artwork, where it's a gallery full colourful and pretty bishoujo and bishounen instead of a dark and grungy fantasy creatures look. Good for older/male players I guess? Even the NPC characters aren't as nicely drawn though. Shame, Squeenix, when you've got a perfect lineup of boy band members in your most famous series.
Speaking of famous series, MA wins in terms of plot as well. The typical fantasy setup of a hero going on a quest kind of thing just falls flat. Shame, Squeenix, when your most famous series had their roots in storytelling.
MA wins yet again with battle because although most of the battles in both games I play with auto on, there's text in Guardian Cross. Text that tells you how much damage and what happened like I'm not going to read it when there's a HP bar right there and it just clutters up the space on a smaller screen.
MA has another win in terms of availability of rare cards. Guardian Cross does try to shake it up with a 'hunting' mechanic instead of a static summoning screen but I totally suck at that minigame. Do you understand what that means? I try and fail at getting monsters from the summoning game and the ones I do aren't even that great.
Honestly the only reason why Cross gets an honorary mention is because it is Square Enix and that gives it an overall level of quality in terms of gameplay and events. For fans of Squeenix or Final Fantasy, a lot of the creatures you're familiar with make appearances. But if you're like me and you prefer the simpler, light and bright anime designs, well actually
Squeenix has you covered too: go play Million Arthur.
Rejected:
These I
Because I am an art critic of the mobile TCG and I didn't like the artwork or user interface design:
Darklord Legends, Dark Summoner, Pirate Maidens, Spirit Stones, War of the Fallen (this last one is actually kind of okay but it's more fantasy art than anime and I didn't like that much)
Because I am not a video gamer so unless you've got a game mechanic I can understand in literally seconds I will be confused and never play again:
Fantasica, Blood Brothers
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