Cardfight Connect Simulator

 

So this video popped up in my recommendation even though I haven't watched a single VG video ever since I've quitted VG. But for people who still plays VG, I think this would be a great replacement of Area as you can use this on Linux, Android and Mac, I've tried it and still think Area is a lot better to use as this have some flaws I've encountered.

The sim is new, especially if this is created by 1 person, it is not too bad, just that the battle system is where Area shine the most. Although, I did play the very first Area, when Cardfight Capital game was around, if anyone remembered, it wasn't really as good as CFC sim until that game was forced to shutdown by Bushi.

As you know Cardfight Connect uses the same Unity engine, and the interface is really similar to OPCG sim. However, 1 thing that Connect has and OPCG sim doesn't is searching cards when deck building. OPCG does have search, but it is not accurate especially if I type in full line like Straw Hat or Baroque Works, the result never shows, whereas Connect actually shows the results and the cards related to the archetype.

Deck Building

Deck building in this sim is quite nice, very specific in order to get the cards you need, so if you bad at names, the search is definitely useful. I don't think CFA have this kind of deck building implemented as it tends to be on 1 screen. The 1 search you personally don't need is Race, unless the game implements a specific Race deck where you need certain race to work.

At the time writing this, the sim only has G and Standard format implemented, so if you want to play V format or Premium, you will need to wait. I personally play G Format as they have included a lot of old cards including Legion and Limit Break, so if you want to be old school, you can make those decks, but only if you can find players to play against.

You can only see a full list of Nation if you click the Standard format, and not only this sim includes the main Nation for game, but we also have collabs. I haven't played the game for a while, but there are a lot of collabs, I know BanG Dream and Touken Ranbu is not surprising since those collabs were common even in the old VG. Buddyfight I've seen from a trailer, but the others I didn't know they came out.

This is the 1 thing I want to see in OPCG sim, as currently you cannot find Events and Characters separately, so you have to scroll down to the Events section to find the Events you need. Whereas Connect, they have nicely split the cards into different type, so even if you can't remember the name of the card, as long as you remembered the type, you can click on 1 of the types and scroll to find the cards you need.

Another thing that you can be more specific is finding the grade of the card, so if you can't remember the type, don't worry, as long as you remember the grade, you could scroll the one into the card you need. But if you remembered the type as well, then the search will be a lot easier than scrolling to find the specific card you need if you can't remember the name.

I don't know when did the game changed from Triggers to Gift, but as an old school player, I will called them Triggers as this is what I remembered about the game. Over time, the game will release a lot of triggers, and having these being sorted out means we can have the triggers we want. This is not as important in Standard since the maximum you can have of the same trigger is 8, but if you are playing G format, you can have up to 16 of the same triggers, and I could just put 16 crits in my deck if I am not playing Strides.

I know in Standard, Bushi tries to bring back Clan mechanic and as for me, I think this is a bad thing, unless they completely abandon V Format. If I want to play Standard, I would want to use the Nation decks instead of Clans especially if you want to try something totally new. But I guess this can bring back old players who would want to try the new format but not a fan of Nation.

Host System

Compare to CFA, these rooms are empty, but there is a single player mode and multiplayer mode unlike CFA, similar to OPCG sim. Unfortunately, the single player mode is fully manual and doesn't have an AI opponent. Although, I would be impress if they can fully integrate an AI opponent, that would make this sim a lot better. I guess, at the moment writing this, CFA will still have the advantages over player base and find opponents to play against.

Battle System

Unfortunately, the battle system is not that great in my opinion. It is mainly manual like CFA, but at least, you don't need to search for your First Vanguard as the system already place the G0 for you. What I do like is the different phases for VG, so you and your opponents will know which phase they are on, not like it's difficult to know.

I'm actually not a big fan of this as it is too clunky with all the text popping up once you click on the card. I like it simple, but, if the game is made by 1 person, then it make sense, this will takes time to develop to make the game more fun. As for me, I have problems with Double clicking as it mostly not as straightforward compare to other sims. Hopefully, they can fix it in the later on.

My Personal Opinion

At the moment, the only thing I like is the deck building features as there are some really useful stuff you can search for. Not bad for Unity which some other sims can't do. For the battle part, if you used to CFA, then, it could be quite hard to adjust, as for me CFA is much easier to use, plus they've got the player base, so you can find opponents easily.

However, knowing Bushiroad, this sim won't last long, although if the link is not available publicly, then, it might survives longer. The only reason why CFA is alive because Bushi can't do anything about that sim, otherwise, CFA will be forced to shutdown like other past sim. It is ironic, they tried to make Cardfight Online, a free sim for everyone to use, but decided to give up on that sim, and make the games where we need to pay AAA price for the game, and the game is not cross platform, so you can't play against Switch users with Steam or Switch users vs Steam users.

I guess I will revisit this sim once in a while as the updates are automatically, so once you download this sim, you won't need to worry about major updates unlike MDPro3. So I can see what's improved, or if they only added new cards for the game. I'll be very sad if they only add new cards and not improve the sim at all, but I'm not an expert on Unity, so I don't know how difficult it would be to improve the sim.