Pros: Fantastic graphics and art, smooth and polish UI, lots of different cards and deck types
Cons: Not massively original, automated gameplay is less tactical, not many features outside of core games
We took some time to check out the closed beta of Ankama’s (Dofus, Wakfu) newest title, a card-board game called Krosmaga, which it’s set in the combined worlds of their previous titles/comics/anime. Players get to play as the gods of the “Krosmoz” and battle against each other summoning worshippers to fight!
With spectacular graphics ranging from an animated intro, user interface, card artwork and general character designs the look of the game both stays true to the Ankama style and perfectly suits this genre of game.
Mechanics wise the game broke down into two different areas; card collecting and board control. Like any other card collecting game we could play with all types of decks based around the Gods and their chosen Summons (units) or Spells that determined the basis of our playstyle and the ability to use the working Deck Builder to refine our strategy. Heading into the game as with other CCG/TCGs we would earn Action Points (resources) and build them up over the course of a match, spending them to play randomly drawn cards from our deck. Spell cards work like they would in most other CCG/TCGs whereas Summons take a place on the game board, a 5 lane tiled bored with 8 spaces from one end to the other that is divided into two areas controlled by the opposing players.
With Summons placed on the board they were then, for the most part, out of our hands and at the end of each opponent’s turn their respective Summon units would automatically move forward a number of squares equal to their Movement Points and then attack anything in range (usually melee, but some units and decks focus on ranged attacks). Other than buffing units, backing them up by placing more Summons in the same lane, or certain Spell cards that allow you to manually switch lanes, your units are out of your control. The goal, whether using Spells or Summons, is to get your units to the other end of the lane where you can attack one of the five “Dofus” (egg like gems) at the end of the lane; deal five damage to one and you remove it from play, remove two and you win the game.
Whilst the combat is automated there is still an element of strategy to the game, choosing which lane to focus on, having spells at hand to shake up the match, at the same time it’s also really simple to pick up. Upon completing the tutorial we were given 300 coins that we could use to unlock a second God/deck (starting with the God Iop who is the default deck for all players), with each deity having a difficulty rating. We liked the look of Xelor, God of Time, who from his description was a max difficulty deck that had some cool abilities like changing the day/night cycle to make your Summons more powerful, managing your AP and using it to create powerful attacks, or hindering your opponents AP spend by increasing costs. Unfortunately the starter deck was absolute crap and he really does seem to be the type of character/deck you should only pick up once you’ve already built up a collection of his cards through booster packs. We got completely annihilated four games out of four with him.
Krosmaga provides a lot of core features you would expect from a CCG style game; multiple decks, deck builder (with recycling component to destroy unnecessary/duplicate cards and make new items), shop with Booster Packs, ranked and unranked play, and a variety of unlockable achievements. The graphics are, as we mentioned, pretty amazing and really the game looks like a fully good to go MMO, though with the active patching from the developers it’s clear that it’s still in the process of tweaking before release.
Our biggest issue is that it doesn’t really go much beyond these core features, it doesn’t add all that much new to the genre, the cards are all fairly standard, the traits of the Summons can easily be compared to other CCGs, there’s no major PVE/Raid modes, individual character customization, no major tactical strategy to the mechanics. The game has been designed to be simple on purpose, it is more appealing to a broader range of people, many of which may be younger players that are fans of the franchise/MMO/comics/anime and so what it lacks in complexity it makes up for in accessibility. It comes with a few little twists in gameplay, such as of the five Dofus eggs that you are trying to destroy, two of them are fakes that when destroyed increase the range of where you can place Summons, but means you don’t get one of the two Dofus you need to win the game; this is such an element of luck (as you can’t see which of the opposing players are fakes) on top of the already luck based random drawing of cards that it seems harder to make a more competitive scene out of the game.
Overall we liked the game, it was fun, easy to play and definitely seemed polished, but in its simplicity it has done little to shake up the genre and if it weren’t for the franchise it was based off and its already established fans, we’re not sure we’d be as positive about the game’s future success with the current strong competition already out there.
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