I grew up playing Magic: The Gathering with a certain mad fervor. Many years have passed since then, and though I've picked it back up several times, I'm pretty much over it now. Why do I bring this up? Firstly, Star Era is nothing like MTG. From what I've heard Hearthstone is along the same vein, which may be why I haven't picked it up. However, Star Era has filled me with the same rabid obsession that MTG did so many years ago.
As you may have gathered, Star Era is a CCG, or collectible card game. It is brought to us by Poppace, and I recently discovered it on Kongregate, though it can be found on Facebook, and elsewhere I'm sure. So, browser-based. The game takes place in the far-flung future aboard a massive spacecraft. I'm a bit fuzzy on the rest of the main story. One criticism I do have is that the translation leaves a lot to be desired.
The first thing that struck me about Star Era is the beautiful artwork featured on the cards. If you are into manga or anime style art, then you can stop reading now and go look this game up on the Google. The cards are all breathtaking, and seem to be designed to showcase the art as much as to be functional game elements, which I am all for. I should also note that if you are averse to gratuitous fan service- well, let's just say there is plenty of it. There's nothing groundbreaking about the combat. Your job is to choose the cards you want in play, and the rest basically runs on auto-pilot. That said, it's fairly neat and streamlined. So not a negative on the whole, just not a positive. Much the same can be said about the story mode, except here translation issues reemerge. On the bright side, badly translated dialogue can get you a laugh when and where there otherwise would not be a place for one.
In the end, it all comes back to the cards. They are the game's strong suite, and luckily, what you will spend the most time engaged in, whether acquiring them or upgrading them. Cards come in ranks from one to six, one belonging to the fodder and six belonging to the super OP. Cards can also be leveled, and have max levels, as well as break limits that can raise their max level. There are also skills, both passive and active, that may be randomly triggered during combat. With over a thousand cards (and new ones added regularly), there is tons of room to play around with combinations. Sadly, this is only in theory. In practice, from what I've seen so far, many people use the same stuff.
Then there are the curious quirks that get you coming back and obsessing. Cards have normal versions and what they call 'flash' versions. No-no, not that kind of flash. Think of them more as holographic cards, but in this case they just have special backgrounds and a foreground animation that makes them look shiny. Then, cards also have a final form. When they reach their max level (minus break limits) the image on the card changes slightly. The effects vary, but the changes can usually be counted as improvements.
There's a whole lot more to Star Era, but I think I've gone on long enough for one entry. I may very well revisit this topic at a later time to get a little deeper into strategies and whatnot.
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