Playtest ahoy!

So the game had its first playtest, and I must say, it was better than I thought it would be.
(Granted, my expectations were pretty low)

The game seems fundamentally balanced, as long as I don't break a few concrete laws I set for the characters... (no base ranged characters with 1600 attack or higher probably being the biggest.)

I think my biggest fear initially was the fighter type characters overrunning the other characters. But when I ended up playing, they had their just had their role like the others, as opposed to steamrolling through everyone. Spells didn't seems underpowered to the point of being obsolete, either.

One thing, that we did notice, is that Phoenix Down and Raise are two VERY powerful, and abusable cards.

Phoenix Down:
Tap user, search your discard pile for a character and put it into play tapped.
Raise:
Target caster, search your discard pile for a character and put it into play tapped.
(More efficient version of potion for white mages...)

The thing about this is, we saw Auron 5 or 6 times that game due to discard pile recursion, which doesn't seem to be very healthy for the game.

Sorry I can't show the cards yet, I've been too lazy to email the artists about the use of their art, but I'll give you some text.

-Auron-
1800 Attack/ 1800 Defense
Sworn Duty: At the end of the battle, discard Auron from play.

Really, he's all stats, and in my opinion, he's the strongest hero in Final Fantasy (lore speaking), so he deserves it, but we can't have him popping in every 2 seconds for tea...

So due to that, I've decided to create a separate remove from game pile, and Auron's ability will now move him to that instead. He can still come back when he is killed, but if you win with him, that should be it, he's done his duty, he's gone. This mechanic will also be implemented for Bahamut, and the Gunblade. The only plans I have for cards being returned from the Remove from game pile is Phoenix, but I haven't even brainstormed that yet.

-Bahamut-
Summon.
Tap caster and put Bahamut into play, when caster readies, remove all non-Summon characters from the game.
(This is probably going to be the nastiest summon you will ever see)

-Gunblade-
Relic. Sword. Weapon.
+100 Att
Specialized Training: If attached character has no traits, (that's stuff like "white" "ranged" etc) characters they defeat are removed from the game instead of discarded.

We also dodged a bullet with Bangle, the generic armor card of the playtest deck. All it really did was increase defense by 100, but we ran into a problem when giving these to 1600 defense characters. They were near untouchable, and there were a few cards that could deal with them, but I think such an integral gameplay mechanic shouldn't have to be dealt with by silver bullet type cards.

In the end, we decided that Bangle will be:

Bangle
When attached character would be discarded, instead discard bangle from play.

It's like a pre-emptive potion or cure spell, (same vein as phoenix down:raise) except with one difference. Potion and cure are considered to be "Recovery" abilities, and there are cards and characters that bar Recovery cards or abilities from being used. Bangle doesn't carry this keyword, and is immune to those effects, on the flip side though, there are no plans to have armor be recursive, so I don't think it will end up being abused.

So anyway, I played with my friend Mitch, who doesn't play ccgs on a regular basis, but nonetheless has a good mind for this type of game. I asked him for his top 5 characters, and here's who he chose. Along with some of my commentary.

1. Cecil
-He's a wall, I was really having trouble dealing with him, Aeris, and Cyan in tandem. (Aeris is kind of like a portable cure) Cyan has 1400/1600 and gets +400 att while counterattacking.

2. Auron
-The stats purely, Mitch kept bringing this bastard back into play like every match.

3. Edge

1400 att/1000 def
Ranged.
Vendetta: When Edge is the only character in play, he gains +400 attack and +600 defense.
-Mitch liked him for the clutch value, and he IS an interesting card, he and Amarant are the only two cards that come dangerously close to breaking that concrete rule I spoke of earlier.

4. Cloud
1600 att/1600 def
Swordsmaster: Sword cards do not count towards Cloud's equipment total.
(Each character may only attach one card at a time, Cloud can attach one, and all the swords he wants)
-This was surprising to me, because the initial playtest has no relics, but Mitch made him work with a Mythril Sword (+200 att) and a Bangle in tandem. It really made him a force to reckon with. He'll get better later though. With the relics in play, there will acutally be 4 in game swords (Mythgraven Blade, Gunblade, Masamune, Mythril Sword)

5. Kain
1400 att/1400 def
Jump: When Kain comes into play in the battle phase, he may immediately make an attack on any character at +400 att.
(This is a one shot, and only available when Kain is played mid-battle)
-This was brought on by Mitch playing his characters conservatively, and while he only had 1 out, Kain came out and won me the match. It was then we both saw he had real ninja potential (for not actually being a ninja at least)

When I asked if there were any characters he thought were underpowered, he mentioned Setzer...

Setzer
800att/1200def
Ranged
Ante Up:When Setzer attacks, you may discard any amount of cards from your hand, this attack gains +300 att for each card discarded.
-Mitch thought he was underpowered, because he felt he only had one shot, and then was pretty much fodder. I do see the merit in that, but at times on my side Setzer was the only one who could really deal with Auron's 1800 defense.

It's on the watch list for sure, but we'll see how it goes.

Location/Relic proxies are printed up, I'll let you know how they go, soon.