Are we starting the same way the Japanese did?

[DanTheTimid]

I'm just curious if the way we're starting is the same or different from how the Japanese started. Apparently the "tabs" are new things implemented by the US team, but I mean more on the lines of does the game play the same way it did at Japanese launch, have any of the cards been changed from how they worked when they first came out in Japan, will we be given access to the same group of cards they had when they first started?

On one hand its important to learn from past mistakes so that we can use the Japanese's experiences, both good and bad, to change the things that in hind sight they would have changed if they could go back and do it again. On the other hand changes can have drastic effects on things like balance that while perhaps superior in the long term could leave us with a very unbalanced game in the short term.

Also speaking of long term, will we be receiving new sets at a faster pace then they did, slowly catching us up to the Japanese? It seems like translating the cards shouldn't take as long as it did for them to create, implement, and balance them. Still there are those who would argue that if you release sets too quickly you over saturate the game and especially "collectors" who try to collect full sets will feel like keeping up with the game is to difficult. My personal opinion is that I'm always for getting the sets in a more timely manner, especially in a case like this where we're behind the japanese and it might be nice some day to catch up to them and be able to have cross country tournaments.

[Rad!oZonde]

From what the staff told me during the interview, not much has been changed from the transition to english. Basically the only difference I see is the tabs, the set/ no set buttons [these just set cards into play the names are just changed in the US version]

hmm what else....ah the purple cards are considered 'Black' cards in the japan version. So no no major changes in the US version of the game.

The cards might be released at a faster pace than what the Japanese had. But then again we have a seasonal card feature [basically special artwork of cards will appear instead of the regular artwork during holidays or certain seasons. They had a few pictures of them on the US site before the change], It's enough to hold us until the next expansion comes out.

[reydien]

A few of the cards have changed from the A-Kon preview to the Alpha/Stress test (specifically thinking of Will o' the Wisp, but other might have changed too). Based on what the US team said in the chat Wednesday, the changes were done after a group of Japanese players play-tested the 4 starter decks (and the initial set???), in order to balance things out.

Based on the above and the way the US Team (need a better phrase for this, "The Mighty 4?") have talked about the Japanese guys, I suspect we'll be getting modified/updated sets compared to the original Japanese releases; I also imagine the way the US cards work will (eventually) be the same as the JPN counterpart.

[Logress]

Everyone has been pretty much on the money. We're starting a lot like the Japanese first set, we just have a few more of the features they didn't add until later. Card skills that might be a different because of game balance issues will probably be changed to match the Japanese once enough cards are out that such things are not big issues. The one thing is that we've heard that overall, the Japanese soul skills are a little unbalanced. Basically, there are just a small number of soul skills strong enough to be worth using, so everyone ends up using the same ones. Right now fixing that would involve too many changes in the Japanese cards, but they're going to try and avoid that problem in the English version. This is why pretty much every soul skill for the 1st 100 is different from the test at Akon.

--Logress