Kohdok Reviews the Altered Release!

So Altered, a game I covered a year ago, has hit its official release day!
And...wow I got sent a lot...
www.altered.gg/
www.gamegenic....
BOX OF JUNK: www.ebay.com/i...
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#tcg #tradingcardgame #gamedev #ttrpg #magicthegathering

[@Verisi1]

The idea of uniques is still massively offputting to me, both for the cardpool asymmetry and for the aspect of the same card having variable stats/effects (making it harder to particularly remember card stats by their image). Still, this is a pretty huge project and gameplay seems interesting, so hopefully it won't bomb like so many TCGs do. Nice of them to send you so much.

[@lionohday5197]

The rares already throw out the "Know the stats from the art" idea anyways tbh. But with there only be 3 per deck it'll be a lot easier to manage, just take note whenever one is played and be mindful of its effects.

[@Snouthunter]

Yeah, I didn't like the same picture on multiple cards. I remember the stats by picture, so this game would infuriate me...

[@kellz9972]

​@Snouthunter the pictures aren't the same between commons, rares, uniques.

[@Snouthunter]

@@kellz9972 All I know is what I perceived from this video. The cards pictured characters looked the same with different words, different effects...

[@alfredosaint-jean9660]

Is an attemp at doing what Magic originally intented, for every deck to be unique.

[@Sawakiy]

This game is insanely good and refreshing, a mix of new mechanics with well known good mechanics and a "simple to learn, hard to master" vibe. I can't wait for official events to start. I am not completely sold on "uniques" tho, while it makes pack opening AND deck building (very) exciting, I am not sure if it is the best thing to have for the competitive side.

[@lionohday5197]

I wouldn't be surprised if they roll out some system like FAB has where if a unique wins enough it gets banned / made an even higher rarity that counts as a double unique. But I also don't think uniques will be THAT big of a deal, there's already a lot of bombs in the set and a lot of the effects / stats really are minor / side grades. They FEEL really good to open though.

[@dawafflesupreme]

Really great game, spiritual successor to chaotic, but I’m really disappointed how quick everyone is to write off its systems just because they don’t understand them

[@Peeweez0]

So many people in the comments thinking this is related to crypto/NFTs - it is definitely NOT related to those. Equinox, the company behind Altered TCG, is very transparent in their messaging that this is not an NFT and they do not ever plan in going that directions. The QR codes are only related to being able to access your TCG collection in both physical and digital form. The digital collection aspect is more like collecting items/skins in a video game.

[@alfredosaint-jean9660]

Is like a physical nft. Or rather, nft is the digital equivalent of unique items.

[@tomasznapieraa9861]

Great video! Quick question: isn't this game a direct embodiment of Sin №6 even more so than KeyForge?

[@Schmoltis]

The gamplay is quite refreshing, but I am really put off by the QR codes, lack of foils, difficulty to figure out card values of what you pull, and both the unique and rare system. Since they are almost always just clear upgrades from the commons, you can do better in a game simply because you drew more which is a big turn off. I'm curious to see how the market does with this game to sell / trade cards, but it's not up yet and I'll reserve full judgment till I see how that pans out.

[@Sawakiy]

Hey, I agree with you on the "difficulty to figure out card values of what you pull" but personally this is what I liked : the commons are not useless cards in constructed format, and you really have to take them into account for deck-building: is the rare version of a card really better than the common version to justify taking on rare slot in my deck etc...

[@nesterpilgrim]

This game is awesome!! I have been able to draft it and the draft experience is particularly good. Would be interested in more videos from you on it, Kohdok!

[@luizfernandotesck144]

A Marvel Snap where someone win the location every round instead of only in the end of the game. "So new and refreshing OMG" 🤪

[@KGKSkull]

Kohdok, I am still hoping you look at cards that interact with machines. Namely ganbaride

[@Fergit_]

I backed this, have all of it and I STILL don't like seeing QR codes on every card.

[@Iceykitsune]

The reason the pawns are like that is because they can be made on a laser cutter, rather than needing a *very* expensive custom mold.

[@ekolimitsLIVE]

For some reason I can’t find anyone who actually understands why would they make the QR code system. What problem are they solving here? On the other hand, everyone I asked who backed this can’t explain the game play. I don’t see how this is going to work out in the long run.

[@Elblanco12345]

The problem it's solving is greed. They just want a piece of the secondary market and think running it themselves will do that. The entire game wreaks of scam to me. From the QR code bullshit to the kickstarter boxes actually changing the contents of the booster packs in kickstarter exclusive boxes, it just seems like a massive cash grab with little else.

[@lostboycmd]

For tournament organizers, the digital ownership system means that you never have to worry about fake cards. For players, it means that once you have a playset of a card you can sell off any extra digital copies you may have while keeping the paper copies in as many decks as you want (the company will also offer print-on-demand for any cards you have in your collection). You'll also be able to loan your digital ownership of cards to other people, so you don't have to worry about loaning your expensive cards to friends and having them stolen or damaged. Essentially it's just decoupling your ownership of the game piece from the physical card, thereby eliminating a lot of the risks associated with having a $60 piece of cardboard. Of course this does introduce other risks (glitches, etc.) but only time will tell whether those new risks are more worth it.

[@lostboycmd]

Also, if you're interested in learning the game Maindeck has a great tutorial video. Personally I've found it pretty easy to teach, even to people who aren't super into trading card games

[@lionohday5197]

I think it'll be neat to be able to buy / sell /trade cards without losing the actual physical card I own, or having to worry about fakes / damages / scammers. And like yeah it might be hard to explain the game play US backers didn't get their kits until last week XD I got a game in and it was fun! Going to a draft next week!

[@OlgaZuccati]

@@lostboycmd what's the practical difference between this and a NFT?

[@BlindedGuardian]

did 2 sealed tournament and it is a blast! Ciao Lorcana, Ciao SWU, from now on, this will be Altered and Magic!

[@waggledance296]

fwiw i played the game for free online (very generous of the developers) and had a great time, the core gameplay is great and feels very polished

[@MegaPieru3000]

Where's the 1080p resolution?

[@MechaFoxs]

scanning each card is going to be annoying and extra work. I prefer how pokemon and dbs fw do it, just one per pack. But that one code gets you a bunch of cards still.

[@noahhayslip9270]

Looks cool but uh that QR code looks bad

[@noahhayslip9270]

Also the LGS has to stock all this stuff for an indie with no IP attached. I’m not trying to be negative but I am skeptical

[@lionohday5197]

They talked about trying other methods for the QR code to help it blend in better but they didn't work as well, so they prioritized ease of readability for the scanners. You really get used to them and start blocking them out tbh.

[@BlindedGuardian]

one game and you forget the GR, the full art of the Rares cards display "more illustration" than in Lorcana and SWU, not to mention the uniques!

[@zanforian]

The mechanics seem interesting but that level of online integration is a deal breaker for me ever wanting to own these cards. I have cards for decades “dead” games that are still usable, what happens when the special QR code app gets taken out back like a live service game? If you’re making a game I need an app to use properly your game should just be the app.

[@lionohday5197]

You don't need an app to play the game the app is for collecting and trading. It's actually even better for you as you can use the app to sell the virtual copies of the cards you open, buy up any missing cards you want / need and have the Devs print and ship them to you! You get to keep the original and someone else gets to own the virtual, it's a neat system!

[@OlgaZuccati]

@@lionohday5197 ngl, those qr codes are a real eyesore

[@kellz9972]

What exactly do you think happens to the physical cards when you scan them? They still exist regardless if the online portion ceases to exist or not.

[@Zarugoza5969]

I saw a match (well, half a match anyway) at one of the locals I attend and it was definitely intriguing to see the gameplay becuase, like you said, there's nothing quite like it. (I'm a bit of a newbie in the TCG, but surprised to see you mentioned that too). Not swimming in money so I can't reallt invest too much of it atm but it was certainly unique to watch

[@Big_Dai]

"a newbie in the TCG" ..... okay, next!

[@Zarugoza5969]

@@Big_Dai 神奇的鸡蛋纺纱机会将白色和蛋黄溶为一体，这不神奇吗？点击链接我简历，获取一个

[@5p3cu10]

The digital stuff and no foils kills this for me. Also not being able to watch any pack rips live is not good for a game. Sadly it's a pass. I will stick to Dragon Ball and Final Fantasy

[@kaitowaranyaphilippjonatha5793]

Can you make a video to: damage vs. DEF? What need potenciel more?

[@mayac69]

Is that the Hirigaru Precure transformation music at the beginning? It's very distracting.

[@charlesh4333]

In my head, this game seems like it plays like a two-person solitaire match. I know there is strategy involved but the reserve pile allows both players to basically have a +2 hand every turn that is guaranteed and that +2 is up to your choice. The unique system is cool, but providing alt arts and random numbers like Bakugan kinda did with their g power. This makes the collectability for this game is non-existent. The digital thing with the game from what I have heard is. You can't play in tournaments unless you own the cards on the app. Forcing players out of using proxies in tournaments is fine but that was already a thing. The foil system is stupid from a company standpoint. 1) Instead of investing in this rng number and art thing they could have put that cost into making foil cards, but if they do make foil cards the packs may need to be raised a dollar or so. 2) Printing off singles in a foil format is crazy expensive. I would assume the best way of doing this would be to wait till the end of a week and wait while all the submissions come in then make a sheet with the cards and print them all off as foils to save money. But wait, doesn't that make two copies uniques???? One that is a foil and one that is nonfoil. And how about having three types of foil cards. Does that mean you could technically make 4 copies of a card????? If that is the case it could make for extremely valuable and extremely limited cards. But I guess if you scan them all into your app, and the function of trading cards from account to account doesn't exist. Then the cards become useless which makes the game DOA. Idk, a solitare-like pvp card game is like playing Tetris multiplayer. It works but idk if it's the right call for the card game world. Putting anything in the art area is very bad-looking to me. The only time I think it's fine and this is a personal preference. Is it's on the corners and it makes sense. For instance, the flesh and blood borders along the art, how it covers some of the corners of the art but not too much. The qr code is a massive abstraction from every other card game that it doesn't look appealing. Oh yeah, what's the point of grading anything from this game if you can play the card in a tournament without it being scanned into your phone. I know people don't play with slabbed cards but this goes back to my secondary market questions. Basically, there is no secondary market, unless you can trade on the app.

[@sambennett8444]

There's plenty of interaction in the game. Target player discards from hand, reserve, character, permanent, force things to move to the other side freeing up a lane you want to win in. Not solitaire. You can also digitally trade cards literally right now Play the game (which you can do on bga right now for free) before you waffle about what you think the game is

[@lionohday5197]

1. While it certainly can be solitaire that's only if you play it as such, in all factions you can try and body block the opponent from scoring their location by having a higher stat in the trait they need, allowing for some interaction. Then each faction has its own way of further interacting, like bouncing a card back to reserve, sending it to your hand, making it go to sleep for the round. Since your and your opponent take turns together it can lead to some interesting play patterns where you're both feeling out if the other has the out. 2. Unique cards, from what they've said you can freely reprint Uniques though only the person with the virtual ownership will be allowed to use them in a competitive tourney. 3. TBH I think foil cards in general tend to look pretty bad (especially magic's ) so I'm not crying over the loss of them, and you will be able to print foils using their POD service.

[@cantrip7]

It's a shame these games don't launch with actual digital play alongside these scanning gimmicks. Lightseekers and Pokemon got me to buy physical product for digital play before, and I'm jonesing for it to become standard

[@JlsvH]

You can play the starter sets digitally on BoardGameArena. And you can link your altered account and play with your scanned cards over on BGA. So that is kinda neat. Have played one game myself. Have to play a few more before I form my opinion on this game

[@Banaanivatkuli]

Still a week here in Finland 😭

[@Sloopdoop]

I liked the artstyle of the cards when I first saw them, but lost all interest the moment I saw the QR codes. I have played TCGs for 17 years and I have 0 interest in games with dumb gimmicks. I don't see Altered lasting for very long

[@joeryan5587]

what happened to the 7 deadly sin of "more than the deck and some dice?" This seems like too much junk is required for play.

[@lionohday5197]

Nah all you need is the 5 land cards and four tokens, realistically you can use a quarter and a penny. Maybe a dice if you play the pink faction. Obviously the company just wants to sell you the higher quality merch.

[@alfredosaint-jean9660]

Yeah, is very board gamie.

[@SketchingHands]

I saw two ppl play this recently. All they tried to do was sell me on the QR stuff. Got crypto vibes. Not once did they mention gameplay. Imma stay away for 3 years and see if this survives.

[@Snouthunter]

I like the exploration part of this game. I'm working on making a TCG, and mine will have exploration built in. I want no two games played to ever be the same.

[@richelledecastro7705]

Got to play this at pax west. I actually liked it a lot

[@sinisterpuddle6655]

I am so sad I missed the Kickstarter for this game but I'm excited for the release party next weekend!

[@JAY-1-2-3-4]

Odd question, but whats your thoughts on wild manes?

[@RarecuisineSaucegod-ig8bc]

This game has quite a few products. Can't wait for our release event.

[@sammckay1307]

Uniques are the dumbest possible design decision in terms of competitive play. Imagine if only Magnus Carlsen got to play with a queen that could move twice.

[@alfredosaint-jean9660]

His opponent also will have a unique piece.

[@PhosPhryne]

It wont be long before they ditch the unique mechanic entirely or the game will die.

[@richelledecastro7705]

Can't help but say if they do it becomes 50\50 if they die or not. On one hand it may be good to do that, make it less complicated or it may be bad because they have lost a unique factor that made them stand out.

[@Monkey_D._Elliott]

Why would the Unique mechanic kill the game? You can run three per deck. Even if someone managed to get the absolute perfect 3 for their deck you're still guaranteed to see them every game. Uniques are cool and a wonderful feature for the game.

[@jonaskohler7683]

@@Monkey_D._Elliott nah its hella stupid and if u dont see that then u have never played a tcg

[@alfredosaint-jean9660]

Is the one thing that rise my curiosity about this game. If they ditch that, is just a Fantasy Flight esque game.

[@jonaskohler7683]

@@alfredosaint-jean9660 if they ditch that they might just get players to play the game

[@OlgaZuccati]

The "unique digital ownership" thing seems to be blatant pandering to cryptobros, which already raises a bunch of red flags. A TCG trying to pander to speculators in detriment of gameplay this early is very worrying.

[@gorganiangranola]

well if you'd look into it that's exactly not what this is for, this is utility for gamers of any kind iirc grand archive was a game that at first wanted to actually go nft and that game has a lot more pandering to collectors and ultra weebs going on than altered

[@OlgaZuccati]

​@@gorganiangranola the game has the promise of randomizing card stats plus the whole online thing which makes no sense, they should have made the cardgame digital if they were going for that route, the cardboard now is just completely pointless. After you pull the card and you scan it, you might as well light the cardboard on fire, since you don't need it anymore, and it's not like you get two copies of the card, you still need to own the nft to play it at tournaments. It's literally just wasting trees, printers, and carbon moving that much cardboard and plastic around that is going to get dumped on the ocean. The model here is terrible, if the card game proceeds i can see them dropping either the digital or physical distribution to focus solely on one. The entire pitch i'm reading here is that you as an investor buy thousands of boxes so you can pull a unique with cracked stats so you can sell that on the secondary market. The whole digital shtick is a tool more tailored around giving investors marginal security than something that actually has uses for normal players. also, i play card games a bunch and no fucking tcg player ever calls themselves "gamers", I'm not going to say that you're a poser who is defending this game because it is in your investment portfolio because I have no proof of that. But I have seen time and time again those obscure games having a hundred defenders in the comments because the bag holder discord shares videos of ppl talking about the games so they can keep a veneer of legitimacy. In isolation, your comment doesn't strikes me like that per say, but I have seen other people here doing that and this rang my alarm bells on for serial bagholding discord shenanigans.

[@quickestturtlez5362]

While I am not the biggest fan of the QR codes or PoD system, this is not for cryptobros in the slightest. This will probably be one of the most affordable tcgs. The digital ownership downside is that it basically forces players and stores to use the games own marketplace instead of a 3rd party. Outside of that it has a lot of positives and has nothing to do with NFTs or crypto nonsense.

[@ShaneGifford12]

The main advantages of digital ownership they are building towards are a global marketplace where you don't have to ship the physical cards, a virtual copy of your collection for playing in the online client, and an ease of deck checking during tournament play. As someone who has played magic and magic arena getting all your physical cards in the virtual client and not having the company try and double dip me sounds great. The end of your comment about detriment to gameplay doesn't make sense to me, in what way does digital ownership detract from gameplay?

[@DrPlonk]

The only thing blatant is you not knowing what you're talking about

[@Big_Dai]

@3:00 "Affordable", sure. Also, relatively unnecessary. Can't wait for this product to fail as a game. Can't see this getting anywhere.. and I'm sure the Kickstarter happened because of speculation and weird stuff behind it.

[@lionohday5197]

The game is made by the creators of dixit and was backed by asmodee there's nothing suspicious about its success.

[@Monkey_D._Elliott]

All games are unnecessary. I think Altered is very cool and the gameplay is fun. No speculation about it. There's a large European audience due to the creators involved and a lot of genuine interest stateside. While it's possible for any game to fail, I feel fairly confident Altered will beat the 2 year curse. Also, weird to root on the failure of a TCG you don't care about.

[@Velereth]

The art is cringe

[@TpDgreat]

yeah theres something about the art that i dont like,,idk its too friendly looking? generic fortnite ish? if you look @ 7:53 theres is no villainous looking character everything is all about fun theres nothing for me to say "oh thats a cool character" its too colorful even that warriors are colorful and the colorful hairs is a big L

[@Peeweez0]

To each their own - the artwork in Altered is inspired by animations by Studio Ghibli (Miyazaki films), Riot Games (League of Legends) and contemporary French art styles from board games like Dixit and Seasons. I can understand people that enjoy the fantasy style of MTG may not be into this art though but I don't think there's a need to call the artwork cringe.

[@alfredosaint-jean9660]

​@@Peeweez0I love french comics art style, and this is not that.

[@jonaskohler7683]

@@Peeweez0 to throw ghibli into this clusterfuck of character design is just so unnecessary bruh

[@fearanarchy]

So much "modern audience" art. Missing limbs, flying wheelchairs, body positivity... I will say they are filling another "under represented niche".

[@TpDgreat]

youre right and this will get worse and worse on the next sets thats if they managed to get an audience,, this is just bad art TCG art wise too generic looking characters like fortnite ish,every one is happy colorful it looks like theres no tension or a threat on this world at all. its hard to create a new IP if you start with generic art style they need something new

[@ShaneGifford12]

​@@TpDgreatYou say they need something new, but they did do something new. Their game is not about killing, they explicitly want the tone of the game to be friendly. I prefer this over more generic anime art or generic fantasy

[@alfredosaint-jean9660]

I haven't seen that many cards, so I haven't notice it, but from what I have seen, it looks very bland. Grand Archive, while cliche, at least has a direction.