Naruto Collectible Card Game
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| Naruto Collectible Card Game | |
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| Publisher | Bandai |
| Players | Two |
| Age range | 8 and up |
| Setup time | < 3 minutes |
| Playing time | ~ 15 minutes1 |
| Rules complexity | Moderate |
| Strategy depth | High |
| Random chance | Some |
| Skills required | Card playing Arithmetic |
| 1 Games may take much longer or shorter depending on a deck's play style. | |
The Naruto Collectible Card Game is a CCG based on the Naruto anime and manga series.
Contents |
[edit] Gameplay
Naruto is a two-player game, with each player having a separate deck consisting of exactly 40 cards. The rules state that decks cannot contain more than 25 total Ninja cards or contain more than 3 cards with the same name. The game consists of alternating turns in which players put cards into play and attack using Ninja cards.
[edit] Ways to Victory
Every time you make an attack that is unblocked by an opponent's ninja you get 1 card from the top of your opponents deck face down. This is put into the "Battle Reward Zone" and after gaining 10 of these Battle Rewards you win the game at the end of the turn. These cards are not used for ante, but rather as a way to simultaneously deplete an opponent's deck and signify how close the player is to victory. You can also win if your opponent's deck is depleted of all cards at the end of any turn.
[edit] Cards
There are four card types referred to in the official rules:
- Ninja (忍)
Ninja cards represent actual characters from the Naruto franchise who can be organized into teams of ninja and may attack or defend during the game's Battle Phases. Only one Ninja may be deployed during a player's Mission Phase unless otherwise stated on a particular card, and a player cannot control two Ninja of the same name. Ninja make up the focus of the game's other cards, as Ninja Battles are generally the most effective way to win a game.
- Jutsu (術)
Jutsu cards represent the Ninja arts employed by Ninja in battle. Jutsu cards are used by both players as part of the Battle Phase, and there is no limit to the number that may be played granted you have the chakra in your chakra area to play them.
- Mission (作戦)
Mission cards represent specific events from the Naruto series. They have certain effects on gameplay, and like Ninja cards, only one may be played during a player's Mission Phase. As of Curse of the Sand every Mission card released requires a hand cost (one card with the same elemental symbol as the mission must go from your hand to the Chakra area).
- Client (依)
Client cards represent clients of the Ninja Villages and characters that make appearances but do not engage in any battles. While in play, they benefit the player and their Ninja, often containing two chakra symbols for the sake of paying for jutsu. Only one may be played during a player's Mission Phase, and a player cannot control two Clients at a time.
[edit] Anatomy of a Naruto Card
A Naruto card is divided into two halves, with one half dominated by the card's art and the other half describing the effect and statistics for the card. On the top of every card are at least two symbols. The symbol on the left is the type of card it is, be it Ninja, Jutsu, Mission or Client. The other symbol determines what element the card's chakra type is. This symbol is used to determine what kind of jutsu this card can be used to pay for, among other things. At the bottom of the card's art usually lies flavor text drawn from dialogue in the English-dub anime of the series. Below this is the card's name.
- On ninja cards (which have a grey background), before the card name is the symbol of the ninja's home village, and after the name comes a shuriken and an image of three cards, both with numbers on them. This is a card's Entrance cost and Hand cost, respectively. After those comes a list of assorted keywords that identify the ninja and its attributes. For example, the card on the right hand side of this page says "Leaf | Genin | Male", meaning that the Ninja (in this case, titular character Naruto Uzumaki) is a Genin-ranked Ninja of Hidden Leaf Village, and is male. Beneath that is the card's effect text, which clarifies what a ninja does aside from attacking and defending. Beneath the effect text will be a set of two numbers divided by a slash. These are the card's combat numbers, and are used to determine Ninja Power (which in turn determines who wins a ninja battle). To the right of the combat numbers is the card's combat attribute, which acts as a keyword for the effects of other cards. Above this symbol is a set of numbers turned sideways. These numbers are used in place of the numbers on the bottom after a ninja loses a ninja battle (called its injured stats). Most injured stats are lower than the stats for healthy (not injured) ninjas, although the card to the right is a notable exception.
- On mission cards, there are the above mentioned entrance cost and hand cost symbols as well as effect text, but missions have a deep sea green background.
- Jutsu cards have various symbols beneath the name of the card. These symbols are the card's "Jutsu cost", and must be paid for using the upper-right hand symbols of cards in your chakra (voluntary discard) area in order to gain their effects in combat.
- Client cards are similar to ninja, except clients have two symbols in the upper right corner and have no combat stats (they cannot be sent out to ninja battles).
On the bottom of every card lies the copyright information, card number, set logo, and a number of white or red dots (or lack thereof) determining rarity. No dots mean the card is common, one white dot signifies an uncommon, two white dots indicates a rare, and three white dots mean the card is super rare, the highest rarity. A red dot indicates that the card is available only through starter decks.
[edit] Sets of cards
- Path to Hokage
This is the set that was released in April 2006 with the first four starter decks, two representing main series protagonist Naruto Uzumaki and two representing his friend and rival Sasuke Uchiha. It has illustrations from the beginning of the series to half way into the Land of Waves arc. (Japanese sets 1 & 2)
- Coils of the Snake
Released July 28th, shortly after "Path to Hokage". It has illustrations from the end of the Land of Waves arc till the Forest of Death in the Chunin exam arc. It adds new abilities like "Permanent (X)" and Mental Power as well as new "Client" cards. (Japanese sets 3 & 4)
- Curse of the Sand
Released October 27th, the third set of the game. It is believed to have illustrations from the preliminary battles of the Chunin exams up to the start of the actual Third Exam. Four more starter decks are released in this set, with two more representing Naruto and the other two representing Chunin exam antagonist Gaara of the Desert. (Japanese sets 5 & 6)
- Revenge and Rebirth
A fourth set is in the works, presumably covering the Third Exam and the Invasion of Konoha arcs. It is set for release in February 2007. (Japanese sets 7 & 8)
- The Chosen
An intermediary set (or possibly the fifth official set) produced after Revenge and Rebirth. It consists of some new cards and popular reprints from sets one through three. The reprints are chosen by the forum participants of the Naruto CCG, hence the set's name.
[edit] North American Distribution
Cards in America are sold in two packages: 10-card booster packs (containing six common cards, two uncommon cards, a foil of any rarity and one rare card, with a super rare in every 12 packs) or starter decks, 50 card packs containing one 40-card ready-to-play deck, a 10-card sideboard, a game playmat, turn counter and stainless steel "ninja blade coin". Booster boxes (display boxes containing 24 booster packs) and theme deck sets (containing all four different decks) are also sold for bulk purchasers. The game's popularity has led to an established market for cards via the internet, with some super rares going for over $30 on eBay.
[edit] Rarity Symbol Breakdown
The game's cards are marked with a certain combonation of dots to determine rarity. For the American release some of the card's raritys became swaped, one type of rarity has been renamed, and one has been taken out all together. This was done to make obtaining certain cards easier and not as complicated like other CCG. Example of changed rarity: in the Japanese version a Ninja card is Super Rare. In the English version the Ninja card is changed to Rare. Here is a rarity comparison of the Japanese and English versions.
English: No Dots=Common, 1 Dot=Uncommon, 2 Dots=Rare, 3 Dots=Super Rare
Japanese: No Dots=Common, 1 Dot=Rare, 2 Dots=Super Rare, 3 Dots=Ultra Rare
In the English version, there also exists "Foil" cards which are shiny versions of rares, commons, and uncommons. This is not so in the Japanese version. The plain foil cards are the super rares, which are catagorized by the shiny rain and sparkle effect that covers most of the card. So, the English version's foil cards are the partial equivalent to Japanese Super Rares. Japanese versions are insterted in only so many packs and there are normally 6 different ones to a set, but the English version is inserted into every pack, and they are foil versions of normal cards as stated above. This is the rarity that was removed. Now, Ultra Rares were kept for the english version, and is the only rarity besides common to keep it's original set of rarity dots. It was changed to Super Rare for the English version, and is catagorized by the refective-gold foil backgrounds and different gold coating used on the symbols on the cards than the gold coating used on the rares. The Rare cards are kindly in between when it comes to the swap of rarity. They retained their name and gold coated writing of the card's name, but the dots where switched, and only the name of the card is coated in gold. In the Japanese version the name, card type kanji, and card element kanji were coated gold.
[edit] Issues
The game's cards are released in 120+ card sets themed after the current events taking place on the English-dubbed anime and manga of the series. Because the English-dub is so far behind the Japanese version of the series, the Japanese version of the card game is also well ahead, with many cards symbolizing events that have not yet appeared on Cartoon Network's showing of the dubbed anime. For that reason, many independent websites have taken it upon themselves to translate the Japanese cards as set spoilers.
Bandai, the company responsible for localization and distribution in the game's American market, has criticized this practice, claiming that such translations are misleading because the North American rules are different from the game in Japan. This is at least somewhat true in the fact that some of the Japanese cards use somewhat different terminology when literally translated in English. The moderators of the forums located on the card game's official website are under policy to immediately lock any threads showing or requesting a translation of a Japanese card that has yet to be officially localized and launched into the American market, although raw images of the cards themselves are tolerated.
Upon launch of the game in America in April 2006, the game was warmly received by fans of the source material and was quickly sold out across the nation, achieving above and beyond the demand Bandai had projected for it. The result was an incredible product shortage that spiked card and booster pack prices as the cards became less available. Parts of North America are either consistently sold out or continue to sell Path to Hokage booster packs at over $5 each, well above the prices of packs for the top competitors in the collectible card game genre. (Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, etc.) This has largely been corrected by the release of unlimited edition Path to Hokage cards six months later.
There are also problems regarding the prints of very early Path to Hokage cards. Some of the cards were translated in a fashion that replaced terms unique to the series with other synonymous terms. (For example, "Genjutsu" became Illusion, "Taijutsu" became Kung Fu, etc.) These have since been corrected, and the series' terms have been used ever since.
