The English Release Date is finally set and confirmed, thanks to an announcement coming through this article on ICv2.
The release date for the 1st set & starter decks will be April 30th. The English name for set 1 is "Dawn of the Multiverse Alliance", for starter deck 1 it is "Giant Mechs & Yokai in Space!" and for starter deck 2 it is "Summon the Fell Dragons!".
There appear to be some changes to the product structure for the English version. For example, the English Starter Decks will include a rule sheet and a playmat. This has been a point of criticism for the Japanese release of the Starter Decks, so its good to see this fixed. Hopefully this will also apply to the Japanese Starter Decks starting in Set 2.
As for the Booster Packs, packs have been upgraded from 5 cards to 10 cards, which is more in line with English standards. Cases are 6 boxes for the English release instead of the 12 in Japanese. Hopefully this does not result in a change in the price point. The Japanese price for boxes is the perfect price point for English release, and if, say, that price point was doubled like what happened with the Digimon TCG (which similarly increased pack size from 5 to 10 for its English release) that would hurt the game quite a bit, even if pullrates were proportionally increased.
Ideally, this is the same pullrates and prices, with maybe the packs being a bit more expensive individually but having discounts on boxes and cases to even out the price as is standard for English TCGs.
The article also says the game is being published by Force of Will, which follows what we were told by Ikeda back in June, that Force of Will's parent company, Eye Spy, will be handling the English publishing of the game. The changes to the pack size and case size also make a lot more sense through that angle, as it is the same as in Force of Will.
That similarity means we can probably look at Force of Will to determine many things that are currently left unsaid. Thanks to Some Gamer Dude for filling us in on the following information. In Force of Will, boxes are currently USD$90, so we'd be seeing no change on that end, with USD$4 packs. For the pack breakdown Force of Will has 7 Normals, 1 Token, 1 Rare, and 1 Foil. Back when the game previously had Commons and Uncommons, it was 6 Commons, 2 Uncommons, 1 Rare, and 1 Foil. With either way we're probably looking at the extra cards in packs being filled with mostly ★, with maybe 1 extra ★★ per pack, and leaving overall pullrates the same.
There is no mention of the High Rarity Pack. Perhaps it will not release for English and we'll instead be getting a parallel foil slot in normal packs?
Lastly, for those who are new or missed it, as we covered in this previous article, Ikeda said he plans to speed up the release schedule of the English release to ideally reach simultaneous releases before the 2nd year of the game. For example, this could mean for the first 4 sets, we have only a 2 month gap between each set, instead of the normal 3 month gap.
The release date for the 1st set & starter decks will be April 30th. The English name for set 1 is "Dawn of the Multiverse Alliance", for starter deck 1 it is "Giant Mechs & Yokai in Space!" and for starter deck 2 it is "Summon the Fell Dragons!".
There appear to be some changes to the product structure for the English version. For example, the English Starter Decks will include a rule sheet and a playmat. This has been a point of criticism for the Japanese release of the Starter Decks, so its good to see this fixed. Hopefully this will also apply to the Japanese Starter Decks starting in Set 2.
As for the Booster Packs, packs have been upgraded from 5 cards to 10 cards, which is more in line with English standards. Cases are 6 boxes for the English release instead of the 12 in Japanese. Hopefully this does not result in a change in the price point. The Japanese price for boxes is the perfect price point for English release, and if, say, that price point was doubled like what happened with the Digimon TCG (which similarly increased pack size from 5 to 10 for its English release) that would hurt the game quite a bit, even if pullrates were proportionally increased.
Ideally, this is the same pullrates and prices, with maybe the packs being a bit more expensive individually but having discounts on boxes and cases to even out the price as is standard for English TCGs.
The article also says the game is being published by Force of Will, which follows what we were told by Ikeda back in June, that Force of Will's parent company, Eye Spy, will be handling the English publishing of the game. The changes to the pack size and case size also make a lot more sense through that angle, as it is the same as in Force of Will.
That similarity means we can probably look at Force of Will to determine many things that are currently left unsaid. Thanks to Some Gamer Dude for filling us in on the following information. In Force of Will, boxes are currently USD$90, so we'd be seeing no change on that end, with USD$4 packs. For the pack breakdown Force of Will has 7 Normals, 1 Token, 1 Rare, and 1 Foil. Back when the game previously had Commons and Uncommons, it was 6 Commons, 2 Uncommons, 1 Rare, and 1 Foil. With either way we're probably looking at the extra cards in packs being filled with mostly ★, with maybe 1 extra ★★ per pack, and leaving overall pullrates the same.
There is no mention of the High Rarity Pack. Perhaps it will not release for English and we'll instead be getting a parallel foil slot in normal packs?
Lastly, for those who are new or missed it, as we covered in this previous article, Ikeda said he plans to speed up the release schedule of the English release to ideally reach simultaneous releases before the 2nd year of the game. For example, this could mean for the first 4 sets, we have only a 2 month gap between each set, instead of the normal 3 month gap.
Edited by HunterSerge on 14th January, 2021 at 3:43am CST