Played it for the 1st 2nd time tonight and it is some of the most fun we've ever had actually playing a card game. It truly does capture the frenetic pace of playing a fighting game which is kinda wild.
Mostly played the season 2 characters tonight as it was the most interesting to us. There are multiple seasons with each one being based on a different fighting game. There's GG Strive, Uni, Blazblue, Street Fighter etc. But season 2, Seventh Cross, is a completely original modern fantasy setting which was free to do it's own thing!
We desperately want to just get into gushing about the style of Seventh Cross but will cover the basics of Exceed first.
THE BASICS (pictured here the Guilty Gear set board because it's the most clear imo)
Each character consists of a thirty card deck that contains two duplicates of every card. There are eight "normal" cards that are shared moves between every deck and seven "special" cards which are character specific. There is no deck building, it is very deliberately designed around what each character can do, much like a fighting game.
The center of the playing board is nine space row representing the 2D space of a classic fighting game, with each player having a character card placed placed outside the central three spaces as pictured above. With a tracker of thirty life above and below it.
You start with a hand of five cards.
Each card consists of: Range, Power, Speed and optionally Armor or Guard
Each turn you may take an Action, or Strike.
Actions consist mainly of utility effects such as moving, drawing extra cards, reshuffling them or playing a card into your boost zone and getting the utility/Boost effect at the bottom of the card. All of these are followed up by drawing a card and ending your turn.
When you declare a Strike however, each player plays a card face down either from their hand or the top of their deck (a wild strike). Before flipping each card simultaneously and resolving each card in order of their speed, with highest going first. Cards that hit then get put into your gauge to be spent later. If you didn't have guard on the card and it went second, or your guard was exceeded, your card doesn't resolve.
Turns continue until one side reaches zero life or has no cards to draw twice. (you shuffle your discards into draw the first time)
And here's where we get into why we love this game so much. You see, a huge part of fighting games and what makes them so fun to us is the mind games you get in a battle between two experienced players. You go into battle knowing exactly what moves both you and your opponent have. You're constantly deducing how to counter what they are capable of from how they move, they're positioning, what moves they use most often, etc. And this game captures that perfectly. Each character has eight normals everyone has. You are provided a set of reference cards to see exactly what seven specials your opponent. Boosts are (usually) played face up. You have clear view of all cards your opponent has used and are free to look through your opponents draw. It is made abundantly clear and accessible for players of all skill levels that you are in a constant game of deduction of what your opponent can and can't do. Not just from played cards but even how your opponent is moving around on the board as every card has a set range they can actually hit in!
You are in this constant dance with your opponent. What can i hit with? What am i safe against? What speed should my cards be to guarantee a hit? How should I move to change this? etc. And because strikes happen simultaneously it never feels like you aren't involved in what's happening. Like a good fighting game you are always making choices even when on the defensive. It is so so so much fun and as someone who bounced off card games like MtG because of how one sided they could feel at times it was wonderful how engaged we felt even when losing this game. And we have to say, even despite the low card count, the few decks we played had many different paths to achieve victory and it doesn't feel like you are locked into a single game plan.
And that doesn't even get into the vibes of our favorite set so far, Seventh Cross
WE!
JUST!
LOVE THE VIBES!
The setting is this occult/modern fantasy world that often leans into outright horror with those who engage with the occult being corrupted or heavily changed by it even if trying to fight it. Something that is both reflected upon in it's art and mechanics! A few of every character's specials in this set have a transformation effect, which is a permanent modifier to your cards that you can take instead of adding said card to your gauge on hit. On top of this, every single character has the ability to transform into a powered up state whose cost is reduced by the number of transformations you have. This powered up form usually shows off the horror or danger of the occult in this world. For example, our favorite character so far (in vibes and playstyle) is Emogine, a fanatical cultist who is in the Blood for Blood card up above. Most of her abilities show off her powers as summoning bloodied hands. And then you see her transform into...
A giant five-eyed beast with an entire mane made out of grasping blood hands. God i love it so much.
Through the art alone, it's made abundantly clear how dangerous the occult is in this world. Especially when put beside one of the more mundane seeming characters like Renea. Who appears to be an occult investigator working for the government. Her specials mostly consist of her pulling a variety of guns out of her trenchcoat. BUT, a few of them show her seemingly invading people's minds and injecting them with an amnesia serum. And we just love the story being told here that doesn't require any sort of lore booklet or anything. Just by contrasting the rest of the more occult character's cards with Renea's you can see the occult horrors lurking behind the normal world in this setting and the quite drastic measures that the powers that be are using to fight it.
And i have to add that, with the central mechanic being transformation they seem to be driving the point home that interacting with the occult inevitable changes you as even this detective who fights mainly with guns and has like two occult card out of her seven specials...has become a monster literally wearing a human skin suit to blend in.