I Played The Naruto Card Game EARLY.. It Was Like OLD YUGIOH??

The Naruto craze swept the nation in the early 2000s with the release of the first anime simply called Naruto. After 220 episodes riddled with lovable characters, thrilling villains, and an epic climax, the Naruto show gave way to the next anime in the year 2007, Naruto Shippuden. These shows were fan favorites and lasted over 15 total years and paved the way for Boruto, a show that is currently still airing. All of this lore and legacy built up an incredible world full of ninjas that left us wanting even more. And the more is coming because the Naruto trading card game is coming soon and I was given a chance to get a first look at the cards, the gameplay, and more. This event was located in a room during Gen Con, a huge convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. Gen Con took over the city with vendors and play area covering not just the convention center, but Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Colts, and all of the surrounding hotels as well. I was lucky enough to get special access to the Naruto trading card game area and was given a crash course on how the game will be played. The game started with a scripted scenario, but once the rules had been explained, we were able to play on our own from there. Paul from Team APS used the Naruto deck and I used the Sasuke deck. Though I am Team Naruto, I ended up really liking the Sasuke deck. Each deck consists of 51 cards with one being your leader. The leader can attack, use abilities, and replenish chakra. Each player starts with 15 life on their leader and the goal is to damage the opponent's leader until their life is reduced to zero. You get one regular summon per turn, which is used by tapping card on your side of the field. This allows you to summon any regular character card from your hand to the battle area, which is where all face up characters are played. There's no limit to the number of characters that can be played in this area. [music] There's also another type of summoning called EX summoning, which allows you to summon additional characters to the field as many times as you are able to. This only applies to EX characters, which are much stronger cards than normal characters, but have specific requirements to be summoned. My deck contained a Sasuke EX card that when summoned could attack immediately. Most characters in this game cannot attack the turn they're summoned. This ability is called rush and it could also destroy an opponent's character card and it didn't even need to be tapped, which is a specification on some other cards. Now, let me cover the chakra I mentioned earlier. Each player starts the game with five chakra and you never gain more than five chakra. The chakra is used to activate face down cards, which is limited to five [music] total set cards, which are character cards that have effects that can be activated in certain situations. These cards are used to respond to your opponent's moves and allows you to play on your opponent's turn. Character cards are set face down in the support zone where they can be activated after an opponent plays a support, attacks with a monster, or uses an ability at the cost of chakra. The support cards are critical to the game because if they are used incorrectly, your leader will be defenseless. I had an Orochimaru support character that cost me two chakra to activate, but could destroy two tapped character cards. Characters become tapped after attacking, so once [music] they had attacked, they were vulnerable to my Orochimaru card. As you can see, the chakra card allows for very powerful effects, but do need to be replenished by your leader. The leader can simply be tapped to restore all five chakra cards, but it is not allowed to attack or use its other ability that turn. Here is a situation I ran into with Paul where we went back and forth multiple times in the same battle. Okay, we just had a very Yu-Gi-Oh! like turn. I attacked you. I activated Jiraiya and Jiraiya let me pop two rested cards. So, which was these two. I I chained, so he gets two. And when he summoned, he'll put attack one of my characters. Well, then you chained Kakashi. I thought you paid life. You know, I had to pay the chakra and life. Yeah, okay. So, so now this does reverse order like Yu-Gi-Oh! and all that's going to resolve. Another interesting thing about this game is how the phases work. The initial turn phase is to untap all tapped cards. Second is the draw phase, which actually allows you to draw two cards unless going first, in which case it's only one. After that, it's all one fluid phase. So, you can attack, then activate a support, then attack, then use a leader ability to replenish chakra, then use a support, and so on. Meaning there are a lot of ways to get creative and outsmart your opponent, making it super interesting. After about 30 minutes of learning all of this about the game and playing on scripted, I finished my first match with Paul from Team APS and got a stop. >> First game ever of the Naruto card game, what do you think? >> First of all, Rock Lee beat me with a haze, but other than that, >> [laughter] >> I like it. It's very It feels There's a lot of you can do with my top card. It's quite a fast-paced game in the sense that like you can always going to respond to what they're So, like you have to still be That's very strategic about I was hoping this And I didn't like that. Like I like that >> Oh my god. >> just because I played a card. Just because I attacked doesn't mean it's like necessarily going to just happen. There's not like just a distinct phase. This so like I can like so much summon something, attack with it, and if it gets like a rush thing, then I can like sacrifice it later. >> It's very open like if you get stopped, you can then like do something else. Like >> very open game And I can always like oh like like you interrupted my thing, okay, now I can like do something different with that card later if I want to. >> Yeah. >> Or even like with like these like leaders or whatever, I can like attack with my leader, I can use it to recover my resources, or I can use its effect. It's like everything has a lot of use. And like as someone kind of coming from like a Yu-Gi-Oh background, I like cards with like multiple things they can do. >> Yeah. One of my favorite things that I noticed was just as like a someone who likes to collect cards is everything is a character card. So, everything is cool. Like there's no, you know, artifact or just like boring random thing that's in the show that some point they're like oh this water bottle is going to like heal my life points or whatever. Like this guy you set him or you can summon him as a character or he can be activated and then summon. Like they have different ways to be used. It's super interesting and it's cool because you're seeing all the characters from the show. Like as a big fan of the show it feels like they took that into like how the characters act in the show or that kind of how their effects work. But it was fun because it wasn't super fast either and as a fan of older Yu-Gi-Oh it felt a lot like older Yu-Gi-Oh in a way but also it was a little bit different where you had different support cards or different chakra cards and different summons but there's special summoning in the game. There's there's chaining. There's all kinds of different cool stuff. So I had a ton of fun on the first time. So I think there's a lot of potential here. Oh and I forgot to mention that while we were playing we got to hold some of the special rarity cards including Naruto and Sasuke cards that had a manga strip on them. Boy were these beautiful. >> Oh my gosh. Are these like they're like manga arts OR SOMETHING? >> OH. >> WOW. >> That is insane. >> Yeah this is but the this is the best art I've ever seen out of a game. >> They're so hot like the holo is so nice. >> And I like how like you got to so much access to the art here. >> This is >> I'm assuming like there's going to be text boxes in the full version but >> I hope not. >> [laughter] >> Wow. Wait how many are there? How many different ones? >> So so far I'm holding just like six of them and I and I gave Noble the other half of the of the of the pile so there's more of this. The Sasuke is awesome too. >> Oh my gosh. That's incredible. >> So I guess these are just character cards. >> If you negate a card it doesn't send it to the graveyard. So I'm going to be a different rarities versions then. >> Yeah I don't know. Yeah I don't do Did have collector rare and and starlight rare? >> Okay, it's not collector rare but it looks like it could be. >> Yeah, it's close. Oh my gosh, the Gen Con exclusive Naruto gang rise up. Boruto Uzumaki. This is going to make me watch Boruto. It's going to make me do it. Oh, I want that Jiraiya card. Itachi. >> Oh my god, the spoiler. >> Orochimaru. Oh yeah, and then the ones we've seen which are these two we're like >> Just wow. >> Those are crazy. Those are crazy. >> After this I asked a few others what their favorite parts of the game were and for some initial impressions. >> do you think? >> Oh boy, this is so much fun and I'm not just saying that cuz I won both my games. >> Hey, we both won so like Yeah, we kind of like the game, you know. Yeah. Literally have never lost so let's not face each other because that could ruin everything. Yeah, that would make no sense so honestly big fan. I enjoyed >> of our ninja legacy. >> Let's go. >> Strong cards there. Cool cards, it's back and forth. The game is just a blast. >> Yeah, it's but it's a very Yu-Gi-Oh X One Piece. Like does that feel okay? >> Yes. >> Oh, 100% yes. >> Yes, that's what I was going to say. >> Strongly resisting the temptation to memorize every card to replicate them just for myself and I know that they would not be cool with that. >> I feel like this is for meme footage now. >> [laughter] >> All of the like effects are all are like the ninja cards so you know, you play games and you're like Well, I I drew all my spells and I drew >> Yeah, that's exactly my favorite part. >> Yeah, and I've been playing like a lot of Gundam and I may or may not have bricked once or twice this weekend so being able to have all my effects but also even just being able to play them as vanilla as it's really cool. So like all the flexibility of game play is really really high. >> I was really glad that we played One Piece at that last event because this had a little bit of that with mixed with Yu-Gi-Oh to me. >> Yeah, it was it's a good primary action. >> Yeah, so I was really glad that we did that so I felt more comfortable with my Yu-Gi-Oh! knowledge and that combined. >> Yeah. Yeah, honestly, yeah. I mean, Bandai card games all have the same kind of flavor, but they all have like their different you know, concepts and certain things. Honestly, you guys are probably more used to it, but how do you call this is counter anything? Yeah. >> That was different. Yeah, we loved that. We were so excited. It was like negate. We're like, "Yes, let's go." >> [laughter] >> Honestly, that's a lot of fun, a lot of interaction, and the Chakra system is super unique. So, yeah. >> I like that it's already there. You don't have to wait for it. It's like I get to go right away. And since And Yu-Gi-Oh! players love to just go, go, go. So, and this was like a good balance of going and not like winning immediately, you know. >> I agree. I agree. >> Next, I was gifted an insane bag shaped like Jiraiya's scroll. Inside, it contained a few other gifts from Bandai as well. Let's Let's check this thing out. Inside, there's some hidden jutsus. Oh, yeah. Check this out. T-shirt. How do I look? >> Yeah. >> Very ninja. Very distinguished. >> [laughter] >> Then, check this out. A playmat for Naruto. I had to play Sasuke, but I'm really a Naruto guy, okay? All right. Yeah, that's That's right. I'll change my mind. Check this out. Check this out. Naruto card game. We got a Chakra card in there. We got some sleeves. Let's open them up. Take a look at them. Get a little sticker. And there are the sleeves. Incredible. Amazing. Thank you. >> Finally, I got to reveal this insane Naruto Uzumaki card for the first time ever on video. This looks absolutely insane. Naruto Uzumaki going nuts. And look where I am. Right next to the giant version. That's insane. Look at this Look at this card. That is beautiful. Three damage is a ton in this game, too. So, that guy does does a bunch of work. There will be other special card reveals on other channels that attended the event as well, so keep an eye out for more amazing cards. I absolutely love the artwork in this card game, and as you all know, I love collecting cool cards. This game was a ton of fun to play, plus it has these amazing-looking cards, cool rarities, and an awesome IP that I enjoy. The Naruto card game will be releasing next summer, so keep an eye out for additional updates from Bandai. If this sounds like a card game you might want to try. I already have, and I know I'm looking forward to more.