History VideoGame / Shadowverse

In retrospect, ''Shadowverse'' is considered to be a SpiritualSuccessor to ''VideoGame/RageOfBahamut'' after the English version failed to be successful in the west (mainly due to numerous ScrewedByTheNetwork moments with dropping many events). Regardless, the game still has the anime style graphics and cards, with even English voice acting to boot. Unlike ''VideoGame/RageOfBahamut'', Shadowverse has succeeded in the U.S., in addition to being one of the top played {{Collectible Card Game}}s in Japan.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''VideoGame/RageOfBahamut''. In fact, nearly ''every'' card in this game uses card art from ''Rage of Bahamut'' (not to mention the huge failure of ''Rage of Bahamut'' in the west due to ScrewedByTheNetwork). The second expansion is even called "Rise of Bahamut".

** ''VideoGame/StreetFighter'' characters [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QXJLLrnDFo are available as leaders]].

* TooLongDidntDub: The ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' leaders retained their Japanese voices in the English version and did not have any English voice lines (as opposed to the ''VideoGame/StreetFighter'' leaders that kept the English voice lines). This is most likely due to union issues, as the voice acting for the ''Fate'' series's dub was done via union while Shadowverse English dub is non-union (this may also be the reason why this trope was averted for Street Fighter leaders since the Street Fighter games' dub was non-union).

Unique to the game is an evolve mechanic, which is enabled in each match after a few turns pass. Evolving typically gives the follower a sizeable stat boost, the ability to attack other followers without needing to wait, and can even enable additional abilities. Doing so costs evolve points and they are of limited supply without assistance of card effects; the player going first gets to do this twice, while the player going second gets three evolves and access to evolves one turn earlier to offset the first player's advantage.

* '''Celestial Dragonblade''' (September 2022): Features cards adapted from the second season of the anime ''Shadowverse Flame'', and introduces traits associated with those cards. Features Cernunnos and Tactical Dog as leader cards.

* GagBoobs: Quite a few female followers, but Isabelle the sorceress is the most visible example, even if they had to [[{{Bowdlerise}} censor her cleavage]] for the English release.

** Runecraft has a [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/101311010 Penguin Wizard]]. That's right, a ''[[EverythingsBetterWithPenguins penguin wizard]]''.

* HornyDevils: Available as a few of Bloodcraft's followers. For instance, [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/101611010 Lilith]] and [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/101611140 Succubus]].

** You can replace a daily mission of your choice, but only after every 21 hours. This gives the player a chance to ignore class-based missions for classes in which they do not have any working decks at the moment.
** The player can liquefy chosen cards for vials (that in turn, would allow the creation of newer cards), allowing excess cards to at least, have some use, and giving the player the freedom to create a preferred card with the right amount. A recently-nerfed card can be liquefied for its full crafting cost, giving a refund to players who have invested in a strong deck without expecting nerfs to its key cards.

** An update allows players to access the Guild War chapters and beyond without needing to complete the Morning Star arc, so that new players can still access story content without getting roadblocked by the DifficultySpike in the later Morning Star chapters. They do run the risk of encountering spoilers this way, though.

* DifficultySpike:
** Chapters 5 and 6 of each Story Mode line (should you be playing from the very beginning) is where the game [[WakeUpCallBoss stops giving itself a handicap]]. The AI now starts at a full 20 defense, and it begins to play more proficiently and use evolutions more frequently.
** An even bigger spike occurs after Chapter 8 for the relevant characters (everyone except Eris). [[JustifiedTrope This is because the initial 8 chapters were around since the game's launch]], balanced to be beatable by players who had just started out and have yet to accumulate a good collection. Chapters 9 onwards were added much later, and are tuned to challenge experienced players who have access to high-quality decks. It's after Chapter 9 that [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the AI just starts to outright cheat]] by creating [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules decks that would be illegal for any human player]] that are capable of brutally unfair combos of cross-faction cards. The spike is worst in the latter half of the Morning Star arc, but slips back down into less unfair territory in the Guild Wars arc.
** Once the player hits rank A0, they no longer earn winning streak bonus points, slowing their progression through the ranks.[[note]]With the division between Rotation and Unlimited, you still will retain the winning streak bonus for the format where your rank is lower, up through to AA3.[[/note]] It's also the point where they start encountering more competitive decks and competent players, and are forced to bring their best to win consistently.
** An inversion of the trope happens once the player manages to reach Grand Master. Those who achieve Grand Master rank remain there until the quarterly reset. Until then, the player keeps their rank and has collected their Grand Master rewards, and no longer faces any pressure to succeed except if they want to clear their daily missions quickly (or if they want to climb towards Grand Master in the other format).
** Grand Prix mode presents one when you qualify for its finals. You only get one shot (as opposed to one free attempt per day and a few more if you can buy into extra attempts) and it's double elimination (formerly single), so losing one too many times, even to a bad matchup, will end your run. And given the stakes (especially in Group A where the rewards are much better), you'll be facing the strongest or most popular decks around.

* BalefulPolymorph: Several cards exist that transform other cards into weak, powerless followers.

* '''Roar of the Godwyrm''' (June 2022): An expansion that retrains many well-known characters and includes legendary cards from the second half of the first anime season. Features Wolfraud and Jeanne as leader cards.

Unique to the game is an evolve mechanic, which is enabled in each match after a few turns pass. Evolving typically gives the follower a sizeable attack boost, the ability to attack other followers without needing to wait, and can even enable additional abilities. Doing so costs evolve points and they are of limited supply without assistance of card effects; the player going first gets to do this twice, while the player going second gets three evolves and access to evolves one turn earlier to offset the first player's advantage.

** Take Two has you construct a deck of 30 cards by choosing between two sets of 2 cards each 15 times. You then play 5 matches with players who also have these decks.

** In the earlier expansions, the "Evolved" artwork of a card simply has the original artwork mirrored and depict minor changes to the follower's equipment, weaponry, or background. However, there are a few cards where the follower sports an entirely new pose when evolved, and this has been observed with increasing frequency in followers from more recent sets.

** The ''Shadows over Rivayle'' update introduced a Battle Pass system, replacing the usual Score Rewards. There are two reward brackets -- one that's freely accessible, and the other for those who've purchased the Battle Pass. Naturally, purchasing the Battle Pass gives out greater and more frequent rewards, including a bonus leader skin. That said, the [[CosmeticAward bonus leader skin]] is the only reward unique to the paid Battle Pass; everything else it offers is either rupies, card packs, or alt-arts of existing cards that the free Battle Pass will readily provide.

* ClimaxBoss: Nexus in the first half Morning Star Arc, and [[spoiler:Eris and her clones in its second half, just before the main cast escapes the dream world.]]

** Chapters 5 and 6 of each Story Mode is where the game stops giving itself a handicap. The AI now starts at a full 20 defense, and it begins to play more proficiently and use evolutions more frequently.

* ExplosiveOverclocking:
** A player can only have a maximum of 9 cards in hand. If they attempt to draw new cards, these cards will be destroyed, much to the player's embarrassment.
** Evolving a Red Ragewyrm lets it go from a harmless 0/5 to a monstrous 10/10. However, it dies at the end of the turn.

* RocketTagGameplay: Relative to other card games, matches in ''Shadowverse'' are very fast, and the devs strictly enforce this. Often their method of doing so is to have late-game cards be absurdly powerful. Many of them have ways to deal direct face damage or be extremely difficult to remove, only requiring filling a condition to get that level of damage. The other way it's enforced to to have extremely high-tempo mid-game cards, where failing to catch up or immediately counter it snowballs into a quick loss, or permanent leader effects that gradually overwhelm the opponent. These kinds of cards outnumber strong defensive options.

* LotusEaterMachine: [[spoiler:Chapter 9 onward of the Morning Star arc that the characters have been sucked into a dream world designed to sate their desires.]]

* '''Edge of Paradise''' (March 2022): An expansion featuring characters from the Empyrean Inn arc, including the "Festive" trait to distinguish its signature cards. Magna Zero and Resplendent Phoenix are this set's featured leader cards.

* {{Alucard}}: Available as a Bloodcraft [[https://shadowverse.gamepress.gg/card/alucard Follower]].

** Most paid "Battle Pass" systems in other games only start giving out rewards after purchase, encouraging players to purchase them early in the season for maximum rewards. ''Shadowverse's'' paid Battle Pass gives retroactive rewards so that a player who's purchased the Pass late is still rewarded for their prior grinding.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: The conclusion to the Morning Star story has every character pretty much set out on a new adventure to other worlds [[spoiler:to chase after Nexus now that their own world is safe]].

* CastHerd: A trend for a fully-voiced card game, Shadowverse has [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters hundreds of voiced cards]] across several languages, so this becomes inevitable.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Or cards. As of the Brigade of the Sky Expansion, there's over 600 fully-voiced cards, some of which represent characters from ''Rage of Bahamut'' or ''Granblue Fantasy''.

* AdultFear: Rowen fears that he might accidentally kill his family if his dragon curse goes into a rampage. He attempts to prevent this from happening by ''not going home'' until he can control the curse. Isabelle has also shown signs of this trope in the past – the fear of having your loved one die in the middle of a war.

* '''Starforged Legends''' (September 2017): Introduces cards themed on various constellations from multiple mythos. This set also contains special leader cards -- alternate art versions of popular cards that won the leader poll. Those alternate-art cards cannot be crafted, and can only be pulled from the set starring them, but getting those cards will also grant the player their respective leader skin and sleeve. Daria and Imperial Dragoon (Aldos) are featured in this set.

* '''Fortune's Hand''' (June 2020): A tarot-themed expansion. The '''Rally''' keyword was introduced with this expansion. Rally effects activate when the number of allied followers that have come into play (from both being played from the hand or summoned via effects), is equal or greater than the effect's Rally value.
* '''Storm Over Rivayle''' (September 2020): A [[TheWestern western]]-themed expansion set during the Fate's Trigger storyline. This set introduces the '''Maneuver''' keyword. Maneuver indicates followers that need to be "maneuvered" by another follower (such as a car that needs a driver). Followers with the Maneuver keyword cannot attack until a follower that meets specified conditions enters play. Once a follower that meets said conditions comes into play, it leaves the field and the Maneuver follower can attack (followers that leave this way do not count as having "left play", nor do shadows increase). When the Maneuver follower leaves play, the follower that activated it returns to the field (again, this does not count as "come into play" as technically it never left).
* '''Eternal Awakening''' (December 2020): The second set based on ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'' staring [[WorldsBestWarrior The Eternals]]. This set introduces the '''Skybound Art''' and '''Super Skybound Art''' keywords (named after the LimitBreak mechanic of the ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasyVersus'' fighting game-spinoff), which function like the Union Burst keyword. However, Super Skybound Arts start at 15 turns instead of 10 turns, but compensate with more powerful effects. Triggering Super Skybound Arts also triggers the card's lesser Skybound Arts at the same time.
* '''Darkness Over Vellsar''' (April 2021): An expansion built on the Fate's Abyss arc, introducing the Vellsar characters as playable cards. It also uses Vellsar's "corruption" aesthetic to re-introduce familiar characters with drastically different abilities. No new keywords are introduced here.
* '''Renascent Chronicle''' (July 2021): An expansion based on the characters from the Isunia, Aiolon, and Naterra arcs, bringing back Machina and Natura synergies. Due to effectively merging three sets into one, the cards have more condensed themes. The mini-expansion also features the original 8 leaders as playable cards.
* '''Dawn of Calamity''' (September 2021): An expansion featuring cards from the anime, with effects and stats scaled to the power level of the current game (as opposed to the anime and ''Champions Battle'' game, where they're scaled more towards the early expansions). This expansion also introduces the "Stack" keyword that brings a BalanceBuff to Earth Rite, allowing certain Sigils to consolidate their other Earth Sigils into a single board slot, creating room for more powerful multi-Earth Rite effects. Many past Earth Rite cards would also be errata'd to work with this keyword.
* '''Omen of Storms''' (December 2021): An evolve-heavy expansion that blends together elements from ''Omen of the Ten'' with ''Ultimate Colosseum''.

** Eyeing that Legendary Pack at the end of Score Rewards? Be prepared to grind out about 1000 wins across a month. While the game is generous with Score Rewards at the beginning, the score intervals between subsequent rewards only get wider, reducing motivation to continue. Many players choose to stop grinding after they've gained the unique emblem and card sleeve of the month due to the lowering returns for raising ranked score.

* LotusEaterMachine: [[spoiler:Chapter 9 onward of each storyline reveals that the characters have been sucked into a dream world designed to sate their desires.]]

** While the FinalBoss of Quest Mode (whenever available) is incredibly difficult with their overpowered illegal deck, they have a strange vulnerability to Arcane Item Shop decks, which can rain a nearly endless storm of damage that razes both board and health provided the deck has no followers. The final boss of the third iteration of Quest Mode, [[Anime/CodeGeass Charles zi Brittania]], starts the game by transforming five cards in your deck into Puppets, instantly scuffing Arcane Item Shop unless the player draws all their Puppets.

* ZergRush: Some decks focus on putting out many cheap followers quickly one after another, sometimes leading to situations where that no matter how many of them one kills, they just keep coming. Shadowcraft tends to be very good at this by flooding the board with skeletons, zombies, followers that leave behind skeletons or zombies when they die, or ghosts.

** OTK Roach, the most iconic combo deck in Shadowverse, utilizes the namesake [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/101131020?lang=en Rhinoceroach]], which is a 2pp 1/1 Storm follower that doesn't do much, but its attack scales on how many cards were played during the player's turn. Combined with Forest's access to low play point cards and its [[TacticalWithdrawal return mechanic]], it allows the player to potentially drop the enemy leader's defense from 20 to 0. What makes this deck incredibly difficult is that it forgoes any 1 to 2 play point followers so that [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/103011030?lang=en Goblin Mage]] can consistently pull the aforementioned Rhinoceroach and [[https://shadowverse-portal.com/card/103021020?lang=en Fortunehunter Feena]]'s evolve effect gives a player a 0 pp cost Goblin Mage as well putting consideration on the player's current play points, the opponent's health, board space, and the [[YouShallNotPass number of Wards in play]]. This is why this was given the FanNickname "Miracle Roach", due to OTK Roach's similarity with Videogame/{{Hearthstone}}'s Rogue's combo deck (as well as Forestcraft's similarity to Hearthstone's Rogue as a class on emphasis of combos). Under the most skillful hands, however, OTK Roach is considered to be one of the most cconsistent and strongest combo decks in Unlimited where it possible to drop your opponent's health down from 20 to 0 around ''turn 7''.

* '''Dawn of Calamity''' (September 2021): An expansion featuring cards from the anime, with effects and stats scaled to the power level of the current game (as opposed to the anime and ''Champions Battle'' game, where they're scaled more towards the early expansions). This expansion also introduces the "Stack" keyword that brings a BalanceBuff to Earth Rite as their collection of Sigils now just occupy 1 board slot, creating room for more powerful multi-Earth Rite effects. Many past Earth Rite cards would also be errata'd to work with this keyword.

* '''Dawn of Calamity''' (September 2021): An expansion featuring cards from the anime, with effects and stats scaled to the power level of the current game (as opposed to the anime and ''Champions Battle'' game, where they're scaled more towards the early expansions).

* '''Renascent Chronicle''' (July 2021): An expansion based on the characters from the Isunia, Aiolon, and Naterra arcs, bringing back Machina and Natura synergies. Due to effectively merging three sets into one, the cards have more condensed themes.