The Eye of Judgment is a Collectible Card Game/Video Game for PlayStation 3. Unlike most card battle video games, The Eye of Judgment uses physical collectible cards which can be imported to the video game using PlayStation Eye peripheral. The card game had one base set and two expansions before it was discontinued.
The cards are divided into several types:
- Creatures, who goes down to the battlefield for war.
- Spells, further divided into Sorcery, Conjuration, and Dominion.
The setting of the game is a world divided into four continents, each is ruled by a nation named after its founder and defined by its primary element:
- Dhees Empire, representing fire.
- Tritona Queendom, representing water.
- Til Vorg Monarchy, representing wood.
- Val Na Vos, representing earth.
In addition to the main nations, there are several other factions.
- Bioliths, Non-Elemental Mechanical Lifeform led by Scion.
- Church of Parmus, widespread religion founded by Parmus and worshipping Scion.
- Cult of Mourning, former religion of Parmus, founder of the Church of Parmus, now primarily based in Dhees.
- Siam Pirates, based in Tritona.
- Corzes Family, mafia pirates in Tritona.
- Green Bandits, wood goblins.
- Novogus Dynasty, necrocracy led by the undead king Novogus.
How To Play
The Eye of Judgment is a board control game, where the board is divided into nine fields in a 3x3 configuration. The objective of the game is to control the majority of the board, i.e. controlling five fields, or to survive long enough until your opponent has to draw from an empty deck, in which case they lose the game instantly.
The cards of the game are divided into two major types: Creatures and Spells. In general, creatures are used to occupy fields on the board, i.e. control them (see the winning condition above), and at the same time take out opposing creatures to prevent your opponent to claim dominance of the board; Spells on the other hand have all sort of effects to help you or hinder your opponent.
The components of a card are as follows (italicized components are available to all cards; the rest are only for creatures):
- Card Name: Duh.
- Summoning/Playing Cost: The amount of mana you need to spend to play a card. In case of creatures, summoning them means placing them onto a field on your choice of orientation (which determines, among other things, their attack zone, their weak spot etc), where they will stay until the game ends, or until they are moved somewhere to another field, or until they are removed from the board. In case of spells, they will go to your dicard pile once played.
- Some creatures have Summoning Cost that are covered in lock. This means that creature cannot be summoned until the so-called Summoning Lock is removed. For most creatures, this Summoning Lock is lifted when there are four or more creatures on the field. However, Biolith creatures can bypass this Lock if they are summoned on a Biolith field, normally available from the start on the middle field.
- Element: Fire, Water, Earth, Wood and Biolith, corresponding to the five types of fields.
- Activation Cost: The amount of mana you need to spend to make a creature attack or change orientation. Again note that creatures cannot change field on their own.
- Creature Race: Again, duh.
- Creature Affiliation: Slightly distinct from Creature Race; if examples of Race are Human, Dwarf, Merfolk or Undead, then Creature Affiliation may be Dhees Empire, Corzes Family, Novogus Dynasty, or sometimes Unknown.
- Attack: The amount of damage a creature deals to another creature when fighting.
- Health: The amount of damage a creature can take before dying. The amount of life a creature has may be affected by their Element and the Field they are deployed on, usually giving a bonus +2 Health if the creature's element matches the field's, or a penalty of -2 Health if the elements are opposite (Fire is opposite of Water, Earth is opposite of Wood). Biolith creatures neither gain nor lose health if summoned on any field, including Biolith field.
- Attack Zones and Blind Spots: Most creatures can attack whatever is in front of them, but some creatures may be able to attack further forward, sideways, behind, all sides, anywhere or everywhere at once (the last two usually cause Magic Damage instead of Physical). Most creatures also have certain Strong spots and Blind spots; attacking a creature from their Strong spot (usually their face) may incite a counter-attack from the attacked creature, while attacking a creature from their Blind spot will inflict additional damage to them.
The Eye of Judgment provides examples of:
- Came Back Wrong: General Lug and crown prince Carlo from Dhees, thanks to the Church of Parmus.
- Deity of Human Origin: Phaseus, Biolith God, created by Scion.
- Dem Bones: The undead kingdom Novogus.
- Geo Effects: The fields on the game board may be of any of the five elements: Fire, Water (opposing each other), Earth, Wood (opposing each other) or Biolith (neutral). Summoning a creature on the field with the same element as the creature makes the creature stronger, and conversely summoning them on the field of its opposing element makes it weaker (if not outright kills it). Biolith is not affected by this, but nevertheless it's a must for Biolith creatures to be summoned on a Biolith field to bypass the Summoning Lock.
- Lizard Folk: They live in Dhees.
- Our Dwarves Are Different: They live in Val Na Vos.
- Our Elves Are Different: They live in Til Vorg.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: They live in Tritona.
- Time Abyss: Scion, Biolith Lord, was thought to have perished for over 40 millenia, and yet he's actually still alive and plotting.
- War for Fun and Profit: According to the story blurb from the Fire starter deck in the first expansion, the Dhees restarted a war with the Tritona thanks to the Parmus cultists who want to harvest mana from war casualties, and thus assassinated the crown prince of Dhees to goad the emperor into war with Tritona.
- When Trees Attack: They live in Juno Forest in Til Vorg.
