Cardfight!! Vanguard Dear Days Review Summary

Enjoyable & Well-Made Game: Players consistently praise the game as fun, addictive, and well-made, highlighting its smooth gameplay, excellent story, and engaging overall experience. Many find it a great adaptation of the TCG.

Excellent Vanguard Adaptation: The game is highly regarded as a faithful and accessible digital adaptation of Cardfight!! Vanguard. It serves as an excellent tool for learning the game, playing at home, and introducing new players to the franchise, especially for those without local opponents.

Fair Monetization & No Microtransactions: A significant positive is the game's honest pricing structure, absence of microtransactions, and generous in-game currency generation. Players appreciate being able to acquire all cards through gameplay without constant pressure to spend real money, offering better value than many F2P TCGs.

Rich Content & Deck Building: The game offers a substantial amount of single-player content, allowing players to unlock cards and build multiple strong decks from the base sets. The story mode provides key cards, and the crafting system is highly praised for its flexibility.

Good Story & Characters: The game's story is generally considered good, entertaining, and surprisingly well-written for a card game. Characters are noted for having depth, and the plot has potential.

Overpriced Base Game & DLC: Players consistently feel the base game and its numerous DLCs are excessively expensive, especially for a card game. This high cost is a significant barrier to entry and causes buyer's remorse, with many suggesting a much lower price point.

Poor Online Multiplayer Experience: The online multiplayer suffers from a small player base, long queue times, and a lack of cross-play. This makes finding matches difficult and diminishes the overall competitive experience.

Clunky Deck Building & UI: The deck building interface is criticized for lacking essential filters, having a non-grid layout, and poor search functionality. Additionally, the in-game UI is described as messy and not optimized for PC controls.

Weak Story & Localization: The game's story is generally considered bland, unengaging, and lacking in memorable characters or full voice acting. Furthermore, the English localization is poor, with numerous mistranslations and awkward phrasing.

Rigged AI Difficulty: Players report that the AI often feels rigged, magically drawing necessary triggers and exhibiting an unfair difficulty curve, which detracts from the single-player experience.

Comprehensive Card Acquisition System: The game features a robust card acquisition system where all cards are shared between single-player and multiplayer. Players can unlock cards similar to other TCGs, craft any desired card using duplicate points, and access vital cards for various strategies. All main game cards are available without DLC purchases.

Functional Multiplayer Experience: The game offers functional and entertaining 1v1 online multiplayer with customization options, including ranked, casual, and private matches. However, there's an issue where opponents quitting in ranked mode results in a draw, and the PVP ban system lacks transparency.

DLC Expands Card Pool: DLCs primarily introduce new booster packs, adding cards, archetypes, or ride chains, and are designed for players who want early access to full sets. Cosmetic DLCs like sleeves and characters with deck recipes are also available. More sets are expected to be released as DLC.

Accurate TCG Simulation: The game provides a highly accurate simulation of the Cardfight Vanguard TCG, particularly the modern Standard format. It's excellent for playtesting decks and learning new cards, offering a near 1:1 experience of the physical game's mechanics and rules.

Engaging Visual Novel Story: The game features an original story set in the Overdress universe, presented in a visual novel style. While it lacks voice acting and sometimes has odd translations, it guides players through battles against anime characters, unlocking new opponents and cards.

Good performance on lower-end hardware: Players report that the game runs smoothly even on systems with specifications below the recommended, indicating good optimization. It also works well on Steam Deck using Proton-GE.

Occasional unit movement crashes: Some players experience game crashes specifically when attempting to move a unit from the back to the front of their formation. This suggests a potential bug in that specific interaction.

Wait for a Sale: A significant portion of players recommend purchasing the game only when it's on sale, ideally at 50% off or more. Many feel the current full price is too high for the value offered, especially with a sequel anticipated.

Target Audience: Vanguard Fans: The game is primarily recommended for existing fans of Cardfight!! Vanguard, particularly those who cannot play the physical card game. It serves as a good teaching tool for newcomers interested in learning the game's mechanics.

Online Play Issues: Several reviews highlight significant problems with online multiplayer, including disconnect issues and unchecked cheating. This makes it difficult to recommend the game for competitive or ranked play.

Consider the Sequel (DD2): Many players suggest waiting for or purchasing the sequel, Dear Days 2, instead of the current game. Concerns about the original game's future support and value are frequently cited.

Alternative Card Games: Some players recommend alternative digital card games like Master Duel, CFA, or Shadowverse: Champion's Battle, suggesting they offer a better experience or value.

High base game and DLC cost: Players express concern over the high initial price of the base game and the substantial cost of day-one DLC, which can total over $200. While many DLC cards are earnable in-game, the upfront cost for full sets is a significant barrier.

Generous in-game currency: Players appreciate the game's generous VP earning rate, with no microtransactions for in-game currency. This allows players to acquire cards and complete decks relatively quickly through normal gameplay.

Positive core Vanguard experience: The game successfully delivers an authentic Cardfight Vanguard experience, including trigger checks and pack openings, and is notable as the first official English translation.

No cross-platform play: A frequently requested feature is crossplay between Steam and Nintendo Switch. Its absence limits the multiplayer experience and player interaction across different platforms.

Positive player engagement: Despite some criticisms, many players report significant playtime, indicating strong engagement and enjoyment of the core gameplay loop. Some even chose this game over a sequel due to its quality.