Beast Clans is what my abuelita buys me from the dollar store because she saw me playing Yugioh one time.

This game looks like a fictional game you'd see played in a Disney sitcom in one episode.

I know this is an indie production, but everything about the look and design of these cards seems like it came straight out of the early 2000s. It's as though nothing in the past two decades ever happened; it's like no attention was paid to how the world of TCGs has evolved in all this time.

My instant response to seeing the back was an out-loud "What the fuck is that?"

This looks like a one off card game they'd put in a 2004 cartoon to use as a plot device

still trying to get my games to work, but all this info will definitely come handy once I decide to publish them

As someone who used to work with the creator of the game, he was not too keen on changing the game or trying to revamp it, the wording on some of the cards made no sense what so ever, he was more focused on sales instead of making a quality game or something enjoyable (not that trying to focus on sales is a bad thing but the game sucked.)

Complains about the weird curling of the foil cards that are three years old, as I look at my commander legends foils with major curl right out of the pack from this year. I guess wizards sources from the same printer.

The back of that box kinda reminds me of the amount of information you’d get on one of those repackaged “Yu-Gi-Oh! Mystery Cubes.”

Kohdok, As an aspiring game developer, it has been my dream to put out a quality product I can be satisfied with and others can enjoy. Your videos are a blessing to have and I can't thank you enough for the outstanding quality of each one. It seems with each new video you out out, I find myself note taking and revising aspects of what I have. Thank you for everything you do.

I feel kinda bad for these guys, I can see this product design being done by the game designers themselves, and them being just game designers having no idea how to design a retail product.

Damn, nothing about this game catches my eye. It just looks super generic and dull.

If I saw this product on a shelf I think I'd probably ignore it without even really registering its existence.

26:12 Fun fact: The YuGiOh rule book / beginner's guide doesn't even tell you the correct rules any more, as they didn't update it for MR5 (Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz can again be summoned from the extra deck to any main monster zone). The rules guide for Speed Duels at least explains the gist of the game more simply, but it's far from comprehensive. It's kinda nuts how hard it is to actually learn the game.

Yeesh. Glad to see my first instinct to begin my own game's rulebook with the win condition was based on having seen it done right! I've just been testing it in Tabletop Simulator with some prototype cards that don't even have any temporary artwork (I'm just using a card template and putting the effects in the space where the art would normally be). At best I only intend to turn my game into some kind of online game like MTG Arena or Hearthstone, if I ever publish it at all, BUT if I do, I will for sure be hiring some properly skilled people to handle my graphic design, marketing, etc. Heck, I'll even hire a few people who know game design to try out the game and I'll keep an open mind regarding suggestions to change game mechanics... Though I think that may stem mainly from a lack of self-confidence instead of any latent talent in business or game design. 😂

Another great review and analysis, really liked that you gave them credit where credit was due, and when you had criticism you broke down both what they did wrong and how to fix it.

this channel is basically roasting all the creative types who think they don't need business types to actually make good products

Wow, I'm amazed that, as someone who loves trying out tcgs just because, how profoundly I lost interest after flipping to the back of the box. They told me literally nothing other than "we hired a talented artist".

Wow! Pretty interesting that you are covering this game as I just came across it after becoming obsessed with tcgs after watching the 7 deadly sins series. I opened a booster box of this and didn't get ONE level 2 or 3 ruler. The randomization in packs was also pretty insane. If the 2nd card in a pack was a level 1 ruler, almost guaranteed the next 2 cards would also be level one rulers. The game also changed rules pretty hard in the "Beast Clans V2." Like significant changes. In the V1 rules beasts could attack other beasts. They cannot in the V2 rules. Only guardians are blockers in v1. In v2 anything can be a blocker and guardians must be attacked first. I think the game concept is pretty neat but boy it's rough.

This product's packaging is basically the 8th deadly sin of trading card game design.

Second comment Also, have found these videos helpful for understanding the industry and what NOT to do. Without your series on "The 7 Deadly TCG Sins" I wouldn't have been able to avoid some design errors; I enjoy your videos and hope to see more!

This reminded me about my experience with Vampire the Eternal Struggle, it was just released an official translated product here at Brazil, but the company linked to a manual that is outdated, overcomplicated and the terms differs from the cards it self, like intercept became perception. Very frustrated experience because the game is interested, but how to get into it it's just so convoluted that you lose all the interest.

Regarding the comments on YGO relying on the anime to teach people to play: That's an even WORSE idea than just having a poorly-written rulebook! The show's rules don't line up with the actual game in a lot of places, ranging from specific card design (and legality; cards like Pot of Greed keep showing up despite being banned for years) to basic things like how many life points each player has. Expecting a new YGO player to use anime rules is a recipe for disaster the first time they play with someone who actually knows the game. Of course, the entirely different ruleset used by the digital version doesn't help things at all...

pretty sure one of the cards has sonething about stuff costing 1 biomass less and therefore would make the deck feasible, it just forces you to combo, which imho is not that bad

i still have the rule book/s for the pokemon trading card game "BASE SET" by Wizards of the coast. and wow, it nails everything right! everything is in the correct place in the book. beautiful and easy to understand illustrations of the cards and how to play the game, and step by step rules of what you can do during the turn, and at the back even has an FAQ and appendix of terms. Nower days, all the rules are always printed on the paper playmats that come with every deck.

I appreciate your critical analysis of card games, I find it funny there are some card game sins that just made me want to see if I can make the macanic fun lol oops

Do we need a new sub-circle of hell for games that use a ridiculous amount of packaging to make it look like you’re buying more than you are? Even MTG is pushing it a bit with the new commander decks.

Thank you so much! You are teaching me so much stuff! Building my own TCG! KEep the VIDS comin' ma MAN!

Sweet mama, watching this video after watching the booster box video is so ominous. I wish there was a way to warn the Kohdok of this video about what the Kohdok from the next video knows lol

This is so disastrous. Damn, it fails in so many fronts...

Wixoss low key being super influential on modern TCG design lol

Beast Clans just looks super unappealing lol

Why on Earth would you talk about factions before you talk about how the game works? Aside from flavor, it'll just be meaningless to new players.

I think the reason the cards warp is due to the foiling because sometimes even with Yu-Gi-Oh! The foil heats up and expands faster than the cards themselves and since the card stock itself is not that great it probably makes the problem worse

Hey Kohdok (and anyone else) there was this card game where the mechanic of it was to spin the card itself, then when it stopped would decide what you got to do - you also had this toy robot that came with the starter, you could give it equipment, and it would gain or lose parts and move to attack the other robot... I have no idea what it was called though, anyone know?

That backing looks almost like the back of a Dollar Tree action Figure.

Rhinox maximize Scorponox terrorize followed by beast wars transformation sounds

Dang, a late 2010s product, I assume, with quality and content of an early 2000 "accompanying toy" for a low budget cartoon. Like, I guess for first release indie product it COULD be worse? They could straight up not even give enough card for a full playable deck lmao

To me the extra funny/sad part to me about the Beast Clans Starter box. Is that the "2 player starter kit" blurb is a massive waste to me, because those huge side panels are for that kinda thing, especially as most of those things are hangers and if I come around the side of the display I can read what's included before I pick up the starter.

With the vanguard reboot coming to the US, in may, and possibly fixing some of the issues you’ve talked about in the past, will you be willing to do a review on that?

26:13 Show? The dubs for Yugioh Arc V & Vrains didn't air in the US. And while the dub for Sevens did air in America. It was on Disney XD of all networks.

I really like the art though, don't know why people in the comments don't like it 😂

Some pages of the manual were in color and others were grayscale, that’s super lame.

The back of the case looks good to me. As a kid I'd have kept that in my room

9:55 when I was getting into mtg I got Lililana the last hope in my zombie intro deck packs and I got super excited It kept me interested in mtg since

5:06 what a bummer! Alot of cool stuff could have been done there!

"Rumbling across the plains of the Savannah Kingdom, Prince Stronghorn believes in peace through overwhelming force. Though some see him as brutish, he has pledged his life to uniting the disparate Beasts of his home Kingdom. But a new threat is rising. The treacherous Desert Kingdom seeks domination not through battle, but deception. Their assassins lurk in every shadow, ready to cut throats and poison cups in the name of Prince Dark Sting. When Man is gone The BEASTS shall inherit the Earth" I know nothing about this game, so who knows how accurate it is. But it's better than what is currently on the back of the box. A couple of other things: Rather than cards or counters to track resources, I would include 2 double-wheeled spinners. 3 pieces of cardboard, held together by metal or plastic fasteners. The wheels can be individually rotated so that a number between 1 and 20 shows in a window. Each player has one wheel for life and one for biomass. Each Kingdom has a King, Queen and Prince/Princess? Do these terms have game significance? If not, I would vary the terms a bit: Pharaoh, Khan, Emperor. It's boring to see the same titles over and over.

You should review the best starter deck ever. Whatever your opinion is on that, but I think the League Battle Decks in Pokémon are the best starting product.

It doesn't even contain a playmat? Or any counters?

I won't defend most of what I saw here, but I will say that the needs of packaging for sales through retail are a lot different from the needs of packaging for direct sales online. All that info you're asking about should be on the page you bought from, not on the box. The box can be designed as a showpiece (not that the ones shown here achieve that...).

Yugioh’s new playerbase is so fun. So many people just immediately break the rules because season one ignored the rules until like 45-ish episodes in

that's the worst back of a box i've ever seen what does it even *MEAN*!?

im sry, im no graphic designer but is the rule book in comic sans ?

Looks like reused Magic Duel Decks box filler with YGO chaff.

This looks like someone tried to have a rhino from mtg fight against red eyes black dragon in a small skin off game.

Looks like I am in for a ride

Oh boy. I knew a local game store owner who invested in this game. Bought a ton of product and it basically just rotted on the shelf. The design of the cards just isn't very good. Text and art are often placed over tinted backgrounds and/or patterns, which looks really cheap. They really needed to have lightly textured vanilla grounds for text and full backgrounds for artwork. The holofoiling is way too excessive, doesn't really emphasize important parts of the artwork. The game plays funny, you have 8 biomass to spend each turn on playing cards but everything also takes biomass to use. Games don't really have a pace, it kind of feels like things happen and then one player is informed they have lost. I guess it just sucks to see the TCG space is so overrun with grifters.

I've never even heard of this game

I get the feeling that the maker of this game doesn't like criticism and isn't critical of their own work. It's something of a common theme with game designers that they take criticism as a personal attack. Left unchallenged, this is what you get.

14:31 I've see a lot of MTG cards that look worse than that brand new lately.

you said it uses some wixoss mechanics (limit and level), is it an interesting use of them???

You're wrong, the worst Starter Deck is the Star Trek CCG starter deck that is just 60 random cards from the base set with 8 cards to make them playable with each other rather than using it to teach stradegy

If someone told me this was a rejected Mega Man X TCG retooled into its own IP, I would believe them.

The Dark Sting deck might have ways to reduce or cheat in different sizes.

I'm betting that the rhino deck has more biomass than needed if you opened it, to balance it out.

There's a lot of flaws within this game(packaging info, booster randomization, awkward dated font,etc) but you can really tell the creator was passionate about the art and just making a tcg no matter what. 🤷🏿‍♂️ Like y'all hating on this art but I think it looks great for the most part. The art style is much more consistent and thought out compared to other indie TCG's ( I'm not a fan of Exodus TCG art for example).

Lmao why are the card names different fonts

The Yu-Gi-Oh! rulebook is fine.

There’s plenty of advantages to digital games

So we dont judge it by the cover? Got it.

I actually think the Digimon starter deck box looks terrible. You've got a cool looking card and then you've gut an ugly green thing just hovering over it with a bright outline that makes it look like it was poorly photoshoped, and that has a completely different art style. I don't know much about the show, but just seeing the box it really does not make me interested in trying out the game, the opposite actually.

I have the displeasure of playing this one. It's horrible.

vanguard starter deck $4

I guess you're suppossed to buy 2 or 3 copies of the decks....which is kind of a bad move for a starter deck specially for a new or small game And Yugioh is such a beautiful mess, it's chaoticness is part of it's identity by now

Wow what did this poor card game do to you? Jeez haha

I almost disliked the video based on how mediocre the product is >_

first

Yugioh wants the show to follow the rules but they make it impossible to watch without a streaming service, which means less new players.

I would really love to participate, but I feel like if you’re not gonna put in the effort to edit out the five seconds of silence over and over and over again, or the incessant unrelated puttering, I can’t either.

This could have been a 2 minute video. You repeat yourself way too much.