Genre: Trading Card Game
Publisher: Destineer
Developer: Destineer
Release Date: October 15, 2007

One thing to be warned about even before you look at the rest of this review: Fullmetal Alchemist: The Trading Card Game is complex. It's not so complex that it's unplayable, but it requires a lot of effort to learn the basic rules, which can see almost hopelessly confusing at times. To veterans of the short-lived trading card game, this might not be a problem, but any fans of the franchise who leap into the game on their own are going to be in for a struggle. While Fullmetal Alchemist includes an instruction manual and in-game tutorial, neither are particularly good. The manual glosses over many of the details, and the in-game tutorial ignores more than half of the gameplay elements, explaining only the very basics — and sometimes even ignoring those. To get anything resembling an actual tutorial, you not only have to sit through the in-game tutorial, but you also need to find the second tutorial in the options menu, and both are very half-hearted. It's not a game-breaking deal for those who are willing to put time and effort into understanding the basic rules, but gamers who are expecting something easier to pick up and play may be left in the dust.

Basically, players construct a card deck built around a leader character, one of the big protagonists or villains from the first quarter or so of the "Fullmetal Alchemist" animated series, such as Edward Elric, his brother Alphonse, or villains like the Homunculus Lust and the egotistical Basque Grand. Beyond that, players also fill their deck with allies, which are other characters from the show. Likewise, you can also include attachment items (equippable weapons), abilities that improve the character's overall stats, and event cards, which allow you to influence the outcome of certain actions. It may sound fairly simple, but it gets more complex, and when combined with the incoherent instructions, Fullmetal Alchemist can be very frustrating for new gamers.

Leader cards are fairly unique in a number of ways. For starters, they can't be removed from play. At best, they can be defeated in a battle, but they're right back the next round without any ill effects. Second, and far more unique, is that leader cards level up in RPG fashion. As you successfully play rounds, your leader card gains experience points, and once you've gained enough, you have the option to evolve the card to have different effects and superior attributes. For example, Edward Elric grows from Novice to Man of Action, and ends with Sanctified Body; each version is stronger than the last, and each one has a different special ability. Knowing when to evolve can be just as important: Roy Mustang's Commanding Officer attribute, for example, grants +1 bonuses to all military and state Alchemist soldiers. This ability is lost if he upgrades to the next level, so if you're fielding a large number of military and state Alchemist characters, it might not be worthwhile to upgrade Roy just yet.

Cards in Fullmetal Alchemist are made up of a large number of stats, which can be rather overwhelming to a novice. Each card has a Command, Wits, Alchemy and Strength stat, each contributing to various gameplay elements. The Command stat shows how many allies that a leader can summon per round: With a Command stat of 5 Edward Elric can summon Tricia Elric, who has a Command cost of 3, and Winry Rockbell, who has a Command cost of 2. Command stats also influence which Attachment and Event cards a character can use, since every Attachment and Event card also has a Command cost. If you use a card on a character whose Command stat is lower than the card's Command cost, you have to discard a number of cards from your hand to match the difference … and this is just for one stat!

Fullmetal Alchemist is a bit different from games like Yu-Gi-Oh or Magic: The Gathering in that you're not seeking to defeat your opponent. Instead, both teams are seeking "clues" to the Philosopher's Stone, a powerful tool that makes one's alchemy supremely powerful. This is done by way of location cards. At the start of every round, a location is chosen from one of the player's location decks. Based on settings from the anime, each location has a specific number of "clues" that can only be discovered in specific ways. For example, one location may require you to have a state Alchemist character and a Wits stat that's at least three points above your opponent. Beyond the clue requirements, each location also has "battle types." When both players send their allies to the location to find the clue, they inevitably end up battling one another, although "combat" could involve a competition of strength, wits or alchemy, or some combination of the three. Combat is fairly simple: Whoever has the highest stat wins. Event cards and some special abilities can influence the outcome, but for the most part, the higher value equals the winner. Whoever wins the location gets all of the clues, and whoever is the first to find nine clues discovers the Philosopher's Stone and wins.

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Trading Card Game is surprisingly fun once you actually figure out the rules. It's an interesting take on the genre and certainly feels more in tune with the Fullmetal Alchemist universe than a Yu-Gi-Oh battle game would be. This is not, however, to say that it is perfect. The game itself seems to overly favor Alchemist characters, who are the only ones capable of using alchemy and thus always have an advantage over a majority of the cast. Most of these Alchemist characters also tend to have impressive Strength and Wit setups, so it can really alienate players who use characters like Maes Hughes and Riza Hawkeye. Furthermore, alchemy seems to be one of the most common battle types encountered, and in locations with multiple choices, an Alchemist will always win over a non-Alchemist, while still being able to hold his or her own in battles of Strength and Wit. It isn't quite enough to ruin the game, but it certainly hurts its lasting replay value.

Another shortcoming is the fact that the game only covers roughly one-fourth of the series. Most of the major characters and locations are completely nonexistent, leaving players with leader choices revolving between pathetic early series antagonists like Basque Grand and three different versions of each of the Elric brothers. While this is more of a result of the TCG being canceled quite early, one can't help but feel a bit disappointed in the limited card selection.

While Fullmetal Alchemist: The Trading Card Game is reasonably fun, the actual game itself suffers from numerous flaws. The interface is convoluted and incredibly slow, regardless of whether you're using the stylus controls, which are confusing and imprecise, or the button controls, which can't do everything on their own. Additionally, it isn't possible to take back a wrong button press. If you try to tap something and accidentally activate a card's effect, you have to use it, no matter what, which can lead to being forced to discard an important card for no reason. The in-game information scroll is consistently behind and shows the results of card actions taken three or four turns ago. The loading time is noticeable, especially when trying to view card information, which keeps things from flowing smoothly and reduces the already achingly slow game to a snail's pace. As if to put icing on the cake for me, the game would end up freezing once every three matches or so, forcing a restart of the DS system. Not even the sometimes-enjoyable card game can make up for these problems, which are just embarrassing at best.

Even the soundtrack is fairly lackluster, using poorly converted versions of a few of the "Fullmetal Alchemist" background themes as a backdrop for the card battles. Even more annoying, however, is how the voice acting from the dub cast was added. After every battle, you have to hear the exact same two quotes over and over … and over. Hearing Alphonse Elric yell, "Why don't we call it a draw? You can't win!" seven or eight times in a row quickly becomes tiring. Even worse, however, is that the game yells at you if you dare to not take an action for a few seconds … such as while you're plotting your next move. Wait roughly 10 seconds, and your leader begins to tell you to play a card already, which is just an unbelievably aggravating addition.

There also isn't much to do in the Fullmetal Alchemist: The Trading Card Game. Players can build their own decks or use several character-specific ones in the game's Story mode, which takes them through small segments of the "Fullmetal Alchemist" plotline. The AI matches are just sad, though; the enemy uses the most simplistic and basic tactics, sometimes mixed with completely worthless actions like setting a card every round for a pointless effect. Defeating them is a breeze, even with the game's default decks. Create your own expert deck, and they'll fall like wheat before your thresher.

Aside from the AI matches, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Trading Card Game offers Wi-Fi and wireless gameplay, but good luck finding someone else to play with. In eight hours of searching, I didn't encounter a single player on the game's online matches, and even attempts to browse message boards dedicated to the game found only empty threads. Unless you know another gamer with the Fullmetal Alchemist: The Trading Card Game, there isn't going to be much to keep you busy. There's no real point in even replaying it to collect cards because the game offers a Fantasy mode where you're given 99 of each card in a match, allowing you to create any deck you want right away.

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Trading Card Game is an imperfect revival. While the actual game is surprisingly fun, it is also poorly designed and horribly balanced, trying so hard to maintain the series' belief that "Alchemists are better than everyone else" that no thought was given to gameplay balance. Even if one doesn't mind that fault, the terrible interface, consistent glitches and barren gameplay modes mean that even playing against the AI is an agonizing mix of frustration and tedium. Perhaps an active online community could have saved Fullmetal Alchemist: The Trading Card Game from complete failure, but as of this writing, no such community exists. Newcomers should avoid this title at all costs, and even fans of the real trading card game should pass on this one and stick to their real-world collections.

Score: 4.0/10