Vortex Gaming

Cygames Korea held an advance preview event today (26th) for its new title 'Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond,' which is officially scheduled for release on June 17th.

Cygames' new title 'Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond' (hereinafter referred to as Worlds Beyond) is a competitive online digital card game (CCG) that existing users can easily enjoy, as the basic rules such as deck composition and card types are maintained. Anyone can easily enjoy card battles with beautiful illustrations and spectacular effects by composing their own card deck, and it is characterized by the addition of new elements and content such as 'Super Evolution' and 'Shaba Park'.

At the event, iPads were provided to play the advance experience build, and Cygames' Yuito Kimura PD and Naoki Hara Managing Director attended in person to introduce the game and conduct Q&A for Worlds Beyond.

Schedule:Cygames 'Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond' Advance Preview
Date:2025년 5월 26일(화)
Content:Introduction of the new game 'Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond', Q&A with developers

Cygames' new title Worlds Beyond, which aims for 'Infinite Strategy Super Evolution Card Game', is the official sequel to the CCG 'Shadowverse' released in 2016, and is scheduled to be released on iOS, Android, Steam, and Epic Games platforms on June 17th.

The overall game system is the same as the previous 'Shadowverse', but the characteristic of this work is that new elements and content that can only be found in Worlds Beyond have been added. The most representative element is the 'Super Evolution' system.

'Super Evolution' is a new function that allows all followers to activate regardless of rarity by consuming 'SEP (Super Evolution Point)' instead of EP, separate from the existing evolution. SEP is granted 2 points each to both the first and second players, and Super Evolution can be performed by consuming SEP after the 6th turn of the second player.

During Super Evolution, the card's attack power and health each increase by 3, Rush ability is granted, and it is not damaged or destroyed by abilities during its turn. If a Super Evolved follower attacks and defeats an opponent's follower, the defeated follower flies to its leader and deals an additional 1 damage. Some cards have 'Super Evolution' abilities that only activate during Super Evolution.

The 'Extra PP' system has also been newly added. This is a system that allows the second player to increase their play points by 1 at the timing they want. It can be used a total of 2 times, once until the fifth turn and an additional time after the sixth turn, and the activation timing can be freely selected by the second player. The addition of Extra PP allows for different strategies depending on the first and second players, enabling deeper and more strategic battles.

In addition to the newly added elements, there are parts that have changed from the previous work in Worlds Beyond. The first is the change related to 'Evolution'. When a follower evolves, both attack power and health increase by 2, and when Super Evolved, attack power and health increase by 3. The number of EPs used for evolution is unified to 2 points for both the first and second players, and EP and SEP can be used twice each per battle, for a total of four times.

The number of cards in the first hand at the start of the battle has also been adjusted. The number of cards in the first hand has been changed from 3 to '4', and the existing method of 1 card for the first player and 2 cards for the second player in the first turn has been unified to 1 card regardless of the first and second players.

The 'Crest' ability granted to the leader during battle can now be held up to 5 at the same time. Crests are displayed as Crest icons in the lower left corner of the battle screen, and the activation order can also be checked here.

The card dismantling system has also been reorganized. In the previous Shadowverse, 'Red Ether', a resource for crafting other cards, could be obtained by dismantling cards. Since you had to dismantle other cards that you were not using in order to craft a specific card, you ended up only having cards of a specific class, making it difficult to reorganize decks of other classes.

In order to solve this problem and allow users to play more classes, Worlds Beyond has been changed so that cards can only be dismantled if the number of cards of the same type exceeds 3.

It has also become easier to acquire cards. From June 17th, the first day of Worlds Beyond's release, one card pack will be given away for free every day (reset every day at 5 AM), and a commemorative mission will be held where you can get up to 10 packs when a new card pack is released.

In addition, if you purchase 10 card packs, a Legend card will appear as a guaranteed reward once (excluding free card packs provided daily), and when you complete the beginner mission that all users can challenge, you can select the deck you want from a total of 9 types of recommended decks using the 1st card pack and basic cards. In addition, various item rewards including card packs will be given when missions and quests are completed in Worlds Beyond's new content 'Shaba Park'.

In Worlds Beyond, players can choose one of a total of 8 classes, including the new class 'Nightmare' and Neutral, to form a deck. Nightmare is a new class that combines the Necromancer and Vampire classes of the previous Shadowverse. At the event, leader character information for 7 classes was introduced, but only three classes, Dragon, Nightmare, and Nemesis, could be played in the advance experience.

The overall play experience was similar to the previous work to the extent that anyone who has played 'Shadowverse' even once could easily adapt. Thanks to the new system 'Extra PP', there was no significant gap between the first player and the second player even when starting the game as the second player, and 'Super Evolution', which can be used in addition to the existing evolution, satisfied the fun of watching with spectacular appearance production.

In this test, I was only able to experience three classes, but I am looking forward to being able to create decks of more diverse classes and experience deeper strategies after the official release. It remains to be seen how Cygames, which has experience and know-how from the previous work, has adjusted the balance of all 7+1 classes.

■ Introduction of 'Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond' Class Leader Characters

1. Dreihen

● Class: Nemesis

● Voice Actor: Yu Sasahara

● An artificial human girl who uses twin pistols as weapons and demonstrates superhuman physical abilities, and is the central character in the main story

2. Lovesign

● Class: Elf

● Voice Actor: Jun Fukuyama

● The second prince of a certain royal family, who wanders the streets every day and acts according to his mood.

3. Maria Malice

● Class: Royal

● Voice Actor: Saya Aizawa

● A noble with the title of Yangjak in a country embroidered with flowers, who beheads the guilty with a dancing blade.

4. Yuihara Kaori

● Class: Witch

● Voice Actor: Mikako Komatsu

● A woman who handles flames and is called a Magical Master living in an ultra-modern city.

5. Galan

● Class: Dragon

● Voice Actor: Hochu Otsuka

● An old man who runs a herbal medicine store in the outskirts of a merchant and lives quietly.

6. Diarogiale

● Class: Nightmare

● A monster with the power of curses and the Demon King of Poisonous Dance.

7. Esperanza

● Class: Bishop

● Voice Actor: Mamiko Noto

● A mysterious woman with a somewhat detached atmosphere, characterized by words and actions that seem to see through everything.

Finally, information on international tournaments to be held with Worlds Beyond was introduced. Cygames will hold the international tournament 'Shadowverse World Grand Prix 2025' this year with a prize pool of 100 million yen (approximately 960 million won). After the overall game introduction and advance build experience, a developer Q&A session with Kimura Yuito, General Producer of Worlds Beyond, was held.

Q. It seems that the biggest feature of this new work is 'Super Evolution'. I'm curious about the planning intention.

= When creating the battle rules for Worlds Beyond. I wanted to add battle rules that could give the feeling of a new game. There were really many trials and errors in the process of creating 'Super Evolution', and in this process, I added things like 'the effect of flying to the opponent's leader and dealing additional damage when the follower is damaged'. I think it will be an element that has a strong impact on those who want to enjoy card games casually, and an element that adds depth to the strategy for veteran users who want to dig deeper and enjoy it.

Q. I'm curious about how much connection there will be with the previous work in terms of story.

= The world of the previous work and this new work are connected as one. Arisa's adventure, which started to help those in need, is not over yet, and will continue in this new work. In the card battle part, the main characters of the previous work will appear in the form of leader skins, and we plan to sell them in Worlds Beyond.

Q. In the previous work, there was a difference in win rate depending on the first and second players. To what extent do you think the balance has been adjusted in the new work?

= In general turn-based card games, the first player is largely advantageous. In the previous Shadowverse, we granted four advantages to balance the first and second players. The number of cards drawn first, the number of EPs, the point of being able to evolve first, and cards that can be very advantageous when going second.

In this work, we left only the point of being able to evolve first when going second, and added 'Extra PP' instead of the existing advantages. The development team has been constantly working to balance the first and second players by repeating test plays internally, and the result is the current system. Of course, if there is a problem after release, we plan to respond by referring to the accumulated user battle data.

Q. Several elements of the physical card game Evolve seem to have been borrowed. I'm curious whether the plan is to continue on a path that is related to each other, rather than a separate path from Evolve.

= Currently, there are several parts that have been applied that have been reversely introduced from Evolve. Of course, there are parts that are connected to each other, such as Worlds Beyond's elements being included in Evolve. We plan to link in many ways in the future, so please continue to look forward to this part.

Q. I feel that the tempo of the game has slowed down a bit due to the introduction of the 'Super Evolution' element. Is there a point you were aiming for in the development process?

= Basically, we focused on making sure that it didn't feel too long or too short even when playing on a smartphone. Just like we aimed for a relatively fast-paced game play in the previous work, we are trying to bring this new work to a faster pace as well.

Q. I have skins and various resources that I acquired in the previous work. I'm curious if it will be possible to link them with this new work.

= As I mentioned before, we do not provide linking elements with the existing Shadowverse. The previous rupee is a representative example, but this part is relatively complicated, so I will provide separate guidance in the future.

Q. I heard that one Legend card is guaranteed when purchasing 10 card packs. Will the same Legend card appear even in card packs purchased with free resources?

= Card packs provided for free every day are not included, but if you purchase 10 packs purchased directly with rupee, you will be able to acquire a Legend card as a guaranteed reward.

Q. I'm curious why Nemesis was added as an initial class instead of Necromancer and Vampire.

= In the case of the original, it started with 7 classes and Nemesis was added to make 8 classes. One of the problems that occurred while operating the game for a long time was the 'class balance problem', so I had a lot of concerns about how many classes to provide when creating a new work. In the end, we judged that 8 classes, including Neutral, were appropriate, considering various reasons such as easy card collection and deck composition, deck diversity in ranked matches, and inducement to meta games.

I had a lot of concerns about reducing one from the previous work, and finally added Nightmare by integrating Vampire and Necromancer, as we tried in Evolve first.

Q. How often are you planning to release new card packs in the new work? And in the previous work, previous card packs could not be used in ranked, will this new work be in a similar direction?

= We plan to release the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd installments at a slightly faster pace after release. After that, we plan to release the 4th installment every two months. If we continue to provide services and the number of card types increases, I think we will take that direction at that time. However, for now, we want to create content that can be played sufficiently with the cards in the release build.

Q. Cygames has gained a lot of console experience since the previous work. Are there any plans to expand to the console platform?

= There are currently no plans to expand to platforms other than mobile Android, iOS, Steam, and the Epic Games Store platform.

Q. The card dismantling method has changed, so it seems that it will be burdensome for those who only play certain jobs. Will there be any remedies such as intensively acquiring cards of a specific class?

= There is no way to selectively draw cards of a specific class. Instead, we provide free packs every day, so I think the opportunity to get cards itself will increase significantly.

Q. Unlike when the previous work was released, there are many games that support local dubbing these days. Can we expect Korean voice dubbing in Worlds Beyond as well? I'm also curious if there are any plans to add a vertical screen UI that can be easily enjoyed with one hand.

= There are people who are somehow playing with one hand even now, but there are no plans to provide a new UI for this. There are no plans to add Korean voices right now either.

Q. A new content called 'Shaba Park' is scheduled to be added in this work. I'm curious about the planning intention. Can I see other things to enjoy besides card games?

= 'Shaba Park' is a function to add community elements in addition to card games. Card games are a big element, but since it is not easy to become proficient by playing alone due to the nature of the genre, we created it so that you can play and learn with other users. I hope that you will build relationships with colleagues you meet through card games, or enjoy card games more fun.

You can enjoy 'soccer' as a mini-game in Shaba Park. New elements will be added through the lobby function, so I hope you enjoy these parts as well.

Q. I'm curious about how you plan to operate 'Worlds Beyond' in Korea, and what you are looking forward to.

= I know that e-sports is very famous in Korea. I am looking forward to doing various things in Korea and leading to the World Grand Prix. There are so many famous Korean players in the Shadowverse field, so I look forward to seeing them perform well in future world competitions.

Q. Due to the nature of the card game genre, there is a barrier to entry, and it seems difficult for novice users to access it. What elements have you prepared to lower the barrier to entry?

= We have prepared a really solid tutorial. I can't explain it in detail yet, but there is an AI advice mode in the practice mode, so I think you will be able to become proficient on your own. We have prepared various contents for beginners even outside of the game, so I think new users will be able to learn easily.

Q. To what extent do you think skill and luck affect victory in Worlds Beyond? I'm also curious about what form of effort you made to reduce the randomness problem.

= It is difficult to say the exact ratio of skill and luck. Since the keynote from the previous work was to create cards with as few luck elements as possible when playing, we plan to create them in a similar form in this work as well. In this new work, we provide a redraw function after drawing the first four cards, so I think the part that relies only on luck has been greatly reduced compared to the previous work.

Q. I would like to hear what part of Worlds Beyond you would like me to pay the most attention to, and what kind of game you want it to be remembered by fans.

= Without saying more, the 'card game' part is really fun, so please try playing it at least once. In addition, I think the beautiful illustrations and the lobby function with convenience are also attractive points that you can feel right away. Worlds Beyond hopes to be a game that gamers who are familiar with card games and those who are not can enjoy together.

Webzine InvenReporter Park Kwang-seok
2025-05-27