Alteil: Card Dueling Online -- 08-04-2008

	Game Title: Alteil
	Genre: Web-based
	Publisher: DEX Entertainment
	Status: Beta
	Official Site: http://www.alteil.com

Alteil is a story-driven online card dueling game with art by Japan's most talented fantasy artists. The game launched in Japan four years ago, and is now firmly established as the number one online card game in the country. Since then Alteil has spread worldwide with several international launches. The American server was started on July 2008.

Like many other collectible card games, you play as a magician (Iczer in this case) who summons creatures to beat up the other iczer.

When you sign up for an account (which is always free), you are given a free customizable starter set of your choice that is yours to keep forever. This starter set is fully playable the moment you receive it. Of course, you may also buy(in real money) additional packs of cards to add to expand your capabilities. But if you don't, you are not limited in any way. You can still play on any server or zone you wish, as well as engage in tournaments and special events. Your free cards rest in your library with any cards you may have purchased. There is no distinction between them. In fact, the starter decks are good.

Click here for full image

There are four main empires in the world of Alteil: Refess, Lawtia, Gowen, and Falkow. Each has different strengths and weaknesses, and reflects a different play style. At any one time there will be four available starter sets, one featuring each empire. Refuss is the light sphere, which'll give you power monsters that can take a lot of damage, as well as defensive and healing spells. Latwia is the dark deck, one that revolves around doing damage and has special abilities at night, which is every third turn. Gowen is the fire deck, and it target for dealing as much damage as possible. Lots of the lower level Gowen monsters can increase their abilities as the game goes on. Falkow is the blue deck, a deck which has strong magic cards and monsters with buff abilities.

Every card, from standard unit to rare character to simple spell, has breathtaking visuals from a master of fantasy art. Alteil's artists include big names like Katsuya Terada, Hitoshi Yoneda, Rei, Jun Kawasaki and Yuji Kaida. Their designs and illustrations have graced such projects as Tekken 5, Blood the last Vampire, Xanadu, Duel Masters, Code Geass the manga, the Gundam models and the American Hellboy movie.

The world of Alteil is a constantly evolving story. Special unit cards called Characters represent major players in the events of the world. You'll see your favorite Characters develop as the story moves forward. Each new twist in the plot brings new cards, new Characters, and new strategies.

Nice cards. Click for full image.

Traditionally, online video games based on "virtual cards" have remained tied down to the physical limitations of "real world" card games. Alteil's design is only concerned with providing a fun, challenging game, and does not rely on conventional mechanics like playing hands or drawing. You can access your entire playing set of cards at any time and even employ your duplicate cards through a unique "resurrection" system. Alteil also takes full advantage of computer-managed record keeping to include mechanics such as initiative, unit hit points, player leveling, card leveling, and time-dependent battlefield conditions.

As a free online card dueling game which is 100% web-driven, you can play it on any computer with a web browser whenever you want. If you are happen to interest in both Japanese style RPG and card duel, this may suit you.

See more detail in http://www.alteil.com/. There are also a tutorial telling you how to play this game.