The Final Fantasy Trading Card Game (Japanese: ファイナルファンタジー・トレーディングカードゲーム Fainaru Fantajī Torēdingu Kādo Gēmu),[1] often abbreviated as Final Fantasy TCG or FF-TCG, is a trading card game developed by Hobby Japan and published by Square Enix.
A Forward with equal or more damage than its own power is broken and put into its owner's Break Zone.
The process continues until both players consecutively pass while the stack is empty, in which case the next phase of the turn begins.
Character cards (Forwards, Backups and Monsters) can only be played by the turn player during their own Main Phase 1 or 2 while the stack is empty.
Created in 2020, this format limits deck construction to the last three released Final Fantasy TCG sets, or "opus".
[11] Unlike in Constructed play, a player's deck can contain a minimum of 40 cards and games can be won by dealing the opponent 6 points of damage.
There are two variations of Limited play in Final Fantasy TCG: Sealed and Draft.
[8] In Sealed, players receive 9 Final Fantasy TCG booster packs and construct a deck from them.
[8] In Draft, players receive 5 Final Fantasy TCG booster packs.
[8] The All Stars Draft Cube is a pre-constructed collection of select Final Fantasy TCG cards.
The top right-hand corner might also have an EX icon which means its first ability (for Characters) or the entire effect (for Summons) can trigger when the card is placed into the Damage Zone.
The eight elements are: fire, ice, wind, earth, lightning, water, light, and dark.
The Chapter series started after Square Enix contacted Tarou Kageyama of Hobby Japan about the creation of a trading card game.
The initial series lasted from February 2011 until 2015 and released 15 sets in total with 1098 unique cards.
[16] Square Enix officially hosts the following competitive events: Run by local game shops, pre-releases are competitive events where players can construct decks using soon-to-be released cards from the next Opus set.
Winners of these events get a paid-for trip to the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game World Championship.
[17] Players that have won Crystal Cup tournaments are invited to play in the world championship.
[17] The back surface of the cards have a treatment applied to give a luxury feel when held.
The frame in the Opus series is changed for each card type to make telling them apart easy.
[19] Final Fantasy TCG has been noted for its quick and streamlined gameplay, but the game has been criticized for having very small card text that is hard to read.