Description
– Launched 2020
– Check out the YouTube review by VJose32
– and the Shironeko Project: Zero Chronicle episodes 1 to 12, English subtitled
These decks, featuring the characters of the popular anime and role-playing game, were released only in Japan. COLOPL Inc, based in Japan, created Shironeko (White Cat Project) as a companion to “Quiz RPG: The World of Mystic Wiz.” COLOPL makes mobile game apps, played in several countries via smartphones and PCs.
Each deck has 52 cards with custom courts, two custom jokers and a double back gaff card. They were made in the USA in Spring 2020 by the U.S. Playing Card Co.
White Cat Project (Japanese: 白猫プロジェクト, Hepburn: Shironeko Purojekuto) is a free-to-play action role-playing game developed and published by Colopl for Android and iOS. It was initially released in Japan on July 14, 2014. An English version was released internationally under the title Colopl Rune Story and operated from July 23, 2015, to October 7, 2016. A spinoff title, White Cat Tennis (白猫テニス, Shironeko Tenisu) was released on both iOS and Android on July 31, 2016, while the upcoming sequel Shironeko New Project will be released on the Nintendo Switch at a later date.
An anime adaptation of the game’s third anniversary event produced by Project No.9 aired from April 6 to June 22, 2020.
A long time ago, there is an ancient legend revolving around two figures, the White Maiden of the Sky; represented by the White Cat, and the Black Prince of Darkness; represented by the Black Cat. At the same time, a war between the demons and the guardians of light took place, with the demons led by the Black King of Darkness attacking the lands in the sky. The Black Prince however, despite the wishes of the Black King, defied his orders and falls in love with the White Maiden, in hopes that their union would end the war. Both were not meant to meet and love each other as the war ravaged the world around the land and the skies.
Several millennia after the war, in a world consisting of numerous isles, a young hero from the Astora Isle encounters the adventurer Kyle and follows him on an expedition on the isle. They meet a mysterious girl named Iris and a talking white cat named Catra, and together they make their way to the isle’s ruins, where they find a flying island. Kyle becomes consumed by darkness there, and the party resolves to travel to the ends of the world on the flying island in order to find the seven “Great Runes”, following Kyle’s words before he disappeared. Upon their adventures towards finding the Runes, both the hero and Iris start to fill the pieces, meeting friends and enemies and discovering their true identities.
White Cat Project is an action role-playing game with touchscreen controls, where the player controls the character by dragging the finger across the screen (a mechanic Colopl calls “Punicon”) and tapping to attack. Special abilities can be activated by holding the finger on the character, which opens up a selection menu of abilities. All of these actions can be done using one finger only, which facilitates one-handed gaming.
The characters also have their own classes corresponding to weapon types, for example swords, bows, and mage staffs. In general, most characters are gained via a “Summon” tab which works on a gacha system. Runes are spent on randomized characters, with some characters being common and other characters being rare. Some characters can be gained for free by completing in-game missions. While the game is fully playable as a single-player experience, it also supports up to four-player co-operative multiplayer. There is also a town-building mode where players can build and upgrade structures that generate in-game currencies and provide combat bonuses to their characters. Unlike many free-to-play games, White Cat Project has no stamina system.
White Cat Project was released in Japan on July 14, 2014 on iOS and Android platforms. The theme song for the game is titled “Stand Up!”, performed by Yui Horie. An international English version operated from July 23, 2015 until its closure on October 7, 2016. In January 2015, Colopl released a VR version of White Cat Project for the Oculus Rift. Named Shironeko VR Project, the game can be controlled with a gamepad, keyboard and mouse, or on a smartphone. A spinoff tennis game featuring characters from White Cat Project was released in July 2016 under the name White Cat Tennis. The “Punicon” controls from White Cat Project are used here as well. A new action RPG tentatively named Shironeko New Project is announced for the Nintendo Switch, originally slated for release in 2020 in Japan.
In January 2018, Nintendo filed a lawsuit against Colopl over five patent infringements found in White Cat Project. These include “the special technology used to operate a joystick over a touch panel”, first patented by Nintendo for its Nintendo DS wrist strap that Nintendo claims Colopl had used for its “Punicon” controls. Nintendo later added a sixth patent infringement to the proceedings, and seeks 4.4 billion yen in damages plus late fees, in addition to an injunction on the operation of the White Cat Project smartphone app. Colopl changed the game’s control mechanics in February 2020 in response to the lawsuit.
An anime adaptation of the game, titled White Cat Project: Zero Chronicle (白猫プロジェクト ZERO CHRONICLE, Shironeko Purojekuto ZERO CHRONICLE), which adapts the in-game “Zero Chronicle – The first sin” prologue event, was announced during the Colopl 10th Anniversary event and aired from April 6 to June 22, 2020. It was animated by Project No.9, with Masato Jinbo directing and writing the series, Yousuke Okuda designing the characters, and Taku Iwasaki composing the music. Takanori Nishikawa and ASCA performed the series’ opening theme song “Tenbin -LIBRA-” (天秤-Libra-, Balance -LIBRA-), while Rei Yasuda performed the series’ ending theme song “through the dark”. Funimation had acquired the anime series, and they streamed it on its platforms. Following Sony’s acquisition of Crunchyroll, the series was moved to Crunchyroll.
Quiz RPG: The World of Mystic Wiz (クイズRPG 魔法使いと黒猫のウィズ) is a quiz game, role-playing video game, and social game hybrid that was developed and published by Colopl and released on Android on March 5, 2013 and on iOS on April 22, 2013.
On August 20, 2013, the English and Korean versions of the game saw a worldwide release for iOS and Android. On March 20, 2014, the Simplified Chinese version released, and on January 14, 2015, the Traditional Chinese version released on Google Play in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao.
In September 2016, Yahoo! Mobage launched a PC version that was ported by Core Edge. The PC version is independent of the mobile version, introducing its own spirit, event, MAP and a clan system not in the portable version.
The international version of the game had service terminated on January 18, 2017.
Gameplay
Players take control of an apprentice wizard following a young woman named Wiz and must learn magic by undergoing quests in which they answer trivia questions. Players collect, evolve, and combine elemental spirits in order to form a team and fight monsters. Players can also recruit friends, battle in tournaments, and engage in regular special events for the chance to unlock rare spirits.
The game has 3 different types of elements, forming a weakness triangle. Quiz questions correspond to a certain element, therefore, answering questions of that element will cause the player’s spirits to attack enemies with it.
Reception
On May 31, 2014, the game exceeded 26 million downloads in Japan, an increase from 17 million downloads at the start of 2014.
The game received a mixed reception from critics. Max Eddy of PC Magazine rated the game 2.5/5 stars, calling it a “shallow, cynical experience” that forces players to “grind, grind grind”, and said that he would rather be playing another game. However, Mike Fahey of Kotaku called the game “so simple, it’s brilliant” and said that he was “a little in love” with the game.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.