[ TableCon Quest 2024 ] Cardfight!! Vanguard & Weiss Schwarz Designer Satoshi Nakamura Talks Designs and How Players Give “Infinite Variations” of Games

For those who dabbled into Japanese trading card games (TCG), both Cardfight!! Vanguard and Weiss Schwarz are names familiar to many and have been standing proudly among the other top card games.

During our time at this year’s TableCon Quest, a tabletop gaming convention held in Singapore, we had the honor to catch up with Satoshi Nakamura, the president of Yuhodo and the designer behind both Cardfight!! Vanguard and Weiss Schwarz. 

International Community 

Since its release, Cardfight!! Vanguard has a strong global player base. When it comes to the game’s international community contributing to the game’s growth and longevity, Nakamura said, “Card games have always depended on the player base – the bigger the community, the bigger the possibility.”

“As card games are based on player to player, every time you play with someone different, the feel of the game changes. It feels that as long as more people are playing the game, the more possibilities will open up and it will keep changing along with the people who are playing it.”

Journey from Player to Designer

For those who may not know, Nakamura has been a competitive card game player since 1998. When talking about how his journey becoming a card game designer has evolved over these 25 years, Nakamura said: “The biggest thing about card games is similar to my answer in question one, but it’s that it can always adapt and change. There are a lot of variables, like different draws, and different players – which can change the flow of the game. That’s how it keeps it fresh.”

“So I think that the biggest thing about card games that drew me to it is that no matter how many times you play – it can be different every time. There are infinite variations. I believe that the experience I had in the past 26, 27, and 28 years will be a new experience for me. In a way, it won’t change. Even though that changes all the time, that’s the one thing that doesn’t change.” 

Biggest Impact on Card Games 

As we shift towards a more digital age, card games now coexist in harmony between online video games and offline traditional physical tabletop games. When asked about the biggest improvement and innovation that has had the biggest impact on both online and offline card games in recent years, this is what Nakamura has to say.

“I believe that two things have influenced card games positively over the years. Firstly, with the rise of online card games, I thought that maybe it might threaten the presence of offline card games. But actually, it reinforced certain players’ feelings that even offline card games have their own draw, and so both of them can coexist at the same time.”

“The second thing is when there was coronavirus, people couldn’t meet up to play card games.  But also with the advent of technology and things, they could actually play the games for other matters online. That’s one of the positive effects.”

“Even during those trying times, we managed to overcome it. People who couldn’t meet up to play still found a way to play card games with each other. We think that there is a great possibility for it in the future as well. The users are so dedicated to the game.”

Design Influence

When it comes to the work of design, a designer draws inspiration and influences from many places – whether particular games, other forms of media, or even other designers.

For Nakamura, he elaborated “I think that this applies to any sort of creative work. But every creative work actually has a savings bank of things that move them in their heart. Like small things if you watch a sports game and have an exciting experience, or if you go on a date with your girlfriend, or if you watch a very interesting movie – small moments of energy and happiness like this can translate into energy for creative work.”

“In the case of Weiss Schwarz, we had a lot of collaborations with anime titles. So we think of the point of view of how can we make a fan appreciate and love this game through the series that they are collaborating with.”

“So even when we have tried new video games, new other board games, we will also think of how we can translate this excitement, this energy from these games into a card game format and that’s like how people in this career think. – how we can change all these small moments that move us into concepts of the card game.”

Cardfight!! Vanguard 

Since Nakamura is the designer of both Cardfight!! Vanguard and Weiss Schwarz, we were interested in the behind-the-scenes design process for both games. 

Starting with Cardfight Vanguard, Nakamura mentioned that the game originated from a concept by manga author Akira Itō – Itō created the Cardfight!! Vanguard’s story which he wanted to create with a certain theme he had in mind, and that was how the card game was born, from theme and concept.

“The thing about what I want to do in Cardfight!! Vanguard is that instead of having something fight for you by placing them in front, I want the players themselves to be the one that goes forward to fight. So, the name Vanguard comes from this concept where you actually become like the leader – the person that leads the clan and you move forward instead of having someone go in front for you. Your allies support you from the side but you’re the one in front.”

“While Itō-sensei had this big concept in mind, he went deeper into the mechanics side of things. So, what he wanted to create is a game where no matter your age, whether you’re much younger than your opponents and you play a game against them – despite this age gap and possibly like this skill gap, you have a chance to win and that’s what gave rise to the trigger system.”

“In the story itself, this is actually a great mechanic to have because no matter how strong the main character is, there is a possibility you could lose due to the trigger system. ‘This is the final attack! Heal trigger!’ Itō-sensei actually took it in his stride and he made it, I worked with him to make it into a very interesting story despite this trigger system thing.”

Weiß Schwarz

As for Weiß Schwarz, Nakamura said that is an accumulation of many different universes in one game.

“In Weiß Schwarz, it’s completely possible to develop the possibility that a space battleship can fight against a little girl. No matter their skill level within the universe, it is still possible for them to fight within this game. Even the little girl may be more powerful than the robot or spaceship.”

“Within this mini-multiverse going on in Weiß Schwarz, there is that moment in every story where there is a climax. And that’s the point where there is the most power, the most emotion for that particular universe story. The climax card system in Weiß Schwarz is actually a collection of all these moments that are emotionally impactful to fans because that’s the most powerful part of the story within that universe.”

“Just like the trigger system in Vanguard, the climax system in Weiß Schwarz is also for people who have just started out in this game to have a chance to deal with these people with more skill because there is always that element of luck. With the power of emotional scenes, like when you draw a climax card, you can turn the tables on your opponent because that is your moment, that is your scene, and that is where the music plays for you.”

“I hope that players who play Weiß Schwarz, actually when they play against each other and they see how passionate they are about their favorite stories and their favorite scenes, they hope that they can kind of get other people interested in that story as well and make more fans of the anime or movie that they collaborated with. And that’s his way of returning to the collaborated scenes.”

That concludes the interview. We would like to thank Satoshi Nakamura for taking the time to answer our questions and share his design process about Cardfight!! Vanguard and Weiss Schwarz.

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