Perfect World previewed its pet project for the last two years, none other than Kai-Ri-Sei Million Arthur: Ring (乖离性百万亚瑟王: 环), the sequel to 2014’s Kai-Ri-Sei Million Arthur cooperative card game that was once available on mobile devices before its servers shut down in 2020.
Even though the Million Arthur series received multiple adaptations from a VR sequel, a fighting game, and even an MMORPG, none ever really captured the spirit of the original game’s extreme need for meta cards, and strategy gameplay with three other players. Perfect World is looking to bring that back as this sequel brings back many familiar mechanics, to the point that fans may even consider it closer to a remake as it in many ways plays just like its source material but with even more impressive graphics, difficult boss mechanics and a level of polish that elevates the experience into the 2020s.
▍Million Arthur has Never Looked Better
For a mobile game Kai-Ri-Sei Million Arthur: Ring is rather visually impressive. Each of the characters has received redesigns while still maintaining much of their iconic looks, from the Warrior, Thief, Knight, and Diva Arthurs.
Outside of them, the game’s UI is simplified while remaining stylish, showing you the stats of each card in a neat layout, and when it comes to setting up rooms it’s fairly easy as at least in this version of the game you pick your character, whether you want it with bots or requiring four players, and go search for a match in a matter of no time. At launch though there may be options to setup passwords and other restrictions to further customize lobbies.
In terms of the presentation in-game Perfect World seemingly went all-out, as now characters will perform unique animations depending on the card that was used, especially if the card depicts the specific Arthur using. Even if it doesn’t some MR cards will play a unique 3D animation featuring the special character, complete with voiced lines.
Character attack cards also range wildly in attack animations, as even basic ones will have variations depending on if the card has a unit attack once, twice, or thrice, and this time they’ll actually go up to the opponent and hit them so you no longer just see waves of energy based on the associated element.
These animations for the most part can be pretty lengthy though, so thankfully there is an option for the host to make it so the animations are skipped and shortened to vastly speed up the experience.
▼ Watch the funny buffing animation, or just skip it!
▍Plays Surprisingly Similar to the Original, for Better or For Worse
Kai-Ri-Sei Million Arthur was new for its time in the turn-based genre for introducing TCG elements to the game, and that remains mostly the same in this entry. Like with the original. Players build a deck of 10 cards, each with a unique effect and a bonus effect if used on the character that matches the associated class on the card. Players will have to team up or work with the decks built on their multiple characters to face off against powerful foes, and each player must take on a unique role out of the four playable Arthurs.
Million Arthur was fun for its time, but many fans will point to its downfall being the game’s latter implementation of its MatchMaking Ranking system, and the frequency of Pay-2-Win elements, most notably in the cards. Towards the latter part of the game’s lifecycle, it was almost expected that players have the most recent cards in the game, as these were often significantly more powerful than any other card previously released, forcing players to spend considerable amounts of time in the game or like with real life, pay for more cards until they get the one they need to play with others.
Unfortunately Kai-Ri-Sei Million Arthur: Ring may fall into that same sort of pitfall, as its gameplay was strikingly similar and the effect of cards being so vastly different in utility made it fairly concerning whether it may end up in the same pitfalls as the original, especially since characters still have levels, and ratings displayed. Thankfully the bosses in this demo seemed fairly doable with the cards that were given that ranged from Rare to Million Rare, and it seemed like most situations could have been dealt with more effectively with better hindsight and player teamwork.
As it stands though, if there’s one thing Kai-Ri-Sei Million Arthur: Ring excels at, it’s reviving the classic TCG RPG into a modern era with a fresh coat of paint, but only time and its release of cards will really tell if the game can escape the pitfalls of its predecessor and if it can last just as long as it, or even longer.
