Carddass (Franchise)

Carddass (カードダス Kādodasu) is a name given to cards sold by card vending machines owned by Bandai and a video game series published by Banpresto and Namco Bandai Games. The name comes from AMeDAS (Automated Meterological Data Acquisition System), a system in Japan used for gathering weather data. The aim behind this naming is to make Carddass an information source for kids. The main feature of the video games is having a story that crosses over several popular Japanese and American franchises, allowing characters from different titles to team up or battle one another.

History
The first Carddass, released in 1988, was based on the Saint Seiya anime series. The Carddass are made as a form of trading cards that can be played in a game. The first video game in the franchise was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System on June 15, 1988, later spawning numerous games that were released on various consoles and handhelds. Due to the nature of crossover games and licensing involved, the games started to be released worldwide in 2000.

Apart from Saint Seiya, many popular Japanese and American series have been made into Carddass.

Gameplay
Most games in the franchise, titled Carddass Wars, are usually strategy role-playing games, with some elements from visual novels in terms of the story and some decision making throughout the game's storyline. All the games follow a basic structure: when a stage begins, the character receives introductory dialogue between playable characters, leading to the scenario on the battlefield. To complete a scenario, the player must accomplish scenario objectives. Some scenarios are longer, with multi-part missions or have new objectives added as the story unfolds. On battlefield, the player and enemy take turns to order their units with commands available, such as movement, attacking, forming squads and casting "Spirit Commands", a set of magic-like spells unique to each character. Once the scenario is cleared, more dialogue is exchanged between characters before the player is taken to an intermission menu. Here, characters' stats and skills can be changed or upgraded, and other maintenance actions can be performed before the player continues on with the game.

Many games also have hidden features that can only be gained through a special sequence of events or completing optional challenging objectives. Some of these bonuses include extra stages, different endings, captured enemy machines and special upgrade for specific units. Characters that would normally be killed may not die as well. In some games, these are called "Skill Points" and the difficulty of the game increases accordingly.

Story
In most games, the player selects or is given a Banpresto original character and machine, who is connected to the overarching storyline which ties together the events of the constituent titles for the game. Some featured title also has their plots intertwined. The stories play out the events of the participating titles, albeit altered.

One noteworthy aspect of the Carddass Wars games is that character death happens rarely. Players will often have the chance to prevent the death of an ally, while some games take this a step further and prevent heroic deaths freely, without extra effort on the player's part. Additionally, some enemies can be convinced (usually those who are not completely villainous, or who have good intentions) to abandon the antagonists and join the player, whether they do so in their respective series or not. When these concepts are combined, players can create a team that has no chance of existing within the original series.

Battle
Battles in Carddass Wars games are turn-based. The player usually gets to move their forces first, one at a time, then control switches to the game's AI.

When a unit attacks, the target reacts by blocking (increasing defense against the attack), or evading (reducing the attack's chance to hit), or countering (striking back with their own attack). Once chosen, the battle animation is played out. If the player unit is not destroyed and successfully damaged the enemy, then the unit gains experience points. And if the enemy is destroyed, the player will also receive money and optional parts. In later games, "Support Attacks/Defense" (where an adjacent unit that has not taken its turn yet can make a free attack/jump in front of an ally and take reduced damage) and simultaneous attacks by two or more units were introduced.

All battles are carried out either the terrain of land, air, sea or space, which affects the performance of fighters, machines, pilots and weapons in various ways. For example, most Gundam characters excel in space combat, but suffer major handicaps underwater, and techniques requiring an atmosphere, such as the Mazinger Z's "Rust Hurricane", are unusable in space. The battlefield also contains objects which grant various effects. For example, besides providing repair and energy refill, a military base also provides land units with defense bonus but will hinder them from moving freely.

In addition to standard fighters, mecha and vehicle units, the player often has one or more "Battleships", air- or spacecraft units such as the White Base, SDF-1 Macross or Daiku-Maryu that in addition to powerful long-ranged attacks, can also dock other units to refill energy, repair damage, and in some games, even switch between active and non-active units onto and off the battlefield. Battleships are powerful units, but losing one in battle is often an instant-loss situation in many stages.

Units
Units in-game are generally separated into two categories: "super-type" and "real-type". Super heroes and super robots are heavy units with exceptionally high hit points and armor, and powerful melee weapons with high energy cost, but at the near expense of evasion and accuracy. On the other hand, real heroes and real robots are light units which are faster and more agile and evasive, while possessing long-range, high-accuracy weapons that consume ammunition, but at the near expense of hit points and armor. Some units are treated as "support units", regenerating hit points and/or energy to allies, while battleships and carriers serve as transports or to resupply all units, while also providing powerful fire support.

Though every unit takes a single grid on the tactical map and has little visual difference in battle animations, a larger unit gains defensive and offensive bonus against smaller units, but carry a disadvantage to evasion and accuracy. In later titles, certain attacks can bypass the size attribute, nullifying the effect of size in combat.

Some units have other unique characteristics: for example, Getter Robo and Son Goku can transform into different forms with new weapons and powers and different attributes. To give the player more freedom in customization, some mecha pilots are able to switch into other machines from the same series, such as placing MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam pilot Kamille Bidan into Judau Ashta's MSZ-010 Double Zeta Gundam.

Other
As larger storage media became common from fifth generation consoles, fully animated battle sequences complete with detailed graphics, whether larger 2-D sprites, or 3-D graphics, were implemented with voice acting. Since Carddass Wars Alpha. Since many of the voice actors featured have worked in various projects, the games include in-jokes concerning their other roles: Amuro Ray from Gundam and Misato Katsuragi from Evangelion flirt often, referring to their voice acting roles as Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon, respectively.

Since the Carddass Wars F, many games feature a database of every character and unit appearing in the title. The database entries are written in the context of the character/unit's original story, regardless of how it is altered in the game. Players usually gain access to the profiles of units and characters already encountered during gameplay and must play through the game several times in order to complete it.

Carddass cards

 * Saint Seiya (1988)
 * SD Gundam (1988)
 * Ultraman (1988)
 * Dragon Ball (1991)
 * Dragon Ball Z (1991)
 * Mega Man (1992)
 * Street Fighter II (1992)
 * Sailor Moon (1994)

Video Games
Early Carddass games
 * Carddass Hero Great Battle (June 1988)