Magic: The Gathering Arena (MTGA) is a unique way to experience the game of MTG in the current day. Although it is the best way to play MTG, though? I have been playing MTG since I was fifteen; at the time of writing this review, I am in my mid-twenties. This review is going to be interesting, as I love MTG, but I don’t love MTGA. The issues I have with MTGA stem from design decisions that Wizards themselves have made and just overall things that I, as a player, do not like. I will also be answering some questions that some people may have, and I’ll be talking about one of the first big ones first.

One of the big things that some people have complained about is that this game is pay-to-win. This is true to some extent, although there are ways to craft cards; it will take some time to grind to get the ones you want/need. The next issue is the format that MTGA has. I am combining these issues because they do go together in some ways. Although I won’t be talking about the format too much in this section.

MTGA is probably one of the closest ways for you to play everything that is up to date, besides MTGO. So with that in mind, this leads to the issue of the game being pay-to-win. If you want to get a good deck, which is like a modern deck, you have to pay for packs, or you can craft cards, but to get those materials, you still need to open packs. There are two ways to get card packs: you can get them by spending money on gems, or by getting these gold coins that you can get from completing quests that the game gives you daily.
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I played with a control deck, at first, I got a few packs and used some cards that I already had that the game gave me from the start. This does depend on the deck that you want to use, but I was able to get somewhere with the deck I made, and I did craft the rest of the cards I wanted for the deck, once I learned how to do that.

MTGA has its own format, so some cards/rulings are a bit different from the actual TCG. If you want to play the game with the Modern format rules, you have Historic, which allows all cards released in MTGA, or Timeless, where you can use all cards in MTG’s history. What’s the difference between these two, though? They have their own ban lists, and there are other formats that you can play on the game, like Pioneer and Brawl (one-on-one Commander, where your life is 25), and a few more.

Certain cards are not in the game, like Dauthi Voidwalker, Force of Negation, and if you are coming here and thinking that the Spider-Man set will be in here. I have some bad news for you: the cards aren’t in the game, due to Wizards not getting the digital license for them. However, I should at least explain this small bit of info. The cards are in the game from the Spider-Man set; it’s just that they are under different names. As I said before, they never got the digital license for those cards.

I already have issues with Uniavers’s Beyond, and having an issue in the TCG carry over to the digital card game makes me worried about the state of the game, in the future.

The card shuffler sometimes will not shuffle properly, and it will give you a bad hand, and will only make you draw lands. This has been debated by some as to whether or not it is actually true, but I believe it is. This also makes certain decks, such as burn decks, not particularly worth playing IMO, as burn decks rely heavily on getting their key draws. On top of that, they also tend to run out of fuel very quickly, and if you only draw lands or cards you can’t play, they tend not to be worth playing in my eyes. Keep in mind, though, that it is strictly my opinion, and I have seen burn decks, shine, and fairly beat me.

There are also going to be a few decks that are just outright better than most due to the nature of the game; control decks can get insane advantages due to the counterspells and interaction they get. Creature-heavy decks can be extremely problematic to deal with, unless you get a board wipe, then you need to pray that your opponent will stay and let you finish the match. There are a few more decks that I could talk about, but I will keep this one short. I also want to point out that I am well aware that these decks that I have mentioned have a weakness to them, and they are here in this game; I am just pointing out the issue.

Now, I mentioned that this game is pay-to-win, but there is more you can buy than just card packs. I mean, let's be real here, you probably have already spent hundreds of dollars on the physical card game, so why not do it all over again on MTGA? There are cosmetics, you can buy emotes, and pals.

There are also events that you can enter; they do cost money to enter, you can get card packs, and those cards vanish when the event is done. That’s right, you read that correctly, events that if you want to enter, you must pay for, and in return, you get cards that you can't use outside of the event. This makes the events just not worth doing, in my opinion.

One of the few positive things that I will say about MTGA is its visuals; everything in this game looks beautiful. The sound design, animations, music, etc, everything about how the game looks and sounds is amazing. When navigating through the menus, everything is neat, and when I got down to it, crafting cards was pretty easy and straightforward.
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After playing MTGA for a while, I concluded that I can only really recommend MTGA under a few circumstances. One of them is that you don’t like MTGO, MTGO is not on Steam, and it has its own launcher; however, it has almost all the cards. The only cards that aren’t in that game are the Spider-Man ones, Doctor Who (unless that changes, but I doubt it), and a few others that are licensed franchises. The other reason is that you want to play MTG Modern but in a more casual setting, which is fine, I suppose, but there are much better options.

I got so fed up with MTGA, that I went out of my way to buy a webcam, go on Spelltable/Discord, and I played MTG on there. I usually play Commander, as that’s my preferred format (I do play Modern, though), and MTGA’s version sucks. Also, Table Top Simulator can do a better job, as you can go to Moxfield and create your deck there to use in TTS. TTS is 25.99 CAD, and while MTGA is free, when you think about it, you either pay 25 bucks for a game that you can play MTG on and other stuff, or play the game that is free, but you can only play MTG, and it has the issues I mentioned in this review.

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The older I get, the more I start to view games much differently than when I was younger. Now that I am in my mid-20s, I view Touhou as a Bullet Hell/resource management game. With that in mind, Touhou Kinjoukyou Fossilized Wonders (Touhou 20) does offer some unique mechanics that make it stand out from the other Touhou Bullet Hells that I have played.

I should note, however, that Touhou 20 is almost completely in Japanese. While some text in the game is in English, the majority of the game is in Japanese. As such, I won’t be talking about the story or anything in the game. There is an English patch for the game available, but I don’t know where to find it because I never installed it. I just assumed that since it’s Touhou, something goofy and silly is in it. I also apologize if I do not explain certain things properly. Nor am I experienced with Touhou enough, so if I miss anything, I do apologize.

Pros

• Fun bullet hell gameplay where you have to dodge lots of projectiles
  
• Gameplay is fun and easy to pick up for new players
  
• Fantastic soundtrack and beautiful art style.

Cons

• Some projectiles will reflect while out of bounds/off-screen, making them sometimes difficult to avoid

Touhou 20 plays like a typical Touhou bullet hell; new to this game, though, are gemstones. These gemstones will affect your shot type. You get these gemstones by collecting gems when defeating enemies, but to get new gemstones for different shot types, you need to beat certain stages or complete the game. You will also be collecting these small red and blue squares when defeating enemies/bosses. Now, normally, I would say I don't know what they do, but I do know what the red and blue squares do, so I have to explain them. The red squares will increase your damage, while the blue ones increase your score. Your damage can only get so high, so red squares will just give you points, but not as many as blue ones.

The game is pretty challenging, but it’s not the hardest game I have played; it does have its moments. Stage three is where the game starts to pick up its difficulty slightly, especially with the boss for the stage, Nereko Michigami. She has this one attack, where it can get reflected in a different direction, while out of bounds. So if you are not careful, you may get hit and lose a life, as in all Touhou games, you will die in one hit. There are these heart pieces that you can get, and if you collect three of them, you get an extra life. If you lose all your lives, you must use a continue and sacrifice your score.
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Then there are spell cards, now these are your special attacks that you can use to help take out enemies or bosses. There are two characters that you can play as: Remiu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame, each of whom has a unique special attack. Remiu will fire these orbs that do large amounts of damage, while Marise will use her Mini Hakkero, which deals large amounts of DPS. Each of these attacks will absorb bullets, allowing you to nullify attacks that are difficult to avoid. Think of it as your shield in a way, in case you need it. However, it’s also a good attack to use in a pinch; try to find a balance while using it.

To get more spell cards (and in some cases, lives), you will need to collect three spell card pieces and three heart pieces. To get these, you will need to beat these Wonder Stones, prymaid-like enemies that come in red, blue, yellow, and green. None of these colors matters in any gameplay sense, as they are just an enemy in my eyes. A special enemy, of course, but I noticed nothing really unique to them.

When fighting against bosses, you do have the option to get bonuses if you beat them under a time limit, which you can see at the top of the screen. Bosses have a certain number of lives with them, and to get the bonuses, you need to take out that life within the time limit. As you progress throughout the game, the bosses will have more HP, making the bonuses harder to get.

On the other hand, I do believe that this game is perfect for newer Touhou fans who want to try out a Touhou game. The game is easy enough for someone who is new to the series to enjoy and play. You don’t need to know anything about Touhou to play this game.

The only issue I would have with Touhou 20 is that some projectiles that some of the bosses fire will sometimes bounce off-screen/out of bounds. This makes some of the projectiles in the game a little difficult to avoid; this is only a minor issue. However, it’s still something that has occasionally screwed me over.

The art style is very beautiful, and it has that feeling that ZUN made it with; it has a charm to it, which makes it likable. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM, I had no issues while playing, and the soundtrack is just straight up fantastic.
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Touhou 20 is a very fun bullet hell game that I enjoyed. Any type of Touhou fan will enjoy this game and have fun. It’s easy to play, but it has that challenge that all Touhou games in a way have; it’s not too hard, but it’s not too easy in my eyes. If you have 20 dollars to spare and are looking for a fun bullet hell game, then Touhou 20 is worth it in my opinion.

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