General Forum

I want to add Final Fantasy TCG, but it looks so complicated and I'd appreciate some help.

Also, cards exist in both Japanese and English releases with same card numbers, and not sure if we add those localized differences as separate sets or together somehow.

Recently, I bought a base FFX deck, see the middle top deck on the game manual...
- https://fftcg.cdn.sewest.net/rules/fftcggamemat-en.pdf

Which included some of the cards from this deck (English variations)...
- http://www.square-enix-shop.com/jp/ff-tcg/card/title_ff10.html

But it would seem like it doesn't matter which FF game the deck is from, it's all used in the same game... the title on the deck box does say "Final Fantasy Trading Card Game" even though I bought deck with FFX characters. You can easily find cards from other FF games listed here...
- http://www.square-enix-shop.com/jp/ff-tcg/card/title_index.html

English names of the cards can be found here...
- http://www.square-enix-shop.com/jp/ff-tcg/language/en/index.html

Not sure what they mean by different Opuses or if that is treated as a different set or does game title count as separate set (i.e. Final Fantasy VII card, FFX cards, FF13 cards, etc.) or if they're all treated like the same set in a TCG.

You can also see North Americal releases of boxes and packs with cards and booster cards (not sure how those are handled here, separate set or included set?)...
- https://fftcg.square-enix-games.com/na/releases

I am noob when it comes to TCGs and I don't play them, so any help from someone familiar with how those things work and how sets are treated (i.e. what is an actual base set in such games, are there several or one, what are included sets, etc.)? Thanks.

Welcome, and thanks for wanting to help - and asking for help to get things done correctly. I, for one, really appreciate that!

The only thing I want to clarify for you here (because I don't know much about TCGs in general but do know site procedures) is this, if the Japanese version was in different packs/boxes/cases, then it's considered a different product and will be listed as a separate set. If the cards were in the same packs as the Engliash cards, then they'd be listed as a parallel.

Hope that helps.

Well, that clarifies that. Which means we duplicate localized sets. Good to know because this answers a question about localized sets. I do remember having alocalized sticker album of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe in 1980s and I know that US version has text on the stickers printed in English, so that too would be treated as separate sets. Makes sense. Maybe in the future the site could have sort of parallel set or some such way of handling when cards or stickers look the same but text and packs/boxes are localized in different countried (i.e. US, Germany, Franch, Italy, etc.).

I bought the card deck directly at Square-Enix cafe shop in front of their building... they sold different decks of this same FF TCG. The regular release has all printed in Japanese, and the deck with manual and game map and cards in English just has "English version" printed on the box which is also only in English. So yes, it helps, thanks. It is multi-language release, but each language is a separate release.

But, FF13 box/pack, FF7 box/pack... they're all released in their own boxes. But are part of the same TCG. Not sure if those should all be separate sets, but I dunno how TCGs really work in that regard so let's see if someone else will be able to give me some more info here ;))

They are named the same except the language is appended to the end to differentiate. We can add links to the other sets in the Release Notes so people can know that other sets exists in other languages if they somehow only go to one of the sets. Adding them as a parallel would be problematic as they would indicate that they were released in the same packaging. We're very careful here to list the cards only in the release in which they were found.

Here is some info on TCGs in general. When it comes to a set like this you first want to figure out what comes in the booster boxes or "Wax" boxes if they exist. Then you would only add separate sets for whatever is in starter deck boxes if those card did not come in the main retail boxes.

For example Magic the Gathering (speaking of the past) would have a set where all of the cards could be found in the booster packs. Then they would also release separate deck boxes but these did not have anything different than you could get from packs. When MTG had separate releases they would change something on the card to differentiate it from the regular release.

Yu-Gi-Oh is different where the cards in the booster packs are different than the deck boxes, but they have different card numbers to reflect this.

So when I have a CCG card, I look up the main checklist and some pictures (if possible) of the same cards I have. Then I scruitinze/compare them to look at card numbers, copyright date, etc to make sure that what I have is indeed from the regular set and not some extra release. Finding info on English/US cards should be fairly simple. I still have about 400 Japanese cards that I can't find info on, so hopefully it isn't something like that. If any of the cards you have are Japanese and need help finding things on Japanese websites, lmk I may be able to help out.

This vwas very helpful, thank you. I would appreciate some help indeed.

Let's focus on trying to add English release first (should be the same as Japanese, but cards will be in English).

On this site you can click on card browser...
- https://fftcg.square-enix-games.com/en
...and if you click search without entering any criteria, you will get a list of all 2521 cards.

However, I've no idea how to tell which are from booster packs, and which are from base set.

Also, not sure if there is a single box for base set here.
I think base set may be mix of vrious FF titles, and each has its own box and starter deck as well as boosters.
So maybe they combine into making a base set.

If you click on the "Releases" you'll see various opuses (usually focusing on specific FF game) and how many which type of cards it contain.
Can it be the base set becomes bigger as they release other card sets to increase base set but also other included sets?
Seeing how there is starter set deck from every FF game, even though they're released in different years.

I'm thinking you are going to be making checklists based on those Opus names, or what shows up under the "Set" box on card browser.

If I use card browser and just pick Opus I and search, it shows the checklist as being 1-001 to 1-216, with PR-001-003 at the end. These PR cards would be added as Promo set to Opus I. So this is saying there are 216 cards total. Now to find the packaging. I look up Final Fantasy Opus I on ebay and ignore the individual cards and look for packs and boxes.

Here is a booster pack: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/jm4AAOSwFati6AKC/s-l1600.jpg
It says there are 186 cards (78+60+34+14) and 216 "premium" cards. The booster box says the same thing. These premium cards are not on the card browser. There are no other boxes on Ebay for Opus I that are not booster packs, no starter decks or anything like that. So this must only be an expansion.

Personally I would not submit a checklist until I can figure out what the premium cards are that the packs talk about. If I were to make a guess, the Premium cards are the foil cards I see on Ebay. And the set is 216 Premium cards, of which the base cards are a partial parallel of 186 cards. You'd need to make certain the checklist to make sure which of the 216 were Premium only.

Looking at card browser, it seems the different releases use different card numbering schemes. Opus I is 1-001, Opus II is 2-001, etc.

IDK whether the rarity letters should be used on the submitted checklist or not.

Sorry if this post looks weird, I was kinda live posting while researching at the same time.

I see your calculation of "It says there are 186 cards (78+60+34+14) and 216 Premium" as on pack, but I noticed that on Japanese trading card boxes number of cards also coincide with number of premium cards mentioned which got me puzzled.

I checked my base deck set I bought and it has numbers in that range, higherst number I have is 215, meaning there are rather 216 cards in base set than 186. Also, all those cards have format 1-DDDC where D is digit and C is character which is in my case S, C, or R.

Also, I wouldn't say 1- means it's part of Opus I because when on card browser I just click on say "Final Fantasy X" to see cards from that game, many of them have 16- as starting number yet there are only 14 opuses in total (correction, I noticed after Opus 14 they just added names to future opuses but numbers increase to 15-, 16-, etc.).

Also, I just realised they listed those opuses along with other titles under Set selection. So if you just click on that set, you usually get list of 140-220 cards, diffrent number in different set. Could these be actual base sets or included sets in actual "Final Fantasy TCG" main game?

Also, I noticed some cards have two numbers (if you click on "Crystal Dominion" set and search, first card called "Irfita" has 15-001R / 9-002H numbers assigned. And judging by this, if you just search Opus IX, you will find this card but only listed as 9-002H so you are correct that 9- may stand for opus.

Okay, I think I'm starting to figure things out... I see that all the cards I have in my deck are cards from Opus I as they start with 1- and they are only tied to FFX game. Each Opus or set has mix of FF game characters so my starter deck just included random dozen or more, many duplicates to make a set of 50 cards for a deck that is required to play.

Also, letter in the end after number may stand for things mentioned on the pack you linked to... so C - Common, R - Rare, H - Hero, and L - Legend. Many of the cards have S, but that isn't listed on the pack. I would hazard a guess it stands for "Special" or "Standard", lol, not sure which.

Now releases page makes sense... each set (Opus I-XIV and then later by name) has its own pack.

So for example, take a look at Opus I product page...
- https://fftcg.square-enix-games.com/en/release/opus-i

It says 216 cards in total. That stands as in card browser it listed 219 under Opus 1, cards with number from 001 to 216 plus three with PR- prefix which are probably promotional cards.

I don't know why they call this a booster pack or booster box since the cards they show that may be in the pack are in the base set of 216 card, they just might be legend cards or hard to get cards. And they have different starter sets which includes some more generic cards if you want to play without having to buy actual box or packs.

It looks to me that while Opus I was original launch for this game, each new opus added new sets but they aren't a different game, just more new cards for the same "Final Fantasy TCG".

With opus 15 which they titled "Crystal Dominion" they apparently included new "Crystals" mechanic and crystals cards as they mention it here...
- https://fftcg.square-enix-games.com/en/release/crystal-dominion

And opuses 16 and 17 titled "Emissaries of Light" and "Rebellion's Call" continue with that new crystals mechanic and cards. There also seem to be some of the reprinted cards with new artwork.

I know that this my be the same game and sets can be connected, but in the long run, I think it would be more wiser to create each set as new set rather have base empty set called "Final Fantasy TCG" and then treat all these opuses and future versions as included sets. Sort of how we don't treat new seasons of the same show as included sets.

Here too, each set has its own release date, and a separate box/pack, so we should not mix these two together.

So, if there are no objections, I would probably create these as separate sets:
- Final Fantasy TCG Opus I
- Final Fantasy TCG Opus II
- Final Fantasy TCG Opus III
- Final Fantasy TCG Opus IV
- Final Fantasy TCG Opus V
- Final Fantasy TCG Opus VI
- Final Fantasy TCG Opus VII
- Final Fantasy TCG Opus VIII
- Final Fantasy TCG Opus IX
- Final Fantasy TCG Opus X
- Final Fantasy TCG Opus XI
- Final Fantasy TCG Opus XII
- Final Fantasy TCG Opus XIII
- Final Fantasy TCG Opus XIV
- Final Fantasy TCG Crystal Dominion
- Final Fantasy TCG Emissaries of Light
- Final Fantasy TCG Rebellion's Call

I would include cards from the base set and create checklist for that for each of these sets.

As for Premium cards in each set, those would probably take more time to find out about since they're more secretive, but premium cards would be included sets in each of these sets anyhow, so they could be added afterwards. We could create "Premuim" as included set to indicate they exist, but not add any checklist until we can tell more about how they look like or how they're marked.

Phew, I honestly didn't think I'll be able to figure this out, but apparently I did, much thanks to your help :)
So, do you think it would be alright to add above mentioned sets or do you think we need some further discussion about determining base sets?

Those names probably aren't correct. I would go with something like (for example)

YEAR SquareEnix Final Fantasy Trading Card Game Opus I English Edition

I don't know the year for Opus I, it isn't shown on the pack.

Also remember that 216 is the premium cards. That is a parallel but the base set is 186 cards. I'm not sure how the checklist should be added since the parallel set has more cards than the base.

I recommend only looking at one set at a time and not try to do all of them at once. That's why I only posted about Opus I and ignored the others.

Do we even add "Trading Card Game" in the name? I know we have a policy of not adding "Trading Cards" part that is written on any TC box, does that not also apply for "Trading Card Game"? Will browse some other TCGs in the database and see if they include that part in their title.

As for names, yes, I only listed set names. Each set has its own page where you can see release date. Opus one says "28 October 2016".
- https://fftcg.square-enix-games.com/en/release/opus-i

Okay, will start by adding first set first and then see how to go from there.