So Kawaii! (100% Orange Juice)

You have faced the darkest depths of Hell, faced demons and gods, and faced horrors men have no words for.  In spite of facing down zombies, haunted houses, and even the Great C'thulhu, you won't be prepared for this.  This, my friends, is what true Chaos looks like.  Her name, QP.  She's small, adorable, and ready to rob you blind.  In a battle for the stars (literally), you must take chances, make mistakes, and get ready for 100% Orange Juice.



GAME DESCRIPTION: 100% Orange Juice is a 4 player Digital board game created by the developer Fruitbat Factory.  There are 2 modes, Story Mode and Free Play.  In the story, you take the role of 1 of 4 anime-esque characters that are chasing down the mischievous QP in order to take back something that was stolen from them, such as a wallet or some pudding.

SET UP:  At the beginning of each game, you select 1 character you have currently unlocked, and create a deck of 10 cards.  All these cards are mixed into 1 central deck.  Each card has a cost that requires stars located on the right.  The kinds of cards that the deck can contain are:

• Traps: Set these, and any player that lands on it triggers the card.  Mostly negative.
• Battle: You can only use these when a battle starts.  Generally aids your stats.
• Event: These will either apply to all players, or over a series of turns.
• Boost: One time cards that affect 1 player once.
• Hyper: In the deck, these cards are blank.  When drawn, they turn into a special card exclusive to the character that drew it.  These have any number of abilities and costs.  If, however, you lose this card to another player, it does not change to that player, but stays as the card it changed into.

BOARD:  There are several different types of spaces, which include:

• Stars (Yellow): These are primarily spent to play cards, or fufill a Norma (see below). Roll a die, and you get that many stars times your level.
• Battle (Red): On these spaces, you'll fight an AI enemy.  If defeated, they'll get you 1 win and some stars.  At least once per game, these will be replaced with a Boss, which has incredibly high stats.
• Warp (Purple): Land here, you teleport to a new square, and your turn immediately ends. 
• Draw (Green): This allows you to draw 1 card from the main deck.
• Drop (Blue): Roll, and you lose that many stars times your Level.
• Home (Rainbow circle): This is your starting point, and the point you return when you finish a goal.

There may also be board events which occur every few turns, which can cause damage, healing, influx of stars, and more.

NORMA:  In order to win, you must fufill a specific "Norma", or goal, and return home back to your starting space.  To start with, everyone must first fufill the Norma of 10 gathered stars.  Once you fulfilled your Norma, you level up, and choose to either obtain stars (easy to get, easy to lose), or victories (cannot be lost, harder to obtain).  The first player to reach level 6 wins.

BATTLE:  When you land on a red, boss, or another players square to challenge them, A battle occurs.  Each player may choose to play 1 Battle card.  The attacker starts by rolling a die, and adding or subtracting their characters Attack stat. The opposing player can then choose Defend or Dodge.
*If they defend, than the number the attacker rolled (with applicable modifiers) is subtracted by the number the defender rolled (again, with all modifiers), to a minimum of 1.  That damage is then applied.
*If they dodge, than if the defender rolls higher than the attacker (with all modifiers), no damage is dealt.  If the number rolled is lower or equal to the attackers, all damage is dealt to the defender. Then, if the defender is not knocked out, the defender then becomes the attacker, and battle occurs again.  Once either player is knocked out, or both characters have attacked, the turn continues as normal.

KNOCKED OUT:  When your character's hp goes to 0, you are knocked out.  During this state, you cannot move, play cards, or have any effect directly applied to you, but some Events and Hypers may occur.  Each turn, you are allowed to roll.  A number will appear on the screen.  If you roll higher than the number, you are revived for next turn.  If not, you lose that turn, and gain another chance to roll again next turn, minus 1 from the last roll.  If you do not revive on a turn with a 2, you revive automatically next turn.



STORE:  At the end of each game, you get points which can be spent at the Store.  The store contains things like cards, pallet swaps, and special characters to play as (such as mobs or Bosses).  Important to note is that each pack has 1 card, and you cannot buy specific cards that go into the deck.

CONCLUSION:  This is a game that is going to appeal to a specific kind of people, anime and manga fans.  As one myself, the game definitely struck a cord with me visually.  The idea of mixing decks makes the games a lot more hectic and crazy.  The biggest problem I, as well as others, have found with this game is just how much RNG (Random Number Generating) is going on.  This is a game that can cause major upheavals and create some incredibly unexpected come from behind wins.  I do love this game, but the fact remains it's easy to get mad when you play a game that's 90% luck.  It may be called 100% Orange Juice, but it could just as easily be called 100% Salt.  If you can get past that, maybe I'll end up playing against you sometime.

AFTERTHOUGHTS:  The big question is, could this have worked as a physical board game?  Perhaps, if you are willing to give a small stack of Hyper cards per character that can replace the blank Hyper cards. Also, with over 50 cards, and 4 players per game, that totals out to 200 cards.  With all players needing 2 of each kind of card, that comes out to 400 cards minimum.  You could do it, but I feel the game works better here, and allows new players to slowly get an idea of what to play, rather than throwing every card at them right at the beginning.  It might work, but I doubt it would be as fun or flow as well.