News: Ride to Victory Release Date and Storyline, Vanguard Episode 0

The latest issue of KeroKero Ace has confirmed that Miwa Taishi will be making an appearance in the Cardfight 3DS game, Ride to Victory. Along with this, RTV's release date has finally been announced. Miwa's clan is being played up as a mystery factor, listed as ?????, and while his advertised appearance is based on his design used during the Asia Circuit, his in-game cutin shows him in his Hitsue High outfit used during the first season and in the manga. In the anime, Miwa was known to use both Kagerou and Narukami, but in the manga source material he was instead a Nova Grappler cardfighter.

Ride to Victory will be released in Japan on April 11th, 2013, retailing for 5229 yen. It will come with Blaster Blade, Blade Dark and Dragonic Overlord alternate artwork promo cards packaged in, each of them from Studio TMS' collection of anime artworks, but due to the 3DS' region lock, Ride to Victory will require a Japanese 3DS to play. The game features more than 1,000 cards from the real world to recreate the game experience, having every booster set up to BT09: Clash of the Knights and Dragons included. At least 30 characters from the anime are featured, with six original characters for the player to choose from and customize as their in-game avatar. Players will also be able to customize the in-game playmat and card sleeves used for their deck. Currently, RTV's development is at 75% completion.

The early game of Ride to Victory has been revealed to progress in four stages. First, the protagonist is selected from a pool of three characters of each sex. Team Q4's three members--Aichi, Misaki and Kamui--then welcome the protagonist to Card Capital, after which a tutorial fight with Aichi ensues. After this, the player will be quizzed by Aichi, with their answers determining which trial deck he recommends to the player. When selecting a trial deck, the player will also be able to get a bonus booster pack with it, and then begin a fight with Morikawa. As in the anime, Morikawa uses a grade 3-centric deck.

Ride to Victory's official website can be found here.

In other news, a manga sidestory has been announced, to be packaged in the Cardfight!! Vanguard 0 Start Set. Referred to as "Episode 0," the manga will again be illustrated by Itou Akira, the overall creative influence of the franchise and author of the original manga. Episode 0 will tell the story of Kai's childhood, featuring his original Royal Paladin deck, a replica of which will be included in the 0 Start Set.

Advertisements for Episode 0 show a Blaster Blade promo card that uses its KeroKero Ace artwork, but seemingly with skill on it, along with Swordsman of the Twin Shine Marhaus, Knight of Conviction Bors, Claudia, Knight Squire Allen, Mirubiru and Blaster Blade Burst.

(via matibari and ameblo)