Hello, everyone!

I am Norihiko Mukai, the Development Producer of the Ultraman Card Game. You might recognize me as the development staff from the YouTube video where I did a quick introduction to the game.

Thank you for the support for the Ultraman Card Game so far! Fans of the series will surely have a lot of burning questions. Does my favorite character appear in the game? What kind of effect will it have? What about tournaments?

To answer these questions, I have decided to write this developer's column. I would also like to share some anecdotes of my time working on this project! I hope everyone enjoys these stories, and please feel free to let me know if there are any interesting topics I should cover in this column!

So, today's topic is "how the cards relate to the original works". This card game is, ultra-obviously, the card game of Ultraman. There are many original works, settings, and stories that bring the various characters to life. These varied works are intrinsically linked with the cards, and inspire our design every day. For example...


Is there anything unusual about this particular Zero?

This "Ultraman Zero", as the card number on the bottom-right side of the card indicates, is from BP01 "Guardians of the Earth." If you are a fan of Ultraman Zero, you probably already noticed without me saying anything. That's right. He is not wearing the Ultimate Bracelet which is supposed to be on his left wrist. So, why isn't he wearing the bracelet?

In the original work from 10 years ago where Ultraman Zero first appears, the young Zero had not received the bracelet from Noa yet..

Specifically, this version of Zero that appears in BP01 is based on the two works; "Mega Monster Battle Ultra Galaxy: The Movie" and "Ultra Galaxy Legend Side Story: Ultraman Zero VS Darklops Zero." To depict Zero from these two sources, he is not wearing the bracelet.Tector Gear Zero and Plasma Spark Slash, a callback to those works, will also appear in BP01.


Furthermore, we try not to present elements which do not appear that specific source material in the product itself. .Zero in BP01 would therefore not be able to wind back the clock, or use the powers of his juniors. That being said, Ultra Heroes, including Zero, power up by gaining powerful new forms. Please look forward to future products where we will definitely include new cards featuring forms that highlight the key aspects of the source material.

This link between the source material and the card is further reflected visually in the card's design. If you look closely at the top left hand side of the card, you will notice 4-digit numbers behind the character's name. This number indicates the year of that character's debut. Zero appeared exactly 15 years ago.


To be clear, this is just for flavor; you don't actually have to refer to the year of the source material during gameplay. All the same, we hope that this lets our fans reminisce about the time when they first encountered this character when they look at our cards (something along the lines of, "ah, it's been 15 years since I met Zero!")

Even if it's a short article, I hope to be able to continue sharing my experiences in creating this card game, and about Ultraman, with everyone.
Please look forward to the release of the Ultraman Card Game! More information will be released as we approach the game's launch, so please stay tuned.

Thank you very much for reading. See you in the next column!