Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Card Game

This has been a week for me to go over historical material I’ve accumulated, and I was reminded of the sheer guts of the Neon Genesis Evangelion Carddass card game. Instead of playing permanents, you start the game with characters and Evangelions already ‘in Neo-Tokyo 3’ (in play), set up with predetermined graph adjacencies, and the main way players change what is happening is by having them ‘speak lines’ that have one character hurt or comfort those they can reach — which can have real consequences, because a hurt (downed) character cannot pilot their Evangelion when the Angels, a neutral third faction that can win the game on its own, attack everyone. Players thus more properly embody the dark cabals that, in the anime, scheme to have their version of Instrumentality resolve.

An example board, showing four players playing around the pentagon layout of relationships between the protagonists in Neo-Tokyo 3

The game comes complete with a final coda in which characters can speak lines while the player who reached their objectives attempts apotheosis, with a well-placed last hurtful line possibly breaking their resolve and ending their plans; this matches mechanically the confounding but powerful ending of episodes 25 and 26 of the TV series. (When someone wins, the manual does in fact rule that all other players should clap their hands and take turns telling them ‘Congratulations!’)

I would so, so much love more games that remove themselves from the Magic lineage as much as this one dared to do.