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Review of Shonen Final Burst
Shonen Final Burst (hereafter SFB) was published in 2013 by Phillip Karnell. The PDF is 193 pages in length. Layout and fonts are straightforward and readable. Playing card graphics are used frequently in play examples, which are essential for clear understanding. Artwork in the book is sparse and all done by Aeriell Turner. Personally, the art didn’t do a lot for me; I found the quality of it to be more like sketches rather than completed pieces, and tonally, I found it to be more “cute” than I would prefer, but it certainly did not distract from the book.
Explaining the central mechanics for SFB in detail is frankly too difficult for a review. This is a game that is oriented towards fans of crunchy rules systems who do not mind frequent combat scenes. Players seeking stripped-down systems with lightning-fast combat will probably want to pass on this one. I, however, found the detail to be appropriate and even necessary for proper emulation of shonen manga and anime. The combat allows for interesting tactics, while still permitting room for the over the top narration that is a hallmark of the genre. While it requires an investment to get into the system, I believe this to be the best emulation of the shonen genre that I have seen in a rules system.
The book begins with a description of the common character types and tropes of shonen anime, as well as the basics of the playing card mechanics. While it is a drastic oversimplification, a player draws a certain number of playing cards each round and looks for sequential patterns or combinations (for attacks and defenses respectively). The suits of the playing cards activate a character’s special powers, which offer many modifications to combat. The chapter does a great job of explaining the genre and getting the reader enthusiastic about embracing it at high volume.
The following chapter explains character creation. There is enough detail in this process to satisfy players who enjoy putting time and effort into their character’s abilities as well as background. The process begins with the selection of an Archetype, which determines a character’s Hobbies and establishes the character’s role in the genre tropes of shonen stories. The five Attributes (Strength, Speed, Mind, Skill, and Energy) are purchased with a point system. These are the basis of a character’s Combat Style, in which a character chooses an Attribute for an attack and the specific Attribute that an opponent must use for defense against that attack. A character then chooses Techniques, the character’s special abilities. Each character has three Active (offensive) Techniques and one Passive (support) Technique. But that’s not all: a character is also defined by Signature Moves, Transformations (both important elements of shonen), Gimmicks (any significant character element not defined elsewhere), Allies (which actually have mechanical effects), and Hobbies (skills). There’s a lot going on here.
The ordering of the material at this point is a little confusing. The next chapter details Techniques, and it may have been more intuitive to continue with the treatment of Signature Moves, etc., in the same order as character creation. Instead, however, Techniques are explained in greater detail, followed by the combat chapter, and then the other elements are explained in turn.
The Techniques chapter describes 28 Active Techniques and 4 Passive Techniques. The descriptions are deliberately broad (e.g., Fire, Holy, Psychic, Shadow), which permits a lot of different concepts. However, the author continually extols the virtues of re-skinning game mechanics to allow for even more options. In this chapter, he facilitates this well with a sidebar for each Technique providing re-skinning examples. In effect, this multiplies the available options several fold. Each Technique is rated with a value from 1 to 10, each level providing new abilities or modifiers to the already very flexible playing card mechanic.
That brings us to combat. This combat system is unlike anything I’ve seen in any other game. Players perform attacks and defenses simultaneously by placing cards face down. Cards are revealed in the hopes of securing sequences (in the case of attacks) or groupings of the same number (in the case of defenses). The value of the cards determines an attack total and a defense total, while the card suits activate Techniques for various effects (usually extra damage or “status effects”). If the attacker scores a higher total than the defense, the excess becomes the damage to the target. Otherwise, it is a miss. All attacks are always simultaneous, regardless of how the action is described.
Damage is also interesting: it is counted up from zero and effects happen as characters pass certain thresholds. These are clever and have distinctive narrative purposes. For example, the first levels of damage are specifically described as simply massive collateral damage, while the highest levels of damage entail serious injuries and death. The story determines how far combat goes – that is, at what threshold the battle is considered “over,” with the needs of the story determining what happens next. The author suggests that players conduct battles as one on one duels, with players running their characters and taking turns running GM characters. There are even special rules for groups of PCs fighting Bosses. Overall, combat is not brief; it will generally occupy the majority of a game session in SFB, which may not appeal to some players.
The next four chapters provide additional details for the rest of the elements of a character, beginning with Signature Moves. Each character begins with two Signature Moves, which are the huge attacks that often define a shonen character’s fighting style. These are special attacks that are usable only after being powered up by taking damage in combat, and are also based on a character’s Techniques. Transformations are much bigger effects; while mechanically more or less a larger effect than Techniques or Signature Moves, these represent when characters assume new battle forms as the battle continues. Some characters will have a single powerful transformation, while other characters may have several transformations, albeit each weaker in power.
The next chapter presents Supporting Characters. A character’s allies serve as extra skills and/or powers for the character. When the PC needs to access the skill possessed by an Ally, the player describes how the Ally is on scene to help or perhaps a flashback to describe how the Ally once explained something the character happens to need to know at present. But Allies are not only NPCs; each of the other PCs is also an Ally who provides bonuses to every other PC, dependent on the nature and depth of the relationship. This is a cool effect that really provides in-game benefits to developing the relationships that are such a major part of the genre. The final chapter describing character elements concerns Gimmicks. Gimmicks are any important aspect of the character that might provide a small benefit, whether that be a magic weapon, a racial power, or a prominent personality trait. Characters begin with two, but can acquire more or more powerful ones as they advance. Characters are not restricted to only two “gimmicks” in their character description. Players are encouraged to describe weird races, special weapons and gear, and the like; the rules for Gimmicks state that a bonus should only be attached to the most significant elements of the character, and even then, the bonuses are minor to keep the focus on awesome martial arts powers.
The next chapter is entitled Fights and Filler. A SFB campaign is made up of a series of Arcs, and each Arc is filled with a lot of Fights, and Filler in between them. Filler includes traditional scenes of character interaction, but also includes Challenges. Challenges are any sort of scene that is neither a fight nor an interaction scene. They are further broken down into Scouting, Preparation, and Training Challenges. Characters use their Hobbies and a single card draw to determine whether or not they essentially “win” the scene (i.e., accomplish their purpose). It is interesting that both scouting out the opposition and training sequences are especially highlighted as regular challenges, again keeping the focus squarely on genre emulation. Experience and Rewards are described next. Characters improve in ways similar to most RPGs, but there is also a sort of “deckbuilding” aspect to advancement, as players can tune the playing cards used for the character’s Personal Deck to increase the likelihood of certain effects and combinations coming up more often.
Finally, we get two chapters dedicated to the Producer (GM). The first describes how to create antagonist NPCs, especially super-powered Boss opponents, and the special rules used to fight them. Included in this chapter are a number of fully developed example characters and shortcuts to help Producers make characters of their own. The second Producer chapter is a collection of helpful ideas for running the game, which is especially useful for SFB, as many parts of it go against traditional RPG conventions in the name of genre emulation – a decision I strongly support. After this material, the author provides two example settings, each quite different in tone, yet both strong examples of the shonen genre.
The PDF includes bookmarks, an adequate index, and character sheets and play aids.
In conclusion, Shonen Final Burst is a really interesting game system with a huge emphasis on genre emulation that is well-handled. As a result, however, the game uses many non-traditional approaches and is very rules-heavy. This may be a problem for some; in my experience, many players who want games emulating anime subgenres often prefer lighter systems to keep things fast moving. But for myself, I’d rather a game do the genre well mechanically rather than trying to have a group of players who are always on the same page with how it should be represented, and in this regard, I highly recommend Shonen Final Burst.
