# Shadow Era - Trading Card Game — user reviews > 1,220 indexed App Store user reviews of Shadow Era by Jonathan Bjork, rated 4.36/5 from 296 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/shadow-era-trading-card-game/id631262453/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/shadow-era-trading-card-game/id631262453.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 201 · 4★ 49 · 3★ 15 · 2★ 7 · 1★ 23 ## What do users think of Shadow Era? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 💎 Great game with excellent gameplay - 🎨 Impressive artwork and card designs - 🏆 Balanced and well-tested - 🕹️ Smooth gameplay and strategy - 🆓 Free-to-play with fair monetization - 🤝 Active and friendly community **Cons** - 🐛 Occasional bugs and crashes - 🤖 Weak AI opponents - 📱 Clunky user interface, especially on mobile - 🕰️ Slow progress in adding new content - 🤯 Frustratingly difficult campaign mode **Commonly reported bugs** - Merchant screen not loading - Opponent turns freezing the game - Inconsistent card interactions - Graphical glitches on certain devices **Most requested features** - Improved single-player/offline mode - More diverse card pool and deck options - Better sorting/filtering for cards - Smoother animations and visual effects - Cross-platform multiplayer support ## Newest reviews (12 of 1,220) ### 2/5 — Servers suck *2026-09-01, version 5.28* The servers on this game are terrible. The game 9 times out of 10 crashes mid game. Also if your don’t have perfect internet or your on WiFi the game will crash. It’s nearly not playable. If the owner was smart he would pay for betters servers to be used otherwise this game is just weak at best. ### 2/5 — Lopsided AF!!! *2026-08-29, version 5.28* After revisiting this after an eight year hiatus, now I remember why I quit this game. It’s absolutely impossible to beat any of the decks without spending fairly good amount of money and that said it’s not worth it. It’s just complete sheer frustration. MTG arenas crush this. And that’s not saying much. ### 2/5 — Ruined experience *2024-09-25, version 4.982* Used to be a good game with a fun community, now just a bunch of red beret comrades sharing happy endings in the shower room. sad really ### 3/5 — 待ってます！ *2024-07-01, version 4.971* 完全な日本語化はまだですか？ ### 4/5 — 面白い *2024-04-18, version 4.951* もっと注目されるべき ### 5/5 — Super underrated and still being updated *2024-01-22, version 4.912* This game has been out for a while but is so much fun. It’s easy to learn but can also be hard to become an expert. I thought they were done doing updates and expansions but just did one this year so it’s still going strong also some of the best music in any TCG ### 5/5 — My favorite game since it came out! *2023-12-09, version 4.90* I’ve been playing this game since I was like 19! It still has amazing updates from the developers and new sets of affordable cards annually! Try out the game if your into TCGs. You won’t regret it one bit. ### 5/5 — Amazing game *2023-11-30, version 4.80* A work of art. You can play competitively without purchasing anything. You can foil out your deck with cosmetics if you want to spend money. The game feels completely balanced competitively so you will not be finding the same deck over and over. ### 3/5 — Coming back after a decade. *2023-10-30, version 4.80* I am surprised about a few things: this game needs to update its artwork—the map is horribly blurry and why not create a better Shadow Era icon, perhaps the official logo? The art assets all look fairly blurry and old, the same art that existed when Shadow Era first came out for iOS. This also includes the UI and overall app. Things just need to look better! Any chance we could get an update on that? ### 5/5 — Mükemmel *2023-10-20, version 4.7* Harika oyyn. Oyun parasıyla da kartlar alınıyor. Hearthstone a bin basar. Para tuzağı değil bunu oynayın. Play it best card game ever. F2P. Bana oyun içi yazın BT Ethereal ismim ### 5/5 — Good Game *2023-07-03, version 4.7* I like this game ### 5/5 — 很好的游戏 *2023-06-10, version 4.6* 已经体验多年，唯一觉得应该出中文卡牌翻译。 ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Not that good *2026-04-24, version 5.001* Small community, unbalanced ### 1/5 — Still a horrible game! *2025-06-12, version 500000 (5.00000)* I came back after a couple years of not playing. Nothing has changed. Still no real line of defense for your hero. Players with decks full of magic cards that easily drain your hero’s hp. We Can’t forget about the cards that allow a never ending cycle of going to the graveyard, and coming back over and over. This game will never be big. The mechanics are just horrible. A real card game is fair and leveled. This will never be that. I’m quitting for good this time. It’s a shame because it had potential. ### 1/5 — Tired old game hanging on by a thread *2024-09-10, version 4.982* In no particular order: 1. Most of the guides and information on the forum that is penned is over 10 years old! And they expect new players to use this when there have been things in the game that changed. 2. Three quests a day is ridiculous. And the paltry reward is only 25 shadow crystals? 3. I suffer from motion sickness and the constant panning to the battlefield makes me queasy. By default it should go home, not to the battlefield. 4. The campaign matches on the map are ridiculously hard and frustrating. They aren't even realistic. There is one hunter match that plays a death trap at least seven times. When only four of one card is allowed in the game. 5. The only way to find out information about cards that are sold out is to hang out on the weird forum where most of the information is years outdated. 6. The new artwork is horrid and digital, without the charm and humanness of old hand-drawn artwork. 7. For people who don’t want to spend real money in this game, good luck! All of the “good” cards are sold out in the shop and never available. 8. The merchant always has the same tired decks, and, even though I don’t have all of those decks yet and I do want them all, there’s never anything NEW offered. 9. For less skilled players who can’t figure out how to beat a certain place on the map, there is no updated strategy listed anywhere with basic cards that anyone can buy from the Merchant. I have not completed any of the maps. I have trouble on some maps even getting the one star, much less two stars. I don’t have any of the three stars completed. They say they have an active forum, they do not. It is an old forum with years-old information about cards and strategy. I’m not going to join some telegram or discord server just to figure out how to play their game. I should be able to do that in the game with the tools at hand given to me. 10. The maps are stale; they haven’t been updated or added to in years. 11. They said three free foil packs (Sept. 9 2024), so I got on and tried to win one game, but I was so horribly mismatched that I didn’t have a chance to win against an opponent. The few times I have tried, I have been so out-matched against more highly skilled players who are in the hundreds when I am not ranked at all yet. I tried playing an unranked battle and sat there forever unmatched. 12. All in all, a frustrating experience. Why do I keep coming back? Because I remember years and years ago when it was a really fun game. Part of me hopes it will return to that. ### 1/5 — Sad *2023-08-29, version 4.7* Sad what happened to this game after new ownership. They tried to come out with new cards which of course is a great thing. But it’s like the testers for these cards were horrible. The game is easily exploitable now. Certain cards make the game impossible to win against with no counter. The testers with the new cards made this game not playable. After 7 years I’m done with this game. Hope new ownership learns before putting out new cards how easily it is to ruin a game when your testers are terrible. ### 1/5 — The balance *2023-08-04, version 4.7* Worst balance between different factions. Horrible decisions regarding balance updates and resolving bugs ### 1/5 — The Game is Bad Now *2023-07-28* I have been one of the regulars to this game and have been playing close to 10 years. A few months ago new ownership took over this game and just recently new cards were introduced which is usually a great thing. But in this case between the lion cards and dragon cards the game has become very one sided and pretty much unplayable. The new ownership does not have good card testers and the cards that were pushed through literally break the game. If you aren’t playing Lion cards or dragon cards then you aren’t winning. New management take note, get better testers. You’ve made a game very one sided to only being able to play Lion and dragon cards ruining 80% of the rest of the game. Bad testers, bad cards allowed to be pushed through and horrible new management ruining a game that has always been my go to. ### 1/5 — Worst card game *2023-07-22, version 4.7* This game isn’t fun. It’s about who buys all the new cars and comes up with their winning combination first. The days of fun strategic battle are long gone. ### 1/5 — New Gameplay Design and Releases Destroying the Game *2023-07-17, version 4.7* Cards are not properly tested before being released to the public, and therefore, destroying the game as a result. This game was a beautifully balanced and fully functional game when it was first released alongside its many following set releases, hence its popularity! All of the cards were well designed in such a way as to allow all players and all cards to have a fair and equal chance at gaining momentum and advantage through strategy. Thanks to the poorly designed cards that were released in the recent years however, this is no longer possible. The few new set releases contain highly powerful cards that allow many eager players to take easy advantage for fast and effortless victories with little to no options for counter play on the opposition’s side. The result is an unbalanced and nearly completely dysfunctional game. It’s a shame that such a beautiful game, which used to be a long time fan favourite of many for more than a decade, has become reduced to being virtually unplayable. 1 star (no exaggeration) ### 1/5 — Best ccg ever *2022-10-22, version 4.5* Been playing this game for 10 years. Was sad when the old owner wanted to close the shop but new owners have made it even better than before. ### 1/5 — Verbuggt und überteuert *2022-09-07, version 4.25* Das Spiel ist komplett verbuggt und die Kartenpacks stark überteuert. Da ist selbst die pay2win Konkurrenz „günstig“ und zudem nicht ansatzweise so verbuggt… ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — The best *2025-09-01, version 500000 (5.00000)* Best card game ever ### 5/5 — Nostalgia *2025-06-17, version 500000 (5.00000)* Played it when it came out. Still play it. Amazing artworks, great soundtrack! ### 5/5 — Love it *2024-11-13, version 4.982* Great app, no huge complaints here. For anyone who enjoys card games and hasn't tried shadow era out, do it! Cards are very well thought out and impress me witho originality and how classic they are as well. For any shadow era developers who are seeing this know that you're app is great but could probably use a wider variety of cards for the different heroes. Also, Aldmors cool but a little overboard at the same time.. Tone it back a bit to the basics with any new updates/expansions. Edit: still an awesome app Edit: still coming out with updates and keeping it interesting. Edit: only making edits now to get some shadow crystals. Best game on the App Store Y’all should add controller support and have more tournaments more easily available to all the players, including new ones ### 5/5 — Suggestion - Sugerencia *2024-09-03, version 4.982* Could you please give the option to play between 3 or 4, not everything should be 1 vs 1 —/Ustedes por favor podrían dar la opción de jugar entre 3 o cuatro, no todo debería ser 1 vs 1 ### 5/5 — Love it *2024-09-03* Great app, no huge complaints here. For anyone who enjoys card games and hasn't tried shadow era out, do it! Cards are very well thought out and impress me with originality and how classic they are as well. For any shadow era developers who are seeing this know that you're app is great but could probably use a wider variety of cards for the different heroes. Also, Aldmors cool but a little overboard at the same time.. Tone it back a bit to the basics with any new updates/expansions. Edit: still an awesome app Edit: still coming out with updates and keeping it interesting. Edit: only making edits now to get some shadow crystals. Best game on the App Store ### 5/5 — 人口増えて欲しい *2024-08-25, version 4.971* とにかく楽しい。4年くらいやってるゲーム。 人口増加の為にはやはり、とっつきやすくする為にも多言語化とカード種類増加が望ましい。 また、完全上位互換のカード追加ではなくて、戦略の幅を広げるようなカード追加をしてもらいたい。 追記 カードの日本語化を求めてます！ ### 5/5 — Needs to be offline *2024-05-30, version 4.951* The only reason im on and off in thia game is that is online,and it takes forever to play a game.Hard for a phone game that you dont have much time.I m willing to pay full price if its gets faster and offline ### 5/5 — Best game I have ever played *2024-03-21, version 4.951* Idk how this game doesn’t have 100k downloads. I personally would invest 10-20k USD to see this game prosper like it should. I see the dev just released an update which shows me he actually loves working on this game even though he probably doesn’t make thaaaat much. Thank you for the awesome time spent in the craft. Pleaseee if you can make the campaign longer I would love that. Also maybe tweak the AI strategy and add some more random events — kind of like chess AI engines. Keep up the great work. Hope to see longer campaigns soon. . . Also, please stop using AI to gen your art. Its obviously noticeable. If you DO use AI, at least mix up your prompts. The new ship characters look all the same. Same shade of lipstick 💄 and too human like and p@rnagraphic. Go back to using a real artist who can design more fantasy style art. ### 5/5 — Best game *2024-03-16, version 4.951* Best game ever!! ### 5/5 — 🥹 *2024-01-30, version 4.912* 🥹 --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-02.*