I don’t expect anything to come out of this post. I just wanted to express how I’m feeling about my favorite game.
TLDR: I’ve been a huge Clash Royale fan since release, this game has been with me as I’ve grown up. I dislike the direction the game is headed and wanted to speak my mind.
I was in 8th grade when this game came out. Everyone in my school was playing, guys and girls, and even one of the cool teachers tried it out. I remember playing the tutorial and three-crowning the trainer with a giant, knight, and pair of archers. Scrolling up through the trophy road that I had yet to unlock and seeing all of the cool cards and arenas that awaited me. We had a clan with everyone in our school, friendly battling during lunch and after school. It seemed like this game was all we could talk about, and I was hooked. I remember watching Orange Juice’s YouTube channel to see all the card interactions and better understand the game. I played and played and played. The only thing I wanted was to reach Hog Mountain (at a now-underwhelming 3000 trophies). I remember debating with my friends about which of the two legendaries was better between the princess and the ice wizard. #teamprincess. What was so awesome about this game was the development team. They were always working on something and adding cool features that the community loved. New cards, arenas, gamemodes, tournaments. The best part was that it seemed like they truly cared about the players. They made it seem like they had as much fun making the game as we did playing it. The feeling of unlocking my first legendary card was truly euphoric. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the moment I pulled that lava hound out of a free chest. I ran around my room and immediately texted my friends in all caps that I got a legendary. I recall struggling through the newly added jungle arena facing countless waves of elite barbarians and royal giants. And then one day, my hard-fought journey through Trophy Road came to an end. I reached Hog Mountain. I did it with a monstrosity of a deck by today’s standards – lava hound, hog rider, and freeze being the big three of my deck. But it didn’t matter that my deck wasn’t “meta”. We didn’t know what meta meant. Everyone played their own deck that they spent hours upgrading.
By this point, I was a freshman in high school. Our clan had become somewhat inactive with the initial hype of the game wearing off, par for the course with nearly all games. But that was okay, myself and my friends who still played loved every minute of clash royale. We started to get better and better, using new strategies that we would see online. I remember we would share replays of our best games with our clan, fully believing they would be on TV Royale. We would save up our gold to 100,000 just in case there was a legendary card in our shop the next morning. Friendly battling in the car when my friend’s mom would carpool to school and when my mom would pick us up. At some point, they increased the trophy road to the legendary arena at 4000, another milestone to grind for. We would race to see who would get there first and they would earn supreme bragging rights amongst our friends.
Years would pass and things would change. We started to drive, get jobs, significant others, and more. Not everyone who started this journey of clash royale had made it thus far. But that was okay because those who stuck around really loved it. They released the battle pass, which at first seemed a little scummy but it was truly worth the $4.99 price tag. It helped progression greatly, but it didn’t seem to box out free-to-play players. New card concepts like the fisherman and motherwitch showed how creative the dev team could get. The game looked very different from what it did at launch, but that’s okay because so did we, the players. We changed along with the game. And would continue to do so.
Moving forward, I would apply and get into college. Moving away was the biggest and most challenging thing that I had done at this point in my life. Making new friends, living on my own, taking tough classes, and many more new endeavors would occur throughout my time in college. I became busier than I had ever been, with so many new experiences on the horizon. But one thing that I wasn’t ever too busy for, was clash. I definitely did not play like I used to but I would log in and check on the game that I had played for the past 5 years. I remember they introduced champions and level 14, which was a major shakeup, and it pulled me back into the game. Even with my new life at college, one update could suck me back into a clash. I loved this game.
Time would pass, and I would continue growing up. Making new friends, losing old ones. New experiences to be had and stories to be told. Whenever I would find the time for my favorite mobile game, it just wasn’t the same. It felt like the game had lost the same childhood wonder that I once had. In my opinion, the release of the phoenix/monk was the start of the end of the old clash royale. Two extremely strong cards (too strong) that were game-breaking. If you weren’t using at least one of these cards you simply would not be at an equal playing field of your opponents. It was inconceivable that these cards were cleared for release to the public, there’s no way the team could mess up this badly. Regardless, many people, (myself included) spent money to acquire these cards. For a short time, these cards ruled the game and demanded purchasing them to compete. Eventually, supercell would nerf the cards, but the damage was done. The money was spent, and the cards were nerfed. Effectively, your money was wasted. The cards weren’t as strong as they used to be but you can’t undo your transaction. This same process would occur over and over again with the newest update: card evolutions.
Evolutions are the worst thing that has ever happened to this game. A full set of evolution shards for ONE card is $7.99 USD. Eight dollars for one card is ridiculous. These cards are game-breaking. At first, they had no weaknesses and increased all stats. Health, damage, abilities, movement speed, etc. These cards defined the game, if you weren’t using them, don’t bother playing as winning would be a monumental challenge. Evolutions would receive a nerf, making them slightly less overbearing, but again those who bought them cannot get their purchase back. This is not to mention the battle pass, which had helped the progression the most was redesigned to cost more money and have fewer rewards. It feels like the developers no longer want the players to have creativity. All avenues of progression have been watered down, and the newly released card is consistently too strong, to the point where playing without it is disadvantageous. Monetization is clearly the priority of the development team, which was not the case years ago. I totally understand needing to keep the lights on and staying profitable, but the way Supercell is approaching this concept is wildly unappealing.
Now I am about to enter my senior year of college. I turned 21 and I am now a legal adult. Maybe it’s just because I am getting older, and maybe I shouldn’t be playing a mobile game going into my adult years. But it still hurts to see the game I loved and grew up with turn into what it is today. It is nowhere near as fun or rewarding to play. Winning a battle seems all too stressful to be worth the reward, and losing is excruciating. I knew one day I would be playing Clash Royale for the final time, but I didn’t expect it to be because I no longer wanted to. I thought life would get in the way, a job, a partner, children, etc. I expected Clash Royale to fade out of my life and leave a fond memory of nostalgia. I am not sure if I will be playing Clash Royale again, and the goodbye is messier than I would’ve liked. The end of college is fast approaching and my future will likely be changing very fast. Clash Royale exceeded all expectations of 7th-grade me, but it seems like I have reached the end of the road.
I just want to say thank you to whoever made it this far in what I now see is a full-length essay. I had a lot more to say than I first thought. This is my first-ever post so I’m sure how it will be received. But again, thank you for reading!