Black★Rock Shooter ARCANA

Black★Rock Shooter Arcana (ブラック★ロックシューター アルカナ, Burakku Rokku Shūtā Arukana) was a social network video game co-developed by Strategy & Partners, GOOD SMILE COMPANY, and TETSUJIN under "B★RS ARCANA Project" for the Mobage platform, with characters designed by taiki.

It was announced on April 26, 2013 that the game's service on Mobage would discontinue on June 28, 2013 at 12:00 JST, and a renewal of the game was planned for the PC platform. However, no news on the game's renewal was available since its closure, and Strategy & Partners, then known as S&P, filed for bankruptcy on March 6, 2019.

Plot
The story is set sometime in the 21st century, where a communications network called RAILS (Realtime Authorize Interactive Line Service) has been established as the largest social network of its time. As the number of users of RAILS increase dramatically, reports of entire groups of people losing consciousness after using RAILS begin to emerge — a phenomenon that was later called "Flatline Syndrome" (フラットライン症状, Furattorain Shōjō). One noted application of RAILS is Arcana, a tarot-based service that is known by many for its ability to accurately predict the future of RAILS users. The credibility of Arcana's data, however, was questioned by many, and this sparked several rumors.

One of the many users of RAILS soon installs Arcana, and upon starting up Arcana, a mysterious girl with black hair calls out to him...

Gameplay

 * See also: Black★Rock Shooter Arcana/Tarot System

Black★Rock Shooter Arcana is a card-based RPG game that gives players the role of a RAILS user, who gets pulled into an unusual world after using a tarot fortune telling application called "ARCANA".

Players collect "tarots", cards that feature a variety of characters (known as "artifacts") with a Major Arcana and a weapon, and use them to participate in battles. The game uses a gacha system, where cards are acquired randomly with certain percentage of chance. Each card has its own attack and defense values, and they can be strengthened by offering other cards to fuse as experience material. The level cap of a card can be raised by using an exact copy of the card to increase its rank. The higher a card's rarity, the higher level cap it gets. Some cards can also be obtained by completing missions or via a referral system.

By exploring various areas in the game, players can progress through the story and encounter enemies to fight. If players cannot defeat a boss by themselves, they can enlist help from other players whom they encounter and befriend while exploring.

The game also features PVP element, where players can challenge other players in a one-to-one battle by assembling a set of cards, one being the leader card with others as support. Battles are instant, and outcomes are determined by the leader cards' values after including support cards' adjustments and other temporary bonuses such as minor Arcana Major buffs, which change daily.

Artifacts

 * Black★Rock Shooter - A mysterious girl with black hair and a blue flame in her eye. Has the theme of Major Arcana XVII, "The Star".
 * Dead Master - Her theme is Major Arcana XIII, "Death".
 * Black★Gold Saw - Her theme is Major Arcana III, "The Empress".
 * Strength - She has the theme of Major Arcana VIII, "Strength".
 * Elder Caster - An original character, her theme is Major Arcana I, "The Magician".
 * Farside Bunny - Another original character, themed after Major Arcana XVIII, "The Moon".
 * Loveness - Another original character, themed after Major Arcana VI, "The Lovers".
 * Chariot - Her theme is Major Arcana VII, "The Chariot".
 * Tightmare Elly - Her theme is Major Arcana IX, "The Hermit".

Development
Black★Rock Shooter Arcana was jointly announced by Strategy & Partners, GOOD SMILE COMPANY, and TETSUJIN on November 16, 2012. Supported platforms included feature phones with Flashlite 1.1 as well as smartphones (iPhone 3GS or newer and smartphones with AndroidOS) that could access Mobage's mobile website.

Although taiki contributed to much of the character designs as well as their costume and weapon variations, the game was to include many illustrators' participation in its development.

Merchandise such as Nendoroid Puchi were also planned, but they were never released due to the game's closure.