China's hottest card game is becoming a MOBA to challenge LoL and Dota 2

Anyone who is into gaming in China has probably heard of San Guo Sha (“Three Kingdoms Kill”), the wildly popular card game based on the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. But now the team behind the collectible card game is looking to cash in on Asia’s MOBA frenzy with a MOBA game based on San Guo Sha called Warrior Spirit (战灵).

The game isn’t totally new—it has been in private closed beta testing since last fall—but we haven’t seen much detail on it until now.

Fans of the card game will be happy to learn that it looks to be a pretty faithful 3D representation of the game, at least visually. Character designs in Warrior Spirit are based heavily on the cards, as you can see in the image below. The left side of the image is the original San Guo Sha card, the right side are assets from Warrior Spirit:

And the similarities go deeper than just that. Some of the in-game items will also be based on famous swords and other weapons from San Guo Sha (and Three Kingdoms mythology in general). All characters will also have access to spells based on some of the card game’s event cards that will allow them to do things like summon a bolt of lightning from the blue. These will be used a bit like summoner spells in League of Legends, but unlike League they won’t be limited by long cooldowns, and everyone will have access to all of them and the ability to switch between them on the fly as needed.

Another unique aspect of the game is its approach to buffs. Unlike in Dota or LoL, where killing a specific monster gives you a specific type of buff, in Warrior Spirit players in the area when a monster is killed will have a choice of five different buff types aligned with the five elements of traditional Chinese philosophy: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. These buffs will add an additional element of strategy to the team game, as teammates can choose to all pick the same buff to stack the effects or to pick different buffs that will add to the synergy of their team composition.

Clips of the game’s UI that show the Five Elements system in action

Beyond that, though, the game looks to be a pretty basic, traditional MOBA. Characters all have four basic abilities, mapped to the Q, W, E, and R keys, and the only two maps that have been unveiled thus far will look very familiar to anyone who has played other MOBA games before:

I’m not sure how realistic a challenge Warrior Spirit will be able to post to League of Legends, especially given that China already has a popular domestic MOBA game based on the Three Kingdoms period. But given the popularity of the San Guo Sha CCG and the unique aspects of Warrior Spirit we’ve seen so far, there’s certainly a chance.