Update: After playing some of the game online last night, it seems that it does in fact use the “ticket” system to play ranked matches. There are free play zones too, but if you want that platinum you will need to spend some tickets. Currently there is no way to purchase the tickets as they are not on the PSN store. Hopefully this is fixed in the near future. Otherwise you will have to play in tournaments to get more tickets and at only 5 tickets a pop for getting in the top 85% it will be a long time before you get 100 matches won.

Remember that PSP game released by Hudson back in 2009. You know Creature Defense, or Elemental Monster TD Portable in Japan. Well late last year there was a online trading card game released on Japanese PSN from the same universe called Elemental Monsters Online Card Game. It had a really strange business model where players had to buy tickets so that they could play online. It was ESRB rated a while back, but then Hudson Entertainment closed its doors and that was the last I thought we would ever hear of this game. I was shocked to see this game come out today.

As you can see from that video, Elemental Monsters Online Card Game is akin to other TCG like Magic the Gathering. You have mana, you summon monsters, you battle. But unlike Magic the Gathering, this TCG has an actual deck builder… go figure. Along with that you have a platinum trophy, which makes this the first game under $5 to sport one.

Having just bought the game I do not have much in the way of impressions at this time, but I will be streaming it out tomorrow during our live show. Also a note, it looks like you do need tickets to play online but the PSN store currently does not sell them. You might be out of luck after using up the 10 you are given to start, making that platinum trophy unattainable.