JRPG Review Roguelite

Card-en-Ciel – Review

Inti Creates is back with a foray into the card battle genre, this time combining several of their own franchises with roguelike gameplay in Card-en-Ciel. This technically isn’t Inti Creates’ first attempt at a game in the card battle genre, though their their first attempt was way back in 2003 with Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge, a spinoff of the Mega Man Battle Network series which I utterly loathed as a Mega Man fan. It’s been more than 20 years since then, however, and Inti has evolved quite a lot in that timespan. 

Card Art Online

The story of Card-en-Ciel takes place in the not-too-distant future where “Full Dive” technology has become all the rage. With a VR headset and PC, players can “dive” into worlds where reality and imagination have overlapped. Over time, this started getting used for more than just video games and is now a regular facet of everyday life. Despite its benefits, the popularity of Full Dive has brought with it several problems, most pressingly a sharp influx of cybercrime. Enter one Neon Nanashiki, a freelance cyberdetective who aims to fight crime using his own style and upbeat attitude. 

The two main characters of Card-en-Ciel

After heeding the call of a mystery girl named Ancie, Neon finds that data from various game worlds are leaking into one another in something called the “MOD Phenomena”. The only way to restore each game world back to normal is by diving into them and collecting what’s called Error Fragments, which are often in possession of that world’s central characters. This sounds like a simple affair when all is said and done, but things are not as they seem as someone is working from behind the shadows to collect these Error Fragments for nefarious purposes.

Card-en-Ciel’s plot is more-or-less just an excuse for our two charming leads to go into video game worlds and nerd out about them. It’s not deep and it’s not really trying to be, instead focusing on the various merits and issues of the games they visit. Neon and Ancie have a nice back-and-forth, talking about the wider cultural and developmental aspects of video games. Neon is more experienced and straightlaced, while Ancie is less experienced and a lot more receptive to eccentric ideas and worlds. It’s also refreshing to have a game where the two main leads are in love with each other essentially from the start, and it doesn’t beat around the bush in this area.

Story dialogue in Card-en-Ciel

As far as theming goes, I do like how it emphasizes the importance of understanding that any piece of artistic expression can leave a strong impact. Even if something is “just” a video game or an otherwise seemingly dispensable piece of expression, it can carry a profound impact on people for one reason or another. Regardless of the importance that art might hold in the eyes of others, they are still reflections of the thoughts of those who created them. That in of itself imbues them with life from the moment they’re created, which can in turn have a domino effect on the ways they may positively or negatively impact the world. The word “entropy” is brought up a lot in the game’s second half, and I think the aforementioned is supposed to be its thematic implication. 

Overall, the story of Card-en-Ciel is nice braincandy. It’s neither thought-provoking nor is it particularly fleshed out, but it works for what it is. It’s clear that they had a lot of fun coming up with some especially ridiculous game worlds and using a new set of protagonists to poke fun at their own. Despite some amount of self-awareness, it also doesn’t feel like it punches down on itself. It strikes the right balance between goofy and earnest.

Ancie pointing out Gunvolt

Crossover Extravaganza

Another aspect of Card-en-Ciel’s writing would be its card lore. Card lore is a big part of the appeal of games like Yu-Gi-Oh! for me, with implied stories being expressed through artwork and game mechanics. There are also various card archetypes: “families” of cards that are linked via game mechanics, artwork, and card lore. Some have their universes featured in-game, while the ones that don’t instead rely on art and deckbuilding ideas and art to tie them together. Card-en-Ciel also has the advantage of each card being uniquely voiced, allowing you to glimpse just that bit further into their universes. During battle, if two cards or a Muse (more on those later) from the same universe are in hand/on the field at the same time, you’ll usually be treated to a conversation that reveals more about their dynamics.

This also applies to characters pulled from proper Inti Creates games. Have cards featuring Gunvolt and Copen in your hand at the same time, and they’ll begin a heated debate about the relationship between Septimas and humans. Have Ekoro and Kurona from Gal*Gun in your hand, and Ekoro will promptly trash talk the mischievous demon. There’s more besides, and if you’re a fan of the games featured, you’ll usually be treated to something extra. My main issue with this is that there’s very few cross-game references as far as I can tell. For example, it’s a missed opportunity to not have Gunvolt interact with the version of Copen featured in the Luminous Avenger iX games, as Copen took a radically different turn in those games. Ultimately though this is small potatoes, and I’m happy with what is here.

Battle in Card-en-Ciel

As for the universes drawn from themselves, there’s a pretty good amount to pick from. While it covers a lot of Inti’s history, their work on Mega Man and Blaster Master have unfortunately (although understandably) been left out entirely. Instead, games such as the Gunvolt series and the Gal*Gun series are represented, as well as their respective spinoffs Luminous Avenger iX and Gal Guardians. There’s also the much more recent Umbraclaw, as well as Divine Dynamo Flamefrit which releases alongside Ciel-en-Card as a pre-order bonus. It’s a fairly strong variety to be found here, made better by how it feels like almost every single character from the aforementioned games have been brought over in some capacity. Even dozens of girls from Gal*Gun that I can’t remember the names of are here and accounted for.

Draw! Monster Card! 

At a glance, Card-en-Ciel seems very closely tied to the Mega Man Battle Network games. You explore a computer-based overworld through an isometric perspective, and battles feature you moving around a 3×6 grid. That’s where similarities end, however. For starters, Card-en-Ciel is almost completely turn-based. You start a turn with five cards and three Cost points, with each card’s cost varying from free to three. The more powerful the card’s base effects, the more it will cost and vice versa. Each card also comes with an assigned direction that you will move in upon the card being discarded. There will be many moments where it’s worth weighing whether you want to use a card right then and there, or to discard it and get out of the way of enemy fire. 

Moving across the map

I’ve had many occasions occur where I seemed on the verge of victory, only to be blasted by a powerful attack because I lacked the foresight to prioritize moving to safety. Enemies have three main things to consider when battling: their attack counter, damage counter, and break counter. Their attack counter is a timer that dictates when their next attack will be set off and when they’ll move spaces on their side of the board, meanwhile the damage counter is how much damage they can deal. The break counter is their guard meter, which can be lowered by using cards that specialize in Break damage, which can also lower the damage counter for that turn. 

Once an enemy is in Breakdown, they’re immobilized and can’t act for the remainder of the player’s turn. They also take double damage from all cards, meaning your strongest cards ought to be saved for when you know they’re going to be the most effective to let them loose. However, it’s again worth remembering that 3 Cost limit, so stretching out a turn is a matter of building your deck in a way that will allow for extended plays. While many cards deal damage, there are also 0-Cost cards that deal damage and can be used in quick succession. Other cards may also restore Cost when certain conditions are met, and some cards may grant effects that lower Costs to particular archetypes.

Selection of cards in Card-en-Ciel

Many of the most powerful cards in the game are the ones that extend combos. For example, Gunvolt’s Voltaic Chains card has a Cost of 1 and banishes all cards in the hand to deal massive damage. While this may seem disadvantageous, pairing this up with Chiru Kondo’s “Shut-in Neighbor” card (possibly the most powerful card in the game, in my opinion) will see you gain massive momentum. Shut-in Neighbor’s effect gives you two extra Cost and fully restocks your hand upon banishment, essentially putting you in a better position than what an opening hand could provide once Voltaic Chains is activated. That’s one of the more simplistic examples of what kind of combos you can do, and that’s not even getting into the other big mechanic that I haven’t mentioned yet.

No QCRs Here

Taking a page from Gunvolt’s playbook, Card-en-Ciel also features Muses who will assist and enhance the player’s capabilities upon activation. Muses are activated through meeting certain battle conditions typically related to the archetype they’re part of. Use the card transformation mechanic a certain number of times to activate Gunvolt’s Lumen, who will then further enhance cards of her archetype. Use cards with HP penalties to activate Rafaella, who in turn will further strengthen them. The fun thing about activating Muses is that there are ways to essentially “cheat” them to bring them out.

Card of A Nurse from the Future

For example, while Rafaella requires that you use cards with HP penalties, nothing says you can’t use other cards to completely nullify the damage received. Once again, it’s all about how you choose to build your decks to build clever combos. Muses are essentially tailored to allow the player to further exploit various loopholes in the card text. Once activated, Muses also give you stock to use one-time enhancements on cards to further strengthen them. This is usually a doubling up of their damage-dealing effects, but it can also be other things like lowering card Cost, drawing more cards, or making duplicates to save for later. 

Muses aren’t just given to you, however. You have to unlock them by beating them in combat beforehand, and this is where the roguelike element really starts to come into play. While building a strong deck certainly sounds easy, it comes with the caveat of your deck being reset each time you enter a new dungeon. From there, players will have to defeat enemies and loot chests to get more cards and upgrades, all of which are randomized. This means that players will have to do a lot of improvising to make good combos. There is a silver lining in the form of “Wild Cards”, select favorites that you can bring into any dungeon, but with the caveat that they can only be used once while you’re there.

Victory screen in Card-en-Ciel

On your way to the boss of each dungeon, fighting a lot of enemies can help improve your odds of winning. Defeat means losing your entire deck and starting from the very beginning, so taking it slow and steady can lower the odds of that. While you can avoid encounters with enemies, avoiding too many will incur penalties that could end up majorly handicapping you against bosses and sub-bosses. Defeating all enemies in an area will instead result in you subjugating areas, allowing you to heal (as this is the only method to do so), enhance a card in your deck, or place a card to give you boosts during combat in neighboring areas. It’s a nice layer of regular choice, enhanced further by randomized events that will give you various perks and nerfs depending on how you act during them.

All told, the core gameplay of Card-en-Ciel is really addictive. While it remains to be seen how it will hold up as a competitive title, its core single-player gameplay is rock-solid. While repeat runs of the same dungeon can occasionally become tiresome, card gameplay and the great degree of choice meant that it was always fun to experiment and try lots of new combinations.

Lamb's Requiem card

Visuals and Audio

As mentioned before, each character in Card-en-Ciel is uniquely voiced. I want to take a moment to praise the English voice acting for somehow giving literally every single character their own unique sounding performances. While there is some overlap in who voices who (I counted Casey Mongillo voicing more than one character), each character is performed in a way that gives a clear indication of who they are. All characters who had English voices previously have their roles fully reprised here, so I get to listen to yet more of Sean Chiplock’s glorious take on Gunvolt. Special props also go to Aleks Le and Cristina Vee as Neon and Ancie respectively, who put in great work despite how occasionally trite their actual lines are. I especially find the acting done for the Gal*Gun characters to be amazing, capturing the ridiculous and high-energy nature of that series perfectly—to a point that I would be disappointed if the next mainline game wasn’t dubbed too.

As for music, there are a ton of new vocal tracks made for this game, as well as older tracks from some of the games featured here. The new tracks deserve high marks, covering a wide range of genres that fit their archetypes like gloves. I don’t know if they’re making soundtrack CDs for this game, but I’d like to buy one if so, they’re that good. Even better is that they’ve also got some English tracks here for the first time in Inti’s history, and they sound great. My main issue with the music mostly comes down to the non-vocal tracks. They’re not bad, there’s just too little of it to go around relative to how much of a time sink this game can be. 

Conversation in Gal*Gun world in Card-en-Ciel

As for visuals, it’s fine. I like the character designs and the distinct drawing styles used for each archetype, but the actual meat-and-potatoes of what I was looking at was mostly function over form. It’s not a particularly memorable aesthetic, but it got the job done well enough.

Verdict

Card-en-Ciel is a game made better by how much it revels in its own excess. “How much is too much?” is a question that it proudly eschews in favor of throwing everything in the kitchen sink at participants. My primary issue with the game is that it’s clear it’s stretching itself thin in some areas as a result of this, mostly in rather repetitive visuals and a lack of non-vocal music. On occasion it can also grow a little long-winded, but these moments didn’t happen too often. As a card game and especially as a celebration of all things Inti Creates, it’s fantastic. 

CARD-EN-CIEL IS RECOMMENDED

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4|5, Xbox Series X|S

If you are interested in another deckbuilding game, consider checking out Golfie.

Many thanks go to Inti Creates for a PC review code for Umbraclaw.

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