|
Picture the scenario: you’re out on the battlefield, at some point in the
dark ages. A large, burly, maybe hairy, man with rusty armor steps up to the
forefront, and you know he means business. It’s time to fight…
So you pull out your ‘sword’ card and he pulls out his ‘armor’ card and the
fight begins! Duel to the death! It doesn’t sound quite as exciting when put
into words, but can a card-based system be effective and fun?
In Baten Kaitos, you as the Guardian Spirit and Kalas obviously as the main
character wander about their world and collect cards called Magnus. On this
Earth, everything can be Magnus from Milk to Silk to a ’popular pick up
line’. You use these cards in battle pretty much as described above. You
enter the random battle in a fashion just like Chrono Cross, and when the
short fly-by is done you start picking cards. Now, this isn’t like a normal
Magic: The Gathering type game. It’s more along the lines of a traditional
RPG as far as fighting goes. You have your deck of say, 30 cards and they
are shuffled and 5 are dealt to you. These 5 could be weapons, spells,
combos, armor, healing items or various items with different effects. You
could be at a point where you have no attack Magnus at all, when basically
you have to throw away a card and lose your turn. You use your cards against
the enemy, in this case up to 3. On the defensive end, when YOU are being
attacked, you have a couple of seconds in which to throw down some armor
cards to reduce damage. It doesn’t seem like you are using cards. It’s
actually moderately paced, with a time limit and several quirks to spice it
up a little. You can have combos that create new cards, numbers on the cards
that used correctly can add damage. There are elements and finishing moves.
Spells, swords, gloves, or…oars…Everyone has their own specialty. Even
though this whole game is based around the Magnus concept, it doesn’t always
feel like you are playing a ‘card game’.
And it shouldn’t have to. It should be about enjoying the game and battle
system. But at the same time, the cards ARE there. It IS a card game. Some
games, like Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, seem a little too fast paced.
Especially later on. If you are a little slow on the uptake, and we all know
someone who is, CoM can be a button mash fest instead of a card game. Throw
out whatever attacks you have. Wave that key sword around like you know
what’s going on. Hopefully you win, maybe you don’t.
Doing it right takes a lot of balance. Fighting with Magnus is simple to
get into, but with so many quirks and extras, it is more than fighting. It’s
living the card game. You find the uncooked rice card, and with the right
ingredients can turn it into some delicious rice that heals you better than
anything you had before that. Said rice only lasts so long though, and will
turn into spoiled rice after enough real-time has passed! Oh and that
uncooked rice? Well it’s spoiled now.
Card based battle systems have been around a long time, and have never
really gained a lot of popularity. In fact, the earliest ones I can remember
are the old Dragon Ball RPGs for NES. Those were card based for some reason.
The original formula was incredibly stale and 2 dimensional. So
Bandai released a few more sequels with the same old card system and nobody
was impressed.
With a little bit of thought, with a little bit of effort, and some spice
and variety, fighting a guy with a card can stack up to fighting them with
Espers, Guardian Spirits, and swords as large as an ogre. You just have to
take a little time to get to know your cards, and show them some love.
|
RSS feed
iTunes
