INTI CREATES hits it out of the park with Card-en-Ciel
It's that time again for a new episode of Chichuki Plays, the show where I go hands-on with upcoming games and show them off. Usually it's about an hour or so but I don't want to spoil too much of the game for you. This time, we're checking out Card-en-Ciel on the Nintendo Switch. I checked out the demo for Card-en-Ciel on Steam but I knew I really wanted to check it out on Switch.
I have mentioned in the past that I was able to check out Card-en-Ciel at PAX East and loved my time with the game. It really made me think of the Mega Man Battle Network franchise and the Digimon World games on the Nintendo DS/Game Boy Advance.Card-en-Ciel is an interested take on the deck building roguelite RPG where there are a lot of anime/video game characters to find and add to your deck. You play the role of Neon, the Gaming Chain Detective, where he is tasked with solving an interesting case in a brand new game world.
When you enter a new area/world in the game, you have to create a new deck and in turn, find new cards strewn about. Usually in games like this they don't force you to change the deck but I really liked that idea where it forced you to play different strategies and find new favorites. The voice acting in the game was really well done but the frequency in voice acted dialogue could be cut down a little bit. Giving the player a way to lower the amount of spoken lines would be nice too. I believe this has been address from the demo version. The start of the story moves a little slow but of minor pacing issues and too many voice lines are my only issue with the game, then it's in good hands.
You will want to take the first area slowly so you can learn the ropes during gameplay. That way when the game gets tougher, you will be ready to fight. There were a ton of cards I really liked playing and the animation/art on those cards was amazing too.
When you first start Card-en-Ciel, you might think that battles have too much going on but that isn't the case.You have a certain number of cards you can play in each turn and then you have to keep an eye on when the enemy is going to attack. You'll notice that enemies have a timer and direction on the battlefield. That's where the attack is going and how much time you have to set up a defense. You have the option to attack the enemy to win the fight as well as other options. You can break the enemy and keep them from attacking. In turn you will do more damage to a broken opponent. You can also set up a counter attack for major damage.I found that a good mix of cards that attack quickly and cards that do large damage worked best. Having cards that can be played for low cost and can break the enemy were good to have too.
After completing a world/dungeon, you'll be graded on how well you did. It takes into account how long it took to clear the dungeon. How many turns in battle you took will also effect your final score. Fewer turns will result in more Decode Tokens and those will enhance Neon. You'll be able to give Neon permanent upgrades through the Decode Tokens. Gaining hit points and having rare cards appear more in dungeons is just some of the buffs you can give the Gaming Chair Detective. I really like the references to other INTI CREATES franchises in the game as well.
Card-en-Ciel is another banger from INTI CREATES and could be one of my games of the year. I'd like to thank INTI CREATES for the review code. Make sure you check out the hands-on/thoughts video below.