Review of “Voice of Cards: Captive Monster” (Impress Watch)

Square Enix released the “Voice of Cards Captive Monster” RPG for PlayStation 4/Nintendo Switch/PC (Steam) on September 13th.

[Voir une autre image liée à cet article]This work is the third work in the “Voice of Cards” RPG series with the table talk RPG (TRPG) motif. In a world where everything, such as characters, maps, and lines, is represented by cards, the story progresses with the game master, who is the game’s animator. Voice actor Yui Ishikawa serves as the game master for this game. The story takes place in a world where humans and monsters are in conflict. A boy appears when the village where the main character Arue lives is attacked and travels the world with him. I was able to play the first part of this game. The author is playing the “Voice of Cards” series for the first time. I’ve played TRPGs many times, but this is my first experience of combining video games and TRPGs. This time I would like to tell you how I felt about the experience and the charm. ■ The world where everything is represented by cards is exactly the TRPG board game The biggest feature of this work is that everything in the world is represented by cards. Not only the characters, but also the world, towns, and dungeons are all maps, and you’ll feel like you’re on the board of a TRPG board game. On the map, terrain cards that the player has not stepped on are face down, and you have no idea what the terrain looks like in the distance. By moving the “pin that indicates the position of the main character” little by little, the player can flip the cards nearby. The fact that you don’t know what kind of terrain it is until you get close to it is exciting, but it also has a dual nature that can sometimes fuel anxiety. The flipped card will remain displayed as is even if you leave it. If you don’t have restrictions like the place you once turned to is dark and you can’t see it, or the ground is different, you can jump and move in one step. Being able to jump and move around places you’ve been before is comfortable, and it’s a nice feature that allows you to progress through the story without stress. There are also maps for oases and towns on the map. If you land on a city map, you can enter the city. In addition to people, the town has gun shops, tool shops, inns, playgrounds, and pet shops. At the weapon store, you can buy weapons and armor that can increase your attack power and defense power, and at the tool store, you can buy salvage items that can be used during battle. Also, if you go to the amusement park, you can play card games and if you win, you can get various prizes. The game master guides all the progress of the game in this work. There is no character voice in this work, and it is not possible to listen to voices other than the game master. The game master will tell you everything about the emotions of the different characters and the settings of the world. The narrative, which carries the story forward in a soft and gentle voice, coupled with the story of this work, repeatedly falls into the feeling of being grasped by the heart. The progression story with a game master and a tripod is similar to a TRPG, but the biggest difference with a real TRPG is that all choices are made by the player alone. A TRPG progressing without talking to anyone is a bit odd. ■ Battle with cards! Fight using the monster cards you used In this job, battles are also done with cards. A battle begins when a monster appears on the map or in a dungeon. The board is changed to a card battle board. The battle rules are simple, using cards with attack power, defense power, and VPs to reduce the opponent’s VPs. Each turn, you choose to attack your opponent or defend yourself. In battle, the player chooses from the cards in their hand the actions they want the character to take, such as attacking, defending, and using items. Attacks are basically the value obtained by subtracting the monster’s defense power from the character’s attack power. If you choose to defend, you only need to take half the extra damage of the monster’s attack power minus the character’s defense power. It is also a strategy to actively choose the defense when you are likely to receive a high damage attack from monsters. Some of the monsters you fight have attributes in their attacks. There are six types of attributes: fire, water, thunder, wind, light and darkness. Depending on the monster, there are weaknesses, and conversely, there are things that resist, so you have to be careful during the fight. Events can occur during battles. Events are a set of restrictions during a round, and although there are good events such as an increase in the amount of recovery during recovery, there are also incidents such as an increase in power attack from enemies and allies. The events that occur are displayed before the turn, so it is necessary to change your way of fighting according to the effect. Also, from this job, you can seal defeated monsters into a card and use it as a skill during battle. By placing on-map monsters on characters, you can use them in battle, but you cannot place the same monster card more than once. Therefore, I carefully consider the skills I want to add to the character and define them. The defined monster card is displayed to the player as a hand for each character, and can be selected and used in the same manner as attack and defense. Each monster card has an effect written on it, and you use that effect to battle. The card’s effects include “adds 4 attacks and deals damage”, “adds 4 to your own defense for 3 turns”, and “recovers target’s HP by 9”. There are various things that can be used for support. like recovery. The duration of the effect is also different for each card, such as those that can be used in the turn and those that appear for multiple turns from the next turn. Also, depending on the effect, some are very similar to wagering, such as rolling dice to determine the size of the effect and whether it succeeds or fails. During battle, you must consume items called “gems” to use monster cards. These gems accumulate one at a time each time an enemy or ally character takes their turn in battle. If you don’t use it, it will continue to accumulate, but “gems” that are not consumed during battle cannot be carried over to the next battle, so it is recommended to use them during battle. The amount of “gem” consumed differs depending on the card, but since the stronger the card, the greater the amount consumed, it is not possible to use only strong cards in quick succession. Conversely, as long as you have enough “gems”, you can use the same card as many times as you want. When it comes to how to fight monsters, it is very interesting to be able to use an effective strategy and to fight in a way that pleases the player. In addition, each character can learn their own characteristics. For example, the main character, Arue, gains a trait called “Dreaming Maiden” which can add 5 to the amount of HP recovery when using recovery skills and recovery items. Traits are always effective during battle, so there is no need to set them as special skills. Although the battle itself is simple, it is necessary to fight using your head, such as thinking up strategies and judging the situation on the spot. ■ You can’t take your eyes off the heartbreaking and shocking story and characters. This time I only played the beginning, but the story development was like a royal road, and there were a lot of shocking scenes, and I was shaken by emotions. Characters other than the main character are all represented by cards, but when the game master’s narration is combined, you can clearly imagine what kind of atmosphere the character creates even without the character’s voice. Additionally, there are card-specific effects, such as the cards the characters are drawn on turn black, are torn, or fall sideways. When the map turns black or tears in front of my eyes, I felt it was much more painful and sad than if the characters normally disappeared. Tearing up the paper and blacking out the characters can make you feel more strongly that you can’t go back to how they were. It can be said that the production makes the scene of the story more intense. In addition to card-type effects, if you defeat a monster that’s waiting on the map, it will turn around and become a vacant lot, and the moment you realize the oasis you were looking at is a mirage, it will turn around. Inside When you ride a cart, cards are flipped over and tracks are created at the same time. Although it is a video game, the form of TRPG is very interesting. This time, I played this series from this work, but I would also like to play the two previous works. Above all, it is cool that a player can enjoy TRPG. The vision of the world and the voice of the game master are very immersive, and traveling through the world represented by cards is very innovative and fun. I felt that I could play TRPG with a new feeling, so I would like to recommend it to those who love TRPG as well as those who are interested in TRPG. Store Page ・PlayStation Store ・My Nintendo Store ・Steam © 2022 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.