Arcana - The dungeon-crawler with a storyline!

User Rating: 7 | Card Master: Rimusaria no Fuuin SNES
By QualityApeMan | Review Date:
Arcana Arcana Arcana, what can I say about this game? It has some good points and some bad points. Let me elaborate. Firstly, the story is about a boy named Rooks. It turns out his father was what is known as a Card Master. Now that he's dead, you are the only one with the genes or whatever to be a Card Master too. So anyway some old wizard type called Galneon wants to control the world, making it into an utopian society of his creation. This doesn't necessarily make him a bad guy, but he's doing it the wrong way! He wishes to revive an evil emperess called Rimsala and control her power. Anyway long story short you don't agree and, being the only Card Master, Rooks is the only one that can stop them. On with the show! The graphics are pretty darn good, especially as this was released in 1992, very early in the SNES's career. The towns look good enough, as do the dungeons, but of course they do look dull and repetitive after the first while or so (the first of my gripes). the Character design is pretty cool, and the enemies even have animation to them - something missing from some later RPGs! The sound is fairly good as well, with your usual sound effects of sword swooshes and slashes...but the music is even better, boasting some great sound quality and composition. Gameplay is when go a little awry. The game mostly plays just fine, with your usual turn based battle system, but you are also given Spirits that battle as one of your teammates. I found these to be almost useless as they were extremely feeble and your other 3 party members always outpowered them in every aspect. Also, the translation suffered very badly from Japanese to English as many of the cutscenes didn't even make much sense (especially the ones between Rooks and Ariel). The game is also quite difficult battle-wise as you are faced with battles sometimes every few steps and are quite worn down before the bosses as you get lost in the winding paths of the dungeons. In other words, boring levelling up is essential! One interesting thing about this game is that each enemy you fight is shown on a card, and the card will have a coloured rim round the edge. This displays its element. That way you can choose particular spells to use against the enemies (not that it really mattered because your Spirits were weak anyway). An interesting idea however. Lastability will vary but the game should take you a good while to beat due to the difficulty.

Overview
Graphics - Great for the time.
Sound - Usual sound effects, but good music.
Gameplay - Interesting battle system, but dialogue poorly translated and too many battles.
Lastability - A fairly long time.

Other Helpful Reviews for Card Master: Rimusaria no Fuuin

  • Rating:8.2

    By AtreusGS | Review Date: Jul 07, 2004 | SNES

    Arcana is an awesome SNES RPG game that is often overlooked because of its 1st Person perspective. Unlike most SNES RPGs, which are top down like Final Fantasy, Arcana touts a first person perspective, providing limitted... Read Full Review

    3 of 5 users found the following review helpful
  • Rating:7

    Don't overlook this game...

    By jacobs1282 | Review Date: Jun 02, 2006 | SNES

    What can I say except this is a highly underrated game. This was an above average RPG for the SNES. For it's time this game had decent graphics. The music and sound effects were also entertaining and the story although l... Read Full Review

    1 of 2 users found the following review helpful
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