While not aesthetically pleasing, Kartia should appeal to those who like immersive and well-structured strategy.
There's so much to fall in love with, too. Boasting sumptuous artwork from Yoshitaka Amano (Final Fantasy fame) and traditional strategy gameplay with some unique twists, the substance of Kartia easily make it one of the best SRPGs for the console.
In the world of Rebus people have used Kartia since the beginning of time. Kartia are magical cards that can be used for everyday appliance, such as drawing water or creating a fire. The philosophy goes as such: Kartia fire illuminates the dark, Kartia winds flow through the sea, Kartia earth laid over a bed of seeds, Kartia water nurtured the plants.
This compromise between Kartia and the people of Rebus made for an enviable civilisation until the natural progression of mankind, where people sought Kartia for darker motive. When war reared its head, destruction and chaos descended upon Rebus; people now suffered because of Kartia, and the endless supply gradually started to evaporate. This story tells of two individual warriors and their companions who will come to learn the truth about Kartia.
Toxa Classico is a bold but somewhat naive young man working at the mansion of a wealthy relative. Defying the family tradition to become another merchant, he strived as a swordsman instead. His simple life is turned upside down when he encounters a mysterious Druid girl in desperate need of help.
The heroine of the story is Lacryma Christi. A personal favourite character, Lacryma is a Shrine Warrior whose job is to maintain peace throughout Rebus. Her strong virtues and firm sense of justice, as well as being the daughter of a famous swordsman, have made her the head of Vigilante, a group of warriors protecting Mana Trees from bandits. Though on the surface she is friendly and a strong leader, beneath lies a depressed woman who seems discontent in her life.
Supporting characters ensure that so much else goes on in the plot. A deeply religious and righteous Shrine Warrior befriends a rogue woman lost in a condemned fate; an inexperienced and self-conscious Medium is desperate to prove herself; a druid girl struggles with an enigmatic destiny; a kind and ambitious swordsman falls in love with his leader; a friendly dancer is secretly jealous of her best friend and a big-headed mage finds fun in being horrible to others.
The story is set out in linear fashion: you watch a cutscene then participate in a battle to gain the next cutscene. Choosing Toxa or Lacryma sets out different stories, though support characters shift in and out of battle parties. As well as being nicely scripted, the characters, not to mention the antagonists, are thoroughly appealing. As the world of Rebus descends further into crisis, the scope is always focused on the characters - their relationships, inward thoughts and their development through the events.
Amano Yoshitaka brings so much elegance to the table; his character designs are strangely sensual and breathtaking. That flowing and graceful style shines through here and makes the characters even more special. A multitude of character portraits depict several emotions for the dialogue, which is a treat to look at really.
But not all of Kartia's aesthetics are great. The flat 2D one-dimensional pixels of the characters gave many the impression of this being a second-rate SNES game. Being that as it may, Amano's character portraits is present in all of the cutscenes, distracting the gamer from focusing on the 2D sprites during the dialogue. Battle maps are rendered in polygons, and with a technique that Grandia II would go on to use, there is great use of film sprites for the most impressive spell casting yet. It's just a pity that in comparison, the Phantom designs are so uninspiring.
The music is subpar. A wonderful orchestra section plays through the dramatic opening FMV, which, sadly, doesn't repeat itself through the rest of the game. Comprising of generic themes to the simply forgettable, the music could have loaned the scenes more drama and atmosphere. Like the artwork, there are many compositions to fit certain moods - happiness sadness, anger - but the only memorable tune would be the orchestra crescendo during battles, which add pints of drama to the proceedings. The sound effects consist of grunting, sword clashing and magic using that hold up decently well. But no voice acting, sadly.
Kartia captures the traditions of strategy: tactical turn of chess, paper/rock/scissors sensibilities and lots of magic. Innovative features include being able to create phantoms to fight battles alongside the characters, magic creation and using magic to alter the terrain you fight on.
Battle maps can be taken advantage of by being able to choose where you want your characters placed. Some positions will give you the best balance of strategy in favour of how you want to win. Usually, it will be your characters versus a legion of phantoms or against a villain with a backup of phantoms.
It's imperative that you create phantoms on battle because you can't rely on characters, if they die, the game is over. Yes, it sucks, but that's life. Not every character in Kartia can create phantoms, and creating the right ones is vital to victory. A limit of phantoms can be created before battle, but doing so in battle costs characters one turn. Phantoms all have their strength and weaknesses; some have better movement, strong resistance against magic and good attack range. To progress in phantom creation, you'll need to acquire letters from Kartia that are found from enemies and treasure chests.
Phantoms come in three types: common, doll and shadow. This is where the paper/rock/scissors element comes into play. Common is strong against Doll, but weak against Shadow. Doll is strong against Shadow, but weak against Common. Shadow is strong against Common, but weak against Doll. It's vital to take advantage of these rules, otherwise you'll struggle immensely. Phantoms will also gain experience and become stronger in battles, and can carry on from battle to battle, but you can't ressurect dead phantoms.
Weapon customisation is also a feature in this game. Again, Kartia is the key here, and finding letters are vital to step up in weapon and equipment making. A total of three weapons are available - sword, spear and axe. Just like the phantoms, each weapon has their pros and cons. An axe does greater damage when you are attacking an enemy on a lower surface than you; the sword is best when you are on the same surface with an enemy and the spear works best for enemies on a higher surface.
Finally, the game allows you to create your own magic. It's like having full creative control over the demise of your enemies. Again, all good things come in three. Silk Kartia is the weakest therefore used for low key magic spells. Mithril Kartia is for slightly upper class magic, allowing you to create stronger spells. World Tree Kartia is the crem de la crem, the type of Kartia the Shrine Warriors are trying to preserve. Once created, you can only use the spell once in battle before it disappears, and to regain a spell you simply create it once again. This emsures that battles aren't made redundant by excessive magic casting. It's also important to note that only human characters can use magic. Kartia is awarded after battles and in treasure chests or in the Arena - an optional dungeon to fight after each chapter.
With all of these aspects to consider, regrettably, the challenge of Kartia is actually disappointing. Most of this resides on the dull A.I of the enemies. Thwarting the enemy's A.I is somewhat simple, as you can have them fall into basic traps all the time. For instance, enemies almost never advance towards you unless you reach a certain point on the map; never are you pushed to survival, and the simplest of strategies prove to be the best. Sadly veterans of these games will bore easily and will soon crave more complex material.
As MMORPG's become increasingly popular for multiplayer gameplay, Kartia comes with a two-player option. In this field, you are given a small selection of scenarios to play. There are six battle maps, six different winning conditions. You can load up your levelled up characters and their weapons from your memory card and pit them in these scenarios for harmless fun.
All in all, I'd urge people to pick up this game. Kartia is intriguing and while not aesthetically pleasing, it should appeal to those who like immersive and well-structured strategy gameplay. But even then, Kartia is simply more alluring than any other RPG out right now. This is a story about love and truth, and the most endearing thing is that I, for one, did not believe that in a video game, it could be explored so evocatively. Perhaps, then, that's Kartia's real triumph.