An interesting artifact, both of FromSoft and of card battlers. You could write a ton about how this relates to other FromSoft games; an eeriely similar if super simplified/kiddie version of The FromSoft Plot (a vague large darkness brings a depressive atmosphere to a fantasy world), the weird experimentation in gameplay of their earlier games, and translating their style to the family-friendly Gamecube. A lot about this game is interesting, but it doesn't totally come together.
You can't get into the story like other FromSoft games as it's a cliche skeleton here, so you gotta focus on gameplay. While there's a lot I like (which is why I'm going to try the sequel), things somehow feel both too simple and too complicated. While each system in the card combat is simple, there's like 6 or 7 systems to manage (attack types, card cost, elemental type, blah blah). Compared to it's closest equivalent Chain of Memories, that game was way more complicated in it's deck building but the way the combat flowed was more natural when you built a good deck. Here, it feels like I'm either running out of cards too fast, or just padding my deck with a few big ones and like a million sword attacks (minor issue, I wish the monsters made more of an impression). I do like that the aesthetic is FromSoft + YuGiOh and some of the Red Fairy scenarios are cute, but getting through this was alternately dull and annoying despite the good parts. Let's see if the sequel improves!
You can't get into the story like other FromSoft games as it's a cliche skeleton here, so you gotta focus on gameplay. While there's a lot I like (which is why I'm going to try the sequel), things somehow feel both too simple and too complicated. While each system in the card combat is simple, there's like 6 or 7 systems to manage (attack types, card cost, elemental type, blah blah). Compared to it's closest equivalent Chain of Memories, that game was way more complicated in it's deck building but the way the combat flowed was more natural when you built a good deck. Here, it feels like I'm either running out of cards too fast, or just padding my deck with a few big ones and like a million sword attacks (minor issue, I wish the monsters made more of an impression). I do like that the aesthetic is FromSoft + YuGiOh and some of the Red Fairy scenarios are cute, but getting through this was alternately dull and annoying despite the good parts. Let's see if the sequel improves!