Card-en-Ciel is set in a future world with VR games that are hyper realistic but under-regulated and this is where you come in. You take control of Neon, a gaming detective, called in to investigate error data in a game world of that is a yet to be released MMO that is now overlapping with other game worlds. This leads to the crossover content, which each stage being a different game world, with different cards featured.
As mentioned above, Card-en-Ciel is inspired by and pays tribute to post games, both titles worked on by Inti Creates and inspirations and so some of these game worlds are from existing Inti Creates titles while others are games created for Card-en-Ciel, but inspired by the games that influenced Inti Creates. There was no half-assing the effort either, as the fictional games are extremely well thought out and leave you wishing some of these were full games. In fact, I would not be shocked if Inti Creates defictionalizes some of these games going forward, because there is a lot of potential that can be done with them.
When I said Card-en-Ciel calls to mind the Mega Man Battle Network games, I was not talking in general ideas. The game feels like a spiritual sequel with each encounter taking place on a grid that gives 3×3 for you and 3×3 for any enemies. Like with the battle chips, you use cards to either attack or you can target an enemy’s attack to break an enemy and make them unable to attack or move. That is not all the cared are used for, as they can be used to move and you can use them to avoid attacks or reposition yourself for better strategy,
Almost every level sees your deck reset and so you need to deckbuild quickly and adapt on the fly to learn new card combinations. This is handled extremely well, and the unique cards that show up when certain conditions are met can change the course of a battle. It is also worth mentioning that Card-en-Ciel is a fast paced game, so be prepared to stumble a few times before you get the hang of things. Still, take the time to learn the cards and learn how to properly allocate energy for using the cards and you will manage to succeed here.
Card-en-Ciel is a brilliant game that has an excellent story mechanic, and while the game worlds are the main draw, I do feel the game’s overall setting and characters are handled extremely well. Their personalities are not fully defined at first, but they manage to act as ecellent surrogates to learning more about the various worlds you will come across in Card-en-Ciel. It helps that there is some fun writing here that manages to capture that Inti Creates charm and Neon and his companion Ancie are well written characters. I do wish the characters elaborated more on the video games worlds in some instances, because it feels like some story details were thought out by the writers but not fully explained to the player.
Overall, Card-en-Ciel is a fun game that mergers hits like Slay the Spire with classics like Mega Man Battle Network. It pushes the roguelite deckbuilder genre forward, while also paying tribute to the best games that Inti Creates made in the past, creating games within games that leave you hoping for more experiences from Inti Creates and realizing how creative the developer can be. The story can admittedly confuse some, but with amazing visuals inspired by anime, and excellent music, Card-en-Ciel has something for everyone. Inti Creates knocked it out of the park here and I hope they continue with this as a franchise going forward.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided
