The Voice of Cards series quietly continues to soldier on, with Square Enix today announcing the pending arrival of the third game in the series, The Beasts of Burden.
The Voice of Cards is an interesting series. Here at Gaming Nexus, we haven't quite known what to make of it. In Rob Larkin's original review of The Isle Dragon Roars, he gave the game a 6.5, stating that "I was hoping for a card game but a card game it is not. It's a classic RPG, simply presented solely in the medium of cards. But even taken for what it is, it falls too short of the running time of a good RPG, fails to deliver the challenge or strategy to make itself stand out in that genre, and tarnishes an excellent story with characters that struggle to redeem their faults."
I took a stab at The Forsaken Maiden a few months back, and I liked it for exactly the same reasons that Rob didn't like The Isle Dragon Roars; it was short, it felt like a real RPG, and what it lacked in visuals it made up for with a cool story. I thought it was kinda neat.
Well, perhaps the third game will be the tie-breaker. The Beasts of Burden is once again a single-player, stand-alone experience. This time, players will be given the ability to trap monsters they defeat as cards, and then use them as skills in battle.
The key takeaway here is that though these games are played with cards, they really feel like traditional RPG games. I really dig this style of game, and I appreciate that Square Enix is investing in these lower-profile, less expensive titles. Just because a niche is small doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It feels good to know that more of these games are being made for fans of the genre.
Voice of Card: The Beasts of Burden will be available digitally on September 13 on Switch, PS4, and Steam. Pre-orders are now open on Switch and Steam, and net the player a few cosmetic goodies, so check that out if you are into that sort of thing.
