Game Details
Published by: Hal America, Inc..
Developed by: Hal America, Inc.
Released on: 1992.
Genre: Role-Playing.
Arcana Description
Arcana (known as Card Master in Japan) is a RPG for the SNES, by HAL Laboratory. The game was novel in representing all of its characters as cards, but it plays like a dungeon-crawling RPG, rather than a card based game.
In keeping with this metaphor, the death of a character resulted in a "torn" card, and the magical properties of some cards were used to explain abilities of the game's characters.
Arcana - Player Reviews & Feedback
About Arcana
Long time ago, an evil sorceress Castomira decided to conquer the world. But a good princess revolted against her, and in a great fight defeated the sorceress. But in order to completely seal the sorceress powers, the princess had to forge a magic sword.
For a long time this sword guarded the peace of the citizens of Arcus. But now the followers of Castomira stole it, and the world is facing a great peril...
Loved it!
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 viewing and a need to look at your map. This classic style, more often found on PC games, works well in this game.
The basic premise of Arcana is that you, Rooks, are the only Card Master alive because your father died in a battle. An evil reign is about to begin and you need to stop it. With a decent cast of characters that fight with you, betray you, aid you at opportune times, the plot moves along quite well. And despite the cliche 'I'm going to save the Kingdom from disaster', it is a very fun and engaging plot.