Fun truth: right now final 12 months, we had solely simply discovered of the existence of Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars. Not solely has that recreation and its sequel—Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden—come out since then, however we’ve now acquired yet one more sequel in Voice of Cards: The Beasts of Burden. As you’d in all probability anticipate, this latest entry is basically lower from the identical fabric as its predecessors, however with some significant nips and tucks right here and there that assist to present it its personal character.

The Beasts of Burden follows the story of a lady named Al’e (by default, you possibly can identify her no matter you need) who goals of sooner or later seeing the celebs. Al’e lives in an underground village beset by frequent monster assaults, that are slowly chipping away at their restricted provides and remaining residents. Al’e is sort of the succesful warrior, however whereas she’s out keeping off yet one more monster swarm, one other group of monsters manages to sneak into the village and kill everybody there. Grieving the lack of her mom and mates, Al’e is then whisked to the floor by a mysterious boy who appears to need to assist. Here, she learns that she holds a particular energy that enables her to regulate monsters to do her bidding. Armed with this newfound capacity and aided by her new ally, Al’e units out on a quest for revenge towards those behind the incident that destroyed her residence.

Notably, The Beasts of Burden feels darker in tone in comparison with its predecessors. This is a narrative about individuals whose lives have been ruined by monsters and the low-burning hatred they harbor because of their trauma. Even so, this nonetheless doesn’t essentially really feel like a heavy story; there are nonetheless loads of moments of levity to be discovered all through as your band travels the wasteland. In some ways, this narrative feels way more episodic than its predecessors. You don’t begin out with a well-defined quest goal like slaying a dragon or serving to an amnesiac lady reclaim her reminiscence this time, however this works in The Beasts of Burden’s favor. Whether you’re trying to find lacking members of a circus in a desert or monitoring down a legendary monster holed up on the opposite facet of a lake of fireplace, every chapter seems like a significant contribution to your occasion’s character growth.

It’s additionally price mentioning that the narrator has been switched up but once more, this time that includes the primary feminine Game Master. Carin Gilfry does a beautiful job of setting the temper, imbuing the narrative together with her personal character that feels someplace in the midst of the earlier two GMs by way of power. She’s just a little extra severe than Mark Atherlay, but in addition just a little extra playful than Todd Haberkorn, evidenced by little issues like her exclamations whenever you land a crucial hit or how she compliments Al’e when she will get a brand new outfit. We felt that she delivered a efficiency simply as sturdy as her predecessors, drawing us into the narrative in a manner that helps stoke the creativeness to fill within the gaps between all of the static playing cards.

The Beasts of Burden follows the identical fundamental template of the earlier two video games, which is to say that it’s a comparatively easy JRPG dressed up in a complete lot of playing cards. The overworld is a sequence of playing cards laid face down, and you’ll solely see what’s on the reverse facet by shifting your totem—which represents your occasion—to the subsequent adjoining card. There’s one thing surprisingly alluring to slowly uncovering the structure of a brand new space, as you by no means know what chances are you’ll discover simply in entrance of you. That facedown card may very well be simply one other wall, or there may very well be a treasure chest or a secret cave there. And although it may be form of sluggish going when mapping out a brand new space, your capacity to shortly bounce to any beforehand flipped card means you don’t have to traipse backwards and forwards throughout lengthy fields or wastelands greater than as soon as.

The overworld right here typically feels just a little extra pulled again and centered than the open sea of The Forsaken Maiden, and the identical goes for the dungeons, however we felt that this concentrate on tighter and extra linear environments works in The Beasts of Burden’s favor. Just about whenever you’re reaching that time {that a} given space is feeling just a little stale, you attain the tip of it. Plus, the extra centered method permits for higher puzzle design and environmental gimmicks. For instance, one dungeon is a bit more maze-like and consists of a sequence of rooms interconnected by minecarts; progress is made by discovering new minecarts and switches to unlock new tracks. You’ll by no means discover any gimmicks or puzzles that put up an excessive amount of of a combat, however we felt this space was just a little extra fascinating compared to the earlier two entries.

This being an old-school JRPG, it doesn’t take lengthy so that you can bounce right into a random encounter when out and about. Here, issues unfold a lot in the way in which you’ll anticipate of a conventional turn-based battle system, although with the fascinating caveat that ‘mana’ is shared by your occasion in a typical pool. Everyone will generate a minimum of one gem in the beginning of their flip, and any playing cards apart from gadgets, defending, or your fundamental assault will price you gems to forged. Planning out your turns just a little prematurely is important as you must contemplate that utilizing a specific assault or talent with one character could imply the subsequent received’t have sufficient gems to forged theirs.

Generally talking, it seems like the problem degree right here is fairly low, however boss fights can definitely put up some notable resistance and going through the higher-level enemies whenever you come to a brand new space is certain to push your workforce just a little bit extra. Though there’s a lingering want that the enemies would push you just a little bit extra, it’s laborious to argue that the present problem isn’t good for the comfortable, heat ambiance that’s being made right here. The Beasts of Burden isn’t meant to be a recreation that stresses you out (apart from the considerably tense boss fights), and it does a wonderful job of offering simply sufficient resistance to remain partaking all through its ten to fifteen-hour run.

The new headline characteristic of The Beasts of Burden is the monster-catching system, which provides a welcome degree of depth to your fight and character-building choices. Basically, each enemy you combat—together with bosses—might be subdued by Al’e and changed into a card that may be outfitted to any of your characters. Each card has a definite and useful motion, like a strong elemental assault or a protection debuff when you get a sure roll of the cube, and every character can have as much as 4 of them outfitted at a time. Further, every card has a star rank wherever from one to 5, with greater ranks of the identical card having extra highly effective variations of that card’s results.

Getting new enemy playing cards is predicated on random probability; you’re sometimes given an choice after battle to pick out a treasure chest card, and one among these normally has a brand new enemy card in it. Though some is probably not enthused on the randomness of this catching mechanic, we felt that new playing cards have been doled out at a well-measured tempo, and you’ll all the time purchase consumable gadgets that elevate or ensures the possibility of getting a treasure chest choice after the combat is over. You don’t need to grind for these playing cards until you’re attempting to find greater ranks of particular playing cards, and even then, it feels prefer it doesn’t take too lengthy until you get what you’re searching for.

We assume this monster-taming mechanic provides quite a bit to the battle system of The Beasts of Burden, as this successfully now brings a delicate class system to the tried and examined turn-based battles. Tweaking character stats with gear after which kitting them out with monster playing cards that can finest make the most of these adjustments offers you quite a lot of room to experiment with occasion composition. Plus, the flexibility to improve these playing cards by accumulating better-ranked variations of them provides a separate type of development past the rote leveling system. It’s not a radical reconstruction of the battle system we’ve seen in three video games now, but it surely additionally seems like a significant evolution of what’s come earlier than.

If you need a break out of your quest, the Game Parlor has returned as soon as once more to give you a extra conventional card recreation that acts as a pleasant distraction from the principle storyline. Here, the aim is to take turns making an attempt to make pairs and units of comparable playing cards to present your self extra factors, whereas doing so in a manner that doesn’t give your enemies too many possibilities to upstage you. Like many conventional card video games, it encompasses a good mix of each talent and luck to win, and it’s also possible to select so as to add particular guidelines like card abilities and random occasions if you’d like just a little extra taste. It’s enjoyable whether or not you’re taking part in towards the AI or with somebody on the sofa subsequent to you, and profitable within the Game Parlor additionally nets you good beauty rewards like new card backs.

As for its presentation, The Beasts of Burden follows intently in its predecessors’ footsteps of creatively displaying a complete fantasy world by way of playing cards. Kimihiko Fujisaka’s character designs for all the cardboard artwork stays simply as wonderful because it’s all the time been, whereas components just like the overworld playing cards being fanned out on an previous wood desk or a separate felt-lined tray being introduced in for the ‘battle screen’ assist to sofa this all in the true world as when you’re sitting in a firelit tavern someplace throughout from a GM who’s doling out the playing cards as they narrate all the things. We additionally appreciated all of the little particulars round the playing cards to assist imbue them with just a little extra magic. For instance, of their introductions, most mini-bosses will shake the entire display screen and ship out an power shockwave when their card hits the desk, which actually sells that these enemies are a lower above the standard fodder.

The soundtrack, helmed as soon as extra by Keiichi Okabe, Oliver Good, and Shotaro Seo, does a wonderful job of blending collectively somber piano notes and enjoyable strings to offer a notably enjoyable ambiance. There’s an nearly sleepy high quality to the music, but it surely merges completely with the delicate narration, heat lighting, and customarily slow-paced gameplay. This is for certain a recreation that we might suggest you play with headphones in handheld mode, if potential, if solely so you possibly can decide up extra simply on among the subtleties in these tracks.

In case you haven’t gathered from all the things to date, The Beasts of Burden is sort of just like its two predecessors. If you weren’t interested in both of these, otherwise you really feel you already acquired your fill taking part in one or each, The Beasts of Burden definitely isn’t going to vary your thoughts. At the underside, that is nonetheless a slightly brief and easy JRPG that doesn’t take many possibilities with its mechanics. We would contend, nevertheless, that The Beasts of Burden is the very best instance of the Voice of Cards idea but. The world design feels tighter, the monster-catching supplies only a bit extra depth to battle, and it typically feels just like the builders have zeroed in additional on what they’re making an attempt to perform with these video games.