Title: Arcana (NA) Card Master: Rimusaria no Fuuin (JP) (trans: Sealed Rimsala)
Release Date: 03/27/1992
Developer: Hal
Publisher: Hal
So here we have a little heard of RPG developed by Hal (the same people who made the Kirby and the Mother series); should be a slam dunk!Background
As mentioned before, this game was developed by HAL, a developer with a very close working relationship with Nintendo. When I first played this game for this blog, I hadn't done any research on the provenance of this game, but I will say it FEELS like a HAL game. Part of this is the bright and detailed visual design; another part is that the music is composed by Jun Ishikawa, and features a lot of the same motifs as he used in Kirby (the battle music, especially, sounds like Kirby). The director, Shigeru Hashiguchi, is another person who eventually worked predominantly on Kirby games after this. Weird!
Story
The story of this game is actually rather intense. The game takes place on the fantastical world of Elemen. In the distant past, an evil empress named Rimsala ruled with an iron fist, until a group of "card masters," wizards who wielded shamanistic powers in the form of playing cards, sealed her away. Decades later, a civil war erupts between the kingdoms of man when an evil wizard, Galneon, stages a coup against the king of the kingdom of Lexford. Galneon then hunted down and started to kill the card masters, hoping to eventually resurrect Rimsala and use her power to "rule the world."
You play as Rooks, the son of the last remaining card master, who has carried on his father's tradition of card mastery. You get contracted by a childhood friend, Ariel, to enter the local temple and dispel some evil spirits. Upon conquering the temple, it turns out it houses a sacred artifact needed to open Rimsala's seal. Ariel betrays you, of course, and it sets you on your quest to seal Rimsala once and for all. To complete this quest, you will need to find three sacred artifacts, and the four elemental card spirits.
Gameplay
The game is a first person dungeon crawling RPG in the vein of Shining in the Darkness. Every chapter (of which there are five) begins in a hub town. In this town, you are able to enter an inn (where you can recharge HP/MP and save), the local tavern (where you can increase your stats through eating food), the fortune teller (where you can revive your elemental spirits and buy cards), and the shop (where you can buy weapons/armor and items). From here, you leave to enter the local dungeon. You can't choose to go to old dungeons, only the one that is story relevant; this means that any grinding you want to get done HAS to be done in the current chapter. You can easily find yourself beating a chapter, but too weak to continue on in the story without your team getting wiped.
To this point, this game is all about preparation, and grinding for money and experience is mandatory. The dungeons in this game are multi-level mazes, where it is very easy to get lost, and the high encounter rate will continually punish you. To guarantee your success in the dungeon, you will need to spend time to level up to a good level, spend money on healing items, spend money on sleeping bags (which replenish all of your health and MP), get the best armor/weapons, and buy a series of cards.
You explore dungeons in first person, and you create a map as you head through their maze-like hallways. Every few steps, the game will put you into a turn-based random encounter; the battles are pretty simple affairs: you have your characters turns where they can cast magic, play a card, attack, or defend, and the enemies have theirs. Aside from your human compatriots, you also have one of your elemental cards as a party member; these elementals level up with Rooks, and can't put on equipment, but they can cast high level magics and generally act as a meat shield.
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| This is a typical dungeon map btw. Have fun navigating that in first person. |
This game is very tough for several reasons: one, the enemy encounter rate is ludicrously high. Many of the battles have 3-6 enemies at once (each with their own turn), and you can defeat that group, walk one step (or just turn), and immediately get into another battle. I have gotten into five battles in a row, one step after another. Another reason this game is tough is because it doesn't signify when a boss battle is coming up; you can just randomly walk into one with no warning or notice. This wouldn't be so bad if the price for failure wasn't so high; the only save point is back in town, and the only way to leave a dungeon is through a disposable item or by walking all the way back to the entrance. The second dungeon, in particular, is awful because there are three bosses throughout the entire thing (the final of which is the toughest and must be fought by Rooks alone). Finally, a fail state is enabled if ONE of your party members is killed (elementals are okay as they can be revived at fortune tellers); I have had it where two enemies performed a critical attack and killed a party member.
Confession time: I made it to the end of the second Act and called it quits. As you move through the second dungeon, your party gets really balanced and strong. You gain two additional party members, and a stronger fire spirit. After fighting the second boss of the dungeon, one of your party members just leaves for no real reason. When you make it to the end of the dungeon, Ariel attacks and kidnaps your other party member, and you are forced to fight one of Ariel's warriors one-on-one. I had little health remaining, and this warrior hit me with a critical attack and killed me. This cost me an hour and a half of progress. I was so upset that I vowed not to waste any more time with this game.
How about that sweet Jun Ishikawa music?
Ads, Art, and Commercials
Sadly no commercials, but check out the Super Famicom art that came with it! Pretty great work.
Final Verdict
I was actually really excited for this game! The visuals were quaint, the music was really strong, and the first dungeon wasn't actually too bad. The game just immediately punishes you, though, and is thoroughly disrespectful of your time as a player. You have to be so conscious of your preparation, grind continually, and so much of whether or not you succeed is left to chance. If you are an RPG purist or a fan of Shining in the Darkness, then you might really enjoy this game. Personally, though, I just don't have it in me to attempt another run of the second chapter, or to really see what comes after that.
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