Arcana (video game)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Arcana is a role-playing game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System released by HAL Laboratory in 1992. The game uses a card theme: characters appear as cards, and when a character dies, their card is torn. Some cards have magical powers that explain abilities. The game is played from a first-person perspective, with dungeons and towns seen through the characters’ view. Battles are also shown from the first-person perspective, with the party along the screen’s edge and enemies in the center. The graphics are simple, and character animations are limited.

Exploration happens on tile-based maps. Dungeons are labyrinthine with dead ends and hidden dangers, but the map details help you navigate. Movement is in the four cardinal directions, and battles follow a fixed turn system. After battles you gain experience and gold. All characters level up in the same way, with no randomness in how stats improve.

The main character is Rooks, who can switch elemental spirits, flee battles, and cast powerful but expensive card spells. If Rooks is knocked out, the whole party is weakened. The four elemental spirits are Sylph (wind), Efrite (fire), Dao (earth), and Marid (water). They rotate in the battle lineup, with Rooks and one spirit always in the party, leaving two slots for human teammates. Elementals can die and be replaced by new ones, but torn cards show their fate. If Rooks is incapacitated, a dead elemental can cripple the party.

Spirits can be revived for a fee at town spirit healers or by spells learned by Rooks at high levels. The story is set in Elemen, where an evil Empress named Rimsala once threatened the land. Card Masters defeated and sealed her, but later civil war and political plotting brought new danger. A villain named Galneon seeks to awaken Rimsala. Ten years after these events, Rooks—son of the last Card Master and a member of the Knights of Lexford—sets out to stop the revival and fulfill his destiny.

Arcana received generally favorable reviews. A 1993 Super Famicom Magazine poll gave it about 20.85/30, ranking around 140 among Super Famicom titles. GameRankings listed it at about 76% from four reviews. Time Extension praised Arcana as one of the best SNES games, noting its well-balanced challenge and strong audiovisuals compared with Shining in the Darkness.