A lifeless world. A deathless world
Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars is a very interesting and unique JRPG because it’s told entirely in cards. I should note that this game is a JRPG with card game aesthetics, not a card game with JRPG aesthetics. With all of that said, the game's creative director was made by the famous Yoko Taro, so this was definitely going to be an interesting game.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Enjoyable story with fun characters
Voiced narration throughout the adventure
Fun turn-based gameplay with great looking attacks
Lots of collectibles for you to go obtain
Very nice card-based art style
Amazing soundtrack
Cons
Mar and Bruno don’t learn any elemental-based attacks
A lot of the items you get are mostly useless
Happystance cards are sometimes not very useful
The game for the most part is really easy
Story
The story starts out with Ash (you can change the name of the character) who hears some news about this Dragon that has invaded the kingdom he lives in. Queen Nilla tells the people that they will be rewarded handsomely if they manage to kill the dragon. So, Ash and his companion Mar, set out to take out the dragon and claim the reward. Along the way, he meets with a woman named Melanie who has a grudge against the dragon for some reason and also tags along.
The story for the game is pretty decent, it’s simple but it’s very nice to read through, it also had a few twists in it that were good to see. The characters have a certain charm that makes them all likable, there was never really a character that I did not like, except a few of them did not have much development but I can’t really talk about them due to spoiling the game
All in all, the story is enjoyable, nothing too serious but good nonetheless. There is only one voice in the game and that is the narrator who is voiced by Todd Haberkorn. He has a great voice and I loved hearing him throughout my adventures in the story.
Gameplay
Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars is a JRPG that is also turn-based, while it’s not a card game, if you want to treat it as one, you can, because I did. The game is played like a Table-Top RPG game and it has elements that reflect that. You can use up to three characters in combat and they all have abilities that are unique to that specific character. You will move from space to space, going from one town to the next and fighting enemies along the way.
You and your party members all have attacks, some of them can do element-based damage which does increased damage to enemies who are weak towards the specific element. There are also status elements that you can inflict/be inflicted with, so you should be careful during combat. Status elements can’t stack, so if you freeze an enemy but then poison them, their freeze status will be removed.
Although to cast spells or certain abilities, you will have to use gems, you can hold a maximum of ten gems. You get one gem at the start of your party members' turn, there is also an item to increase the number of gems you get for your next party member to maybe play a very powerful spell. The most expensive a spell can be is five but they are very powerful attacks that you can pull off and they do a lot of damage.
Sometimes you will get Happystance cards that will give you various effects for your party and sometimes enemies. These do spice up the battles a little bit as you can get extra damage on your attacks, get some health, etc. I liked this idea a tad bit as you can come across some very interesting effects when you get them.
There are also a few collectibles you can go out and find, which does make exploring the world fun. There are some other side activities you can go out and do, like finding these numbered cards that can actually unlock the best ending of the game if you go and find all ten of them.
Although despite this game being fun, there are some issues I do in fact have with it. The first issue I had is that Mar and Bruno, don’t learn any elemental spells, while, Ash, Riddis, and Melanie do learn some, which are very useful for taking out enemies that are weak to them. That’s not to say that Mar and Bruno are useless, they do play a role in the party, Mar is meant to be the tank of the group and can actually get enemies to attack them if given the chance, and Bruno is meant to buff and debuff the enemy while being a physical attacker. I will say that Mar is useful in some scenarios because they can do some good damage. However, Bruno is underwhelming to say the very least, you already have two physical attackers on the team and in my opinion, Ash can do what Bruno does but better because he has some elemental attacks.
A lot of the items you get in the game are also mostly useless, as some status elements don’t appear in the later parts of the game. Pretty much near the end of the game, you will only be dealing with Seal, which prevents your party members from doing special attacks/spells. Although Seal is completely useless, you can do your normal physical attacks and be just fine with them. The only items I really ever used, were healing or revive items.
Also, the Happystance cards you get are sometimes just completely useless, in the late game, you only get a buff/debuff to light and dark attacks. You only have access to one light and dark spell in the game, Ash can learn a physical light attack, which does attack all enemies, and Melanie can learn a dark spell that does 15 damage flat. The dark spell can go through the darkness debuff though as it only does 15 damage, however, it can’t be buffed either.
My last issue is that this game is really easy for the most part, not once was I challenged while playing.
Graphics and Performance
The art style provides a board game aesthetic, which they really executed well. I love how the characters are drawn and their designs looked very nice.
I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, 16 GB of RAM, I came across no issues while I was playing.
The soundtrack is also something I really enjoyed and is really great to listen to, all with an appropriate medieval theme to them.
Final Verdict
Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars is a fun casual RPG game that fans of Yoko Taro will really enjoy. Although I recommend this game on a sale, it is a little bit on the short side, with it only being around 12 hours long. While the game is a bit on the easy side, I still enjoyed my time going through this adventure with my now favorite narrator.