Arcana (SNES)

I'm picturing a guy running across platforms with a sword. Maybe a sword that shoots magic lasers. Though on the other hand it could be an rpg.

Unskippable intro, great. This was a scrolling image with text underneath in game, so I stitched it together and took out the text.

This guy, Galneon, was a court magician who launched a coup against the King of Lexford, and took the throne. Probably not a nice guy.

Wow, I just noticed that the picture of enemies repeats. Those ogres in the back are the same ogre. And there's Kirby hidden in the crowd too!

This seems to be a first person flick screen kind of rpg. I start off in town, so of course the first thing I try to do is leave it without talking to anyone.

Damn! I was ambushed at the gate by a guy called Ariel.

Apparently his father fought alongside mine as a Knight of Lexford and he needs my help. It seems that my Card Master skills make me the perfect guy to clear out some dark spirits in a nearby temple.

Ariel himself can't come with me because 'his destiny leads him elsewhere'. But he sends his apprentice Tifa Teefa to assist me instead.

We journey to the temple automatically. It seems that we didn't really need Teefa's directions in the end, as the temple is a huge obvious looking building right next to town.

Back to first person. Like in Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder I can only make 90 degree turns, and step forward one space at a time. 

Random encounter! Huh, I'm fighting cards? Animated cards too, these things actually look pretty nice in motion.

The game has turn based battles, with a ton of options for me to choose from. Hmm, I think I'll have to go with... 'attack'.

Weirdly, item cards don't appear on screen until I'm standing right next to them. This just looked like a pointless dead end until I reached the end. Don't ask me why I travelled to the end of a pointless dead end.

Shame there's nothing interesting in it. I was hoping for a sword perhaps. Oh crap, do I even have a weapon? I just assumed I did but never thought to check. I guess I should race back home with my sack of money.


LATER, BACK AT THE TOWN.

I couldn't find any save points in the temple, but fortunately I can save in the town inn. It's not quite as bad as it sounds, as I can buy an item to teleport me back to town.

Ah! These must be the cards that I am the master of. I'll take... one. I need my cash for swords.

Awesome, I'll take that. I wonder if it's a coincidence that amongst those letters at the bottom of the screen are the first letters of three of my characters names? (Well, two characters and a spirit... I have no idea if Sylph can even equip weapons).

Crap, is this guy a boss? He definitely seems to be hitting harder than the average enemy. Fortunately all my time wandering around lost has boosted me to level 4, which seems to be enough for me to deal with this guy without much trouble.

And now I may proceed to the second floor. I'm starting to get flashbacks to Diablo. Except in that there was loot to find. Better loot than herbs anyway.

This floor's even more of a maze than the first one. The map is helpful, but I have to select it from a menu to bring it up. I can't just leave it on screen somewhere it'd be handy. Or even scroll the damn thing.

I'm starting to wish I could play the game from this map screen. I don't have the memory for mazes like this, are there's no landmarks. Just endless grey walls.

Oh hang on, that's not good. The last thing I need is to die here and (potentially) have to replay the entire two floors again.

Fortunately both my characters have healing magic so I'm alright for now. It's costly though, I won't have the MP to use it much more.

Sylph is a spirit and she seems to heal by herself as I walk around.

Damn, game! Jell overkill. There was another one on the top left but I killed it already.

Well that's certainly not anything I should be worried about. Teefa points out that there's nothing around that could have stung me, which isn't making me feel any better about it.

Whatever, I should go sort out this spirit problem then.

Hey it's the sword from the title screen. And two mysterious people who seem to have beaten us to it.

The guy on the right asks if we're with Galneon, the evil magician turned King from the intro. I'm getting a bad feeling about this.

Huh, what? Why are we attacking? Are these the ones who released the spirits? What's the deal with the sword?

Uh.... Teefa? What the fuck? She took out both characters single-handedly, then left my party.

Ariel appears too! Apparently the two of them are working for Galneon and they need the sword to get the power to defeat the spirits entirely.

They ask me if I want to join them, but for some reason I don't think I can trust that a pair of liars working for the evil King can be entirely trusted. Especially as they already tricked me once today.

Wait, so Ariel's 'destiny' excuse turned out to be total bullshit, as he was coming here all along. But that means he could have just travelled here with us, why did he need to come separately? Is he just a compulsive liar?

Uh oh. It appears that the 'sting' is starting to kick in. Teefa has secretly paralysed me, and now the two of them are going to kick my ass.

They murdered my helpful wind spirit! You know, I'm starting to dislike these two.

Fortunately the two guardians of the sword picked themselves up from the floor and saved me, but it looks like my poor spirit is done for.

I think it's time for me to quit though, before people start giving detailed accounts of what happened. I didn't hate the game, but wandering around grey catacombs got old a long while back, and I don't have any interest in seeing what the next dungeon will be.


Next game.