Sunday, March 16, 2025
Play Your Last Card
Video
games have long toyed with various forms of Card Games for
traditional ones like poker to CCGs to card battlers like Slay The
Spire. These are all unified by the need for some additional element
if they want to communicate a story alongside their gameplay which is
where visual novels come in. In many ways there is an inherent
juxtaposition between the cold and calculated mentality encouraged
within a Card Game and the deeply personal one offered through a
visual novel. It is a dynamic which often leans
in favour of the visual novel half and looks for it to act as the guide for the
overall flow of the game. The pervasiveness of Card Games means they
can rely on an established base of understanding in order to not get
in the way of player’s forward momentum. At the same time they can
also expand outwards to create complex and engaging battles if that
is what is called for over the course of the title. Their basic
presentation lends them to complimenting the cost effective nature of
visual novels and a relatively reasonable addition to them. Let’s
shuffle our decks and find out exactly how this all works in
practice.
Easy To Understand
At
their base level Card Games are easy to understand due to their mechanics being
concentrated in basic object the player can interact with and this gives a
pick and play quality. When placed alongside visual novel sections
this quality can create a smoother transition between the two
elements since the gameplay can be easily understood and focus can
instead be given to what the mechanics are meant to represent. For
games leaning into this simpler nature Card Games often stand in
place of one on one confrontations, be that physical or a contest of
wits. Take for example Princess Battles which uses a basic system of
cards and modifiers as a point of interaction to enhance the feel of
what it like to be in combat. It is designed to
simulated the ups and downs of the battle without having the player
spend too much time there and potential disturb the flow of the
story, yet still offer just enough tension to require them to engage
with the mechanics. Due to the game's relatively simple nature and limited
pool of opportunities to provide tests of skill, a complex Card Game
would have not had the space to organically grow and risks
overwhelming the player with too much extra information when they
should instead be immersed in the excitement of the clash.
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| Hanafuda is easy to understand for its audience |
Another
approach the hybrid likes to use is to utilise existing real world Card Games as the foundation
for their gameplay. This way they can rely on a large portion of
their audience having some pre-existing understand of the rules and
expectations of the games they are pulling from. Not having to
extensively explain the fundamentals of the Card Game systems leaves
it free to experiment while still being easy to digest and not
impeding the visual novel half. Hana Awase draws heavily from
Hanafuda for its mechanics which is a game its original audience
would have at least a passing familiarity with and gives it a
frame of reference to weave in real world elements into its
systems and narrative. Drawing from what people know creates a
tangible connection for the player to grasp onto from which they can
build a link to the characters and become invested. This is important
since overcoming that initial resistance to empathising with the cast
can be difficult so any assistance in bridging the gap is valuable
for the narrative.
Strategic Battles
Embracing
the opposite extreme of Card Games and encouraging complex play
patterns can help specific types of stories and structures shine. If
the visual novel wants the player to go through the game multiple
times in order to experience its various routes then a complex suite
of cards and mechanics give the player something to chew on over the
long term. This can be achieved through providing vastly different
fights between routes which demand an engagement with their mechanics
and specific kinds of cards or having cards unique to each routes
which open new and exciting interaction with player’s existing card
pool upon a new play through. Let’s look Soukoku no Arterial and
see how the game leans into this complexity over its three core paths
and myriad character endings. One way it uses its card mechanics to
enhance its narrative is through giving the player cards unique to
the path they are on, these being demon, angel and human. This not
only dynamically expands the tools the player has to express
themselves but it also thematically ties into the story and
characters of each path through their specific cards being given to
the player a key plot points. Another way it keeps the player
interested is through making the battles vastly different from one
another based on the path. It takes the factions identity as a base
and creates encounters which feel like you are fighting a member of
that group to sell them as distinct entities. For a visual novel this
is important since it helps sell each route as something new to
experience and reflects what has been established in the story.
 |
| Fun interactions are what make Card Games interesting to play |
When
a game has a single play-through in mind for its design it can use
the complexity as a way to communicate the growth of the
protagonist’s abilities and the dangers they face. In Kamifuda the
Card Game element is presented as how the characters
utilise their magic and so the battles are direct rather than
symbolic drawing a line between gameplay and character actions. As
such when the difficulty rises it has a direct correlation with the
abilities of the opponents being fought and it encourages the player
to rise to the challenge in order to draw them into the same state of
mind as the protagonist. It shows magic to be a fiddly and
interactive power which can be mixed and match to create interesting
new interaction through having it be a series of cards. This
offers it an identity separate from those who wield it yet not
entirely divorced from their personalities. There is also a tactile
feel to the game’s stakes since the higher they rise the more
resistance the player will have to overcome in order to progress and
linking it so directly to the emotional beats in the story helps each
sell a sense of coherency not possible without the
complexities offered by the Card Game mechanics.
Cost Effective
Developing
a game is a constant balancing act between the creative vision and
the money and time available. Visual novels already lean towards the
cost effective end of the spectrum with their limited graphics and
lack of complex systems allowing money to be focused elsewhere. Yet
not every developer has resources to flex and so the second type of gameplay
needs to be kept simple to produce so it can be kept within budget. This is
where Card Game mechanics can shine due to their potential for
minimalist presentation. There is a lot of flexibility on how a set
of cards can be shown to the player from basic movement to flashy
effect and the two extremes are equally acceptable to an audience due
to the abstract nature of card systems. As such many of the card
mechanics in visual novels tend towards the minimalist end of the
spectrum to match its presentational style and make the whole
experience feel more cohesive. For example Princess Waltz has simple
cards and UI for its Card Game sections in order to keep it
consistent with the rest of the content. In the moment to moment
gameplay it utilises similar VFX to those found in the action scenes
to help build continuity while keeping costs down through repurposing
assets. To reflect this simplicity the mechanics themselves are
fairly basic with only a small pool of cards and modifiers which
keeps their basic appearance feeling like it matches what the player
is doing.
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| There isn't much going on here but it does its job perfectly |
Conclusion
Cards
are an open ending way of expressing ideas and mechanics in both
physical and digital games so it should come as no surprise that they
work well with visual novels. They are easy to understand which makes
them flow better as a secondary element to the narrative and let the
key moments they represent stand out. Development cost can be kept
down due to their simple presentation and this is appealing to
developers on a tight budget who want some other mechanic beyond the
story sections. On the opposite extreme the game can embrace
complexity in order to help support the multiple play-throughs
demanded by the narrative or represent the intricate nature of the
powers the characters are using. If you are looking for a gameplay system to
use in your visual novel then considering a Card Game offers more
freedom than you might expect.
