Arcana (video game)

Did You Know?

• Arcana received a 20.85/30 score in a 1993 readers' poll conducted by Super Famicom Magazine, ranking among Super Famicom titles at the number 140 spot.
• The game held a rating of 76% based on four reviews according to review aggregator GameRankings.
• Time Extension listed Arcana as one of the best SNES games, saying 'the challenge is pitched perfectly' and calling the game audiovisually superior to Shining in the Darkness.

Gameplay

In Arcana, players see the world through a first-person view, exploring dungeons and towns from the characters’ perspective, and most conversations stick to that same viewpoint. During battles, the screen shows the player’s party around the edges and enemies in the center, again in first person. The graphics are not flashy—character animations use at most five frames—and damage is reported as text at the bottom of the screen. The dungeons are built on tile-based maps, letting you see only what’s directly ahead, and you can move in four cardinal directions. These mazes are full of dead ends and hidden threats, but the detailed drawings make up for the lack of animation.

Combat follows a strict turn order. When a character’s turn comes up, the player picks from several options. The main hero, Rooks, handles most of the critical battle tasks: he can swap elemental spirits, run from fights, and cast powerful but costly magical card spells. This makes him the party’s most important member—if Rooks falls, the whole group is in trouble. After a fight, you earn experience points and gold, but leveling up is fixed; there’s no randomness in how stats improve.

Four elemental spirits—Sylph (wind), Efrite (fire), Dao (earth), and Marid (water)—share one slot in the battle lineup. Rooks and one spirit are always in the party, leaving two spots for other characters. Unlike humans, a spirit can die without ending the game; its card gets torn, and you can swap in a living spirit. But if Rooks is knocked out, you might be stuck with a dead spirit. You can revive spirits by paying a healer in any town, or by using a spell Rooks learns at a high level.

The game’s difficulty comes from several factors, especially the harsh game-over rule. Unlike most RPGs of the time, where losing one party member was usually manageable, Arcana ends the game if any character except an elemental dies. This means a surprise fight can quickly lead to defeat.

Plot

The land of Elemen once suffered under the cruel rule of Empress Rimsala. A group of wizards known as the Card Masters joined forces to defeat her and seal her away, but her influence lingered. Years later, political strife erupted into a full-scale civil war across Elemen’s kingdoms. As armies clashed, the Card Masters were hunted by the forces of Galneon, who had been the court magician to King Wagnall of Lexford. Galneon started the war with a coup, but his true goal was darker than mere conquest: he wanted to break Rimsala’s seal and bring her evil back. During the conflict, King Wagnall’s two daughters vanished. The Knights of Lexford, three loyal fighters sworn to the king, fought their last battle as the war ended and their order dissolved. Galneon seized power and ruled with an iron hand, eliminating every Card Master he could find to ensure nothing would stop Rimsala’s revival.

A decade has passed. The young hero Rooks is the son of the last Card Master to die in the civil war, a man who was also one of the Knights of Lexford. His father’s death drove Rooks to study the art of the cards, but after ten years of limited training, he has only begun to grasp its secrets. Then strange events spread across the land, signaling a coming catastrophe. Word reaches his home village of Galia, and Rooks sets out on a journey to prevent Rimsala’s awakening. He must fulfill his destiny as the final Card Master before time runs out.

Rooks is the last surviving Card Master and the story’s main character. His parents were killed during Galneon’s coup ten years ago. He is the only one who can summon spirits to swap which one is active in the player’s lineup. As a Card Master, only he can use magical Cards in battle, which produce various effects on enemies or allies. He also has skill with a sword, knows healing magic, and can cast spells that weaken enemy stats.