So...what do we have here?

Japanese Game Box Front

Pretty Provocative, But Cool Art Style

Introducing Wild Card, a game you probably have never heard of by a company who is all the rave. Why is it that big name companies like Squaresoft act is if games like these don't exist? When they don't mention them in documentaries or company interviews (If they did, ignore this) and stuff like that, does that make them bad games? Of course not. However, in this case, it is somewhat understandable. While Wild Card has some kind of story, you basically just explore the world around you doing various tasks with 9 different protagonist. You answer a questionnaire in the beginning and the choices you make determine which one of the heroes you will use.

Sounds good so far? Well....eh. Wild Card isn't a HORRIBLY horrible game, but it is one of the slowest games I have ever played. The graphics all lie in the pretty cards you see before you. The actual special effects are virtually nonexistant. The music is decent enough for a portable game, but leave much to be desired, especially coming from Squaresoft. The gameplay is fairly interesting, though. You do everything using cards. To do specific actions, you must use certain cards. To open a locked door, you'd need a specific party member's "skill" card. For instance, if you can see a blue/purple haired woman in black on the screen below (She is known as Souris, but her real name won't be revealed here), she has a particular card to unlock doors. You fight and talk to people (even search areas) using the properties of different cards. As the game is dubbed a "Role Playing Card Game", you also have random encounters. You explore areas filled with traps (that must be either disarmed or destroyed with certain cards) and the game is more like a dungeon crawl since you get specific quests.

Problem with all of this is that like a good game of cards, life or death is often governed by luck, not skill. For this exact reason, the challenge of the game is absurd and you may find yourself dying for no reason at all on even simple monsters. Stopping traps is governed by luck. Damage dealt is governed by luck. Damage dealt to YOU is dealt by luck (though you have the unusual choice of selecting who you wish to get damaged by an enemy attack). I dislike it with a passion...just like Unlimited SaGa's whole roulette gig and how disarming traps was mostly luck based because even if you hit the action button when you think it's good, you can still fail. WonderSwan is a pretty cool portable gaming system and Squaresoft has made excellent remakes of several Final Fantasy games, but if you want a better game by Square outside of Final Fantasy, try Blue Wing Blitz before playing Wild Card. I just like the art style.

- Written by Vyse the determined -