Voice of Cards is a wonderful RPG card game made by most of the Nier developers and artists which really shows in the art style, music and even Replicant DLC.
Do you like Dungeons and Dragons? Do you like card games? Do you like RPG skill based combat?
I give you the wonderful gameplay that is Voice of Cards. Everything is represented via cards. The world, the enemies, the heroes, the items. It’s all cards.
So the combat itself is a turn based system like old school Final Fantasy games. Pick a skill, use it, enemy goes next ect.
I really found the combat system to be extremely fun. You get a sense of power as you figure out different combo moves that work with the 3 active party members you can have in combat at a time.
Critical hits, dice rolling to add damage. It’s classic D&D and FF all in one.
When you’re not fighting your way through slimes, goblins, ogres and various other standard RPG enemies. The story you and your party take on is such a fun classic tale like any first D&D campaigns.
The queen of the land is asking everyone if they can slay an evil dragon plaguing the lands
And oh wait. There’s another adventuring party who is better than you already on the chase!
It becomes a bit more plot heavy in its final chapters but for the most part, Voice of Cards is a really simple plot of “go slay dragon” and I love it. It knows exactly what it is and it runs with it so well.
Between combat and its story, you will encounter different RNG events and dialogue choices that though don’t effect TOO much. It’s still a blast when you have to roll to dodge lighting at random or a merchant is seen wandering the lands and they have exclusive gear or you spot a spyglass and see an enemy in the horizon.
All these little bits really add to the overall feeling of the game that though repeats a lot, you do find enjoyment in picking different options.
This all brings me to my final, absolutely favourite part of the entire game.
The game master. Every single character. NPC, hero and event cards are all read by one guy. It’s all the game master. Just like D&D
Sure it saves on budget but when you think of it as “holy fuck it’s like D&D” you just fall in love with it.
Todd Haberkorn does such a fantastic job at giving you a Dungeons and Dragons feel that I genuinely could listen to him talk for hours.
Overall, this game surprised the hell out of me. I knew I’d love it as soon as I saw it had Yoko Taro’s name printed on it
But it’s so much more than that. It’s just such a classic feeling game that really gives you that level 1 campaign feeling.
I haven’t seen anything much like this lately and I’m grateful for its existence.

gorgeous art style, and i enjoy the presentation of the areas on cardback, but there's no actual sign of card decks influencing the gameplay. doesn't seem to be any randomised card draws, doesn't seem to be any implementation of card-based rules in how the attacks/skills function... i don't know why the game is using cards at all, honestly.

it's just a standard RPG with standard RPG menus and standard RPG quests, but everything takes twice as long to do bc it has to animate a card draw instead of simply selecting your actions from a normal drop-down menu as you would usually.

the single voice actor also grates incredibly. he's fine, but he's not good enough to carry the weight of an entire game's worth of voice-acting on his own. i muted him almost immediately.