The polar opposite of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. That game had the problem of not being focused on cards, while having cards dictate the flow of the game to the extent that without them sometimes you couldn't attack (or rather, you could, but would be heavily penalized for it).
Arcana's main flaw is that there's not enough cards. That sentence was going to be all I posted for this review originally as a shitposty blurb, but I genuinely think that this game's "gimmick" is so undercooked that all you're left with is a serviceable but entirely forgettable dungeon crawler. The card motif was this game's selling point, but in game it's relegated to either sprite borders or feels like you're using a consumable item.
It plays totally fine as a dungeon crawler. The music is pleasant and it's easier to navigate these dungeons than something like Shin Megami Tensei 1. If you had to sit down and play this game, you wouldn't be miserable. But why would you go back and play this over SMT1? That game is held together by shoestring and aged much worse than Arcana, but it's still a 5/5 because you're Doomguy with a small legion of hell/your girlfriend following you the entire time. In this game, you have a nerd with a dumb blue hat, that nerd's friend during specific levels (side note, this game's separated by levels to the extent that there's a level select option in the game), your girlfriend and at best one hellspawn (the monster fusion mechanic being the best part of the gameplay, more than anything relating to cards).
In an ideal world, HAL would have swung for the bleachers and made a JRPG that properly incorporated card elements that turned out like Unlimited Saga. It would have been total mess and we'd all gaslight ourselves into believing it was cool so hard, we'd forget that the plot of this game happened. Instead, we got a below average dungeon crawler and still forgot the plot of this game. At least we got a rare Kirby out of it.
Arcana's main flaw is that there's not enough cards. That sentence was going to be all I posted for this review originally as a shitposty blurb, but I genuinely think that this game's "gimmick" is so undercooked that all you're left with is a serviceable but entirely forgettable dungeon crawler. The card motif was this game's selling point, but in game it's relegated to either sprite borders or feels like you're using a consumable item.
It plays totally fine as a dungeon crawler. The music is pleasant and it's easier to navigate these dungeons than something like Shin Megami Tensei 1. If you had to sit down and play this game, you wouldn't be miserable. But why would you go back and play this over SMT1? That game is held together by shoestring and aged much worse than Arcana, but it's still a 5/5 because you're Doomguy with a small legion of hell/your girlfriend following you the entire time. In this game, you have a nerd with a dumb blue hat, that nerd's friend during specific levels (side note, this game's separated by levels to the extent that there's a level select option in the game), your girlfriend and at best one hellspawn (the monster fusion mechanic being the best part of the gameplay, more than anything relating to cards).
In an ideal world, HAL would have swung for the bleachers and made a JRPG that properly incorporated card elements that turned out like Unlimited Saga. It would have been total mess and we'd all gaslight ourselves into believing it was cool so hard, we'd forget that the plot of this game happened. Instead, we got a below average dungeon crawler and still forgot the plot of this game. At least we got a rare Kirby out of it.