About
Arcana is a role-playing video game released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System by HAL Laboratory in 1992. The game represents all of its characters as cards, but plays like a dungeon-crawling role-playing game rather than a card-based game. In keeping with this metaphor, the death of a character results in a ‘torn’ card, and the magical properties of some cards are used to explain abilities of the game’s characters.Additional Information
The ancient land of Elemen was rife with chaos under the tyranny of the evil Empress Rimsala (Rimsalia). A group of powerful wizards called the Card Masters combined their abilities to defeat Rimsala and seal her away. But her legacy would not be forgotten. Decades later, political unrest in the kingdoms of Elemen turned into bloody civil war. As armies slaughtered each other on the battlefields, the Card Masters were persecuted and hunted down by the minions of Galneon, the former court magician of Wagnall, King of Lexford.Galneon was the man who had launched the original coup that began the war, but his motives were much more sinister than bloodshed. He sought the unsealing and resurrection of Rimsala, to unleash her ancient evil upon Elemen again. In the conflict, King Wagnall’s two daughters disappeared. It was also the last battle for the Knights of Lexford, a trio of brave fighters sworn to Wagnall, which dissolved as the war drew to a close.
Galneon assumed power and stretched forth his oppressive authority across Elemen, eliminating every Card Master found so that the revival of Rimsala could succeed without interference. Assuming a first-person perspective, the dungeons and towns of the game are navigated from the viewpoint of the characters and, with a few exceptions, the conversations between characters hold true to this as well. Battles within the game are portrayed in the first-person, displaying the protagonist characters along the perimeter of the screen, with the enemies in the center.
Arcana’s battles, however, are not graphically intensive and the characters’ animations are limited to, at most, five frames. Breaking from the format established by Square of displaying the damage incurred by characters above their heads, this information is summarised in a text display at the bottom of the screen similar to Dragon Quest games from Enix.
