Lucadian Chronicles Review

by Camjo-Z on Dec 19th, 2014

When I first started up Lucadian Chronicles, a new eShop-exclusive strategy card game, I was shocked to see that this budget Wii U indie title doesn’t look like it was slapped together in 5 minutes! The touchscreen-heavy menus are functional and clean without being too barebones, the music is actually pretty good, there’s Miiverse integration that works surprisingly nicely, and although the card art is done by a mishmash of various artists (some of which happen to be quite famous – Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa and Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son are actually in the game) they all fit pretty well together. Considering the kind of shite that usually gets tossed onto the eShop to make a quick buck, this is a nice change of pace that is definitely to be commended.

Unlike many other collectible card games, the combat is entirely automated. Once you’ve selected your team of 5, the battle commences with no input from the player. Don’t take this to mean that the gameplay is simple though, as there’s still a lot of strategy to be had in setting up your cards. For example:

• Cards have different point values, but can only equal a combined total of 12 to avoid teams having too many overpowered cards

• Each card can have 1 of 5 elements, but certain elements can’t be set next to each other

• Cards can be placed in the front or back row. Cards in the back row will be “blocked” from attacks by cards in the front row, who will take the hits for them. However, only cards with magic or ranged attacks can do damage from the back row.

• There are numerous tactics to try out. For example, you could set up a team focused around magic users hiding behind elemental walls, or all-out attackers who get an extra turn when an opponent is killed, or a horde of undead who keep coming back to life to wreak havoc.

And that’s not even all of the strategy involved. The only problem is that very few of these mechanics are properly explained in-game or in the manual – rules must instead be found on the game’s cheapo official forums. This is a fatal flaw that the devs should work hard to fix, especially considering their business model. A F2P game has to make certain that players understand the gameplay and want more, otherwise they’ll just drop it. As of now, those who aren’t immediately hooked will probably get frustrated and move on. (Update: The dev has assured me on Twitter that they are indeed planning to put more in-depth tutorials into the game. So hopefully this paragraph will be obselete very soon!)

One of my favorite features is the ability to change the game speed at any time. Personally, I play on the fastest setting!

Speaking of F2P, the base game is indeed free, no irritating microtransactions to be found. The only currency in the game is gold, which is used to buy new cards. However, players who like what they see will definitely feel compelled to cough up the $8 for the full game, as most of the Campaign is locked and you can only play a limited number of Draft matches per day, which means cards and gold will quickly become difficult to come by.

Onto the various modes! Campaign is the game’s main feature. It’s split into multiple Acts and Chapters, where you lead various factions of the kingdom to beat each other up and gain control of the throne… or something. It’s extremely generic fantasy stuff, but it’s enough to keep you moving through the levels. Each mission has you trying to beat various card setups, with additional objectives (win with only 4 cards, use only 2 different elements) occasionally rearing their heads to provide extra challenge (and gold). Overall it’s a lot of fun, although were a couple times where I got stuck on a frustrating challenge or boss for longer than I would have liked.

Next we have the Colosseum, where you’ll find the League mode as well as the Daily Challenge. League features asynchronous multiplayer, where you create a team out of all the cards in your roster and send it online to clash against other players in a tournament that takes place over the course of a few days. Battles take place fairly frequently, about every 4 hours or so, and provide a fun incentive to check in to see how well you’re doing. You can also alter your team at any time if you’re getting your ass handed to you by too many people, and at the end of it all you’re rewarded with gold based on how well you did. It’s a pretty good mode, although it’s dragged down a bit by the evolution mechanic. See, each card in your deck can be permanently “evolved” up to three times by sacrificing other cards of the same element and rarity, which gives them enhanced stats. It’s fun to try out in Campaign and Daily Challenges, but all it does in League is reward players who’ve played longer. You can be sure that the folks at the top of the leaderboard are there not because of well thought-out, difficult to beat teams, but because their cards are simply more powerful than yours.

CHESSMAAAAAAAN!!!!

The Daily Challenge is the game’s other single-player mode, which has you taking on multiple themed matches once a day, with a limited number of attempts at each fight (but increasingly bigger gold rewards for each match won.) At first this mode is pretty daunting, but once your card roster increases it becomes a lot more fun since you can fine-tune your team however you want.

The main multiplayer mode is Draft, where you can fight in either 1 on 1 battles or 4-man tournaments. At the start of each match, you’re presented with two sets of 6 random cards from which you and your opponent must choose from. You take turns picking, so the aim here is to grab cards that help you create a good setup while also trying to gimp the other player. For example, if you notice them taking a lot of heroes who use TP abilities, then snatching a TP-boosting Battle Tactician before they do (even if you don’t need it) is a wise choice. Once everything is selected, you then assemble your team and duke it out in an attempt to win 2 out of 3 matches first, which will net you a better ranking and new cards and gold if you emerge victorious.

The only problem I have with this mode is that it feels a little luck based. I get that the “random cards” thing is to keep veteran players from always beating newer players simply because they have better cards, this makes sense. What I have a problem with is that at no time can you see the other player’s deck. (Technically you CAN know what cards they have if you pay close attention and remember what they chose, but who wants to do that when you’re trying to focus on your assembling own team as well?) This leads to a lot of guesswork where there could instead be informed predictions, and seems especially strange considering Campaign mode is all about tailoring your fighters to be as effective as possible given your circumstances.

The easy solution to this would be to allow players to see the other guy’s deck once you’re past the selection phase and have begun the assembly phase, much like how you can view the enemy opponent’s team in Campaign. This would actually increase the amount of strategy, as you’d be able to construct your team based around how you think your opponent will use their pool of cards rather than just blindly slapping together some cards at the start of the round and hoping they work.

Finally, we have the Lab and Almanac. The Lab can be used to test different card setups against each other and see how they work, and can even be used as a makeshift local multiplayer mode if you’ve got someone else interested in playing. The Almanac lets you see cards and their descriptions in detail, and lets you view the various conversations from the Campaign mode as well.

You can also read/leave Miiverse comments about them, which leads to some… interesting posts.

Although it has its issues, Lucadian Chronicles is still a great addition to the eShop and a solid freshman effort from Dark Roast Entertainment. It’s free to try, so if you like the genre then there’s no excuse to not check it out!

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