Review: Solid Card-en-Ciel Lacks Mega Man Battle Network Charm

As a developer that often worked on Mega Man games, we often see Inti Creates create original titles that are clearly inspired by them. In the case of Card-en-Ciel, we have a game that has a Mega Man Battle Network approach when it comes to aesthetics and gameplay. However, while it may look familiar and feels inspired by the other title, it lacks its charm of the other series.

In a world filled with VR full-dive games that people jump into, there are incidents that require accomplished hackers and detectives to solve. After getting an urgent message from someone working alongside a Rust Tactics VR game development team named Ancie, Neon the Gaming Chair Detective finds himself dealing with corruption and data tied to many different games. There involve abnormalities, bugs, characters from other titles are appearing where they shouldn’t, and Muses are buffing certain enemies with their songs. It’s up to us to work alongside Neon and Ancie to set things right in dungeons based on certain other “games” invading Rust Tactics. 

The thing is, Inti Creates isn’t great at telling a story in Card-en-Ciel or making its world appealing, something Capcom excelled at when it came to the Mega Man Battle Network games. When we go through the story dungeons based on full-dive games, each one looks practically identical. The structure of square rooms connected by brief “bridges” gets incredibly repetitive, especially considering the similar Mega Man titles managed to inject so much personality into the “net” we’d visit as MegaMan.EXE. When you enter an area inspired by an in-game series, there are no outward or immediately recognizable distinctions. Just the same blocks. Even the enemies you fight aren’t only drawn from that “title,” as instead Inti Creates pulls from its actual game library and original ones created for Card-en-Ciel. 

While this can make the idea of going through Card-en-Ciel dungeons a little boring, I feel the turn-based, deck-building gameplay actually improves upon the Mega Man Battle Network formula. When you’re dealt cards or pick them up after fights and while exploring, you’ll find they either deal HP or break damage to opponents. HP damage wears the enemy down and defeats them. Break damage affects the attack meter, keeping them from being able to take action against you and weakening their defense against HP attacks. Each round, you start with three points, and cards can require between 0-3 points to use. 

All cards are also used for movement to evade attacks or move so you can target enemies. Icons on each one show if they’ll move Neon up, down, left, or right. So you need to get out of ranged of the telegraphed attack under your feet that happens in X number of turns, you need to play one of your cards to move instead of taking the action shown on it.

While those are the three basic uses for cards, there are other factors to consider. Some are yellow. If you see the opponent’s timer counting down to show they are about to attack, you can play that card to counter and take action during that turn. Cards can have additional effects that add buffs, cause clones to appear, create 0-cost cards that deal damage and break damage, ensure cards of the same type get a boost, or affect future turns. 

There are also Muses to content with as you play Card-en-Ciel. You tend to start with one available when you enter a dungeon, with additional ones found in fights on floors. Once you collect one, you can trigger their buffs in battle by meeting requirements. So you may need to play the same card twice in a row, which means ensuring your deck is stacked with duplicates of a certain type. Another Muse might require you to play a three-cost card or for there to be exactly five cards in your hand after taking an action. Likewise, enemies can have Muses on their sides too, providing them buffs and adding junk cards to your hand that could force movement or affect your deck. 

It’s really quite clever, and I loved whenever I’d see a cameo from a returning Inti Creates game character in Card-en-Ciel. For example, Azure Striker Gunvolt and Gal Gun folks are here! But at the same time, since the story isn’t really compelling or well-executed, the cards and enemies based on “original” characters aren’t very appealing. In many cases, it feels like they’re excuses to insert some extra fanservice. But since we don’t know who they are until this title, it rings a bit hollow and doesn’t have the same appeal as it would if it involved actually recognizable people. Though personally, I also found the Muse and Ancie fanservice a bit overdone here. Others might enjoy it! But it was so out of place in the roguelike that it struck me as being more odd than appealing.

Once a fight is over, you will see certain options available in the “node” where you fought. You can choose to recover some HP. You can enhance one of the cards in your deck. It is also possible to station one of the characters in the cards you have, removing them from your deck in the process, for buffs. There can also be random events triggered after a fight is done that affects your cards and deck. Not to mention if you avoid fights for too long or make certain choices in those events, your Memory Gauge goes up and inflicts negative effects in fights until you battle enough to reduce it.

As Card-en-Ciel is a roguelike, there are elements that put you in a better position for future runs if you win. You can forge Wild Cards, which give you a chance to do better in a pinch during a fight. When recuperating with Ancie after a run, you can put points into determining if rarer cards come up, Neon’s HP goes up, Treasure Chests show up after battle, or other benefits come up. There are also different difficulties to choose from when heading in, which can help with players’ experiences. 

Though to be honest, I didn’t get much out of the PvP mode. This feature unlocks after a few runs. It offers a daily dungeon with leaderboards or an opportunity to face others. The daily dungeon is fine, but I got nothing out of the fights against others and would just… rather go through the base dungeons on different difficulties instead. 

I enjoyed Inti Creates’ approach to gameplay in Card-en-Ciel and appreciate how it built on the tactical deck-building found in the Mega Man Battle Network series. While it looks similar, it feels like its own thing. That’s great! Unfortunately, the actual story surrounding Neon and Ancie’s adventure is pretty weak and not handled well, and there’s no personality to any of the dungeons we explore. It’s a case where there’s some good gameplay we can sink our teeth into, but the style isn’t quite there even with colorful characters and some fun cameos. It can be entertaining, but lacks Mega Man Battle Network‘s charm.

Card-en-Ciel will come to the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC on October 24, 2024, and a demo is available on the PC via Steam and Switch.