Wild Card

Wild Card is a 2001 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the WonderSwan Color. It was Square's first original title for the platform. The player takes on the role of a protagonist going through a series of freely-available scenarios, building the world based on character interactions. The world, characters and turn-based battle system are represented using cards. Production, which lasted one year, was led by SaGa creator Akitoshi Kawazu. The main artist was Akihiko Yoshida, while the music was scored by Kenji Ito in one of his last projects before going freelance. Selling 40,000 copies, the game met with a mixed reaction from critics, noting its experimental nature while praising the artwork. Kawazu would revisit the game's card-based style with Unlimited Saga (2002). Premise and gameplay Wild Card is a single-player role-playing video game in which players take on the role of a character exploring the game's world. Everything in-game, from locations and characters to items, are represented through cards and static artwork. Set in a world built on stories and belief, the story opens with a narrator recording the oral traditions of their ancestors, which are under threat of extinction. One of these stories tells of a mysterious bright light flew across the sky towards the edge of the world, with the narrator deciding to retell the story and guide the narrative based on how the people might have acted. From that point, the player is tasked with guiding the narrative based on a selection of up to one hundred "scenario cards", progressing the game in a non-linear style. Upon starting the game, the player is asked a series of questions which determines their starting character from nine possibles; the other eight are then met during the campaign as potential party members. Scenarios are split into three types; finding a destination, fighting an enemy, and discovering and item or person. Progress through scenarios is entirely dependent on the types of cards players have equipped: "swim" cards allow them to cross water, and some cards can make travel through the scenario easier or harder. There is no overworld map or traditional dungeons, with the player instead selecting cards to choose their route through a scenario, sometimes encountering either obstacles that must be overcome using a skill card, or battles.