Video Game / Voice of Cards

Open your mind and let the story unfold
Set sail on a voyage to change destiny itself
Seek the treasure within the cards

Voice of Cards is a series of Japanese Role Playing Games developed by Alim and published by Square Enix. The series notably features involvement from much of the key staff behind the Drakengard series, including executive director Yosuke Saito, creative director Taro Yoko, composer Keiichi Okabe, and character designer Kimihiko Fujisaka. All games are currently available on Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam.

Voice of Cards takes heavy inspiration from Tabletop RPG style games while intertwining it with a classic JRPG feel and experience. The story of each game is hosted by a Game Master (the titular "voice"), who guides the player, assigned the role of the story's main character, through their journey (a Framing Device, so to speak). The playable game world, characters, items, and more are depicted as the exquisitely detailed cards that make up the visual style of the game's presentation.

The Voice of Cards series currently has three installments:

• Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars: Released on October 28, 2021, starring Hiroki Yasumoto/Todd Haberkorn as Game Master. When a powerful dragon threatens the peace in a medieval fantasy land, a band of unlikely and unwilling heroes sets forth to discover the truth behind the disturbance and stop the dragon's rampage once and for all.
• Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden: Released on February 17, 2022, starring Show Hayami/Mark Atherlay as Game Master. After an island without a maiden is doomed to ruin, one defiant man sets forth on a journey with the mysterious Laty and the spirit Lac to make Laty a maiden and save their island.
• Voice of Cards: The Beasts of Burden: Released on September 13, 2022, starring Yui Ishikawa/Carin Gilfry as Game Master.

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Tropes in the series

• Company Cross References: All games have DLC cosmetics based on the NieR series. In the first game, you can get cosmetics based on the Video Game Remake of Nier, NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139.... In the second game, you can get cosmetics based on NieR: Automata. In the third game, you can get cosmetics based on NieR Re[in]carnation.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The protagonist has a Canon Name, but their actual used name can be chosen by the player.
• Mission-Pack Sequel: All games in the series essentially recycle the same common elements. The only things that change are the story, card artworks and some mechanics. This is likely justified considering it was originally intended to be an episodic mobile game.

Tropes in The Isle Dragon Roars

Discover a world of cards... and let the voice guide your journey.

• Advertised Extra: Despite the claims from Square Enix that it is a card-based RPG, the cards themselves are rather inconsequential to the game outside of being the method of presentation. Virtually nothing about the game except the Game Parlor uses actual card game mechanics and it plays like a traditional turn-based RPG that happens to include dice rolling at certain points.
• Anti-Frustration Features: During the escape sequence in the Volcano, the game warns you that not escaping in time will result in a Non-Standard Game Over. It also helpfully suggests that you make a backup save (since saving and autosaving are disabled during the escape sequence) and allows you to do so right before the start of the event.
• Applied Phlebotinum: Dragontear, which is literally the tears of the titular Dragon. In its most distilled form it acts as a curative that can heal almost all mortal illnesses and wounds, but in its base form it has extremely powerful magical properties, which includes allowing any lesser creature that ingests it to transform into anything they desire. In this case, Sherwyn uses it to go One-Winged Angel and morph into a massive, all-powerful dragon of his own.
• Awful Truth:
  • Near the end of the Unionville visit, the heroes discover that the entire town's promise of human and monster relations is a sham set up by the headman to lure docile monsters to the village and slaughter them to produce exotic cuisines. Even the heroes are thoroughly disgusted after they realize what became of Mr. Flobby.
  • The Dragon reveals during the climax of the Volcano dungeon that it is being kept alive and tortured by humans who use its tears to create the medicine that is commonly used across the world, and asks that the heroes Mercy Kill it to end its suffering despite the potential ramifications.
• Canon Name: Despite the player choosing the protagonist's name, official trailers and screenshots call him Ash.
• Cherry Tapping: Damage is calculated by subtracting the defender's Defense stat from the attacker's Attack stat, plus 1. That "plus 1" allows you to always deal at least 1 damage on any given hit regardless of how high both characters' stats are.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Important text (like the word "ambitions" in the introduction) is highlighted in red. This can be changed to just an underline if you so choose.
• Cosmetic Award: Defeating The Dragon's Malice, the hardest enemy in the game, awards nothing but 9999 EXP/Gold, neither of which you will be short on if you actually beat it, and the Mar Token option for your player piece.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Melanie and Vince both have access to what they call "forbidden magic", extremely powerful spells that are indicated by the appearance of the Celestial Alphabet runes. However, they are called "forbidden" for a reason; while Vince dies before any meaningful side effects occur, Melanie's Heroic Sacrifice by using it causes her to transform into a monster.
• Developer's Foresight: It is possible to win the Hopeless Boss Fight on a New Game Plus, which cues alternate dialogue if you do so.
• Downloadable Content: A Square Enix press release reveals that you can purchase a DLC bundle that adds music and cosmetics based on characters and settings from NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139....
• Fake Longevity: If you want 100% Completion recorded on a single save file, you need to play through the entire game four times. This is because there are four endings, and each ending unlocks flipside stories and Ending Cards that are unique to each ending and are only recorded to your file on a New Game Plus. The game gives you the Evilsbane Ring to ward off random encounters and carries over stats and gear to vastly speed up subsequent playthroughs, but it remains a massive chore.
• Golden Ending: If the player has collected the ten Mysterious Cards, they can choose to wish for "everything" during the Last-Second Ending Choice. This causes a miracle to occur, restoring both Melanie and Mar to human form and resurrecting the Dragon. The heroes collect the reward and use it to pay off Ridis's debt, Queen Nilla seizes control of medicine production from the Ivory Order and promises to ensure the process is humane, the Dragon agrees to continue producing Dragontear as long as it is allowed to live in peace, and the Trio leave the Ivory Order to form their own organization dedicated to helping the needy. As for the heroes, the protagonist, Melanie, and Mar decline knighthood under Queen Nilla in favor of future bounty-hunting endeavors.
• Holy Burns Evil: Light elemental magic is strong against the undead.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: In Nexton, the heroes accidentally walk into the Ivory Order Trio and the protagonist winds up with Wynifred's coin purse in his hands, forcing an encounter. Unfortunately, the Trio are horribly overpowered compared to the heroes and wipe the floor with them so badly that Wynifred takes pity on them and heals their wounds after the fight.
• Immediate Sequel: The demo is set right before the actual game, with three knights of the Ivory Order tasked by the Queen with fetching a stolen potion of great value from a monster thief. The demo ends with the titular Dragon making its presence known as it soars above the castle, just as it does in the opening cutscene in the full version of the game.
• Infinity +1 Sword: Each of your party members has access to one, having a fancier border than their other options. Of note is the main character's weapon, since you can technically get it right from the start from a black market broker - it's just so utterly expensive that you can't afford it until near the end of the game.
• Leaked Experience: Once you recruit more than three party members, any EXP the main party earns in battle will be passed down to the reserves as well, allowing them to level up.
• Lighter and Softer: As far as a Yoko Taro plot goes, Voice of Cards is noticeably less dark and nihilistic than most of his other works. It does get pretty dark during the last 1/3rd of the game, but the game's true ending is unambiguously happy, which can't be said for most of his other games.
• Mana Meter: You generate Gems at the start of every allied character's turn. Certain attacks require a specific amount of gems as a resource, which will consume them on use.
• Minigame Zone: There is a Game Parlor where you can play a card game with the receptionist and potentially get a reward for playing. You can unlock new rules to play with for doing so, and there's also a Multiplayer Game Parlor for you to play with friends.
• Multiple Endings: Instead of "branches" like other Yoko Taro games, there are four endings that close out the story:
  • The Save Melanie ending. Ash uses the last drop of Dragontear to restore Melanie back into a human. However, she's reasonably upset that Ash chose to save her over his sister. The epilogue mentions that she never forgives him for it and becomes a Cool Big Sis towards Mar. Meanwhile, the Isle of Bliss quickly plunges into civil war with the Ivory Order no longer being able to obtain Dragontears.
  • The Save Mar ending. Mar is restored to her human form, but she struggles to speak like one due to spending most of her life as a monster. Melanie, on the other hand, can no longer speak herself. Both of them and Ash continue traveling together despite the civil war that erupts much like the previous ending.
  • The Save the Dragon ending. Instead of choosing Melanie or Mar, Ash returns to the volcano where the Dragon died and uses the Dragontear to bring him back. Realizing that Ash tossed aside both his sister and his friend just to resurrect him, the Dragon scolds him before leaving to parts unknown. Afterwards, Ash drags along Mar and Melanie and begins developing a reputation as a "monster whisperer", but he remains adamant in his search for a way to return the two of them back to normal. And then, of course, there's that civil war mentioned earlier.
  • The Save Everyone ending, which you can only get by collecting all ten of the mysterious cards before the final boss. Ash not only turns Mar and Melanie back into their human forms, but he also brings back the Dragon, who agrees to produce more Dragontears on the condition that it be done humanely. When the news breaks out that the Dragon was being tortured to create the medicine the Isle is dependent upon, Queen Nilla denounces the Ivory Order. Even Wynifred, Berwyn and Heddwyn end up leaving the Ivory Order to start a new, more ethical organization. Ridis and Bruno return to their normal lives. Meanwhile, Ash, Mar and Melanie were offered to serve in Queen Nilla's court, but they declined and decided to spend their days being bounty hunters.
• New Game Plus: You can carry over cleared game data to a new file. This allows you to carry over everything, including your characters' levels, items, and Collection, awards you the Evilsbane Ring that prevents random encounters from occurring, and adds the Ending tab to the Collection menu to see cards earned from getting endings. You also gain access to a boss that can be unlocked towards the end of the game.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: The Dragon is far from evil; in fact, it's actually the victim in this scenario. While it does cause catastrophic damage wherever it goes, this damage is largely accidental. The problem is that it is being held captive by the Ivory Order and is fleeing its island and causing trouble to attract the attention of adventurers strong enough to Mercy Kill it.
• Only in It for the Money:
  • The protagonist is lured to the quest to defeat the Dragon by the promise of riches and refuses to split the reward with anyone more than he has to.
  • Ridis joins the quest to slay the Dragon with the impression (from an old book, no less) that doing so will get her out of crippling debt.
• Railroading: The GM will refuse to let you progress without bringing a Torch to the first dungeon. If you attempt to do so anyway, the game and the GM will warn you repeatedly that you need to bring a Torch; take too many steps into the dungeon, and the game will force the party out of the dungeon, whereupon the GM instructs you to go to Thriceton and get a Torch.
• Randomized Damage Attack: Some attacks require you to roll a die before damage calculation to add that value to the final attack total.
• Sadistic Choice: The protagonist faces one at the end of the game: use the last Dragontear to restore either his twin sister or his close ally who sacrificed everything, rendering the other doomed and the world's supply of Dragontear lost, or revive the Dragon and doom both of his closest allies. Luckily, if the requirements are met, he can Take a Third Option and wish for a happy ending.
• Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration: Following a segment where Melanie drinks Bruno's custom supplements to heal her wounds, she reappears in the next scene absolutely rippling with muscle. While only a gag that wears off by the time the player arrives to their next location in the story, the transformation has a notable effect on her stats and can actually be used until they decide to move forward with the plot
• Stripperiffic: Wynifred's outfit seems to cover virtually every part of her body except her breasts. The fabric there only covers the important bits.
• Tested on Humans: It's revealed that the Ivory Order secretly tests their experimental, Dragontear-derived medicines on human test subjects located in a hidden village called the Village of the Sick. Many of these test subjects have been driven insane and developed a crippling addiction to the medicines, and it's been shown that anyone who attempts to escape is recaptured and forced to imbibe dangerously experimental medicine. The protagonist's family is revealed to have resided in the Village of the Sick; a failed escape attempt caused the medicine to kill his parents, his twin sister Mar was was turned into a monster due to her body being unable to accept the medicine, and the protagonist himself suffered Trauma-Induced Amnesia from the medicine's side effects.
• Theme Naming: All Ivory Order-associated characters have "wyn" in their names.
• Violation of Common Sense: Getting Bruno's Infinity +1 Sword requires willingly walking into Spikes of Doom twice during The Very Definitely Final Dungeon in order to access the hidden treasure chest behind it.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: The demo features a fisherman as a plot-important NPC. Said fisherman is absolutely ripped and is dressed solely in a breastplate that only covers the neck down to his upper chest, a codpiece, and boots. The description of him given by the Game Master on his first appearance clearly makes it sound like Wynifred is Eating the Eye Candy.
• What the Hell, Hero?: If the protagonist decides to resurrect the Dragon with the last Dragontear, the Dragon lambasts him for forsaking his friends before flying away.

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Tropes in The Forsaken Maiden

Azure Grief. Crimson Rage. Ivory Anguish. Onyx Despair.

• Awful Truth: "The Tale of the Azure Maiden" reveals that the maiden protects the island by sacrificing their lives to the island's patron spirit, which gives it the strength to keep the island from dying.
• Canon Name: Much like in the first game, the protagonist can be named whatever the player wants, but canonically, his name is Barren.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The maidens each have a corresponding color: Phila (azure), L'via (crimson), Queni (onyx) and Lanca (ivory).
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Lanca and Crym's two-woman stand against the Alabaster guards. There are four guards each of which have 90 health versus two players, making the exercise impossible, but that was the point.
• Stealth Prequel: The name of the baby that Queni gives birth to is named Melanie—as in Melanie from the first game.
• Town with a Dark Secret: Alabaster City is a maiden farm, creating maidens who are all identical to Lanca to keep the city prosperous through sacrifice. When Lanca remembers this, she falls into despair.
• White Shirt of Death: Lanca and Crym are wearing their Ivory uniforms when they are cut down by the Alabaster guards, staining them deep red.

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Tropes in The Beasts of Burden

The fate of this broken world lies at the end of the path you take.

• Color Motif: As this folder's image shows with its chess-like theme, most of the characters in this story are mostly colored in black and white, in stark contrast to the rich color palette of the past two installments.
• Mon: Al'e has a unique mechanic where monsters she defeats in battle can be captured and deployed in future battles as attack cards.
• Fantastic Racism: The Official Announcement Trailer states that there has been "A millennia of hatred between monsters and humans".
• Last of His Kind: The Official Announcement Trailer includes a scene where a character titled "Pulche's Mother?" addresses Al'e as "the surviving subterran".

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