Clash Cards
When Final Fantasy VIII hit the first PlayStation back in 1999, it introduced the world to the Triple Triad card game. It wasn’t necessary to play it to advance the story, but it is a big reason I never actually beat FF8. I just spent way too long going around and playing cards with everyone. And I really wanted those physical cards, but they were Japan-only and I was a poor child that was lucky to even get FF8. The follow-up, Final Fantasy IX, had Tetra Master, which added a lot of wrinkles and randomness to the simpler Triple Triad. Now, just having a good deck didn’t mean you were guaranteed to win. There’s always a chance that a weaker card would get good RNG and beat a stronger card in a one-on-one clash.
Clash Cards takes Tetra Master and simplifies it/streamlines it for the Playdate. Instead of four different stats on each card, there are just two: attack and defense, with ranks from F (lowest) to S (highest). But the randomness remains. There’s a whole number chart that explains the intricacies in the tutorial, but basically a card with an A on offense will usually beat a card with a B on defense, but not always.
The game is played on a 4x4 grid, with some of the spots blocked off randomly at the start of the game. A coin flip determines who goes first, then you and your AI opponent take turns playing one card at a time. Each card has some arrows on it pointing different directions, and those are its attack directions. If you put a card down and it points at a card with no arrow pointing back, it’s flipped to your color. If there’s an arrow pointing back, they clash, and the stats of each plus random numbers determine who wins. You can combo cards that you capture, also, because they’ll automatically grab cards that their arrows are pointing at, if they’re unprotected. It sounds complicated, but it only takes a game or so before you really get it, and if you played FF9 a lot growing up like I did, it’ll be second nature. You win by having more cards of your color at the end of the game than your opponent.
There are two modes to the game: quick play and Clash Contest. Quick play lets you just play one game with a deck you can assemble yourself from a huge stack of cards. Clash Contest has you trying to win five games in a row with cards you draft at the beginning from a limited set of options. The cards are very well balanced: strong cards have their weaknesses, and weak cards can beat strong ones if they’re used smartly.
There’s a few things missing, though. I really miss Final Fantasy IX’s ability to collect more cards. You have your big pile at the beginning that you can pick from for quick play, but there’s no unlocking new cards by winning matches or anything. And the Clash Contest always makes you pick a new deck each run, but there’s no unlocks or long-term progression there, either. I’d also love a two-player pass-and-play option. This could be a great hot seat competitive game, but this one is only single-player.
Still, Tetra Master was a cool mini-game that was part of a giant RPG 20 years ago, and this distills it into its purest form and makes it portable. Not a ton of long-term depth, but figuring out the strategies that work best with where you point your arrows and winning a fight against a stronger card through the power of random numbers always feels good!
(Released November 22, 2022, on Itch and July 5, 2023, on Catalog. Copy provided by developer.)