Floppy Knights, a review of a strange hybrid between strategy and card game

The genre system has always been a cornerstone of the video game industry, as in any form of entertainment. But when these species are brought together in sedimentary codes, unprecedented hybridizations are often used to find new and viable solutions, just as we’ve seen in this book. Floppy Knights review. We often see variations of RPGs that take roguelike elements, dungeon crawlers, and intermixes of various genres, but lately even cards have been increasingly considered for these particular videogame experiments.

solution suggested by Rose City Games it is particularly original and also works very well: taking the typical structure of turn-based strategy and modifying it a bit with the placement of the cards and the “deck building” dynamics derived from them and the result is due. a good mix between the rationality of tactics and the chaos of the randomness of the cards, and a progression system that still exists.

There History It’s simple: In a magical world dominated by magic, the protagonist Phoebe is a rebellious girl who is utterly fascinated by technology and disdainful of the magical arts. This puts him in an awkward position, especially for his parents who want to see him led into a quiet job or magic work. However, Phoebe has a winning strategy ready for her life: winning the Gadget Contest held by the neighboring town and thus earning everyone’s respect, and perhaps a beautiful nest egg that she can go and live alone with, and the embarrassment of a reckless girl who is still at home.

So what’s Phoebe’s bright idea? It’s the invention of the Floppy Knights, or ancient warriors and powers, rather than Carlton, his sensitive mechanical arm that was probably enough to win the Nobel Prize for his artificial intelligence (if it existed in this world). Floppy disks developed by Carlton to be strange beings among vegetables and toy soldiers.

Turn-based and card fights

Phoebe’s idea is therefore to submit the Floppy Knights to the Gadget Contest and win big for their obvious superiority, but the road to the contest is long and oddly fraught with problems. In fact, as soon as our hero leaves the house, he finds himself compelled to go through a map filled with stages, each of which corresponds to an increasingly difficult challenge and only enriches the hero’s business plan. Combining the useful with the profitable, ours sets off, destined to solve the problems of various residents nearby. the questeach linked to a series of strategic battles on the field, in return obtaining various coins, as well as additional cards to put in the Floppy Knights deck.

this conflicts takes place on a map of squares, following the rules of the turn-based strategy exactly. The closest examples are probably Fire Emblem and Advance Wars, the titles are also reminded with various solutions in terms of interface, so if you have experience with them you will be quite comfortable with this game.

However, what subverts all standard dynamics is actually the presence of cards that profoundly change the classic strategic game: It’s not so much in terms of actions to take, troop moves remain largely the same between attacks. it’s about defense and conquest (each linked to certain stats and abilities of individual units), rather the availability of these actions that depend on the drawing of cards each turn.

To give a practical example, and especially the movement of “troops” commonly used in game action does not default to every turn, but the appropriate card must be used, and the same applies to various other options that are strategically considered standard, such as deploying units and using special attacks. In all cases, a direct attack is guaranteed only with your service weapon and within the character’s range of motion, but everything else depends on the “hand” of cards drawn from the deck each turn.

Strategic and deck builder together

This hybrid nature forces us to deal with a greater number of variables: there are not only the typical parameters of the strategic to consider – but here it is particularly strict as in the Fire Emblem, given that a priority in the attack usually means: victory of the skirmish – also the randomness of randomly selected moves from the deck in order. Therefore, even in the first skirmish the challenge rate is quite high and requires immediate attention to the available moves and the range of motion of the enemies. However, of course this is not just a matter of luck: the very concept of deck building is based on a deeper strategic approach that focuses on the construction of the battle deck. We need to equip the cards so that we have enough units to deploy (which increases in variety and power as rewards as the levels progress) and balance attack and power with a good selection of move cards, which is very important. do anything in war.

Therefore, the construction and management of the deck becomes an essential element of the game and a section where you must spend time to achieve the right competitiveness. In addition to the selection of cards to be included in the deck, which also includes the choice of one’s “captain”, that is, the most important floppy Knight of the army, whose survival the fate of the war is played, Also dedicating oneself to the processing of cards, which actually happens in a very simplified way, by spending the collected money on more or less expensive types of cards is also necessary.

In all these tactics the meaning of the coin is given precisely by a certain cumbersome system. Despite the fun and humorous look reminiscent of 90s cartoons and children’s picture books, the whole system is often quite heavy with long and complex games. The speed is always very stable, moreover, the impossibility of canceling the last operation performed represents a certain additional difficulty that can be avoided in favor of a more dynamic and free system.

Between Advance Wars and Saturday morning cartoons

The characterization chosen by Rose City Games perfectly manages to create a great atmosphere, positioning itself halfway between the comic look of Advance Wars and the typical “Saturday morning cartoon” look. This playful style underlines the rather surreal story of Floppy Knights, starring an eccentric and misfit girl, which presents itself as a sort of modern fairy tale in between a coming-of-age tale and a picaresque, but all based on a parody of modern times. It emerges in a society based on ancient values, which subverts certainties. Finally a story with characters that don’t take themselves too seriously, but still have some interesting ideas and are easy to hook up with remarkable speed. The production is clearly limited in terms of the resources invested, and the cutscenes are largely static, with the story being told with some pretty brilliant dialogue.