Video Game Review: Faeria

Faeria

Versus Evil

Genre: Strategy

Nintendo Switch

The writers here at Sequential Planet love board games and card games. Anything that is able to bring those two things together is instantly something that catches our interest. Faeria is published by Versus Evil and is inspired by tabletop strategy games and collectible card games.

Faeria does a fantastic job of balancing its influences to create an interesting strategy game. There isn’t much story present in Faeria, so the experience is carried by the gameplay. There is a loose story interwoven in a campaign. Most of the lore is handled by card flavor text and some speech bubbles between the player’s character and the enemies. Of course, the target audience typically isn’t looking for a story in their card games. This means that the lack of a story shouldn’t be much of an issue.

In the core gameplay loop, Faeria allows for players to build the terrain and play units. There are multiple terrain types available for players to build, like forests and deserts. Once those terrains are present, the player can play their unit cards and defeat enemy units and ultimately the opponent.

Playing units come with a cost. They need Faeria, the in-game currency, and for certain conditions to be met. For example, some units require a specific amount of terrain tiles to be present on the board. Most of the game’s strategy comes from balancing costs and placement. Like most CCGs, players will decide if they should focus on controlling the board by clearing enemy units or attacking their opponent’s face.

In between games players will acquire individual cards a few packs to enhance their deck. Deckbuilding is simple and intuitive. The menus are easy to navigate and accessible to veterans and newcomers alike. Playing through Faeria isn’t too difficult, but if players struggle, there are DLC packs available. It’s a model that’s pretty common with CCGs, but it is a bit off-putting seeing the paid DLC advertised so heavily in an already paid game.

The presentation is where Faeria shines. The card art is lovely, and the terrain itself is gorgeous. The environments are full of vivid colors and personality. The art is likely enough to draw players in by itself. The music is pretty typical, but still enjoyable and doesn’t become grating after hours of play. The card text is rather small, and it can be difficult to read when in handheld mode. There is a zoom feature to remedy this a little, but the controls can be troublesome sometimes. The control issues do extend to the gameplay itself sometimes, with some buggy experiences when trying to select cards or terrain.

There are a few modes in Faeria that takes the player away from the story mode for a little bit. There is a drafting mode that acts as a fine distraction from the story. In Faeria, the draft mode allows players to build a deck for a survival type mode. There is also a puzzle mode to test the player’s problem-solving abilities and knowledge of the game. Players can also work with friends in a cooperative setting as they work through the story.

Faeria is a wonderful card game that scratches that board game itch at the same time. There isn’t really anything like it on the Switch, so fans of the genres will want to check it out.