Verses of Enchantment – Review
We don’t want to be overly patriotic, but of course, there’s a special place in our hearts for any game made by a Belgian developer. Nachtvlam released their debut title at the start of this month, and it happens to be a little deck builder called Verses of Enchantment. Now, we do know deck builders have been all the rage lately and plenty of people are growing sick of the genre, but we still wanted to give this game a fair shot. And thus we’re happy to report that there are definitely some fun surprises hidden in this one.
Story
A voiced opening cutscene set over a series of classical paintings explains to us that Verses of Enchantment takes place in a world where poetry and magic are inherently interwoven. Specifically, through writing and prose, wizards can conduct their abilities. A certain unnamed wizard made an important discovery that got him shunned from society and he had to flee to a small island off the coast to stay safe. Obviously, the game does not mention quite yet what said discovery was. You play as the child of said wizard, who was taught by his father as a young boy and you now set out into the world to develop your magical abilities. Sadly, the discovery your father made is going to come back as a horrible burden for you.
Graphics
Verses of Enchantment makes full use of its inspiration by actually building the game out of classical art. Every background, character portrait, and card from your deck shows off a gorgeous artwork. This is in stark contrast to the game’s map and UI which look very stylized and simple. The developers made sure the art styles never mash in a way that’s jarring though. The artworks used include paintings from plenty of notable Belgian 18th-century artists and other European masters. They’re all in the public domain too, meaning it’s a clever workaround for the developers if they know they aren’t the best designers themselves. It ends up fitting the atmosphere of the game perfectly.
Sound
Also fitting the atmosphere is the music of this game. It’s soft, charming, and classical without getting boring. It’s an interesting blend to pull off but we’d say it works well here. When you play your cards, you can expect to hear all the usual sound effects that are usually present in this genre. It’s all there, sword noises when you do damage, an igniting flame when you burn an opponent, and so on. There’s not a lot of voice acting in the game so be prepared to do a fair bit of reading, though the voice acting that is present is very well executed.
Gameplay
Verses of Enchantment is a deck builder with an almost open-world feel to it. During the campaign mode, you’re not traversing down a straight line but you can choose where to go along the map. While doing so, you can run into other wizards and fight them. If you win, you can get a new card for your deck or claim gold as your reward. The second one is necessary for buying rations in the towns you visit. Rations are a consumable supply you need to move around on the map and progress. However, the main focus of the game is the battles.
Like most deck builders, the combat system is turn-based. During your turn, you must play three cards. Then your enemy plays three cards during theirs. You have all the basic mechanics: cards that damage your opponent, cards to heal yourself with, and status effects of all kinds. What makes Verses of Enchantment unique is that every card has a single word as its name. These words are also associated with themes, such as ‘brilliance’, ‘gloom’, or ‘nature’. At the end of your turn, a poem is generated based on the three cards you’ve played. They’re not always very sensical and good, but that’s the downfall of them being generated with AI. They do influence your next round, however.
Some cards in your deck might only work if you have certain themes and words pop up in your poem. This means you have to not only think about the effects of the cards you are currently playing, but also the verses they might generate, what cards you have in your hand, and how those two will work together in the next round. It’s hard to get used to at first, but it’s the difference between this game being another dime in a dozen for the deck building genre or it actually managing to be interesting. It adds a layer of strategy to the game you can’t find in other deck builders.
Aside from the campaign mode, you can also choose gauntlet mode. This mode has no story or open world but is an endless series of battles where you can add a card to your deck upon each win. Lastly, versus mode is just one isolated battle. You can play against any NPC wizard you’ve met in the campaign or challenge a friend.
Conclusion
Despite not offering a ton of content, Verses of Enchantment does have enough fresh ideas to make it enjoyable. The generated poetry can be hit or miss, but the strategy behind it is interesting and it’s quite satisfying to come up with strategies of your own. Plus, we’re always more than happy to cheer on a Belgian developer, especially when they release a title that’s a lot of fun to play. We can’t wait to see what Nachtvlam has in store for us in the future.
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