Yoko Taro is a weirdo. Don't just take my word for it--the man himself has said as much with game development presentations on making "weird games for weird people"--and there's a certain level of subversion and existential terror that permeates everything he touches. This is certainly the case with Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars, a somewhat surprising game to make after the smash-hit success that was Nier: Automata. But this is Yoko Taro, and this choice is itself a subversion. Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars takes the writer-director's signature style and adapts it for a role-playing game that retains just enough classic role-playing elements to keep it approachable.
Taro is listed as creative director in Voice of Cards' credits, and though he actually isn't listed as the game director--suggesting he may have taken a less hands-on approach to its creation--its narrative beats and visual style certainly have his influence all over them. You play as an aspiring adventurer joined by a ragtag group of would-be heroes hoping to slay a dangerous dragon, beat a stuck-up group of nobles looking to find the dragon first and get a substantial reward from the local queen. The text's font appears to be the same as in the Nier series, and longtime Taro collaborator Keiichi Okabe returned to compose its music, which is so Nier-y you'd think Voice of Cards was a surprise new entry in the series (it isn't, but I kept waiting for the reveal). The Nier music DLC you can buy is almost redundant, considering how similar it is to what's included in the standard version.
Continue Reading at GameSpot