Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roarsis abeautiful, anime-inspired, role-playing gamethat takes some of the best elements of table-top gaming and presents it as a card-based adventure. There’s a lot to see and do inThe Isle Dragon Roars, from the various systems at work during battles to navigating the world itself.

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With its RPG mechanics and novel approach to story-telling and character interactions,The Isle Dragon Roarscan appear dense to any player just starting out on their journey. There are some common mistakes that every player makes when picking up this game, and avoiding them makes playing it that much more enjoyable.

8Sticking To The Path

Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roarsoffers players a clear path to each new town, laying down a brick road for anyone to follow as they make their way through the game’s campaign. It can be tempting to exclusively follow this path throughout the game, but players who do so will miss out onsome of the most entertaining contentThe Isle Dragon Roarshas to offer.

Hidden caves, random events, and secret treasures are scattered around the world just waiting for players to encounter them, and anyone who stays on the beaten path will miss out on these completely. It’s an easy mistake to make though, as the game regularly reminds players to stick to the road to reach their next destination.

a small game board piece on a grid of flipped over playing cards designed like terrain

7Leaving Gems Unused In Battle

Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roarsis one of the moreunique, turn-based RPGs on the Nintendo Switch, as it forgoes the traditional magic point (MP) system. Instead, players use a resource called “gems” during battles to activate powerful, special attacks. But many players will feel the need to save these gems for when they’re absolutely necessary, a tactic that can often leave the gems untouched by battle’s end.

Gems don’t carry over between battles and are a constantly regenerating resource during any combat scenario, so players should feel comfortable using them whenever possible. It can mean the difference between a quick one-shot fight and a long, drawn-out siege.

a girl with white hair and a bow pulls glowing gems from a nearby box

6Forget To Jump

Traveling through the overworld inVoice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roarsis a somewhat laborious process as it can take a while when moving one individual card at a time. Fortunately,The Isle Dragon Roarshas a feature that allows players to jump to almost any card that’s already flipped over in a single motion.

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That said, this feature is tied to the right joystick and can be an easy one to forget about when moving through the world. It’s not uncommon for players to continue moving one card at a time while backtracking, as the game doesn’t offer a reminder for the mechanic after it’s first introduced.

5Item Hoarding

Items are a staple of any role-playing game: potions, ethers, phoenix down. They all serve a purpose and can mean the difference between life or death in a difficult spot. But, as with any RPG, it’s tempting to hold on to any valuable or useful items untilthat truly challenging enemy appears.

The Isle Dragon Roarsplaces a pretty strict limit on how many items the player can hold in their inventory at any time, but it’s also very generous with how plentiful healing items are in the world. It’s a mistake to hoard those items, especially if it means there will be better options down the line.

game board piece selecting an environment card to jump to

4Ignoring Enemy Weaknesses

Elemental affinities have existed in RPGsfor decades and span every form of subgenre under that umbrella, so it’s no surprise that they exist inVoice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roarsas well. However, it’s all too easy for players to overlook them during the heat of battle.

The only way to discover these weaknesses is through experimentation, testing different elemental attacks on each enemy type until one works. Many monsters will die before their weakness is discovered, leading most players to either overlook the system entirely or forget it even exists.

item inventory screen with several, multicolored bottles

3Not Reading Flip-Side Stories

WhileVoice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roarsoffers a rich, compelling narrative in its own right, there area plethora of excellent, additional stories playerscan unlock by meeting a variety of different criteria. Side quests, defeating monsters, and speaking to the right people are all used to reveal the flip side of each character’s profile card.

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A card with a witch in black dress casts a tornado at another card across the battlefield

But most players won’t spend the time to dig into this tertiary information, and that robs the world of much of its color. These flip side stories help flesh out each character’s story, even background characters whom players will only meet once, and ignoring them makes the game feel less interesting as a whole.

2Missing Out On Status Effects

Status effects are some of the most useful abilities in any RPG, but they’re especially potent inVoice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars. Effects like poison and freeze can make all the difference during a challenging battle, but the attacks that inflict them are often overlooked in favor of more direct damage-dealing techniques.

It’s a common mistake new players are more likely to make as they learnThe Isle Dragon Roars' battle flow. It’s tempting for players to choose the strongest attack they have at their disposal over something weaker, but ignoring the strategic use of status effects is a mistake that could be costly against tougher opponents.

playing card with a picture of a faun-like creature named an “orc child”

1Choosing Poorly In Random Events

Gold is the coin of the land inVoice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars, and it’s needed to purchase everything from equipment to a stay at the local inn. As such, it’s one of the most valuable resources players can acquire, but many players will miss out onthe best way to farm goldwhile traveling through the world.

Random events can occur throughout the world in a similar way to battles, but these instances function like a sort of mini-game. Players can make specific choices depending on the situation, and if they choose correctly they’ll get a huge payout as a reward. These events are easy to miss and easy to mess up, and without them, most players will be struggling financially throughout their quest.

hero card with attacks lined up below and two enemy cards with poison and freeze effects

reward screen with two cards showing 600 gold pieces