C.A.R.D.S. RPG: The Misty Battlefield

Introduction

C.A.R.D.S. RPG: The Misty Battlefield blends turn-based tactical positioning with roguelike-style deckbuilding, following Vel and the Clausewitz Battalion across a map shrouded in mist as they collect from a pool of 100 cards to build the strongest possible deck. ACQUIRE Corp., the Japanese studio behind Way of the Samurai and Tenchu, developed and self-published it, releasing on 22 May

2024. Reading the entire available English-language review sample — all 7 negatives and all 9

positives, 16 total — finds a game whose reception was shaped almost entirely by one launch-day design decision and how quickly the developers moved to fix it.

A launch flaw serious enough to dominate the conversation

The single most-upvoted review in this entire sample, with 179 votes, lays out the problem precisely: at launch, the whole squad drew from one shared deck rather than individual decks per character, meaning "picking up ranged-only cards to boost your ranged characters" made those same cards "useless for your melee characters." That's not a minor balance quibble — it's a structural design choice that actively worked against basic squad-building logic, and multiple independent reviewers flagged it as close to unplayable in its original form. One reviewer, having bought the game at full price, wrote with evident frustration about being forced to hold a card in hand purely to power another card, rather than the game offering straightforward one-time power-ups suited to a short, three-turn fight.

A fast, credited fix

What separates this story from several other rocky 2024 launches this library has covered is how quickly ACQUIRE responded. Multiple reviewers, on both sides of the recommendation split, confirm the developers patched in individual per-character decks within days of the complaints landing. One reviewer who'd initially requested a refund reversed course entirely: "I see they've pushed out a few updates to address player feedback so I'm repurchasing the game and tentatively changing the rating to recommended." Another, writing after the patch, admitted genuine surprise at the game's initial reception: "I honestly can't understand why it is that bad rated" once the fix was in. That's a meaningfully positive story about a developer listening and acting fast — even reviewers who remained critical of other aspects credited this specific response directly.

A price that outran what reviewers felt they got

Independent of the deck mechanics, a specific and recurring complaint concerns value. Multiple reviewers, unprompted by each other, suggested a fair price somewhere between NZ$15 and NZ$25 — well under the game's premium launch price — with more than one explicitly recommending a discounted purchase over a full-price one. That complaint sharpens further around the game's DLC structure: several individual character units are sold separately, and reviewers argue that at this game's asking price, those characters should have shipped as part of the base roster rather than as paid add-ons. A related, smaller complaint concerns repetition — several reviewers describe the 20-stage campaign flattening out well before its conclusion, with build variety and challenge plateauing rather than escalating.

Final Verdict

C.A.R.D.S. RPG: The Misty Battlefield tells an unusually complete story in a very small review sample: a genuinely interesting SRPG-deckbuilding hybrid that shipped with a real, structural design flaw serious enough to dominate its early reception, followed by a fast, credited developer response that fixed the core complaint within days. What remains, even after that fix, is a premium price this review's own sample repeatedly argues the game doesn't fully justify, compounded by paid character DLC that feels like it should have been included. For SRPG and card-battler fans specifically, there's a genuinely creative game here once patched — just one worth waiting for a sale on rather than buying at launch price.