We were all eagerly awaiting the arrival of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth into our lives and we can finally fully enjoy the Square Enix title. The JRPG allows us control Cloud, Tifa, Barret and company in their search for Sefirot, but not all of the journey consists of stress and battles. That is why the Japanese company has included a good handful of mini-games to entertain us with.
Score goals with Red XIII, jump on a dolphin with Cloud or invest eternal hours in the Gold Saucer These are some of the secondary incentives perfectly integrated into the experience. Each of them has their nuances and ways of playing, but the one that takes the cake completely is Sangre de la Reina.
The creators of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth They already showed us some previews of the minigames before the launch, but there was a special impact on the card title. I was able to try it for the first time during the preview in London and, after having completed almost all the possible games, a very intense desire has generated within me: I need an independent video game like eating.
Solid base, strong deck
The mechanics of Blood of the Queen are not exactly simple – beyond the fact that we must score more points than the opponent – and that is why it allows for great depth during its games. A board with three rows of black and white rectangles next to a framed logo is presented to us for us to start making plays, but an important preliminary step must be taken. The choice of the deck of cards that we will have, with a maximum of 15, which have unique characteristics.
Each of them has different values that add to the final amount per row and their effects can tip the balance in our favor. Chocobos, cactilios, monsters of all kinds and conditions and even main characters are presented in card format so that we can put them into play. Enhancers of adjacent spaces, destroyers of rivals, conquerors of positions and a huge list of skills that we will have to take into account to destroy every time it is our turn. Thus until adding some 145 possible cardswhich demonstrates the depth that the Japanese studio has given it in an accessory game mode.
Discarding cards that are not suitable, a balanced deck and knowing when we should play is essential. I have come to settle in as a very offensive player who tries to destroy, although it is true that he has had to rack my brain much more with certain challenges. Sometimes a game that has already started and with a given deck is displayed on the screen, which you have to know very well to win, and it is a great way to get to know new cards.
An ecosystem so well constructed, embroidered in such an expansive way that the popularity that Sangre de la Reina has achieved among the community. “Of all the different mini-games available, the Queen’s Blood card game is arguably one of my favorites,” revealed el propio Naoki Hamaguchi, director de Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
It is not surprising that even the creator himself drinks the winds for the format that I have joined in each of my stops in the open world. Whether in Kalm, Mount Corel, Nibelheim or Costa del Sol, any place in the title allows you to buy new cards to add to the collection and I have done it like a little child who goes to the kiosk to buy a new pack of trading cards. Precisely his experiences as a child prompted the Japanese developer to opt for the minigame.
“This goes back to my own personal experiences with Final Fantasy as a kid, playing through Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy IX. I guess it was just my preconception that if Final Fantasy has a minigame that continues throughout the entire game and acts as a break from the main story, a card game is the best option.”
It is not a light hobby
Far from settling in as a passing entertainment, Blood of the Queen is supported as a secondary mission with its own narrative. We will have to discover what really happened to the original creator of the game, who disappeared under strange circumstances. As if that were not enough, a curse seems to haunt those expert players who stand out from the rest.
Such warnings of danger do not seem to be enough for the inhabitants of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, who organize tournaments on board the ferry that goes to Costa del Sol and are willing to challenge you anywhere. There are a good handful of NPCs that we know exclusively through placing cards on the board, whether they be Regina, the robot Wize or the dreamlike Navalan. We have small conversations with them to get to know both themselves and the game itself, several of which recur throughout the adventure. And that plot background was one of the pillars for Hamaguchi to give the green light to Blood of the Queen:
“We wanted to include a unique element in each mini-game and make them all feel different and special. That also means that the way we had to present them would not be the same. Some would be very related to the main story, a very central part of the game , while others would be more like one-off experiences that you would see in a specific mission and would be contained within it.
I thought that as a third guy, it would be really nice to have a minigame that had its own separate story. It’s not the main narrative, it’s a completely different story, but it continues throughout the entire game in parallel. That’s what Blood of the Queen does. So I thought having all these different positions or ways of incorporating the minigames into the overall structure would help add variety.”
More decks?
One of the disappointments of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is that the presence of Cid and Vincent is minor and is restricted to, especially, the final sections of the trip. Although the charismatic pilot has a greater point of presence, andThe former member of the Turks manages to shine a little more thanks to Sangre de la Reina. I will not reveal exactly what her role is among so many letters, but it is appreciated that we can enjoy her sharp phrases and her penetrating gaze.
Knowing Square Enix, it doesn’t seem far-fetched to me that in the future we’ll see an exclusive Blood of the Queen video game, but for now I’m going to fingers crossed for an update on PS5 with more content.
“We haven’t decided anything in terms of the future development of Blood of the Queen, but so far the media that played it have provided very positive feedback on it, so we want to consider future expansions as a possibility,” point Hamaguchi. Be that as it may, I still have some battles to fight in the JRPG and I’m going to savor them with pleasure.
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