Oh man, I love it when people are going all the way about incorporating art (real-life art, not AI art) into their games. Many people don’t know that a lot of art is part of the Wikicommons. Institutes like The National Gallery of Art have long been committed to making their art freely available through its open-access initiatives. In 2018, the Gallery began extending this commitment by working with the Wikimedia Foundation, one of the largest open knowledge and culture supporters, to donate its open-access images and data to Wikimedia platforms to support open culture, research, and education. The Gallery has contributed 53,000 high-resolution images of artworks to Wikimedia Commons and 120,000 art object collection records to Wikidata. Every image and collection record on Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata is available under a Creative Commons 0 (CC0) license. But Nick, what does this have to do with Verses of Enchantment? Well, you have to continue reading to find out.
Hey, you’re still here! Good, Verses of Enchantment is a magical card game where you duel wizards using AI-generated poetry. Travel a rich world, meet fellow wizards, collect cards, and build a deck to inspire enchanting poetry! It’s developed by an indie studio from my neighboring country Belgium called Nachtvlam. I love that Nachtvlam strives to make innovative games on the bleeding edge of technology while taking inspiration from history. So, thanks for that, Mister Ibe Denaux.
Story
Yes, I’m getting to the paintings in a bit. Verses of Enchanemtnt is a deckbuilding card game set in an 18th-century fantasy world. In this world, magic is a highly developed form of science used with poetry to fight epic duels against your fellow wizards. You are playing as Merle, a young wizard – and child of a once exiled wizard. As Merle, you’ll be able to travel the lands and learn magic in the form of cards from a cast of unique and diverse wizards. Become one of the greats as you weave together spells and poetry into Verses of Enchantment.
Mechanics
Everyone that has played a game like Slay the Spire or Magic the Gathering will recognize certain themes and aspects in Verses of Enchantment. The game features a few general themes, like ‘Ego’, ‘Nature’, ‘Passion’, ‘Brilliance’, etc., corresponding with colors and certain buffs and/or debuffs. To explain it in terms of Magic the Gathering, Green cards are nature-focused and often depict scenes from rivers, waterfalls, baskets of fruit, etc. And focus on either doing enormous amounts of damage or healing powers. Red cards are focused on passion and give debuffs to your opponent, which stops them from using healing cards while dealing damage. or healing yourself with their grief. You get a basic deck at the beginning of the game and meet other wizards with decks that focus on certain themes.
When you beat a wizard, you can get one of three cards or pick the option to gain some gold. While traveling the land, you must eat rations, which can be bought in the cities you travel through. So be wise, and don’t always go for the cards (even though that’s a very logical option). While traveling across the country, Merle will meet wizards and learn about the lands. By beating a certain amount of duels and collecting cards, you get to progress through the chapters and eventually even gain access to scholastic institutes where you can get new cards by paying a tuition fee and guessing the card by its keyword.
Gameplay
In this game, duels are based on poetry. During each turn, you play three cards, which the AI uses to create a poem based on the keywords on your cards. You can create combos for the next turn by using certain cards. For instance, if you play an Ego and Brilliance card in your previous turn’s poem, the next card you play will do double damage and allow you to draw an extra card. The system is straightforward, but it can quickly become challenging as you progress through the story. When you defeat a wizard, their deck will vary from the previous duel, making the next one harder. Therefore, it’s essential to stay vigilant.
A deck of cards comprises 15 to 20 cards, and you can make it out of anything you want. If you prefer nature-based cards, it’s okay, but remember that they work well with Brilliance and Passion cards. If you want an Ego-based deck, you must work with brilliance and card draw since you’ll discard many cards. It’s an exciting concept that feels like a game of endless possibilities. With 100 cards to collect and create decks from, the game will keep you entertained.
Paintings
When is he going to talk about the paintings? Well, is now a good time? As I stated in my introduction, Wikimedia Commons is a great way to use artwork from famous painters in various settings. I haven’t checked all the paintings in the ingame gallery, but I’m pretty sure I saw some famous paintings ingame that came from that databank. I studied a bit of art history myself, so when I see the use of 17th- to 19th-century paintings in the game in a very creative way, I can only applaud the decision Nachtvlam made. Every image is lifted from paintings that can be viewed inside the ingame gallery, sorted by artist, subject, and period. This gives the whole sense of time a new dimension and adds depth to how Verses of Enchantment presents itself. That’s a way to score points in my book.
Conclusion
So, Nachtvlam brought paintings to life, dueling each other with magic words and cards. Verses of Enchantment are probably what you would get if the portraits at Hogwarts would get bored and play a card game against each other since it uses a lot of real-life paintings, it’s a perfect addition to the education games genre (and was recently featured at Onderwijs Met Games Festival – OMG Festival – check that one out if you are into that kind of thing, Lander is one of the organizers!). It runs great on the Steamdeck and offers enough replayability to suck away much of your free time. So be sure to check this one out!
