Opinion

This card game in "Final Fantasy VII Rebirth" deserves its own game

2/3/2024

Translation: machine translated

"Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a fantastic game. The game-within-a-game, "Queen's Blood", is even better. A love letter to one of the best mini-games of all time.

In "Final Fantasy VII Rebirth", I have to save the world from destruction. Well, at least in theory. But all I can think about is this damn card game-within-a-game: Queen's Blood. Instead of exploring the beautiful open world, completing quests and fighting monsters, I'm constantly on the lookout for "Queen's Blood" players and merchants to sell me new cards.

The ingenious game-within-a-game has completely mesmerised me. For me, it's not a side activity, but the main attraction of "Rebirth". It grabs me even more than the legendary "Gwent" from "The Witcher III: Wild Hunt" - and that's saying something.

How does "Queen's Blood" play?

The game principle of "Queen's Blood" is easy to understand, but difficult to master. The card game is played on a board with three by five squares. Everything revolves around gaining space and collecting points. Each card in my deck has a score that is added to my score as soon as I place it on the board.

However, I can't place the cards on the playing field at will. At the start of a game, only the first left-hand column is available to me. My opponent starts on the first right-hand column.

This is how a game starts. I can only place cards on the fields marked with a dot.
Source: Domagoj Belancic

I have to earn the remaining squares before I can place cards there. It works like this: In addition to the score, each card has an area of effect that I use to occupy new spaces. Some cards only conquer a few spaces, others more. The development pattern is different for each card.

For example, if I place the «Security Officer», I open up the spaces above and below, as well as to the left and right of the card. The remaining cards in my hand give me significantly less.
Source: Domagoj Belancic

I can also double and triple the playing fields. This allows me to place particularly powerful cards that I can't play on fields that I've already captured. I can also recapture fields already captured by my opponent and claim them for myself.

Some cards, such as the «Elphadunk», score a lot of points and conquer many fields. «However, I can only play Elphadunk» on doubly developed fields (symbol at the top left of the card).
Source: Domagoj Belancic

After each turn, I draw a new card. The game ends at the latest when my opponent and I can no longer play any new cards. The points scored are calculated per line - if I have collected more points than my opponent on one line, the points are added to my total score. If my opponent has more points, his score goes up and I go away empty-handed.

Here you can see a complete game of "Queen's Blood":

Why is "Queen's Blood" so addictive?

Admittedly, Queen's Blood is introduced very slowly and it takes a bit of time to get into it. In every major town and settlement, I find Queen's Blood players who want to compete against me. After the first few encounters, I was afraid that the card game would become monotonous in the long run. Partly because the opponents are pretty stupid at first and the card sets are unspectacular, almost boring.

Everywhere «Queen's Blood» pros challenge me to a duel.
Source: Domagoj Belancic

After a few hours of play, these worries disappear into thin air. With each newly discovered city, I play against stronger opponents and unlock new maps through victories, which motivate me to test unconventional strategies. For example, there are offensive cards that I can use to attack and, in the best case, destroy opposing cards. I use other, defensive card types to strengthen my own cards and thus increase my score.

Some cards, such as the ugly «Capparwire», have special abilities.
Source: Domagoj Belancic

And then there are the really crazy variations. My favourite: the "Tonberry King". If the ugly frog is placed on the board, it increases its own score when my cards on the board are destroyed. With this strategy, I first try to place as many weak cards as possible in order to then destroy them with my own attacks. Or I provoke my opponent to destroy the cards. Whenever this strategy leads me to victory, I feel like a mad genius.

The strategy of destroying your own cards doesn't always work. But when it does, it's all the more satisfying.
Source: Domagoj Belancic

The possible combinations and the number of deckbuilding strategies are almost endless. I'm getting ambitious. It's not enough just to win. I want to destroy my opponents with crazy strategies.

The mini-game is perfectly integrated into the game world

The way the game introduces these new cards is particularly successful. In addition to duels against other Queen's Blood players, I also have various puzzles to solve in some towns. In these, I am forced to familiarise myself with new play styles using limited resources and special cards. The puzzles are more or less a game-within-a-game and are sometimes even more fun than the actual duels.

The puzzles challenge me with special game situations.
Source: Domagoj Belancic

Also worthy of praise is how "Queen's Blood" is integrated into the game's story. There is even a Queen's Blood tournament in which Cloud and his team-mates can take part. This is staged with such incredible attention to detail that I have a big grin on my face throughout the tournament.

The «Queen's Blood» tournament is beautifully staged.
Source: Domagoj Belancic

Later in the game, "Queen's Blood" even has its own background story. While I start out playing pretty randomly against random villagers, a dark secret behind the seemingly harmless card game is revealed as the duels progress. Cloud and his opponents are haunted by dark visions after games are over. With the introduction of the mysterious story, I'm doubly motivated - not only do I want to crush as many opponents as possible with ingenious tactics, but I also want to find out what the strange visions are all about.

The inventor of «Queen's Blood» reports back to Cloud and co. with dark visions.
Source: Domagoj Belancic

I need a standalone version of "Queen's Blood" - and I need it NOW!

I'm nearing the end of my odyssey with "Final Fantasy VII Rebirth". But I'm not ready to say goodbye to Queen's Blood just yet. I want more. And I sincerely hope that Square Enix decides to release a standalone game.

I don't mind if it's just a mobile game, as long as it's not littered with nasty microtransactions. But I do have a few suggestions for improvement. I would like to see additional, larger playing field layouts. And I want to randomly determine who starts a game - in "Rebirth" I always have to start. But these are details that can be quickly customised.

A look into the past shows that the likelihood of my wish being fulfilled is rather low. The "Final Fantasy" game series is known for its excellent mini-games. There have also been card games in the past: "Triple Triad" in "Final Fantasy VIII" and "Tetra Master" in "Final Fantasy IX". These mini and card games never got proper standalone releases. Let's hope that Square Enix takes inspiration from CD Projekt Red. The "Witcher" card game "Gwent" has enjoyed additional success with both the competitive online game and a single-player game.

Find out more about "Final Fantasy VII Rebirth" in the game review by "Final Fantasy" expert Kevin: