Arcana is a role-playing video game released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System by HAL Laboratory in 1992. The game represents all of its characters as cards, but plays like a dungeon-crawling role-playing game rather than a card-based game. In keeping with this metaphor, the death of a character results in a 'torn' card, and the magical properties of some cards are used to explain abilities of the game's characters. Gameplay Assuming a first-person perspective, the dungeons and towns of the game are navigated from the viewpoint of the characters and, with a few exceptions, the conversations between characters hold true to this as well. Battles within the game are portrayed in the first-person, displaying the protagonist characters along the perimeter of the screen, with the enemies in the center. Arcana'''s battles, however, are not graphically intensive and the characters' animations are limited to, at most, five frames. Breaking from the format established by Square of displaying the damage incurred by characters above their heads, this information is summarised in a text display at the bottom of the screen similar to Dragon Quest games from Enix. The map's tile based dungeons are, arguably, the most challenging aspect of the game. Seeing often only what is immediately before the characters, the player is free to move in the four primary compass directions. Labyrinthine in their design, and often fraught with dead ends and hidden dangers, the detail in the drawing of these dungeons compensates for their relative lack of animation. Battles within the game follow a strict turn system. As each character takes their turn, various options are presented to the player. Rooks, the principal character, possesses many of the vital battling techniques. Because he can switch the Elemental spirits, flee the battle, and use magical card spells which, though powerful, were expensive, Rooks is the most valuable resource to the party. If Rooks is incapacitated, the entire party is crippled. A battle is followed with the reward of Experience Points and Gold. However, the level progression of all of the characters is standardized; there is no randomness to what statistics increase when a character levels up. Four elemental spirits, Sylph (Wind), Efrite (Fire), Dao (Earth), and Marid (Water), rotate through the same slot in the battle formation. Rooks and a spirit are always in the player's party, providing two other spots for party members. Unlike the human characters, an elemental