Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first few matches make Elemental Masters look almost disarmingly simple. You choose a deck, then take turns filling a 3×3 board with creature cards. Each card has a strength value on all four sides, and placing one against a weaker neighboring edge converts that opposing card to your color. That single rule creates a nicely nasty little contest: a move that flips two cards now can also leave your strongest card exposed to an even bigger reversal.

Because every battle ends after nine cards, there is very little room to drift. You need to think about which edges you are protecting, which open spaces give the opponent too many attack angles, and whether a card is more valuable as an immediate capture or as a defensive anchor. The best turns feel like small tactical traps snapping shut. The worst feel like realizing, one move late, that the board has forced you into feeding the AI a chain of conversions.

Deck selection gives the duels their longer-term hook. Winning cards from opponents means a victory is not just progress along the map; it can improve the options you bring to the next fight. The three character classes also begin with different spells, while further magic can be learned along the way. Element-linked cards and board spaces, alternate counting modes, and battle spells add welcome layers once the base game has clicked, although they also ask you to absorb more rules in a game whose core strength is its clean, immediate board play.

Expect repetition. Traveling Elendior means fighting numerous enemies, and the central activity remains this same nine-card duel. If you enjoy studying a small ruleset until its tactical wrinkles become second nature, that is a strength rather than a flaw. If you want an RPG with varied forms of combat, the journey may start to feel narrow before its card collection has had time to matter.

Graphics

Battle screens center on the 3×3 board and the creature cards placed around it. That compact layout suits the game well: you can see which side strengths are about to collide and quickly track cards changing from one player’s color to the other.

Story

The stakes are straightforward fantasy: Elendior is threatened by a great demon returned from the dead, and your hero must grow strong enough to challenge it. It is a functional reason to keep moving across the land and taking on battle after battle.

Your chosen class gives the adventure a small degree of identity through its different starting spell. That matters more to the feel of your early tactical options than to the broad arc: whichever path you choose, you are gathering mystical creatures and dark magic for the same final struggle.

Do not come for an elaborate tale. The story works chiefly as a frame for earning cards, expanding a deck, and pushing toward the ultimate enemy. For a card-strategy game, that is enough, but the emotional payoff depends on whether you have become invested in the army you assembled along the way.

Overall Experience

Elemental Masters succeeds when you treat it as a portable tactical card game with an RPG-shaped campaign wrapped around it. The basic flipping rule is easy to learn, but the four-sided values make positioning surprisingly consequential. A single careless placement can turn a winning board into a loss, which gives even short matches real bite.

The reward loop is sound. You battle, claim cards, refine your deck, learn magic, and head into another duel better equipped than before. That makes progression tangible, especially for anyone who likes building a collection through play instead of merely watching numbers rise.

Its limitation is just as clear: the game keeps returning to the same small board and the same fundamental contest. Give it a chance if that sounds like an invitation to get clever with every placement. Skip it if you need a fantasy RPG’s travel and story to be as deep as its combat; here, the board is where the real adventure happens.

Retro Replay Score

6.5/10