Kartia: The Word of Fate

Kartia: The Word of Fate
Developer(s)	Atlus
Publisher(s)	JP/NA Atlus EU Konami
Artist(s)	Yoshitaka Amano
Platform(s)	PlayStation
Release date(s)	JP March 26, 1998 NA July 31, 1998 EU December 25, 1999
Genre(s)	Tactical role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone (E)
Media	1 CD-ROM
Input methods	Gamepad

Kartia: The Word of Fate (known as The Legend of Kartia in Europe) is a tactical role-playing game developed and published by Atlus for Sony's PlayStation video game console in 1998. It was originally released in Japan under the title Rebus, and was issued in Europe as The Legend of Kartia. It is best known for the work of its art designer, Yoshitaka Amano, who had previously worked on the Final Fantasy series.

Gameplay

The game is divided into two "volumes," each centering around a different main character and their friends. The first volume tells the story of Toxa Classico and the second volume is about Lacryma Christi. While each volume tells a complete story, the storylines intertwine and through completing both of them, the player comes to understand what the true story of the game is actually about.
Each "chapter" of both volumes revolves around phantoms, beings which can be summoned by certain humans using "Kartia", magical cards which create whatever is written on them, such as Fire or Water. The player must summon and control phantoms to fight for him/her, as well as managing Kartia supplies, casting magic with Kartia and ensuring human combatants are not harmed. Kartia cards can be combined to create more powerful spells or phantoms. While phantoms may die during battle, if a human party member dies, the game ends and the chapter must be restarted.

Development

Atlus USA originally released Kartia and Eggs of Steel as Blockbuster Video rental exclusives. They were both later released for retail sale. There is a slight variant in the packaging - the BBV rental version does not have foil lettering for the title "Kartia" on the front cover - it is a blue that nearly blends in with the background. The BBV rental version has a different disc number as well - it is PSRM-010600.^[1]