Now officially crowned as one of the most successful entertainment companies on the entire planet, Disney doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. In fact, the opposite is true, as Disney is seemingly gearing up to spread its reach across even more markets. Streaming services, TV shows, movies, animations, video games, toys - Disney has a hand in just about every market imaginable, and now it's looking to get into the trading card scene with its newly announced Disney's Lorcana.
Unveiled just a few days ago, Disney's Lorcana is an upcoming trading card game, inspired by the likes of Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering. Though details are pretty scarce right now, Ravensburger has confirmed that Lorcana is taking a less "confrontational" approach to the TCG genre, implying that game may focus more on deck-building that constant battles. Though Lorcana seems to be coming out of the gate swinging, it'll need to do quite a bit if it hopes to stand out from the crowd.
Disney Lorcana Needs to Stand Out From the Crowd
The trading card game market isn't exactly a small one. Big-name franchises like Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Magic have all had a stake in the market for quite some time, and have established themselves as the leaders of the genre. Even excluding the big three, there are games like Legends of Runeterra, KeyForge, Gwent, Star Realms, and so much more. Put simply, Disney's Lorcana has a lot of competition.
Thankfully, Disney's Lorcana does have an immediate hook to grab players, that being its Disney license. As is the case with all things Disney, the foundations have already been set decades ago, with the vast majority of its characters, locations, and songs all being prominent in the current day zeitgeist. No other brand has quite as much instant recognizability as Disney, and that inherent connection between the brand and the fan is what immediately draws in players to Lorcana. On top of that, Disney's Lorcana also has a slight edge over some of its competition, as it's targeting audiences of all ages. While the big-name games like Pokemon do exactly the same, this widest-possible-audience approach does instantly set Disney's Lorcana apart from some of its smaller competition.
However, to truly compete, Disney's Lorcana needs to go above and beyond and have some genuinely unique trading card mechanics. As of right now, not a lot has been revealed about Lorcana's actual gameplay mechanics. The only details fans have been given are that the game will not be as competitive as some other TCGs, that the artwork will use both modern interpretations and classic designs of characters, and that music will play a key role in the title. Story-wise, it's stated that players will assume the role of an Illumineer, who is tasked with banding together a slew of iconic Disney characters to restore peace to the world of Lorcana.
There's not a lot to really speculate on here, but there are a few avenues that Lorcana could go down that would make for some unique gameplay mechanics. With a less competitive approach, Lorcana's gameplay could focus around building up a deck of classic Disney heroes, and spending a decent amount of game-time upgrading them. Taking inspiration from Disney Villainous, Lorcana could allow players to upgrade their hero cards by attaching various items to them, each one obviously being an iconic object from Disney's back-catalog. A similar mechanic could be used for songs, which will apparently play a key role in the game. It could be the case that players need to string a series of cards together, each one representing a verse from a Disney song, which when complete, buff their characters in some way. If Lorcana ends up having unique mechanics like these, then it could manage to stand out from its competition.
Disney's Lorcana is set to release in 2023.