This entry has a lot of charm and cool stuff, and the expected duration was correct, even with a couple of tries it took me around 30 minutes to beat. So let's get into some details.
The whole Art package, Graphics, Sounds and even the FONT! Has a lot of retro charm, there are a lot of small details that I love, the effect on the range panel was subtle but really cool, the design of the charchips is really original, loved the Archers specially.
The game really gives a great mood of a classic Card Battler Anime, you know the one I'm talking about... the intro, the way the characters talk when playing their hands, all really charming.
On the gameplay side, the game is solid, at the start of the battle you draw 3 cards, and then get 1 more each turn. Sadly, the cards drawn are fixed each time, so while the mood and presentations scream card battler, the gameplay goes more into puzzle territory with this... being honest I should have notice it wasn't random when the enemies had so context sensitive dialogue for their cards combos.
Also, there is no way of telling what a moster is gonna be like before you summon it, so you have to just try and see if it was a good pick, on the other hand effect cards give you a little explanation of what they are gonna do. And talking about those, the idea of combos that promote monsters was awesome.
But a little nitpick, there was no indication that the Orbs take half damage, I lose my first game because I though I could kill it with 2 hits of the Samurai... color me surprised when he only dealt 9 damage and my strategy fell to pieces.
And a little bug, I guess it is a bug, is that when you start the second battle you keep the unused cards from the first battle, so you actually start with 6 cards. Is not game breaking, it actually allows to abuse a bit the system to get alternative starts for battle 2. On that note, I found Battle 2 way easier than the first, Mal kicked my ass with his combo a couple of times until I could set up a proper strategy.
On a final note, the game ended leaving me wanting more, it really gave a great impresion and set a great mood to play it... and just when I get comfortable it ends, and with a cliffhanger, are you trying to get me hooked on this stuff?
Man, I really liked this entry... I forgive the small gameplay inconveniences because it is really short and it seems clear the focus was in the art and mood direction and both of those were really on point.