There's an overarching plot that involves a god named Hellgaia that attempted to wipe out the population of the fictional land Neverland (this isn't the Peter Pan version by the way), but was instead sealed away by his fellow gods before he could carry out his plan. However, he's been awakened again, and is now trying to pick up where he left off. Various individuals have been summoned due to their ability to use "Spectral Cards", and one of these characters is Galahad, who you'll begin the game as. There are unlockable characters as well, up to ten I believe, who all have various skills/abilities to use in battle.

When you begin the game you'll notice that the initial playing field looks more like a Strategy RPG than a traditional board game set up. There's a certain section of the playing field that's like a grid, allowing you to move from space to space with your main character and any of the other characters you bring into play via the cards. When you start a round, you'll automatically draw a card to add to your hand. However, when you first begin a match, you most likely won't be able to play anything, which would be the next phase. Instead, you'll need to start generating points to play your cards with, which you do by moving around on the map and turning the squares into the color that corresponds with your side. Each square that matches your color adds a point to your pool, which then allows you to play cards. Each character you have in play has a certain number of movement's squares they can use each turn as well, but there are cards that can change the amount of movement around, both temporarily and for longer amounts of time.

Along with moving, you can opt to just wait out a turn, or attack another character if someone is adjacent to you. When you begin an attack, the screen will change into a 3D view of the two fighters, and allow you to play a card (such as an instant spell) before the match begins, which can help you achieve the win. Early on you won't be able to make much use of this card playing during a fight, but later on as you edit and construct new decks you'll find that you really need to focus on putting a few of these instant action cards into play. Of course, all these cards will cost you some points to play as well, so you need to make sure you have the available points to use before going into the fight. Basically, you really need to keep track of what you have available, and come up with a strategy that works.

Once the fight actually begins, each side gets one swipe at their opponent. There are modifiers that can be brought into play here, which are usually particular skills that a character or card possess, like First Strike, which always gives you the first attack, and the results will automatically show up, instead of waiting for the opposing character to finish their attack. Each character/card has their own amount of hit points and armor, which will dictate how hard they attack and how much damage they can take in. Most of the fights with the smaller cards are going to result in both sides being taken out, but later on you'll get access to better cards that won't resolve themselves until after a few rounds.

You, along with your opponent, are labeled as "Dominators", and the only way to win a match is by reducing the HP of the opposing Dominator down to zero. This can occur in a few different ways, but mainly by attacking a Dominator with other character cards or usually by going one on one against the Dominator themselves. They tend to have higher HP and armor than the character cards you bring into play, and usually with a few different special abilities as well. Once a Dominator is defeated, the battle ends, and you'll gain a few cards to add to your existing pile, sometimes resulting in brand new cards to try out.

The actual gameplay is pretty straightforward, and while the playing field resembles a SRPG, it's a bit less tactical than you might think. Controlling the play area to generate enough points to play and keep cards in play does require a bit more thinking than usual, but by the end of a battle you'll typically have more than enough spaces covered to use all the cards you have at your disposal. Card decks are limited to 30 cards anyways, so it's not like you'll have a ton of stuff to play during a match. The actual fights that switch to 3D are pretty bad visually, with some really simple 3D model representations of the cards themselves, and the playing field doesn't look much better. However, it's not really a title that needs to focus on impressing the player graphically, and the gameplay is where the meat of the game should be, and Neverland's gameplay is pretty solid. I found the music to be a bit lackluster too, and I couldn't honestly hum a tune from memory, so nothing really stuck with me from the soundtrack. It's not necessarily bad though, just forgettable. The same can be said of the voice acting, which seems average at best.

One other gripe I have with the game is that you'll need to grind a bit early on, especially considering that the second Dominator you encounter has a far better deck than what you'll get after just one win. You'll find the need to go back to Dominator's you've defeated before pretty often to try and secure new cards to help you out, and since the selection of what you get after winning a round is pretty random, it might take a few tries before you're able to really come up with something solid. Also, going back to these Dominator's starts to get a bit boring, considering that once you've managed to finish them off they'll typically remain easy to beat, without any noticeable change in tactics or deck design the second or third time you play them.

Still, I definitely enjoyed Neverland Card Battles, and I look forward to playing it a bit more. There are over 200 cards to collect, and I know I was still gaining new cards as I finished up this review, so it can take you a while to see everything the game has to offer. Coupled with the unlockable characters, the game does have a decent amount of replay value to it, and it's well worth the asking price in my opinion. It's not the game that will make you a fan of the genre though; if you aren't already, and it's really only something I'd suggest to people that enjoyed titles like Culdcept. Still, it definitely worked for me, so if you're into virtual card battles or traditional CCG/TCG models, then give this one a try.