So some background, I used to play magic casually many many years ago when I was young. Like 20 years ago. We had some starter decks and every booster we got was put in the deck. Deck building wasn't really a thing, we just loved to collect and play at lunch time. Eventually I sold my cards at a yard sale as I matured but it remained a regret of mine. Not so much that I wanted to play still but I'll never get those cards back. I also collected Pokemon and Star wars for awhile but never really battled.
What intrigued me initially was the theme. Magic is not something I would ever be able to get my wife into. Let alone would she ever allow me to eventually get my daughter into it in the future. Dark fantasy is just not as approachable. The cards and theme for most are ugly and gruesome. So with Lorcana, I thought, "well it's magic in a much more approachable theme." Which is a huge plus if I want to play with my wife and eventually my daughter. We love Disney, watch all the movies, etc. I wouldn't say we are Disney fanatics (no tattoos lol) but it was a part of our childhood that we loved and my daughter loves it.
So that's plus #1. The approachable theme. You can introduce anyone to the game and they will likely know some or most of the characters and will understand their abilities because they are tied to the theme. Things like Ariel on Human Legs can't sing, or Grandma Tala from Moana goes into your resource pool (inkwell) when she dies instead of the discard pile. Spoiler: in the beginning of the movie when she dies her spirit stays with Moana to help her. Stuff like that.
Now to gameplay: Magic and Pokemon both have land/energy resource cards that take up a significant part of your deck. Lorcana doesn't. Instead most characters are "Inkable" while certain more powerful characters are not. Ink is the resource of the game. Each turn you Ink a card that you then exert/tap to play other cards. Since character cards are also the resource, it allows for more strategic depth and pivoting to new situations. You have to strategically ink cards that you think are less important in order to play cards you think are more important. Depending on what your opponent plays, your strategy might change. You don't end up with a bunch of resource cards in your hand and instead, you always have cards you can play or pivot to.
Another gameplay aspect that I think is unique is that there are special action cards called songs. Rather than spending ink to play them. You can instead exert/tap a character card of equal value and have them sing the card. It's like an alternate form of payment. With songs being so integral to Disney media, I think this is a really interesting mechanic that they're going to lean heavily into.
Lastly, in magic you need to deplete your opponent's HP by 20 down to 0. Lorcana counts up from 0 to 20 lore. Your characters quest for points/lore (exert/tap them), but in doing so they become vulnerable to challenges on your opponents turn. If your opponent has an exerted/tapped card, instead of questing for lore, you can challenge them. Each character does their attack power in damage to the other, and if this value exceeds their willpower, the character is banished. If the damage is not enough to overcome the willpower, the character survives but the damage remains (you put a die or counter on it to track damage). Counting up to 20 also means that if you are playing with more than 2 people, all players play until the end of the game, where as with magic, one player can get killed first and sidelined, leaving the others to battle it out.
I currently have all three starter decks, and was able to get a trove box that comes with eight boosters. So including the boosters that come with the starter decks, I have three starter decks and 11 boosters that I used to make my modified starter decks. I had just the starters a week or two before I was able to find the trove. So my wife and I played with just the starters for a while. I think if you're mainly into board games and playing with family and friends and aren't really looking to collect additional cards, the starters have plenty of cards and strategic depth to just buy outright and treat it as a board game. We're having a blast playing just the two of us, and we're still figuring out all the cards and the strategies of how they synergize. We play almost nightly. My wife has never played a TCG in her life, but we play a lot of board games. She is really enjoying it and is now encouraging me to buy more boosters lol.
Currently there's nothing that I dislike about the game. I do have some cards that I like more than others so I try to remove them from my deck to play better cards. There also isn't the strategic depth that something like magic has cultivated over almost 30 years, but I think that will come gradually with time. The game is strategic without being unapproachable IMO. New mechanics will ship with additional expansions. A new ability called "resist" is being introduced into the first expansion, for example.
As far as how into the theme you "need" to be, I think being familiar with the characters would help you enjoy and relate to it more, but there are some Disney movies I haven't seen that have cards and I still enjoy them. They make me want to watch the movies actually.
To enjoy the game out of the box, I recommend all three starters of the first chapter. Two additional new starters are coming with the first expansion (Floodborn) also. I recommend all three because I feel they are in a rock, paper, scissors arrangement. And if you and your partner are looking to play, having all three will give you 3 out-of-the-box options to switch between. Furthermore you can separate the colors from the 3 starters and have all 6 colors. You can then pair up any 2 colors to make different decks to keep it fresh.
Before you buy anything, check out the side bar. I have the MSRP for each item. Please don't over pay. Additionally I have resources where you can print your own proxy sets. I would look up the cards that come in each starter and add those cards to the proxy sheets and then you can print your own starters to play at home and try before you buy. Lastly, someone has made an online version of this called Pixelborn. It's completely free. You could download it on two devices and play against your partner digitally and again, try before you buy.
Let me know if you have any other questions! I hope this helped
Edit: Also sorry that this is super long lol.
Edit2: typos, and I wanted to mention the gameplay videos I have in the sidebar are an easy way to see how the game works and if you think you'll like it.
