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If Magic the Gathering could catch on, maybe this game has a chance. But
I'm going to remain skeptical until I see it catch on. Magic has some
marketing advantages in its favor. First of all, Magic the Gathering is a
really cool and meaningful name, whereas Navia Dratp is an ugly,
meaningless name. Now maybe it will catch on despite that. Yu-gi-oh! is a
stupid name, yet it has enjoyed some popularity. The other problem I see
with this game catching on is that collectible pieces are going to cost
much more than collectible cards. But, since I collected Star Wars action
figures as a kid, maybe that won't be that big a hurdle. However, I think
a Saturday morning cartoon show is what this game will need to really catch
on in popularity.

The piece shown in the photo is pretty, but it also looks like something
most little boys wouldn't be caught dead with. Little boys normally
prefer something more masculine than a cute little fairy. Including scary
monsters would probably make the game more appealing to that demographic.
And, considering that Chess variants seem much more popular among males
than females, for nearly everyone at this site is male, it's going to be
important to reach a male audience with this game.

As for pieces such as these vs. more abstract pieces, I am a strong
supporter of abstraction in piece design. For me, one of the things that
helps make a game more playable is being able to tell the difference
between different pieces at a glance. I can easily do this with a Staunton
set, with my own Abstract set, and with some of the more abstract sets
I've found in Chess programs (such as Futura in Checkmate! or Art Deco in
Chessmaster 6000). But when I've played Chess with humaniform figurine
pieces, or 3D images of such in a computerized Chess game, it has been
easier for me to confuse pieces.