Can you still play this card if you do not have any characters on board? Therefore it basically is a removal for 1, without any drawback if your field is empty?

No, as says the card you must choose 2 characters one of yours and one control by your opponent. If you can't choose enough characters you can't play the card.

Thank you! This is what I thought, but I wasn't sure if that was part of the cost or not.