Anyone who knows me realizes by now I like those off beat (not beat off) games. Things like Eye of Judgement, those niche titles that most mainstream gamers avoid like the plague.

So when I heard that one of my favorite PS2 games was getting a 360 version, I jumped for joy. I imagined online battles. And I was not disappointed.


Culdcept Saga
Developed by Omiya Soft

Culdcept is a different breed of game. The best way to describe it is Monopoly meets Magic the Gathering. The game itself has a brutal learning curve at first with card rules/restrictions, but the single player does a good job of explaining and training as you play.

So here is the basic premise of the game. You are a cepter who has the ability to use the cards. Moving your cepter around the game board, you want to win by reaching a score goal on the map. The first map has a goal of 5000. This value is made up of two things:

Mana - The magic power that allows you to summon creatures and play cards
Territory - When your creature is on a space, you own that land. The land value is part of your total score.



Each map can have multiple paths to go, but the basic premise is the same. You want to make your way around to touch the forts (or checkpoints) on the map, then return to the castle to complete a lap. The castle is like the Go space in Monopoly as you'll gain mana based on your current stats. The squares of the map are divided into multiple types. Element spaces are Fire, Water, Wood, and Earth. This is where you will summon creatures. Passing Forts nets you some mana and you need to pass them all to complete a lap. Shrines affect the entire map in some way with a random effect and fortune tellers allow you to draw a card from your deck of any type you want.

So maps are one half of the game. The second half are the cards. There are a total of almost 480 cards in the game. You can have up to 6 cards in your hands and you create your own deck from cards that you own. You're given a started deck to begin, and no matter if you win or lose, you will get cards to better your deck. In your deck are three types of cards:

Creatures - Creatures allow you to capture territory. They get bonuses for being on their elements, and there can be tons of rules based on them. Some creatures require discards to summon, others can't summon to specific element lands. Some are purely defensive and cannot attack at all.
Items - Items are used in battles to help your creature. If you need to defend your land, you may use armor to up the creature HP so it survives the attack. Attack items up your creatures strength to do more damage. Some items have skills such as reflecting damage, stealing opponent's items etc.
Spells - Spell cards are used on the map, not in battle. These can be used to attack creatures, heal HP, and even affect the dice which control your characters movement on the board.



Almost all cards have a mana cost, so summoning and using spells a lot can leave you without mana to defend yourself later on. You have to balance your card usage with your location on the game board.

The basic gameplay flows like a regular board game. You can use a spell if you wish then roll the dice. Once you land on a spot you can decide to take action. If it is an empty spot, you can lay down a creature to own the territory. If you land on an enemy, you either have to pay a toll (like Monopoly) or you can choose to fight the enemy to try to win control. This is where some of the strategy comes in. Early on, it's very cheap to pay the toll. If you attack and fail to win, not only have you used mana on your creature and items, but you still have to pay the toll.

If you land or pass your own creatures, you get more abilities. You can change the land element (to help your creature), level up the land (more on this in a minute), swap the creature with one in your hand, and even move the creature a space to attack or just take over another land.

The big option is to level up your land. This works very much like hotels in Monopoly. By paying mana, you can up the level of the land causing the tolls to rise as well as boosting the creature that is on it.

Just like Monopoly (see there it is again) you can bankrupt an opponenet who can't pay your toll and then cause them to sell off land to pay you. If you choose to fight, each player can choose to use an item to help their creature if they have the mana and items in their hand.

Sounds like an interesting premise, does it not? Add in four player multiplayer on and offline with team battles and the ability to set up rules such as turn time limits, banned cards etc. Multiplayer is easily the reason to play this, and it helps that you can get new cards in multiplayer as well so you don't have to slog through single player. Blind battles allow the game to make random decks out of all the cards in the game, not just the ones you own. You then choose one of 5 decks and play that way. While it is fun to see cards you haven't seen yet, these games take a bit longer as players have to deal with unfamiliar cards and abilities.

All this for the budget price of $40 doesn't hurt either. However the game is not without flaws.

In single player you will find the AI likes to cheat here and there. They may cast a spell to hurt your creature then roll the exact number they need to land there to attack it. Or they'll roll the right number to avoid your higher priced areas. Games both online and offline can take an hour or longer depending on number of players and score to win. Against the AI, nothing is more frustrating than playing for over an hour and losing at the end.

The graphics are very dated and aren't updated much beyond the PS2 version. While it's been helped moving to HD, there's not much to marvel at. Furthermore the battles are just the cards with their stats being attacked by a 3D weapon or spell and not the actual monster models from the map doing the battle. Music can get repetative quite quickly, especially when you lose to the AI constantly. Thank god for custom Soundtracks. The story for single player is very basic and you do well to even skip cutscenes (with some bad load time between each one).



If you like board games, card games, and generally games that are not the norm, this game could be for you. Even in losing a match, it's nice to be rewarded with some cards which could turn the tide to your favor the next time. The game is very enjoyable for fans of the genre, but do expect to spend time learning the game before finding the strategy and depth the mechanics have to offer.

Overall grade
B- (RENT, THEN BUY)