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| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: Strategy Developer: Omiyasoft Publisher: Namco Bandai Reviewed By: Dale Kulas |
“Culdcept Saga” is the follow up to the original Culdcept that came out on PS2 in 2003. Culdcept is wildly popular in Japan, but had
enough of a following in North America to warrant a sequel on the Xbox 360. As odd as it may sound, “Culdcept Saga” is essentially a
hybrid of the collectible card game, Magic: The Gathering, and the popular board game, Monopoly. This hybrid proves to be an incredibly
powerful combo that yields a fun and addictive game.
Players control "Cepters," who are people that are gifted with the ability to handle the power of the cards. In the campaign you control a
young lad who dreams of one day being a Cepter, and with a little luck runs into a lady who recognizes his special power and bestows
upon him a deck of the almighty Cepter cards. Players traverse across a variety of boards that all have four types of territories (fire,
water, wind, and earth). When players land on these territories they can summon a creature from one of their cards to "capture" the land.
When capturing multiple territories of the same type, players form chains (i.e. Monopolies) that increase the territories' toll value.
Additionally, players can use gold to level up the territory in order to increase the toll. When the opponent lands on a territory, they can
either pay the toll or summon one of their own creatures, where if they successfully oust them in battle, they will capture the land from
the opponent. However, if they fail they will lose both their creature and gold. Lapping the board, and capturing land nets points, and
victory is achieved either by totally bankrupting the opponent of gold or by whoever meets a predetermined amount of points first. If all of
this sounds overwhelming, don't worry, “Culdcept Saga” features a tutorial that explains all of the intricacies of the game as the first
round of the campaign is played.
Getting past those first few rounds is a challenge, as you start off with a weak deck. It took me five tries before I finally got past the first
opponent in the campaign. Win or lose, cards are awarded at the end of each round to help flesh out and upgrade the deck. Players can
save up to several types of decks in their profile which saves a lot of time organizing specific creature or value-oriented decks. I would
have preferred a couple of easier opponents to help ease me into the campaign, but the campaign is seemingly all about building your
deck to get it ready for some intense local or online multiplayer.
One of the greatest flaws of the games, but doesn’t really take away much from the game is the music in the game, which is lacking
and is often very repetitive. Players may find themselves falling asleep during a round because of the repetition of the music. It feels
much like driving down the highway and listening to the tires on the road, hypnotizing almost, but not in a good way.
Graphically, “Culdcept Saga”' has old-fashioned visuals that will leave a lot to be desired. They don't necessarily look bad; it is just that
they're several years behind the times. For what it's worth, they are marginally improved over the graphics in the PS2 game, and the card
art still looks amazing like it did before. There is a fitting medieval-esque score, and the sound effects are all on the spot. One other
thing I would have liked to have seen in the game, or ideally through downloadable content, is a board editor. I could only imagine the
many possibilities of the unique boards the Culdcept community could create.
At times that game gets to be quite long, especially during some of the rounds. The first couple of rounds take a few minutes while
other rounds could take anywhere between fifteen minutes to a couple of hours. This all depends on the number of enemies on the
board and the power that they hold. For players who hold a set of cards that doesn’t offer much, the round will go quickly, but for those
who have already earned a good hand of cards by the fourth or fifth round, the round could go on and on.
A frustrating part of the game is the difficulty of the computer players. An opponent that may have been easily beaten in an early round
may be nearly impossible to beat in a later round. It may be necessary to replay past rounds in order to earn more cards to build a
proper deck, making this a game that doesn’t run in linear order, though it still does. It runs back and forth in a linear fashion. The
repetition of the game, along with the difficulty could be very frustrating for many players, but for others, this is the perfect game.
“Culdcept Saga” is still a good package all things told. It got delayed over half a year after its Japan release because of some nasty
technical issues, but the developers ironed them all out for the North American release. If you dig card battle and/or board games, then
you owe it to yourself to at least give this a try. For a retail price of $40, it would be a disservice to this game to pass up on all this
content. Though, for those who aren’t a fan of games that can be drawn out over hours, such as monopoly, this game won’t be on their
top ten list.
enough of a following in North America to warrant a sequel on the Xbox 360. As odd as it may sound, “Culdcept Saga” is essentially a
hybrid of the collectible card game, Magic: The Gathering, and the popular board game, Monopoly. This hybrid proves to be an incredibly
powerful combo that yields a fun and addictive game.
Players control "Cepters," who are people that are gifted with the ability to handle the power of the cards. In the campaign you control a
young lad who dreams of one day being a Cepter, and with a little luck runs into a lady who recognizes his special power and bestows
upon him a deck of the almighty Cepter cards. Players traverse across a variety of boards that all have four types of territories (fire,
water, wind, and earth). When players land on these territories they can summon a creature from one of their cards to "capture" the land.
When capturing multiple territories of the same type, players form chains (i.e. Monopolies) that increase the territories' toll value.
Additionally, players can use gold to level up the territory in order to increase the toll. When the opponent lands on a territory, they can
either pay the toll or summon one of their own creatures, where if they successfully oust them in battle, they will capture the land from
the opponent. However, if they fail they will lose both their creature and gold. Lapping the board, and capturing land nets points, and
victory is achieved either by totally bankrupting the opponent of gold or by whoever meets a predetermined amount of points first. If all of
this sounds overwhelming, don't worry, “Culdcept Saga” features a tutorial that explains all of the intricacies of the game as the first
round of the campaign is played.
Getting past those first few rounds is a challenge, as you start off with a weak deck. It took me five tries before I finally got past the first
opponent in the campaign. Win or lose, cards are awarded at the end of each round to help flesh out and upgrade the deck. Players can
save up to several types of decks in their profile which saves a lot of time organizing specific creature or value-oriented decks. I would
have preferred a couple of easier opponents to help ease me into the campaign, but the campaign is seemingly all about building your
deck to get it ready for some intense local or online multiplayer.
One of the greatest flaws of the games, but doesn’t really take away much from the game is the music in the game, which is lacking
and is often very repetitive. Players may find themselves falling asleep during a round because of the repetition of the music. It feels
much like driving down the highway and listening to the tires on the road, hypnotizing almost, but not in a good way.
Graphically, “Culdcept Saga”' has old-fashioned visuals that will leave a lot to be desired. They don't necessarily look bad; it is just that
they're several years behind the times. For what it's worth, they are marginally improved over the graphics in the PS2 game, and the card
art still looks amazing like it did before. There is a fitting medieval-esque score, and the sound effects are all on the spot. One other
thing I would have liked to have seen in the game, or ideally through downloadable content, is a board editor. I could only imagine the
many possibilities of the unique boards the Culdcept community could create.
At times that game gets to be quite long, especially during some of the rounds. The first couple of rounds take a few minutes while
other rounds could take anywhere between fifteen minutes to a couple of hours. This all depends on the number of enemies on the
board and the power that they hold. For players who hold a set of cards that doesn’t offer much, the round will go quickly, but for those
who have already earned a good hand of cards by the fourth or fifth round, the round could go on and on.
A frustrating part of the game is the difficulty of the computer players. An opponent that may have been easily beaten in an early round
may be nearly impossible to beat in a later round. It may be necessary to replay past rounds in order to earn more cards to build a
proper deck, making this a game that doesn’t run in linear order, though it still does. It runs back and forth in a linear fashion. The
repetition of the game, along with the difficulty could be very frustrating for many players, but for others, this is the perfect game.
“Culdcept Saga” is still a good package all things told. It got delayed over half a year after its Japan release because of some nasty
technical issues, but the developers ironed them all out for the North American release. If you dig card battle and/or board games, then
you owe it to yourself to at least give this a try. For a retail price of $40, it would be a disservice to this game to pass up on all this
content. Though, for those who aren’t a fan of games that can be drawn out over hours, such as monopoly, this game won’t be on their
top ten list.
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