Culdcept SAGA

Rating Teen Genre role-playing Publisher Namco Bandai External Links Official Namco Bandai Website

Think of it as Magic: the Gathering crossed with Monopoly. I wish I could be more clever, but this very common description of Culdcept fits incredibly well. Elements of a fantasy collectible card game merge with the mechanics of a board game and the result is a very addicting experience. Granted, there is a small niche that these types of games falls into, but that niche has been completely overlooked in Xbox 360 games to this point. From the early positive response, I’d say it’s a target audience that can finally get excited.

In Culdcept SAGA you play the part of a Cepter. Cepters have the ability to bring the cards to life and therefore summon creatures, cast spells, and perform all of the other fantasy/magic action you’ve come to expect. In the beginning you are unaware of your Cepter abilities until you happen to pass a princess on your way out of town. The cards she carries react to your presence and your life as a Cepter begins. In all honesty, the background story does little more than set up each battle and you’ll likely find it boring and unnecessary pretty quickly. It’s standard sci-fi/fantasy script #27 and, unfortunately, it adds nothing to the gameplay experience. However, the story really is secondary to the game and the actual gameplay mechanics are very well done.

As you begin, Princess Faustina gives you a starter deck of 50 cards. Cards are broken down into creatures, items, and spells. Elements also come into play similar to the different colors in a Magic deck. A creature can be a fire, water, earth, air, or neutral element. The items and spells can also have varying effects depending on the element of their target. For your first battle you’re stuck with the starter deck, but as you play matches you will collect more cards so that you can begin customizing a strategy of your own. One nice feature is that you get cards whether you win or lose a battle, but obviously you get more for winning. As you progress in the game you build up a large arsenal of cards and you can really put together some unique and strategic decks. The possibilities are almost endless as there are 482 different cards in total and you have multiple slots available to design as many different 50-card decks as you can dream up.

Once you’ve got a deck built, it’s on to the battle itself. The game board has a number of squares and the goal is to make laps around the board. You start at the castle, which you can also think of as the Go square in Monopoly. Each time you pass the castle you get a magic bonus. Magic is the currency of the game and also the goal for each map. You use the magic you’ve built up to summon your creatures and cast spells. You also have a running tally of the total Magic you’ve earned. Once you reach the total Magic goal for the map and return to the castle, you win the game.

Another way to gain magic is by collecting tolls. When you land on an open square you can summon one of your creatures from your hand to hold that square. If your opponent lands on one of your squares, he can either pay the toll or summon a creature of his own to fight for control. Defending squares becomes a big part of the game, especially since you can raise the value of the squares by spending Magic to level them up. The elements also play a big part in defending squares. Most of the squares on the board correspond to one of the elements. Put a fire creature on a fire square and that creature gains a defensive bonus, which also increases with the level of the land. So, by putting a strong creature on a matching element and raising that land to a high level, you can create mega-Boardwalks that can cripple your opponents should they be unfortunate enough to land on them.

The possible variations and tactics can go on and on and that really speaks to a well-balanced game design. Bringing out strong creatures and leveling up land costs more Magic. If you don’t manage your Magic, you can disadvantage yourself very easily. Even very powerful setups can be vulnerable to different strategies and combos, so there’s really no such thing as a killer deck or card that everyone must have and use. That opens the playing field and leads to plenty of opportunity for repeat playing using different strategies and ideas.

The main knock on this game has to be the graphics. Beyond a lacking storyline, the cutscenes look like they would fit in fine with a late 90’s PS2 game. Even the in-game graphics are very basic. The excellent gameplay more than makes up for this in my mind, but we have come to expect a lot more visually when it comes to an Xbox 360 title. A little more time spent on the battle graphics and less on the story and cutscenes would have been a welcome change.

If you’ve played and enjoyed Magic: the Gathering or other games of that type, you’re going to love this game. If you like board games and card games, I think there’s also a good chance you will love this game. It’s definitely not a first person shooter and you’ll need a little higher attention span to get into it, but Culdcept SAGA fills a game gap that was longing to be filled. This is one of the few games I’ve played lately where I completely lost track of time and the next thing I knew it was 3 am. The fact that it’s priced at $40 is just another reason to enter the world of Culdcept.