 Review By: Eric Rehm |
Developer: | Omiya Soft |
| Publisher: | Namco Bandai | |
| Genre: | Card Battler | |
| ESRB: | Teen | |
| # Of Players: | 1-4 | |
| Online Play: | Yes | |
| Accessories: | Xbox Live (online play) | |
| Buy Now: |   |
Culdcept Saga is kind of hard to describe. It’s a card game with anime elements, as well as board game elements mixed together into an Xbox 360 title. At its core, Culdcept Saga is playing on the rabid collecting habits of collectible card game (CCG) fans, and following in the footsteps of other console CCG hybrids like Eye of Judgment for the PS3. If you’ve got the time to put into it and have been yearning for a CCG on the 360, Culdcept Saga offers enough diversity and fun to warrant at least a look or rent. You might end up addicted, however, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Gameplay:
Culdcept Saga borrows elements from CCG’s like Yu-Gi-Oh! and board games like Monopoly. You play on a Monopoly-like board with squares that can be ‘bought’ by summoning a creature on it. Each creature and area has a color type: green, blue, red and yellow.
While you can summon creatures onto any colored spot, summoning one onto its native color will yield a bonus to it’s strength and health. When you own a land (or square), any player that lands on it will have to pay a toll in magic, just like Monopoly. If they have a creature, they can choose to fight yours. If they win, they take over the land. If they lose, their card is destroyed and they have to pay the toll.
You can upgrade lands as well. By paying some magic, you can level up each of your controlled territories, which will make the toll go up, as well as adding benefits to the creature that controls it. Again, it’s basically like adding hotels to a property in Monopoly. To move around the board, you roll a dice for up to 8 spaces.
Your objective on the board is to get the most territory points, usually around 5000. You gain points each round from each territory you own, as well as from taking an enemy’s territory. A territory’s value also increases as you ‘chain’ more monsters onto the same color territory, increasing the benefits given to their occupying monsters.
Each game can have up to four players, with free for all or team matches available. The game even includes online multiplayer, including a booster match where each player gets a random deck, like a booster tournament for CCGs. Depending on the number of players, games can last somewhere around 20 to 80 turns, up to several hours. Most games become a heated trade-off of lands and monsters, with the occasional spell thrown in.
Card Types:
There are three basic card types in Culdcept Saga; monsters, magic and equipment. Monsters are your bread and butter; they take lands and kick butt for you. They’ve got a summoning cost, strength, health, and a point value. Magic can be attacked or used in a supplementary role, ranging from direct damage spells to making sure you roll an 8 your next turn. Equipment is purely a supplement. When creatures go into combat, you can choose a piece of equipment from your hand of cards. They can boost your health or attack, maybe both, or even negate/reflect the damage back at the enemy.
Posted: 2008-04-01 14:24:51 PST