Culdcept Saga 360

[Winnow]

While waiting for Lost Odyssey, I grabbed Culdcept Saga and have been pleasantly surprised at how fun it is.

I think it's available for a budget price even though it's a new release.

I would describe it as a mix between Magic the Gathering and Monopoly. The UI is well done. (just urn off the background music after awhile)

There are 500 cards in the game, all with excellent artwork and mini 3D representations for the board. It's a card game so there is no actual "action" during battles.

The tutorial and help screens are well done. I'm on the second "stage" and am still being tutored by a lady with huge cottonballs hanging from her head:



I beat this lady the first board/stage:




Might be one to pick up if you like Magic the Gathering/board type games. It looks simple in this YouTube video but there is some depth to the strategies than what you see but don't expect anything super deep.

Official Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00ndrAbdsSA

Demo of some gameplay:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7nmB3qqdfM


Looks like it's $39.00 which might be a bit much for this game. Maybe check it out when it's $19.99 down the road! Except for the amount of space rquired for all the 3D models, it would have made an excellent XBox Live game.

[Winnow]

This game is addicting.

I stayed up until 5am last night trying to get by the 5th battle. The initial "tutorial" battle is preyty easy and the following three Colosseum battles are pretty easy going. The first matchup after winning your freedom is a bitch though. I think it's a little too hard actually as the opponent has three different mob cards of which they hold multiple copies that can attack first from a defensive position so basically they are almost always attacking first which is an unfair advantage. I could see a few mob cards with attack first but they have virtually everyone which is unbalancing. On the flip side, I have one high level dragon card which requires some hefty parameters before I can put it in play that has an Attack first ability.

The 50 card book balancing is quite challenging. With 500 cards in the game, you've got to be picky. As MTG players probably know, you can't just put all of your high level cards in the deck as the high cost or land requirements will bankrupt you. I've created a few books and have been naming them after Marvel mystical characters. Named the first one Illyana and my current book is titled "Strange". So far I've shamed the good doctor's name.

This really is like monopoly in a way. As you raise your land values, the price of landing in the territory without fighting gets higher and higher. of course in monopoly, you can't decide to take over the land by force if you don't want to pay.

The game starts out pretty basic which might turn some off as new board features continue to be introduced even up through the fifth battle (and I still haven't seen everything) so they take their time as to not overwhelm you. Also, this 5th battle takes a couple hours minimum so they aren't super quick although you can save progress with the only penalty being losing the ability to record the game for future playback.

One saving grace of losing a long game is that you still are awarded some new cards for second place so if you keep losing, you might eventually find some cards that help you win the match although not as many as if you are victorious. I'm having a hell of a time with this attack first specialist opponent. I've loaded my deck with armor item cards to protect my invading monsters but that typically leaves me lacking the attack power to defeat the land boosted defender which results in a draw and me paying the toll.

Help screens and tutorial are excellent. Shame it's a little pricey even at 39.00 so most won't try it. It will definitely appeal to fans of Magic the Gathering type games and maybe even people that like Monopoly type games. FPS and RTS'ers should stay far away. (and those that didn't think Mass Effect was a good game)

Edit:

with actual voices along with the text displayed at the bottom, the best part of this game is during one part where an new opponent gets done with some long boast about how he's going to defeat you, your character's response is, "...!"

[Winnow]

I made it past the bastard with the Attack First cards. I don't know how MTG cards are setup but in this game, my general experience has been:

yellow = attack first
red = most powerful attacks
green = best defense
blue = powerful higher level mobs

I don't think that's entirely correct but seems to be the general trend.

I'm now working through four battles to "save the kingdom". Each opponent specializes in one of the colors. I have less than 100 of the 500 cards in my deck and only 3 blue mobs and 4 yellows. I've been given mostly reds and greens. I'm curious as to how/if the cards are randomly distributed. I'll play through a few rounds signed in with a different Live ID to see. There are custom game settings for head to head matches on Live and local. I can't see a way to share my book of cards with an opponent so the only way for me to have a semi fair game with a friend that comes over is to play through twice.

Best board/card type strategy game I've played so far on the 360 after getting a little deeper into the game. It by no means takes advantage of the 360's power save for the crisp HD graphics but the actual game is fun.

The game displays semi deep stats after games conclude. I like charts and this game provides a line graph showing the round by round progress of each player in the game. From viewing the charts, game can seem hopelessly out of reach but there's always a chance of a comeback. It gives players motivation to finish games...being awarded cards for second place also is a motivator for people to finish which might help on Live against people you don't know.

[Winnow]

Found a list of all the cards in the game:

http://home.comcast.net/~yomibear/culdcards.html

The Neutral cards are listed first which seem to be so so and not too exciting. As you scroll down, you'll see the various color cards grouped.