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Culdcept 3DS - Reviews

JRPG.moe's Review (4.5/5)

Culdcept (3DS) Review - A Charming Old Card

Culdcept 3DS

For the unfamiliar, Culdcept is a virtual board game that plays out like an RPG with players using the cards they are dealt to summon monsters, fight each other and amass the most magical money. It’s Monopoly meets Magic the Gathering, a bizarre mix that shouldn’t work but somehow comes together into an unconventional yet addictive title. This is no surprise to some, since the series has been going strong for almost twenty years now, but this 3DS version of Culdcept from 2012 was my starting point for the series. Though the gameplay appeared baffling to an outsider, as my introduction to the world of duelling monsters and elemental investments Culdcept on the 3DS is as approachable as a complicated Japanese board game can possibly get.

As a Cepter, players wield no weapons outside of a “book” of fifty cards. One card is drawn each turn and costs a set amount of magic to play; this magic is effectively the Cepters’ money, with the objective being to amass the required number of magic points. This goal is best accomplished by making the surrounding spaces your own. After rolling the dice and landing on an empty space, Cepters can pay up to summon a creature to claim that land, forcing anyone who lands on it to play a toll. Like your favourite trading card game of choice, each monster has a different elemental value and receives a boost if it matches the type of terrain. The basic gameplay consists of travelling to far off fortresses and placing monsters before doubling back to the castle for a bonus, but there’s far more to Culdcept than that.

Culdcept 3DS map

In a game like Monopoly or Fortune Street, you always want to be avoiding your opponent’s spaces or risk facing a hefty fine. Landing on a creature in Culdcept might hurt your wallet, but you can successfully avoid paying the toll and take the spot for yourself if you manage to beat the opposing monster in battle. This keeps players on their toes even when they’re waiting for their turn to come around, since at any moment the game could shift to a more “RPG-style” duel with players taking turns striking each other. Even though you can estimate the outcome and view a creature’s stats before entering combat, it’s possible for both sides to turn the tables by equipping items to increase their strength and HP or cause other effects like the ability to strike first. In addition, your creatures can be powered up by investing more magic into them, placing other allies on similar spaces or even by playing other cards in your hand as support. Depending on the size of the board it sometimes takes a while for players to really square off against each other, but it’s always engaging when it does and it’s the main thing that sets Culdcept apart from similar games. Cepters can also fill their decks with spell cards that cause various effects; it’s incredibly satisfying to bankrupt your opponent by using a spell that forces them onto your property. The board is more than just empty spaces to claim, too, with areas that cause random events, let Cepters draw extra cards and even invest in a sort of elemental stock market. This review is only really scratching the surface of the turn-by-turn gameplay in Culdcept because there’s countless layers that emerge the more you play it. I’m still not 100% on the rules and how some of the calculations work, but the game does a good job of breaking down this complex game.

Culdcept 3DS battle

This is largely due to assistance provided by the single player campaign in this 3DS version. The story here doesn’t matter, but this mode essentially functions as an extended tutorial that gets new players accustomed to Culdcept’s unique style of gameplay. First off, the structure of the single player help to ease newcomers in by slowly introducing new game styles and mechanics; showing off new spaces and cards with every board helps to keep things simple, but the progression never felt too drawn out to a newbie like myself. Just examining a card shows tips on what its ability does and losing a match gives heaps of feedback on how you screwed up (it’s all bad luck, I swear). The game even suggests which spaces to move to and cards to play, although this isn’t a simple guide to victory since it might not suit your playstyle and deck-building plays a major part of the game. Players need to think carefully about their book’s colour, cost and balance between creatures, items and spells although again this isn’t overwhelming because you start off with such a small pool of cards. There are over 400 cards to use and it take a bit of creative thinking to make the most of some of the rarer ones with plenty of room to create cunning combos. It’s worth noting that all matches are played with open hands, which is a holdover from the single-screen Culdcept entries. This element is a bit contentious since it reduces the element of surprise, but the game feels balanced around these brief glimpses at players’ cards.

Like the odd blend of gameplay mechanics, this version of Culdcept has a mix of different artstyles that somehow work well together. The characters stick to a fairly conventional anime style, while the amazingly detailed art on all of the cards has more of a western fantasy look. All of the dragons, demons and cornfolk are also represented on the board with cute little sprites. Although the creatures themselves aren’t rendered in 3D, the battle scenes come with cool effects like claws reaching from the screen to rip the opposing card to shreds. There’s a surprising amount of English voicework in the 3DS version of Culdcept, too. The events unfolding on the board are accompanied by a female narrator – her grammatically incorrect well wishes of “good luck to your next journey” were always appreciated. Just as endearingly corny is the male voiceover who reads out all of the monster names as they enter battle. Please try to imagine Solid Snake reading out Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. That’s the Culdcept guy. The actual music in Culdcept is alright, but the tracks really start to drag during long sessions. If you can live without the voicework it’s the perfect game to play while listening to podcasts

Culdcept 3DS round

The best thing about this version of Culdcept is that despite being a port it feels so well suited to the 3DS. The two displays allow for heaps of information to be shown onscreen and even the lengthiest matches are manageable when you can just close the lid and put it in sleep mode. The 3DS Culdcept also boasts a large variety of online and offline multiplayer modes. Although the “download play” with a single card is limited to battles against AI opponents with constructed decks, the rest of the multiplayer options are more fleshed out with different rulesets, handicaps and voice chat. Though the length of matches might test players’ patience, especially when playing online, you can customise the length of matches by tweaking the amount of gold required to win. There are also online tournaments and new cards available to download – these might start disappearing with a new Culdcept releasing in a month but it’s crazy that the game has been supported for almost four years now.

My only real beef with Culdcept is the same issue that plagues a lot of board and card games – sometimes victory comes down to complete luck. That said, the unpredictable nature is also what makes it so compelling and the focus on careful creature placement and building the perfect deck means that it definitely won’t ruin as many friendships as something like Dokapon. The randomness can be particularly frustrating when fighting AI-controlled opponents, who have an irritating tendency to just happen to land on the right space and draw the right cards. It’s annoying to spend hours redoing a match to progress in the single player campaign because of bad luck. Still, you receive an assortment of random cards even if you lose a match, so it never feels like wasted time. Any unwanted cards can also be traded in for a second chance at the ones you want, so even when they’re losing matches players are always amassing a larger collection of cards and can easily tweak their deck for a rematch.

Culdcept 3DS cards - Wall of Stone and Valkyria

The Verdict: 4.5/5

The 3DS version of Culdcept might just be the most approachable. Sure, all of the Japanese text might be unmanageable for some, but the translated list of all the cards over at Culdcept Central is a big help. Language barrier aside, it's a great point for newcomers to discover this quirky spin on RPGs. I suspect it might not have as much to offer Culdcept veterans, since even the story sticks very close to previous entries, but surely all of this iteration has helped OmiyaSoft to get the game balance right. Although I haven't spent too much time with the multiplayer, it certainly seems to be well-balanced, with the most overpowered cards being exclusive to the single player mode. If you really dig into the deck-building and have friends to play it with, Culdcept offers an engrossing experience that's far more than the sum of its parts. Here's hoping that Culdcept Revolt manages to be a worthy successor to what is rightfully considered a cult classic.

Last Updated on Friday, 14 April 2017 14:43

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Culdcept 3DS

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