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Gamers' Temple's Review (76%)

What do you get when you mix Monopoly and Magic: The Gathering, and toss in a healthy does of Japanese anime? The answer is Culdcept, a very popular game in Japan that is now making its US debut. The story in Culdcept is that a goddess by the name of Culdra has created a book of creation that can be used to control the universe. Wizards known as Cepters use magic spells cast from cards in a battle to obtain and control the book. The problem is that in the wrong hands this book can be used to destroy the universe, so it is up to you to defeat all of the other Cepters and save the universe. Why? Because that's just the kind of guy you are. OK, so the story's actually kind of odd in a Japanese sort of way but in reality it accounts for only a small portion of the game. Most of your game time will actually be spent dueling with other Cepters on game boards. The story part of that game is a spectator sport as you watch the limited action from the standard RPG three quarters overhead perspective. Your control during the story scenes is limited to hitting the button to advance the conversation text to the next page. This is supposed to serve the purpose of presenting you with the motivation for the duels, but I could have done without it. I found the story to be a little goofy and felt that it wasted time that could have been better spent battling another Cepter.

When a battle begins the action is moved to a game board that consists of a series of colored squares linked together in a closed loop. The first board looks just like a Monopoly board, with the spaces aligned into a square and with two special squares placed at opposite corners of the board. As you make your way through the game, though, you'll see ever more complex boards in variety of shapes and with features such as bridges and warp points.

Each space on the board is in one of four different colors that represents its magical element alignment - fire, water, wind, or earth. The alignment of the space has an effect on the battles that take place there, but more on that later. Play is turn-based, and on his or her turn the player rolls a die and moves his or her token the resultant number of squares. Like Monopoly, the first player to land on a square has the option to claim it for his own by summoning a creature to guard the square. Owning squares provides a couple of benefits. The first is that they generate gold income for you each time you complete a circuit of the board. These squares can also be upgraded to provide a greater income level, although it will cost you some gold up front to do so. There are also benefits to owning adjacent squares of the same land type. If a player lands on another player's square, then he'll need to pay a gold penalty to the square's owner. This will all seem familiar to Monopoly players, but there is a difference in that you don't have to pay the penalty if you decide to attack the guardian creature and defeat it. Monopoly doesn't let a player lay waste to another player's hotels after all - unless you played against my brother when he was a kid. Fighting to win a square is accomplished by summoning creatures and using spell cards, but more on that in a bit.

Culdcept is more than just moving a token around a game board. Players have the ability to cast spells and summon monsters during play. The spells that can be cast and the creatures that can be summoned are determined by the spell cards held by each Cepter. These cards are pulled from the Cepter's deck of spell cards at random - each player begins with five cards and draws one new card each turn. These cards come in three varieties, the first of which are creatures. As mentioned previously, Creatures are summoned to garrison and protect a square when the square is first captured by a captor and are also summoned to attack another Cepter's creature when trying to capture a square. Each creature is given a base attack and hit point numbers that determine its relative strength. In addition, some creatures are given special attacks or receive bonuses if fighting on certain types of lands. The next group of cards consists of weapons, armor, and special attacks known as item cards that are used during creature battles to modify the attack and/or hit point ratings of a creature or to provide a temporary bonus. Finally there are a set of spell cards which can be cast from the game board at the beginning of your turn. These have a variety of effects which include affecting the dice rolls, eliminating cards from your opponent's hand, and attacks on garrison creatures to soften them up a bit before the next battle.

A battle occurs when a player lands on a square owned by another player. The moving player can select a creature to summon from his or her hand to attack the creature garrisoning the square. The game provides a little guidance in creature selection by indicating which creatures in your hand are weaker, stronger, or evenly matched with the garrisoned creature. This is only a basic comparison, though, and does not take into account any bonuses in affect or spell cards played. Once the creature is selected, each player can select one modifier card to alter the strength, hit points, or special attack of their creature. Once these spells are selected and applied the strength of the attacker is compared to the hit points of the defender, and if the strength number is higher the attacker wins the battle and the square. If the attacker fails to eliminate the defender, the defender counterattacks in an attempt to eliminate the attacker. If the attacker is destroyed or simply fails to destroy the defender, the attack fails and the attacker is forced to pay the square's toll.

That's all there is to the combat. All of the strategy lies in picking the right creature to use in the attack, and in whether or not to apply an additional spell card if available. After that it is a simple numbers game. There is enough thinking required and an element of randomness involved to keep the battles interesting, but if you're expecting the multi-round, dynamic battles found in Magic: The Gathering, you'll be disappointed. The battles are not particularly interesting to watch, as the creatures appear as static illustrations on cards. There is some animation in that the attacking creature's weapon appears to strike the defender's card, but that's about it. It's the kind of thing that once you've seen it several times you'll wish that you could skip the graphics and just view the outcome. This is especially true because it can take a long time to finish play on a board and the battles can make it seem like this time is being dragged out more than is really necessary.

Winning is accomplished by being the first Cepter to collect a set amount of gold and make one last circuit around the board. If you win, you can move on to the next location in the story and play the next board. Lose and you'll need to replay the current board until you win. Although the rules are pretty simple, winning is not. The game's AI uses its cards very wisely, and while I can't quite directly accuse it of cheating, it sure is amazing how often the computer can roll the right number to land on an empty square.

As you make your way through the story, you'll collect new cards and have the option of editing your deck before the next game board. This adds another layer of strategy to the game as you spend time perfecting your deck. On the down side, gamers looking for a Magic style card game will probably be disappointed by the simplicity of the game's duels. Like Magic, there are rule bending cards in Culdcept. However the single round duels remove the element of chaotically dynamic gameplay that you get in Magic as spell effects accumulate through each round. Undoubtedly, some gamers will find Culdcept fascinating, but I felt that it could have been a lot more intriguing game if the duels were more complex, dynamic, and interactive. Also, the "Magic-Lite" duels and slow-pace of the turn-based, game board play worked to make some games feel as if they were dragging - especially when it was the computer's turn to move.

As for multiplayer play, Culdcept will let four players compete together with a Multitap. You can compete against each other or in teams, but only boards played in the story mode will be available. Online play is not supported.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 76%.
More Monopoly than Magic: The Gathering, you may want to rent it first to see if it suits your style.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 15 May 2013 08:48

Card of the Moment

Holy Grail PS2
G:80
Neutralizes: All non-scroll attacks. / User pays (amount of neutralized damage x2G) magic.

Culdcept PS2/DC

culdcept_ii_ps2_jpn.jpg

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