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Published : February 04, 2008 |
Author : JASON MAHONY | |||||||||
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GAMEGUIDEDOG.COM IS PROUD to be able to provide the most complete and best online walkthrough strategy game guide for CULDCEPT SAGA. This precise WALKTHROUGH GAME STRATEGY GUIDE is/will be available for you right in your members area and compatable for the MICROSOFT XBOX 360 Platform. It was only a matter of time before the popularity of card-based strategy adventures would see the light of day on consoles—their "action" envisioned in zeroes and ones. Of course, the concept of a physical playing card transformed into a digital re-creation of a card is nothing new (video poker has been around since, uh, Intellivision), but the notion of a collectible, fantasy-style trader adventure on a console is a bit fresher of a concept. And you can partially thank Pikachu for the advent of such a video game. There's a marked difference between turn-based strategy video games based on board or card games and, say, RPGs that were borne out of the D&D's dice-play era. In the video-game genre known as RPG, the dice-rolling elements have been stripped from the experience, only working in the background as an algorithmic means to an end. In video games such as Magic: The Gathering- Battlegrounds or Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dawn of Destiny, however, the physical act of the board/card game—in this case, the collectible nature of the cards—has been preserved and implemented as a central focus of the action.
Adding an even more interesting twist into this collectible, card-based genre that has nothing to do with…well, "hold'n 'em," is OmiyaSoft's and Namco Bandai's Culdcept. Instead of being metamorphosed from a real trading-card game into a virtual one, Culdcept was conceived entirely in the digital realm as a unique intellectual property. This cart-before-horse philosophy surely has its downsides, but the upside of having no need to be "faithful" to a physical card game is a powerful trade-off for Japanese developer OmiyaSoft. Culdcept got its start in the U.S. in 2003 for the PS2, and despite a lukewarm reception stateside, the franchise will again be hitting these shores in early February as a Xbox 360 econo-priced exclusive. Culdcept Saga is the title of this latest turn-based strategy affair based tightly on actual card games such as Magic: The Gathering. So tightly, in fact, that you may feel like Wizards of the Coast is the actual publisher of Culdcept Saga; not video game-industry stalwart Namco Bandai. Even those wily Parker Brothers may seem to have their hands in Culdcept Saga's pot (more on that below) at first glance. A bit of a backstory sets up Culdcept Saga, but it's really less about storytelling and more about card-and-board management than the intro would lead you to believe. The term "Culdcept" is the proper name of a book created by a powerful goddess (Culdra) within the lore of OmiyaSoft's universe. The book's creator was said to have shattered the book into pieces, thus ending a longtime war among the universe's gods. The pieces of the book remained as remnants of its strength, and eventually fell into the hands of the humans. The bits of the Culdcept—or cards, for the purpose of the game—can be controlled by human forms known as Cepters. A war among Cepters eventually breaks out, of which you happen to be a major part. Your character (created with a few basic options in a customizer) won't initially know that it is a Cepter, but the pieces of the puzzle are slowly but surely revealed to the user as Culdcept Saga moves on. Culdcept Saga is played on an electronic gaming board similar to any number of Parker Brothers or Milton Bradley classics. Also similar to board games, players get a "turn" that involves the role of a die and movement among dozens of board spaces. In Culdcept Saga's case, the goal isn't to get to the end of the road first, but to acquire enough magic points in order to "level up" to the next challenge. Achieving the desired amount of magic points is mainly an act of "owning" as much of the board's space as possible, but simply making it all of the way around the board alive can score points, too.
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