365//365: Day 269 – Culdcept Saga (360) [PP]

What do you get when you cross Magic: The Gathering with Monopoly? Culdcept Saga on the Xbox 360. A sort of sequel to several previous titles from the Sega Saturn, PlayStation 2 and original PlayStation, this is essentially a quasi board game, where you move your avatar around various maps, battling various enemy avatars along the way in a flimsy storyline that pretty much doesn’t matter. The addiction comes within gameplay, which features a highly addicting card battle game, battling colors vs numbers. You can augment certain cards with item cards to make them invulnerable, stronger and so on. The depth of Culdcept Saga, is also the downfall, as the time it takes to fully comprehend the rules and amass a potent deck of cards is about as long as it takes to defeat a modest length role playing game. You will feel overburdened from the beginning, and even after dozens of hours under your belt. If you stick with you, you’ll unearth a sophisticated card battling game that can draw even non fans into the fray. While the music is dreadful (and can be turned off) with an announcer that sounds disinterested, as well as a visual performance that’s based off elementary design, well drawn art on cards and meager avatars, Culdcept Saga is the shining example of a video game that’s gameplay over graphics, which is something that does not exist these days. If you feel up to the task of learning an immensely gratifying, yet devilishly difficult game, hunt down a copy of Culdcept Saga. While the rating seems low, it’s a rather engaging title that’s hard to put down, once you learn the ropes.

The obscenely simplistic look only hides some of the deepest gameplay you'll find in this generation of consoles.

Rating: 6.8