Some games take their time getting around. Culdcept has taken nearly three decades!
Originally released for the SEGA Saturn in Japan back in 1997, Culdcept The First Saturn Tribute has finally made its way to Western audiences. The cult classic is now available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, giving a whole new generation the chance to discover its very unusual mix of board game strategy and card battles.
A strange but brilliant mix!
Culdcept is difficult to squeeze into one genre. At its heart, it plays like a digital board game, but there’s a serious deck-building system underneath it all.
Players take control of a Cepter and move around the board by rolling dice. Landing on an empty space gives you the chance to claim it by summoning a creature, while different coloured spaces are linked to different types of creatures.
Once you have control of a piece of land, you can upgrade it and make it more valuable. That means every turn is about more than simply rolling the dice and hoping for the best. Where you land, what you build, and which creatures you use can completely change the game!
Build your book!
The card system is where Culdcept really starts showing its teeth.
Each player takes a 50-card "Book" into battle, with more than 300 cards available to collect and experiment with. These include creatures, items, and spells, giving players plenty of room to develop their own strategies.
If another player lands on your territory, they can either pay a toll or attempt to take the space for themselves. Battles then kick off, with creatures fighting it out while item cards and other effects can turn the result on its head.
There are also around 180 types of creatures to discover, giving deck-building fans plenty to get stuck into.
A classic gets an upgrade!
Despite being based on a game from 1997, this isn't simply the original experience dumped onto modern consoles.
The Saturn Tribute version adds several quality-of-life features, including Rewind, Quick Save and Load, Reveal Hands, and a Bonus Pack that can increase the number of reward cards earned after a match. English text is also available for the first time, alongside Japanese.
That should make the game considerably easier to jump into, especially for players who weren't around when the original launched.
Finally, the West gets its turn!
Culdcept The First Saturn Tribute is a fascinating piece of Japanese gaming history. It combines dice, territory control, deck building, and creature battles into something that still feels pretty unusual almost 30 years later.
The original never received a Western release, making this enhanced version a particularly interesting opportunity for retro gaming fans and strategy fans alike.
If you've ever wondered what would happen if a board game and a card battler got thrown into the same box, Culdcept has been answering that question since 1997. Now, Western players finally get to roll the dice for themselves!
Culdcept The First Saturn Tribute is available now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with the PC version having launched in July.
