Never have I been more intrigued than when Culdcept was described to me as “RPG Monopoly”. The descriptor is pretty accurate, although to be honest, I think I’d shift two letters here. This is TCG Monopoly.
Culdcept BEGINS (why do unique games always have incredibly “unique” ways of writing the title?) is technically a turn-based RPG… I think? It’s a little hard to describe. There’s a story of a young boy with a mysterious past venturing out into the world, some gorgeous “anime” style art, and cards to collect and battle with. How do you battle, I hear you ask? That’s the fun part.
Each fight of Culdcept takes place on a game board. You travel around the board, capturing spaces with your monsters and claiming magic. Surpass the magic target of the level and finish a lap of the board and you win. The wrinkle here is that the resource you’re collecting all this time is the currency you use to play cards. Playing cards is how you summon creatures, cast spells, upgrade territory, and basically take your turn. This is where the Monopoly comparison comes into play.
If you’ve taken a space with a monster, it sits there and gives you some magic whenever you complete a lap. If your opponent lands on that space, they can fight this monster with one of their own. If they win, they get the space. If they lose, or abstain from the fight? They have to pay the toll for sitting on the space with their magic. You see the idea? You can upgrade territories to increase the toll, much like buying properties. Having more captured spaces of the same element applies a multiplier to your tolls. If you have ever even existed near Mr. Moneybags’ classic boardgame, you will understand the concept here.
The main hook here is your deck of cards. Culdcept has you build a “book” of 40 cards, split between creatures, items, and spells. You can cast one spell per turn before you move, and then roll your dice (with the exception of certain move spells) and based on where you land you can either place a monster, fight, or upgrade territory. Between battles you quickly unlock a card shop, and you can buy boosters or rotating individual cards of interest, and make books to your heart’s content.
The second you start a new save file, you have access to comprehensive instructions on how to play the game. Prereading isn’t essential, as the game also does a wonderful job of easing you in for the first few missions too. It doesn’t explain every single concept, but with enough context clues and experimentation, I’m pretty confident with how I’m playing right now.
This being not only a card game but a dice-based board game too, luck does play a heavy part in proceeding, and I’ve lost a few missions for bad hands or rolls. However, all that happens is that you earn a slightly diminished exp bonus, unlock a few less cards than you would have done if you won, and you go back to the world map to tweak your decks and try again. This lack of punishment for failure makes it almost feel like an expected part of learning the game, and really took any sting out of those bad luck moments.
The world map also contains side quests, and in the menus outside the story mode there are online options I haven’t even touched yet. The only reason I’m writing this review now is that I feel like if I don’t put pen to paper here, I’m going to lose myself back in the game and not resurface until this won’t be relevant anymore!
Neos have created a very addictive package here, with an intriguing (if somewhat stereotypical) story, gorgeous visuals, and addictive but approachable gameplay. Culdcept BEGINS is one of the first games in a long time that has kept me up at night and occupied my mind when I’m not playing it. If you’ve ever enjoyed a round of YuGiOh, Magic, or Monopoly, I would beg you to give this a try!
Culdcept BEGINS was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2 (with the NS2 edition), but is also available on Nintendo Switch and is coming soon to Steam.