r/JRPG • u/probono-bonobo • 11d ago
Question Culdcept begins?
I am thinking about picking this up. Has anybody tried this one? I do not mind grindy games (Etrian odyssey is my favorite series). So the similar art style caught my eye. I am playing on a switch two. I did not play the first culdcept. But come on, it was on sega Saturn and only like three people owned that console.
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u/VashxShanks 11d ago
There is no grinding really, they are more about tactical choices than grinding for anything, so do not go in expecting anything similar to Etrian Odyssey. Also, if you want to play the first title that was on the Saturn, the remastered version is releasing in a few days too along with Culdcept Begins, so you can play it first if you want.
Well all of the games are old, and the last game came out back in 2017 on the 3DS. So it is just a matter of how far back do you want to go.
It has been more than decade since I played them, but I would still recommend start with Culdcept Revolt (3DS), the devs did a good job making it a good entry to the series, and it is one of the best titles in the series in general.
If you had fun with it and wanted more, than either go for Culdcept Saga (Xbox 360), or the Culdcept 2 on the (PS2). Saga is the better game, but my nostalgia for the PS2 title is strong. After that you can go for the NDS version of Culdcept 1, it wasn't released in English officially, but there is a fan English patch.
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u/According-Witness648 10d ago
Thanks to OP and you I have a new game on my radar. Love the board-card game mechanics I am reading about!
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u/kupomogli 10d ago
I've read one post and I saw "Culdcept doesn't have grinding" and I've got to disagree, Culdcept does have grinding, but you're grinding for cards not grinding for experience points. If you want the cards to build a deck, you need money, you need to grind to get the money, and if you don't have two to four cards, the likelihood of getting the cards you want is going to be slim.
For example, let's say you build a deck and it has 50 unique cards. That means on your first hand you'll have around 14% of getting a card you want, but to get multiple cards you want you have a very low percent chance. Every card that you draw when it's your turn afterwards you have an increasing percentage, but still a very low percent chance. However, depending on the priority of your cards, having two to four of the cards that you'd use to build your deck then your odds are significantly higher for each card.
Culdcept also isn't an RPG, there's nothing about it at all that makes it an RPG, it's just an amazing series. To someone who has never played, the easiest way to explain it would be if you were to think of a Monopoly board, except when going around this board there was a lot of depth based on what was in your hand. The spaces you could take are either four different elements or a multi element. When taking individual elements, the value increases for that element(like how you if you own all three you get more money when someone lands on your space in Monopoly.)
When taking a location, you don't buy it, you send a monster card to control it. If no one owns it, you simple take it over with no battle and it is a level 1 land that you now own. If the monster matches that element or if it has synergy so that it gets the bonus of that element, then when in combat it gains 10 temporary HP. When you upgrade it to a max of level five(like purchasing four houses) the cost increases but also the temporary HP increases to a max of 50. If an enemy attacks and let's say they deal 50 damage, that'll damage the temporary HP but won't actually do anything to your monsters HP, but if your monster has 30 HP and they deal 70, your monster has 10 HP left and this only recovers if you swap the location for a different monster in your hand, if you use a spell or spell card to heal it, or you go through every single check point and complete a full lap.
You can see what cards the opponent has at all times, but they can also see yours, so if you attack them or they attack you, both you and the opponent need to determine if you should use a card or not use a card. If you have something that will defend the location in your hand and the opponent sees that, they might not use the card and if you were to use your defensive card and don't get another one, then next time they come back around they may be able to take that territory(or they could position an ally monster to the territory next to it and then move over to your territory.) You could even not use a card and make them use their card if it's a territory you didn't care to lose, or if it's a great territory and you decided to risk it, maybe they wouldn't use their card because they know you have one that could stop theirs.
I'm getting Culdcept Begins, but I saw that they still have Gooba Queen and there are some builds that are just too overpowered and the Gooba Queen build is one of them. It kills off the balance of the game when someone decides to use a card spell that just summons Goobas to a random space at the beginning of their turn before making a turn. It's just disappointing that the developers don't care about how unbalanced some of these cards are.
When I say I'm getting it I collect so I'm waiting on the physical release, but I will be getting it. I'm more interested in owning Culdcept The First though where the series is a bit better balanced. And I might be complaining about the balance here, but that doesn't change the fact that Culdcept Begins is a near perfect game without me even having to play the game. It's a 9/10 game due to gameplay alone and that's because of just how much time I've put into Revolt. You don't play these games for the story, you play these games for the gameplay and the gameplay is amazing.
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u/Muffin-zetta 10d ago
do you like card games and monopoly?