Game:

Culdcept Saga (2006)

Duration: 12:44

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4

You may recall a short micro-project of mine a little ways back on a demo for a weird game called Culdcept Saga. Funny thing is, I'd already played and been so won over by the demo that I went out of my way to acquire the game in full before I even thought to record the demo itself... which was slightly tricky, because while the demo is free to download, the game never came out on Xbox LIVE's online digital marketplace. (Amazingly to note as well, it's not among the Xbox One backwards compatibility program's selected games. Shocking!)

On that note... yeah, certainly also hurting its exposure, probably... it's an Xbox 360 exclusive. It's one of a number of VERY Japanese games that made the extremely strange bedfellows decision to appear exclusively on a console that fared notoriously horribly in Japan and also isn't exactly known for its stellar adoption rate for weird games outside a certain couple of niches among its primary demographics. Still! I'm glad that those games DID happen, even if they're not being enjoyed by quite as many potential players as they should be, because whatever their tales that brought them into the world, it's undeniable that the existence of the Xbox brand had SOMETHING to do with it, whether or not those impacts were quite what their developers and/or Microsoft had hoped for.

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Anyway, it should come as little surprise that there's no demo gameplay no matter how long you wait on the title screen, apparently... although the song that plays DOES eventually end and loop back awkwardly. Mostly, I think they just didn't plan on people sticking around, but it's still something I like to try.

Normally, I'd edit out such a "waste" of time, but I didn't want to cut out the bit where we get a peek at the rulebook, somewhat less exhaustively large in scope... but still massive by normal video game standards all the same, and it's a neat thing to include, even if I'm not about to pore over the thing right away.

Don't get me wrong! It has some neat stuff written in it, including the suggestion that players try the game for at least one game first to get some context for how the game is played and some in-game tips as things progress... and THEN checking the manual for more details relevant to such matters. Having tried it before, I can definitely say from experience that reading the whole manual for a game like this and THEN playing it is far harder than the method they present. (That said, in some games similar to--or even MORE complicated than--this one, there's NO in-game tutorial at all, and you have no other choice, so... thank goodness for how this all worked out!)

It also showed us a neat glimpse into another thing that the game does with its otherwise somewhat forgettable title screen... the artwork changes! I mean, I don't know much context-wise, AND the hand-drawn designs (possibly originally concept art?) differ a slight bit from the in-game character models... or at least demonstrate a bit of artistic nuance that the modeling and their fairly primitive and basic movements can't exactly capture. (Obviously that's not the point of them in the first place, so...)

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We also get a peek at something the demo somewhat hinted at when I took to things with the multiplayer with the various "different" player characters and card sets, the player character is customizable! ... ... ...minimally. Only male, a handful of options at best per setting, and... TWO only marginally different skin tones! What a choose-your-own adventure...r! (I'm still naming him "Jo"!)

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On the demo, one could hear some voice cues at regular junctures, and the eagle-eared enthusiast for such details would recognize Karen Strassman as the gameplay narrator handling board-based events like a somewhat nonspecific reminder that it's "your turn" and Grant George handling introductions to the battles themselves, but nothing from the characters themselves. None of that was particularly shocking to me, given the game itself doesn't revolve around such things, but would notably feel a little stark by the day's standards without at least some lip service paid.

Imagine my surprise that the whole game (outside of gameplay) seems to be quite voice-laden with even more notable voice actors showing up at every turn! ...but they're all also totally uncredited OR credited under aliases... so... ... ...that'll be awkward. (I feel annoyed that I can't make myself remember who voices the player character, because he sounds so familiar!)

What they actually DO with the voice acting... ... ...I have serious questions and reservations about the story from the very beginning, obviously.

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My decision to at least address this particular elephant in the room at this point in time is also somewhat transparent in its purpose to hype myself (and maybe others?) up for Culdcept Revolt, which will release in a couple weeks. The first new game in a weird series that's had a sporadic sampling of exposure prior to now? Yes please!