Culdcept is a series of games that is somewhat a mix between Magic the Gathering, Monopoly and Fortune Street. It's basically a video game that uses cards. That said, there is no IRL Culdcept Board or card game, only the actual video games. But basically, since no real life cards are used and it's all video games, you can get all of the cards in the game without paying real world money. So think of it as a card game without the hassle of real life money being involved.
That said, the main lore revolves around Creations of Worlds and stuff. Basically, Culdra is the main universal Goddess that created the Universe and the Culcept, a Book of Cards that consist of her power. Unsurprisingly, at some point, one of her Gods rebels against her to use the Culcept for herself, which causes the cards of the Culdcept to scatter into the world she created. The god is sealed, yet the damage has been done. The denizens find the cards and it is learned some of them can actually use them. They are Cepters, people who can unleash the power of the Culdcept. So of course you have good Cepters and bad Cepters.
Anyway, it was eventually learned that if one can prove themselves, they can become a God in their own right and create a new world. And no, there's no destruction of the old one, it just creates a new world in general. So basically, you have this continuous loop of Gods and New world being made that goes on much like Stars in the Sky and whatnot and it practically becomes a tradition. Even Culdra is cool with it.
Anyway,
-The first Game on PS/Saturn and DS revolves around the Rebel God trying to free themselves and a Cepter tries to help the Staff Goligan who needs your help to stop an incoming threat. The character is your character and uses a premade Avatar that you can select, which can consist of magicians, warriors, elves, barbarians, priests, etc.
-The 2nd Game on Dreamcast and 3DS in Japan and PS2 in the West once again revolves around you, with a new character from a different world, trying to help Goligan, who now follows Culdra, stop the God Gemenigh, who's arrival signifies the end of the entire universe and the destruction of all worlds.
-Saga on Xbox 360 revolves around your character helping the princess Faustina on trying to figure out the significance of the cards, as because the main god of that world did not want to make a God of Order and God of Chaos, the denizens of that world could not learn the significance of the cards and their power, meaning no one knows their importance or what their origin is.
-Lastly, Revolt revolves around the character, who can be named anything but their default name is Allen, who is suffering from amnesia and learns from the Leader of a Rebel group, Alicia, that the city is shut-in by the Count who is forcing everybody to stay in the city and is hunting Cepters and it's your job to find out why he is doing so and who you are.
-Most of the games are in Japan only. The only ones that came over to the West are the PS2 version, Saga and Revolt. Revolt is the latest one due to being on 3DS.
Okay, the stories and lore are done. Now for the game.
-As said, it's basically card games with board games. But it mainly plays like Monopoly & Fortune Street with monsters, spells and items. You go around the board, placing monsters on spaces that become your Territories. You can also use them to invade other monsters. You use Spells to damage other monsters or draw cards or whatnot. And you use items to defend your monsters if they are attacked.
-On the board, there are areas that you need to get to. Mainly, the Forts and Main Castle. You start on the Castle and you head to the Forts around the map, earning gold from them. Once you reached all of them, you head back to the Castle and get a big bonus of Gold, than start the cycle again.
In Revolt, these were changed to all become Gates. Basically, you still have to go around to all of them to collect the bonus. However, you now get the bonus when you just land on all of them, no order required.
-You main objective is to reach the Target Number of Gold Value. Value is determined by your territories, symbols and by the gold you have on hand. Gold you hold is used summon monsters, use spells and items and to level up territories or change the element of territories.
-There are 5 Elements of Creatures. Neutral, Fire, Water, Air and Earth. And on the board, empty lands have an element. Except for Neutral, placing a monster on a territory that is the same element as it gives it a Land effect, which is some additional HP which makes the monster harder to defeat if it's invaded.
-Monsters have two stats. HP and ST. It's pretty simple. ST is the component that deals damage and HP is the component that determines whether or not a monster survives an attack. Items mainly increase either HP or ST, besides some having other effects.
-Items come in 4 sets. Weapons, Armor, Accessories and Scrolls. It is to be noted that some monsters cannot equip certain items, like some cannot equip weapons, some can't use armor, etc.
-Spells also come in sets. They consist of Direct effects and Curses. Direct effects are basically like Direct damage spells, healing spells, spells that draw cards, etc. Curses basically put effects on monsters, Cepters and even the map for a certain number of turns or sometimes indefinitely.
-The main deal with getting gold is to go around the map to the forts and castles/Gates or to try to get it from your opponents. To do that, you either use Spell cards that steal it from them or get them to land on your territories. When they land on your territories, they either have to defeat your monster or pay a toll to you. This becomes a big problem with lands that are higher level, which can make your opponent pay more than 1000 or even 3000 G. There are spells and items can make the toll either halved or prevent toll from being taken.
And yeah, you have Avatars. In Saga, they are customizable due to the 3D graphics, but in the 2D ones, they use Template Avatars, like Magicians, Warriors, Angels, Elves, etc. And Kenji Ito, music maker for Final Fantasy Adventure music, the GB and SNES Saga games and the one who did the F-Zero Mute City Smash 4 remix, does music across the whole series. I believe he even did the entire PS2 soundtrack. And yes, the series has pretty good music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEEPNJqWxgQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe9dQz9LoC4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE2A-pdKfl0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feKOs5-9Iek&list=PLFjraMRoehsh3bTyCJmxVPOOg8OFn4TQ3&index=11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRI9qG8XDk0&index=12&list=PLFjraMRoehsh3bTyCJmxVPOOg8OFn4TQ3
Typing this, it doesn't seem to be too impressive, but watching gameplay or playing definitely makes a better opinion. But it is really hard to find gameplay as Culdcept, despite being around since PS1, is a niche popularity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdkHmjDimMM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DbBDDRsoUU
The Youtuber on the bottom vid has done a number of Online matches and whatnot if you want to see Revolt in action and there are videos for Saga and the PS2 version if you try to look them up.
If you want to learn more about the games and see the cool Card artwork and Avatars that the games have, go here:
http://www.culdceptcentral.com/
For Revolt, Avatars and characters can be found here.
http://www.culdceptcentral.com/culdcept-revolt/culdcept-revolt-guides/ranks-avatars-covers-dice
And Card artwork and effects can be found here:
http://www.culdceptcentral.com/culd...card-lists/culdcept-revolt-complete-card-list
Aussie1024 and I came up with a Smash Ultimate first impressions tier list. We rated each character from 1-10 and then I calculated the average. Again, these are first impressions so they will probably be quite inaccurate in the long term, but it is interesting and fun anyway. Here are the results:
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