Culdcept

All Culdcept games take place in a shared fictional universe known as Culdra Space. It was initially created by the omnipotent goddess Culdra, with its first world being similar to Earth. She also created Culdcept, a book with the power of creation. However, one of her servants, the god Baltias, rebelled against her and tried to steal Culdcept, prompting the War of the Gods. As punishment, Culdra destroyed Culdcept, and its pages became cards. When the people of the world discovered the cards, the Cepters who could manipulate them began to fight for supremacy. When the strongest Cepter defeated Baltias, they gained the power of a god and the ability to create their own world.

The subsequent Culdcept games each take place in their own world, which was created by a champion of a former world, who rules over it as its god or goddess. This has caused exponential growth and a nigh-infinite amount of worlds to be created.

A recurring character is Goligan, a talking cane with the head of a man who serves as Culdra's messenger in seeking out Cepters to fulfill their destinies.^[8]

The gameplay of the Culdcept series is often described as a hybrid of Magic: The Gathering and Monopoly, in which players take turns traversing a game board filled with squares of varying elements or effects.^[1] Players first construct a deck of 50 monster, item or spell cards. When in the game itself, players roll a dice at the start of each turn, which determines how many spaces they can move. Landing on an unoccupied space allows the player to take control of it with a monster and grants them magical power. They can later spend power upgrading these lands, which further increases their total magic.^[1]

If a player lands on an occupied space, they can battle the foe there, and if they succeed, they will take control from the enemy. Or, they can choose to pay a toll without fighting the enemy. If the battle is lost, the toll must be paid regardless.^[1] Players earn points towards new card packs when playing in Story Mode, but the games also have a player versus player element in which multiple people can battle.^[1]

While the original Culdcept was composed by Takeshi Yanagawa and Yuzo Koshiro, Kenji Ito became the primary or sole composer for many of the Culdcept games, starting with Culdcept Second and continuing on to the series' most recent entry, Culdcept Revolt. He regards the soundtrack of Culdcept Second, the first he composed after leaving Square, as his "best work".^[9]

Overall, the series was praised for its deep strategic elements and unique gameplay, but received criticism for its high learning curve and level of difficulty, as well as its luck-based elements, leading to it being called a "niche" series.^[1][3] Mike Fahey of Kotaku called the gameplay's emphasis on luck "frustrating and humiliating, but also kind of exhilarating".^[1]