Culdcept The First Saturn Tribute from Clear River Games and CITY CONNECTION brings us a revamped take on a classic turn-based strategy experience. Learn more in our Culdcept The First Saturn Tribute review!
Culdcept The First Saturn Tribute from Clear River Games and CITY CONNECTION brings us a revamped take on a classic turn-based strategy experience. After a time during which humanity on the continent of Bablashca gets to enjoy a prosperous period, it’s all turned upside down after the titular ancient tablet known as the Culdcept appears. After its fragments spread across the land, a lone youth must rise to the occasion and try to bring peace before it’s too late!
It has you moving around a board game while rolling dice, as you try to claim lands by summoning creatures to defend them, as you gather a target amount of magic before returning to the castle so that you can win. But, along with the rolling of the dice, there’s also a deckbuilding side for you to consider.
It’s an interesting release that fuses board and card games into a single package, and it’s one that still clicks close to three decades later. A quick way to describe it is as if Monopoly – the board game – and Magic: The Gathering – the card game – had a baby. Yes, there are lands of different colors that represent the different terrain types. Yes, these colors are very much tied to the alignment of the creatures that you can summon.
Culdcept was originally developed and released by OmiyaSoft in Japan for the SEGA Saturn console way back in 1997, and had, up until this point, remained a Japan-only game. The game was then ported to the Sony PlayStation a couple of years later. This was followed by a Nintendo DS remake in 2008. It even received a remake for the Nintendo 3DS in 2012. All of these ports and remakes also remained as Japan-only releases.
That is why this 2026 remaster is called Culdcept The First Saturn Tribute. It makes a lot of sense, since it’s the first game in the Culdcept franchise, presenting us with a tribute to the one game that started it all on the SEGA Saturn home console all those years ago.
Since the game is now on the Nintendo Switch, there’s bound to be some new stuff to consider, right? While this one is not taking us into remake territory, we are getting a boost in the overall resolution, as well as the option of having the game look a bit closer to how it was originally presented almost 30+ years ago. On top of that, Culdcept The First Saturn Tribute includes some quality-of-life improvements that make it a lot easier to take on this journey on Nintendo’s hybrid console.
There’s a rewind option so that you can go back in time to an earlier checkpoint in case you make a mistake. You can take advantage of the quick save and load feature so that you can save your progress and reload it at any given time. There’s a hand overview feature so that you can keep an eye on not only your hand but also the hands of your opponents. And we’re also getting a bonus pack option, so that you can obtain more reward cards after completing a match. It’s an approach that, at times, reminds me of what SQUARE ENIX recently did to bring us Dragon Quest Heroes: Torneko’s Mystery Dungeon -Classic HD- on Nintendo Switch 2.
There are different land types for you to consider. Neutral land offers no real advantage or additional effect. There are also elemental lands representing earth, fire, water, and air. Some creatures can only be summoned on lands of a specific element. Along with these, there are forts and a castle, temples where you can buy symbols, shrines where random events can take place, and shops where you can trade magic for new cards for your deck.
You will need to work on selecting the 50 cards that will be part of your book – that would be your hand. There’s plenty of variety in this release, since there are 300+ cards in total for you to collect and pick from, including special item cards that can turn the tide of battle.
Some creatures will have special abilities that can turn the tide of battle. Examples of these abilities include being able to attack first when defending, inflicting poison on the opponent, turning an opponent into a wall of stone, neutralizing damage from specific foes, fully regenerating HP after battle, or dealing 1.5x normal damage to an opponent.
And what happens if one of your opponents lands on a land that you’ve already claimed? Then they can do one of two things: pay a toll, or attack the creature you placed on said piece of land to protect it. For this, they will use one of their creatures to fight for them. As for the toll? You’ll have the option of upgrading the lands that you collect so that you can increase the amount that an opponent will need to cover for said toll, adding an extra layer of strategy. If you hold multiple lands of the same element in the same area, this will boost their value and increase tolls.
Going back to symbols, they are emblems of the Elemental gods’ power and are powered by the magic you convert into the symbol during purchase. The value of a symbol will change depending on the total value of lands of its element within an area. Holding any symbols while completing a lap will provide a symbol bonus equal to 10% of each symbol’s value.
Culdcept The First Saturn Tribute brings us a revamped take on a classic turn-based strategy experience. After a time during which humanity on the continent of Bablashca gets to enjoy a prosperous period, it’s all turned upside down after the titular ancient tablet known as the Culdcept appears. After its fragments spread across the land, a lone youth must rise to the occasion and try to bring peace before it’s too late!
There are several combinations for you to consider for your hand. There are 300+ cards for you to collect, which will allow you to find the right combinations that will allow you to reinforce your playing style, while also bringing you one step closer to victory as you readjust your strategy as you progress further and further. You can select playing through the game’s Story Mode campaign, or jump into the Versus Mode, which is available for up to four players. Culdcept The First Saturn Tribute is out on Nintendo Switch with a $29.99 price tag.
Disclaimer
This Culdcept The First Saturn Tribute review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Clear River Games.
