Nintendo Switch 2 Critic Reviews

Culdcept Begins is so very difficult to put down. A game only takes around half an hour to play, but one game is never going to be enough. Between players of equal skill, victories will always come down to the thinnest of margins, and then you’ll want to choose a different deck and try a different playstyle to counter your friend the next time. Blissfully microtransaction-free (it would have been very easy to make Culdcept very expensive), Culdcept Begins is everything a good digital board game should be.

Through RNG chaos and a simple yet fun card system does Culdcept BEGINS come out as a fantastic board game for players of all ages. Try not to get too mad!

It suffers a little from pacing issues, but the meat and potatoes of the game are solid enough to offset that minor hiccup. Fantastic music, an engaging story, and the freedom to build your deck however you want make this a solid pickup for anyone into deckbuilders, even if you are starting to get burnt out on them.

Culdcept Begins proves that the series was never too complicated; it was simply ahead of its time, blending Monopoly-style board play with deep but approachable card battles that are more relevant than ever. With smart balancing and a newly polished presentation, Omiya Soft's franchise get another chance at enchanting Western players.

Culdcept BEGINS successfully revives one of gaming's most unique tabletop strategy franchises with an accessible yet deeply rewarding blend of board game mechanics, deck building, and turn-based combat. While its lengthy matches and grind-heavy progression won't appeal to everyone, its excellent tutorialization, strategic depth, and engaging multiplayer make it an easy recommendation for fans of tabletop games and card battlers.

Culdcept BEGINS marks the Culdcept franchise's return after a 10-year hiatus, and it comes packed with an engaging story, enjoyable card- and board-game inspired mechanics, and plenty of unlockables. Serving as a prequel to the original Culdcept, Culdcept BEGINS is the onboarding point for newcomers while still offering the challenge and systems that returning fans know and appreciate.

Culdcept Begins turned out to be a solid entry in the series and really feels great once you build a good deck and go online. The campaign is a bit bland and, for the most part, easy. However, if you look at that more as a tutorial to start to build up decks and prepare for actual human opponents online, it makes more sense. Especially since the multiplayer is so solid.

Culdcept Begins is the best opportunity to experience a brand new Culdcept game fully in the west since the days of the Xbox 360 (as I said, the 3DS game came out in a post-Switch world; that wasn’t a fair shake!). It’s a surprisingly user-friendly version of a complex game that does a great job of teaching you the basics and occasionally kicking you in the face with its random-number reliance. The single-player content is a great tutorial with a little extra, but the breadth of this game is in the customizable card decks and the potential long legs of multiplayer, be it locally or online. This is likely the most approachable Culdcept has been in English-speaking countries ever, and thankfully it’s an enjoyable, somewhat-streamlined version of it.

Culdcept Begins is a triumphant return for a series that’s been dormant for a decade. The new presentation style may not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s the most cohesive visual design in the franchise, with special attention paid to clarity and consistency in its UI befitting such complex mechanics. The narrative is not the most ambitious in the series, yet it does an admirable job of providing context to the board game matches and the cards you play during them. I’m just glad that such a niche franchise has survived so long, and that I have so many fun & frustrating online matches to look forward to in the future.

Culdcept Begins acts as a great entry point to the mysterious series, distilling its core mechanics in a way that feels approachable without watering down what makes the gameplay so special. Though it can be a little simplistic in its presentation, the variety of boards and deckbuilding potential means that there's tons of replayability and depth to dive into here, whether playing solo or multiplayer. If you’re at all a fan of board games or card games and want to try a quirky project that neatly applies to both, I’d highly suggest you add this one to your library.