Is the Xbox 360 now the undisputed leader in J &W Console RPGs?

[mrstickball]

Gnizmo said:

 Culdcept lacks a lot of the qualities normally used to define an RPG. It is easier to call Zelda an RPG than it is to call Culdcept one.

 First off, the story is detrimental to the game. The game works a thousand times better if you simply remove all the dialogue and just play the game. There is nothing compelling or engrossing about it. You don't even meet any interesting side characters to spruce things up. You just get terrible dialogue and shitty excuses to suddenly fight with cards. The entire story concept was essentially stolen from Yugioh.

 Secondly, there is no way to level up your monsters. None at all. Certain ones have special abilities that increase this stat or the other occasionally, but those are temporary effects 99% of the time. You can level up a land, but the land and creature are only incidentally related. If I have a level 5 land, I can easily swap whatever creature is on it for another one with no penalty. It remains a level 5 land (with all the bonuses that come with that) with a new creature on top.

 Thirdly, there is nothing that is close to equivalent to EXP. Nothing that is even remotely similar to it in fact. The mechanic is entirely absent from the game. 

 There are a number of other smaller issues like the almost complete lack of equipment, shops, etc but I am too lazy to go into all that. I will sum it up by saying the game is a cross between Magic: the Gathering and Monopoly. Download the demo and play it and you will understand why the game is not a RPG. The demo will show you almost exactly what the rest of the game will be like. All you are missing is deck construction which does nothing to make it feel more RPGish.

I do own Culdcept Saga for X360, FYI.

The story sucks, I agree.

Secondly, you can't level up your monsters per-se, but leveling the land up has the same effect: a Level 5 territory will yield better values for a monster should they be of the same element. If I switch an Aspidochalone (love that guy) out on a Level 5 Ice/Water territory with a Skeleton, I'm going to incurr a huge strategic penalty. Yes, no effect is permanant from battle to battle, but it's still the entire battle, and however many turns they are.

Although the game doesn't have EXP in it, you still have to grind to get better, more effective cards for your book. After all, would you really want to keep your initial deck through the entire game? C'mon. It's not the set-in-stone linear progression of typical RPGs, but it's still there.

You get equipment in the forms of dress for your character via certain milestones in battle, as well as the ability-modifying EQ in the form of cards - Don't tell me that a Chain Mail card, or a Club do nothing in battle. Yes, all of the creature-specific EQ is for that specific attack, or defense, but it's still there and still modifies damage, or HP values, just like any other RPG.

It is like Magic and Monopoly, but I feel there are enough RPG elements (HP, Strength values, EQ, Battles, stats, and gold) to make it a hybrid RPG...

And the whole argument about CS was about Folklore. If you want to use Folklore as a PS3 exclusive RPG, then I have every right to use Culdcept Saga as a X360 RPG, as both games are "questionable", but their core audiences are most likely RPG gamers.