There are also oodles of spell cards in the game that usually affect the map rather than battle. Spells, just like items, can do a wide assortment of things from guaranteeing a high movement for a turn to stealing magic from an opponent to even destroying or even stealing an opponent’s item that is currently in his or her hand. (A teeth gnashing spell to be sure!)

There’s a bit more to it than that but that’s the basic idea. What you have is a nice blend of luck and strategy that makes for a surprisingly addictive game. It’s a lot of fun to see which new cards you earn after a match and since you’re limited to 50 cards in your main deck (you can create various decks to fight on various maps if you wish) there’s always some tough cuts that need to be made when building your deck before each match. Do you bring in more spells than items? Do you take a lot of high priced creatures like Ares or Seismodon or do you toss in a few cheap units to balance things out? The choice is yours.

There are few annoyances that keep the game from being a no-brainer for strategy and card fans. First off, the matches take a long time. This by itself isn’t a big deal as most turn based strategy games take a while to complete but here there is a lot of wasted time that could have easily been avoided. Each battle is introduced with the name of each combatant in a pro wrestling style, “Harpy!” VS. “Tyrannosaurus!” It may sound trivial but it takes several seconds before the fight actually starts and when you play a 100+ round game that time adds up. It’s particularly annoying when it’s two CPU players fighting each other and you’re just watching. An option to skip the combat intros would have been welcomed.

One odd design decision is that the game is open handed – meaning you get a glimpse of what each player currently has in hand at the start of the turn. This only helps once you know what the cards actually do, so it puts new players at a distinct disadvantage. There are spells in the game, like Theft, that benefit from having an idea what the other players have but still – it’s just weird.

The CPU AI also isn’t as strong as it should be. It puts up a fight, and you will lose a match on occasion but it doesn’t make use of its cards as well as it should. When you see the AI discard a fantastic spell card like “Trespass” for no good reason you know there’s a problem. It’s not incompetent by any stretch but a human opponent provides a much stiffer challenge.

Online play via Xbox Live is a big addition as, obviously, the PS2 game was land locked. Online matches are a blast as you can play team games as well as free-for-alls with only one annoying issue: you can’t save your game. A game on a decent sized board will take hours (literally) to complete so you better clear your schedule if you plan on finishing. It's best to play on smaller maps unless you can commit to a long game.

Regardless of its obvious shortcomings, Culdcept Saga is an addictive, unique and just plain fun little game that is jam packed with content. The single player campaign is long and will take you a good while to finish. This is also the type of game that just screams for online support and hopefully Namco-Bandai will provide additional cards and maps via Xbox Live. The game and its fans certainly deserve it.