I still have my Nintendo 3DS sitting on my desk. It’s the “New” XL model, the metallic blue one, gathering dust next to a stack of USB-C cables. Every six months or so, I charge it up specifically to play Culdcept Revolt. And every time, about twenty minutes in, I remember why I stopped.
The resolution. My god, the resolution.
Well, that’s not entirely accurate — playing a complex card-strategy hybrid on a 240p screen in 2026 is an exercise in masochism. You can barely read the card text without squinting. So when the news dropped that Culdcept Begins—the new entry we’ve been whispering about in Discord channels for months—is actually coming to Steam this year? I nearly spilled my coffee.
Clear River Games is handling the physical release for the console side (Switch 2 and the old Switch, launching July 16), but for me, the PC release is the only thing that matters. Here is why.
Monopoly Meets Magic, But Actually Good
If you’ve never played this series, you’re probably confused about why a handful of us are losing our minds. Imagine Monopoly. Now imagine that instead of building a hotel on Boardwalk, you summon a Level 4 Dragon with First Strike. If your opponent lands there, they don’t just pay rent — they have to fight your dragon. If they win, your property is gone. If they lose, they pay up.
It sounds chaotic. It is. But it’s also one of the deepest strategy loops I’ve ever encountered.
The problem has always been availability. For the last decade, this series has been held hostage on handhelds. Culdcept Revolt was great mechanically, but it was stuck on the 3DS. Culdcept Saga was on the Xbox 360, which red-ringed if you looked at it wrong. We haven’t had a proper, accessible, high-resolution entry in forever.
Getting Culdcept Begins on Steam changes the math completely. It means I can finally uninstall the janky emulator I’ve been using to replay the PS2 version. And it means 4K assets (hopefully) where I can actually appreciate the artwork.
The Steam Deck Factor
This is where it gets interesting. I tried running the old 3DS titles via emulation on my Steam Deck OLED last week. It works, sure, but the dual-screen layout is a pain to map, and the touch controls never feel right.
A native Steam version of Culdcept Begins is going to be the killer app for portable strategy. The match pacing in this series is slow — we’re talking 30 to 45 minutes per game against AI, sometimes over an hour against humans. That is perfect for the Deck’s sleep mode. I can take a turn, put the Deck to sleep, go do some actual work, and come back.
I’m curious to see how they handle the Proton compatibility layer right out of the gate. I’ve been testing a few Japanese strategy ports lately — like the recent Disgaea updates — on Proton 9.0-3, and they’ve been buttery smooth. If Clear River Games doesn’t mess up the anti-cheat implementation (please, no kernel-level nonsense for a board game), this should be Verified on day one.
Preservation and Multiplayer
Here is the dark reality of console gaming: stores close. The 3DS eShop is dead. The Wii U eShop is dead. If you didn’t buy the DLC for Revolt back then, you are out of luck unless you mod your console.
Steam doesn’t have that problem. Or at least, not to the same degree. By bringing Begins to PC, the game is effectively immortalized. We don’t have to worry about Nintendo shutting down the Switch 2 servers in 2034. The community can keep it alive.
And speaking of community, the multiplayer in Culdcept is brutal. It’s friend-ruining stuff. But on Nintendo platforms, the online infrastructure has always been… well, let’s be polite and say “inconsistent.” I remember trying to play Revolt online in 2018 and getting disconnected every third match. Steam’s networking API is just better. It’s stable. It works.
The Waiting Game
We know the console launch is locked for mid-July. The Steam release is vaguely slated for “this year.” Usually, with these Japanese ports, that means a simultaneous release or a delay of a few months.
I’m probably hoping for simultaneous, to be honest. I’ve already cleared my backlog — I finished Metaphor: ReFantazio back in January, so my schedule is wide open.
If you’re a fan of board games, TCGs, or just making your friends miserable by bankrupting them with a well-placed goblin, keep an eye on this one. It’s niche, it’s weird, and it’s finally on the right platform.
Now, if they would just remaster Culdcept Saga while they’re at it, I could probably die happy. But I’ll take what I can get.
