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Post by Ex on Aug 31, 2018 14:07:44 GMT -5
The first time I played Koudelka, I didn't like it. Came back to it a couple years later, and got hooked, ended up really enjoying it. I'm saying it's a grower.
The issue is the combat system. The combat system is tactical and slow. When you first start playing the game, fighting simple creatures, that combat system seems like total overkill. It's only later in the game, against strong multiple opponents, or big bosses, that the tactical combat system makes sense. Eventually there are some memorable battles.
Outside the unusual combat system, a weak OST, and some lackluster puzzles; the rest of the experience is very good. Outstanding macabre atmosphere, interesting protagonists, a really strong plot, cool bosses, and lots of enemy variety. Speaking of the plot; I should warn anyone considering playing this game that Koudelka's story gets DARK. If you're not comfortable hearing about suicide, cold blooded murder, religion used as manipulation, child abuse, child prostitution, stuff like that... you probably shouldn't play this game.
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Post by nullPointer on Aug 31, 2018 14:42:23 GMT -5
Outside the unusual combat system, a weak OST, and some lackluster puzzles; the rest of the experience is very good. Outstanding macabre atmosphere, interesting protagonists, a really strong plot, cool bosses, and lots of enemy variety. Speaking of the plot; I should warn anyone considering playing this game that Koudelka's story gets DARK. If you're not comfortable hearing about suicide, cold blooded murder, religion used as manipulation, child abuse, child prostitution, stuff like that... you probably shouldn't play this game. Having played Final Fantasy Tactics recently for the first time, it will be interesting to compare and contrast tactical combat elements. Tactical strategy is something that usually sits well outside my comfort zone, but FFT forced me to reappraise that position somewhat.
I think story, plot, and the macabre elements in particular are some of the main things I'm looking forward to in this game. I'm also very interested to see how Koudelka handles its dark subject matter. Some games handle this type of thing quite deftly, and in those games I love the resulting sense of atmospheric dread. I hold Silent Hill 2 to be one of the finest examples of what I mean here (for my tastes) although in SH2 these topics are often alluded to by means of symbolism. It's tough though because if a game focuses too intently on these elements, it results in a 'gimmicky' feel; the underbaked output of some try-hard edgelord. Based on everything I've seen discussed here and elsewhere though, Koudelka sounds like it successfully navigates these narrative considerations.
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Post by Ex on Aug 31, 2018 15:58:30 GMT -5
I'm also very interested to see how Koudelka handles its dark subject matter. I don't think you'll be disappointed. The conversations between the three protagonists can be rather interesting, and the voice acting is not bad at all for its time. I found a vintage official trailer for Koudelka: The video quality is bad unfortunately, but internet videos in 2000 were low resolution. And here's Shadow Hearts CG intro:
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Post by Xeogred on Aug 31, 2018 17:37:57 GMT -5
That Shadow Hearts OST.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2018 3:32:34 GMT -5
It's not that the voice acting isn't bad: it's stellar. I think it's worth mentioning that the game also got generally good acting in the German, French, Italian and Spanish versions, which was anything but common at the time. I played it in French and that's my favorite version. The English voice acting is also great, even though the characters sounded quite American to me and that clashed with the setting.
I also really liked the OST myself, but I realize it's a bit of a hit-or-miss affair.
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Post by Xeogred on Sept 3, 2018 22:36:39 GMT -5
I love Koudelka's look herself and her voice rocks. Just easily put in an hour and half tonight. I seriously think this has made me discover what would make Parasite Eve 1-2 better... if you had a party of characters in those too. I was worried Koudelka's weird blend of genres would wear on me, there is a ton of stuff I love about both Parasite Eve 1-2, but after awhile the really sluggish stop-and-go turn based combat system kind of gets boring with just Aya. I wish they'd just play like an RE game and have real time combat. Koudelka's battle system isn't really ideal, but since it goes to a completely different screen and there's multiple characters, it's just worked for me better. It's weird and I can easily see how this won't jive for everyone nor do I think I'd want more than 10 some hours of this, but I think this will be smooth sailing for me.
I knocked out a giant plant monster and then three floating elemental orb things for two bosses. I'm not sure if you just have Edward and James along for the whole ride but I did google around a bit just to make sure on stats distribution, it does sound like you want to be fairly classic DnD and only stick to a few stats to maximize on per character. Edward's a tank, James a decent mage starting with high HP, and I guess Koudelka is kind of in the middle with good agility and better magic than melee.
Like Shadow Hearts, the monster designs are amazing. Sometimes humorous and other times grotesque. The beginning of the game throws giant cockroaches at you and floating possessed books/chairs... so those were extremely boring, but it doesn't take long for weirder cool monsters to start showing up.
Two weapons broke on me during the second boss fight. Right when my Dark Knife leveled up too! But apparently that's just how the game goes and there's weapon drops aplenty. I guess it's maybe a good idea to keep the really powerful weapons on the bench until you hit bosses. I am loaded with normal items though, leveling easily, never taking too much damage... so overall the game doesn't seem super hard or anything which is nice.
Looks nicer than Silent Hill but it's not as crisp as Resident Evil 2-3 or Parasite Eve. Dense grit to the pre-rendered backdrops so it's sometimes hard to see some items, but I don't really mind. Like some of these other games Koudelka will look at items if you're nearby something so that helps. I absolutely love the look of the game. The character models are extremely good for the PSX. Great voice acting and music too.
Damn good so far. I almost want to say I like Koudelka herself more than the Shadow Hearts characters already haha... I think this game clicked faster too, even if I wouldn't say the battle system is half as good as Shadow Hearts'. The isolated horror location here is usually a homerun for me though. The character banter does remind me a ton of Shadow Hearts though. These aren't really "friends" at all, yet. I love how well they handle this in these (hopefully Covenant is the same). It's believable with every character having their own agenda and motives.
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Post by Ex on Sept 4, 2018 0:52:39 GMT -5
I'm glad you're enjoying Koudelka so far. Yeah the battle system has always been the weak point, but it will prove itself in later battles. I can't recall having any issues with weapon breakage, so that must not have been a big deal. There are definitely more interesting monsters in the back half than the front. I played this game in ePSXe with the internal graphics resolution enhanced (sharper polygons, better defined textures) and I was very impressed with the models. I also agree Koudelka deserved to be a protagonist in further Shadow Hearts games. There are direct callbacks to her in the first Shadow Hearts though. If you ever replay it Xeogred, I think you'll notice stuff that flew over your head the first time. As far as the difficulty goes, Koudelka isn't very difficult at all. There is one optional super boss though that is very, very hard to kill. I think you get a different ending if you manage to do so. Overall my favorite thing about Koudelka was its plot. Not something I say often about JRPGs, as they tend to have very weak writing. This game is a stellar exception to that paradigm thankfully. - As for me and this challenge; I'm still working on finishing Mass Effect 2 (almost 40 hours in it now), once that's done Shadow Hearts: Covenant will be my main dish. I'm considering beating Dive Alert for this challenge as well; it'd be nice to have eventually beaten all of Sacnoth's games.
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Post by toei on Sept 4, 2018 3:25:17 GMT -5
This is all making me want to play Koudelka. I might just get to it soon after all.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2018 8:38:09 GMT -5
There is one optional super boss though that is very, very hard to kill. I think you get a different ending if you manage to do so. I did beat that boss, but it doesn't have any bearing on the ending. There's three endings actually: the bad ending is just a glorified game over and you want to avoid it by getting the pendant back. As for the other two endings, that depends entirely on whether you beat the final boss. However, in full Shadow Hearts fashion, the good ending is not canonical. And if you want to take down the optional boss just put a tank in the front while the magic users take the boss stats down with spells. Farming scrolls in the library helps, too.
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Post by Ex on Sept 4, 2018 9:13:15 GMT -5
I do remember the pendant mattering for the ending at least.
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