Koudelka

"Very good until you get to the battles"

There are definitely mixed feelings in the gaming world about Koudelka, a four-disc, gothic horror RPG for the PSOne. What I found was a compelling story line, a unique main character, beautiful graphics, excellent voice acting, but a less-than-great battle system.

The story line is definitely one of the strong points of the game; talk about unexpected twists. The plot folds out through written documents found throughout the game, secrets that your companions are hiding, and through bizarre NPCs, including a quirky several-hundred-year-old man. The main characters were unique, especially Koudelka herself, who's a no-nonsense, sarcastic tough cookie. The conversations between the her and her companions, James and Edward, often made me laugh out loud, because they’re all constantly berating each other.

I've heard people complain that the graphics are too bleak and colorless, but I think they fit the atmosphere. Plus, it reminds you that the game takes place over 100 years ago. I'll admit that a little more color could have made it nicer, but it's not horrible the way it is. I especially liked how items you could pick up blended in with the background; you actually had to *search* for them instead of just heading over to the lone spot on the floor, or the extra colorful block on the shelf. The cut-scenes are gorgeous; the characters' mouths match the words they're speaking. The voice-acting itself is much clearer than other games I've heard, which is good since there isn't any text to follow.

However, the RPG battle system is where I started to get annoyed and disappointed. You work with three characters on a grid-setup battle zone. The battles drag on, especially when you're building up weapons and magic spells. You have less than 10 magic spells to unlock, but they get stronger with each use. The weapons do the same; the more you use axes, your ability to use axes improves. Unfortunately, weapons have a VERY bad habit of breaking after a few whacks. You eventually find an abundance of them, but during the first quarter of the game, my stomach was in knots since I was down to so few. Another thing that makes the battles crawl is the fact that you’re subjected to several seconds of watching a baddie wiggle back and forth before and after their turn, and before and after you attack them. Those several seconds definitely start adding up, and it makes one wonder WHAT the game developers were thinking or trying to accomplish with that.

What REALLY disappointed me was the lack of scary elements. The atmosphere was perfect for things to jump out and scare the daylights out of you, but the RPG-style battles eliminated monsters walking around. PLUS, the game relies on text to explain events. In one case, you open up a closet, see a mummy lying there and a message pops up saying, ''You open the closet and a mummy dressed in a wedding dress jumps out at you!'' Could you imagine how frightening it would be if it actually jumped out at you, accompanied by appropriate music? But no. *sighs* There are *many* cases in the game where potential scariness isn't utilized.

Koudelka, overall, is worth playing. It's short enough that I was willing to sit through the whole game and enjoy it, but I was still disappointed with several elements of it. Since it's so short (I logged under twenty hours), I would recommend renting it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/10/01, Updated 08/10/01