"My love for this game is eternal, but it could have been so much more."

Sudeki, a Western RPG. Normally you'd expect to see an RPG from the Eastern Continent seeing as Japan and the many game companies that live there usually create any RPG that stays in our hearts forever. But this time Europe has decided to show that they can create an RPG just as good as everyone else. It shows that Climax, the creators of Sudeki tried their hardest but just couldn't quite capture that Japanese RPG magic. In many areas Sudeki is great and I love it to death for those bits, but in some areas, it just can't keep up with the superior RPGs out there. Read on and I'll explain.

Story

This was Sudeki's first stumble. There is a story hidden in there, Climax just had problems making it get anywhere. The trouble is, Sudeki can't decide where it wants to go, not only that but it is also quite short for a RPG, which is quite disappointing seeing as so many other factors of this game are great.
The basic idea of the game is that you and your three friends are trying to help protect the world of Illumina from the increasing amount of invasions from Haskilia by collecting crystals from different regions of the world to power a giant shield. As the story goes on, the characters, Tal the swordsman, Ailish, the magician, Buki, the part-animal warrior and Elco, the scientist, discover that they are descendants of an ancient God that created the world before it was split into two and it's now their task to try and help restore the worlds as one. It's just a shame that this part of the story isn't touched upon much until near the end of the game but by then the game will almost be over.

Character development is also low. I could see many places where the game could have expanded on the story, which Climax never did anything with. For example, throughout most of the game, it is hinted that Tal and Ailish have sparks between the two of them but that's about it, it never moves further than that. Also, Elco was in an accident that caused him to lose his left arm (which was replaced with a robotic one), which according to him was a devastating part of his life. So why didn't Climax expand on this and look into Elco's past? We could have at least been told what accident caused his arm to be lost. Was Climax being lazy? They had around a year and a half to make the game and it seems they spent the majority of that time on the much better parts of it.

Story - 4 - More character development, a more complex plot and a longer story could have saved Sudeki here.

Graphics

This is where Sudeki starts making it's come back. The graphics in Sudeki are amazing, second to none. Each and every single area has such incredible attention to detail that by the time your jaw hits the floor you would have already filled the room with 3 inches of your own drool. The reason why I say this is because every different town, dungeon and world has obviously been thought of using the mind of God because each area just screams with individuality. There is no other town that looks like Bright water. There is no dungeon that feels like Shadani-Mo's temple and there is no world that feels like Haskilia.

Transentia, for example, is the town where Elco comes from and where all the modern technology of Illumina comes from. So Climax made sure that there were signs of this technology shown everywhere, like the lifts, the bars, even some of the characters you can talk to there. It's like living in Bill Gates' mind.

Also, when a character does a Skill Strike in battle, the sparks and glowing lights that show are that which are comparable to fireworks and when they finish off the enemy you were killing, about 95% of the enemies you kill in this game explode into a pool of their own blood and guts, which is horribly satisfying. It looks amazing, and you'll see what I mean when you get to do some of them for yourself, you truly need to see them for yourself to understand how brilliant they look. It's just a shame that there are only 6 Skill Strikes for each character.

Graphics - 10 - Amazing, brilliant. How many more words are there which describe brilliance?

Sound

Another score for Sudeki. Every town and dungeon has its own tune, including its own battle song as well. Which makes every location you go to feel like a new adventure and each tune brings a smile to your face when you come back to each area later on in the game. It's classic stuff.

It also shows that Climax weren't lazy with sound effects either in Sudeki. When an enemy explodes it sounds so real that it makes me worry slightly where they got the sound effect from. Every sound effect sounds believably real and there's plenty to serve, that's a major plus.

The one odd thing about the sound effects department though is that most characters that talk to you in this game seem to have a different accent. It's like Sudeki is set in a world where every continent was forced to merge and live as one. Some people may find this annoying but I like it, it adds individuality between the characters besides their own behaviour.

Sound - 9 - Music and sounds effects are fantastic; some may find the voices annoying.

Game play

Ah, the high point of most games and Sudeki is no exception. The battles are a work of art. Tal and Buki fight in third person perspective using swords and claws and Elco and Ailish fight in first person perspective using guns and staffs which shoot beams of energy.

The battles work like this. Every fight is in real-time, meaning that there is no taking turns to make your moves, which means battles can get a little hectic. Great. When fighting as Tal or Buki, A and X are both your main attack buttons, A being the quicker, less damaging attack and X being the slower more powerful attack. You can use these buttons in timed combos of three attacks to pull special moves which do a lot of damage to your enemy, so learning how to do these and time them well is vital. Elco and Ailish fight differently, so to fire their weapons you have to pull the right trigger, whilst X allows you to cycle through your weapons and A being the alternative fire button. Both characters can get out of a tight spot quickly by pressing the B button, which causes enemies to fly out of your way but does little damage, handy for when you're cornered.

Pressing Y brings up the quick menu, which, by the way, doesn't stop the battle; it only slows it down so you can still take damage if you hang around with it on. Using the quick menu though allows you to access characters AI settings, options, items but most importantly, the Skill Strikes, which can make or break you in a battle. Skill Strikes are like the special moves for each character, each one having a different effect, some deal with damage, some deal with changing your status or health. Whichever one you use they will all use up a bit of your character's SP (Skill Points), the more damage or effect they have on you, the more SP they require. Most of the Skill Strikes are extremely helpful in battle, like Tal's Iron Warrior Skill Strike, which reduces the damage all your characters take reduce by 40% and only costs 40 SP, so that's something you want to learn as soon as possible. The only thing I have against the Skill Strikes though is that there's sometimes a lag between selecting the move and the move actually taking place, it's just a good thing you can't take any damage whilst you're using a skill strike.

The only thing more powerful than a Skill Strike though that can be accessed through the quick menu is a Spirit Strike. Each character can learn two of these, which they learn during the course of the game, don't worry though; you learn the first one early into the game. When you cast a Spirit Strike, the gloves are off. Lights fill the screen, fire/ice/whatever spills from every space available as your character's chosen guardian deals damage that guarantees death upon any enemy in the room, if not that then same happens only you and your other characters get a positive status effect while all the enemies get a negative one depending on which Spirit Strike you use, nice.

Using a Spirit Strike isn't all roses and smiley faces though. The cost for using one is heavy. A status effect causing Spirit Strike asks for 100 SSP (Spirit Strike Points) and a damaging Spirit Strike needs 200 SSP and the only way for you to get this valuable SSP is to either kill an enemy or receive damage. Unfortunately, each enemy you kill or receive damage from doesn't give you much SSP meaning it could be a while between you last Spirit Strike and your next but when it does come to using one, it could save your life, so saving them when you have one is a wise thing to do.

Outside of battle though each character has a special ability. Tal can use his strength to move heavy objects, Ailish can see invisible things and make them visible to everyone else, Buki can climb walls using her metal claws and Elco can fly around using his jet pack when he finds fuel crystals. These add some interesting puzzle ideas when in a dungeon or finding secret items but they aren't used too often. It would have been nice to see more of these special abilities used.
The side quest department is a little empty though. There are some side quests to do, some of which provide your characters with really strong weapons, other just lead to more money or orbs which you can use to improve your characters. Unfortunately, most of these side quests are just fetch missions and don't expand on the story in any way. More side quests and different types of side quests would have been nice.

The last thing I think needs mentioning is the levelling up. When a character levels up, they get Advance Points, 1 for each level, 2 for every fifth. You can use these to improve either your Health, Strength, Skill (SP) Essence (Makes your Skill Strikes more powerful) or to buy a new Skill Strike. The only problem I have with the levelling up is that the highest level in this game is 30 and you don't get enough Advance Points to level up every part of a character to its max. This does add some strategy to deciding what areas of a character to be strongest but it wouldn't have killed to be allowed to max out your characters

Game play - 9 - Some areas need working on but most of these you won't even notice as you play the game, most of the great parts override them.

Story - 4
Graphics - 10
Sound - 9
Game play - 9
Overall - 8

Rent or buy

It depends really. If you're a serious RPG'er, you might not like this game. It's not extremely hard and not the best RPG ever. But if you just want to play a RPG that is a lot of fun and shows off its graphics, this is the game for you.
Final Statement

As much as I love this game I have to accept the truth that this isn't the best RPG ever, but to me it is a damn good one. There are some bad points but there are also some brilliant good points. So I think Sudeki deserves a repeatable 8.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/07/05