Sudeki

"Wow, great game. So where's the rest of it?"

Sudeki is one of the all too few attempts at an RPG on the Xbox platform, though it would be more accurately classified as an action-RPG, due to its real-time combat and out-of-battle activities. Graphically rich and boasting an excellently executed combat system, it unfortunately lacks the depth that RPG fans rightfully expect, and can therefore be viewed as a lightweight contender in the RPG field. Nevertheless, it is quite a fun game to play in its own right, and makes good use of the capabilities of the Xbox hardware.

Story
Sudeki , as revealed by the intro FMV, is a world created for the interest of a deity named Tetsu. His dark half-brother (or evil twin, to be more accurate) tried to overthrow him and rule the planet, but was in turn defeated by a foursome of legendary heroes. With his last ounce of strength, the evil twin split the world of Sudeki into two. A thousand years later, you come in. In Sudeki, you control 4 unique, diverse characters who must come together and grow into the re-embodiments of those legendary heroes of old, and eventually face off against the ancient evil to reunite the 2 worlds. Now, you, as the player, know this stuff right off the bat or shortly into the game. The problem is that the characters you control are mostly oblivious to the situation, and you sit back and watch as they slowly figure out what you've known all along, which doesn't make for riveting storytelling. At least the getting there is pretty pleasant, however, and the character development is fairly good. Your heroes will actually learn and grow, and face tests of character and crises of spirit to some degree, and they are rewarded by their god, Tetsu, as they advance in this development. One of the major complaints about the game and the story, however, is that it is all too brief. Sure, the characters develop somewhat, and learn a little something about the truth of their world, but they are then rapidly propelled into the final showdown to save their little universe, and there is no follow-up to what happens to the characters or the world once you finish the game. Nevertheless, read on for some of the strengths of the game experience, which partially compensate for the lack of depth in the story department.

Gameplay
Sudeki does shine in this department, and it offers some unique game elements, at least in terms of combat. The game plays out in a full 3-D environment, where you run the characters around and down set paths in real-time to reach new destinations, with a moderate amount of exploration along the way. The game is structured into a set of quests assigned to you by various powers-that-be, basically involving reporting to a new location, clearing a dungeon of its denizens, retrieving a magical crystal, etc. On the completion of each major quest, the next is automatically assigned, so your never at a loss of what to do. You can also pick up many side-quests along the way, most of which involve collecting a number of a type of item and returning them to the person who gave you the quest. Your reward for doing these optional tasks is powerful items, sometimes new weapons, and extra experience points for leveling up.

As for exploration, you have to be able to enjoy the getting there. The distance between towns feels realistic, but a bit long at times when all you want to do is get to the next location. Towns are of manageable size, with plenty of characters to talk to and areas to search. As you explore new areas, you've always on the lookout for treasure chests and breakable items, many of which contain valuables for using or selling. Smashing every vase or barrel you come to, however, can quickly grow boring, but it becomes less important to bother doing once your inventory is reasonably well-stocked. The best stuff will be acquired from defeating enemies anyway. While you're exploring or trying to get to your next destination, you always have a map in one corner of the screen with the layout of your local area, and an area pointing the way to go to make progress towards your current main quest, making it difficult to get lost or lose track of what you're supposed to do.

While you're running around, you're also on the lookout for special areas where your characters can use their special non-combat abilities. Each character has one: Tal can move heavy crates, Ailish can make magical objects appear and disappear, Buki can climb certain walls, and Elco can hover over chasms with his jetpack. These are necessary to progress through certain areas, but more importantly to access various little side-areas where they will find many new weapons and the most valuable items in the game. The only problem with this system is that is executed extremely simply. There is just no question what you're supposed to do when faced with an area where they can use these abilities, they're basically gimmes as long as you're paying attention to your environment. You come to a big crate with a handle, you make Tal pull it. You see vines on a wall, you make Buki climb it. This simplicity is emphasized by the fact that the characters can only do these moves at these specific locations. This makes for some of the easiest puzzle-solving ever encountered in a game of this type.

World exploration is fortunately peppered with a healthy dose of combat, and this is one area where the game really shines. Combat occurs in real-time with up to dozens of combatants acting simultaneously, without any slowdown whatsoever. You directly control only 1 of up to 4 of your main characters at any time in combat, but you can also switch between any of the characters in your party at any time. The remaining characters are controlled by A.I., which actually does a pretty decent job (sometimes making your characters fight even better than if you did it yourself!). This makes for some pretty hectic battles with tons of stuff going on all over a wide battlefield. The player-controlled combat can take 2 forms, depending on which character you're controlling. There are melee fighters, who get up-close and personal with swords or claws, where you have a full 3-D view of your fighter and their surrounding at all times. In this mode, you fight using combos involving 2 attack buttons, all of which are available from the start of the game, and each of which has its own pros and cons in terms of speed, damage, and area of attack. Your other characters fight in first-person mode, firing blasts from guns or magical rods, moving your character with one stick and controlling the direction of the view (aiming) with the other stick, and firing with the right trigger. The control in this mode is pretty tight, and you can modify the sensitivity of the aiming stick to suit your preferences. This adds a lot of variety to combat situations.

In addition to your mundane attacks, you can also unleash a variety of Skill Strikes during combat, powerful moves that can deal heavy damage to a range of enemies, or apply status effects to you or your foes. Each character has a unique roster of Skill Strikes, each of which has a unique animation. Activating these skills slow down time for everyone except the character executing it, making for some impressive visual effects (and demonstrating the capabilities of the hardware). There are also all-powerful Spirit Strikes, which are in essence the Summons of this game (if you've ever played a Final Fantasy game, you'll know what this means). With multiple characters that you can switch to on the fly, 2 combat modes, unique special abilities, and dozens of enemies all acting in real-time, combat is pretty dynamic and exciting.

The character development system is pretty simple. Each time a character levels up, you get 1 or 2 advancement points, which you can then spend on enhancing either their physical strength, magical strength, HP, SP (points for casting Skill Strikes, the equivalent of magic points in other games), or on learning new Skill Strikes from a set roster. This allows for a decent amount of customization, and you and maximize your characters' strengths based on how you want to play them in combat.

Visuals
Wow. That's all I have to say, wow. Well, okay, I can say more than that. The graphics in this game are pretty impressive, as demonstrated by the opening FMV that pans around a gorgeous castle and its grounds, painted with a bright color palette. The designers put a lot of work into making the natural environment shine, with brilliant water, bright sunlight, great textures, and plenty of detail. The character design is equally impressive, with reasonably realistic-looking humanoid characters (while retaining a fantasy feel). The player characters are distinctive, with great outfits. I must say that Ailish, your magic-using princess, is one sexy thing, especially in her first set of armor. On that note, warning to parents: sexily-clad females within! Nothing too lewd (well, that might depend on your personal judgment), definitely not on the scale of some recent fighting games anyway (cough*DeadOrAlive*cough). Overall, this is a fantastic-looking game, with an A+ in this department.

Audio
An exciting feature of this game is the fact that ALL in-game dialogue is spoken (and also accompanied by text, for the hearing impaired). Every conversation with a throwaway character in a town in fully voiced. The flip side of this is that much of the voice acting is highly questionable. The main characters sound pretty good. Ailish has the cutest little accent, and Elco, well, okay, he's a little funny sounding, but it's an authentic Dutch accent at least (in my opinion, he sounds kind of like Dexter from Dexter's Lab). Most of the side characters, though, carry accents that run the gamut from across the British Isles, from Cockney to Scottish, and some of them are done just absurdly. Fortunately, you're rarely forced to talk to them, so it doesn't have to be a huge deal.

The in-game music is nothing exceptional, and is mostly just atmospheric. Lets just say that there isn't the material to make a game soundtrack out of. That means that there are no memorable tunes, but there is music playing throughout the game, and the tone of the music shifts when you enter combat, adding to the frantic nature of that part of the game. There are plenty of in-game sound effects appropriate to the material. The only part where this gets tiresome is the endless clip-clopping of the character's feet on the dirt or pavement as you run along a long road between locations. Buki's footfalls are particularly jarring, and are meant to reflect the fact that she runs in bare feet. At least the fact that each character makes distinctive footfalls attests to the level of attention the game designers paid to the sound effects in this game. Truly, they help immerse the player into a sense of realism about the game environment.

The best part of the sound, in my opinion, is in combat, especially during Skill Strikes and Spirit Strikes. For each unique move, the characters have one or two phrases to go along with them as they prepare their attack, such as "Those that stand before me, die!", or my personal favorite, "I'm going to kill you in the face!". These are said using the good voice acting, remember, and add to the impact of these powerful moves.

Fun Factor and Replayability

Due to the richness of the visual and audio environments, and especially the fast-paced hectic combat system, Sudeki is genuinely fun to play. It's fun to let loose with some pretty cool special moves in combat, and despite the sometimes grating voices, it's neat talking to other characters wherever you go. Also, the story is decent, though it lacks depth, and herein lies the most-cited weakness of the game. Clocking in at only 20 hours (which is long for an action game, but woefully short for an RPG), it just feels kind of incomplete and ends at a point when you're really getting excited about it. This is compounded somewhat by the extremely simple puzzles, and the superficial "item fetching" nature of the majority of the side-quests. As to replaying the game, there are only minor side-quests, and as mentioned, none of them run too deep, adding nothing to the main storyline or character development, but at least there are lots of them, so if you enjoyed the game the first time, you will probably still enjoy it playing again trying to complete everything (the shortness of the game actually makes a re-play more tolerable than if you had to play for weeks just to get that last couple of items you were missing).

Summary

Really, Sudeki accomplishes a lot, highlighting the graphical and processing capabilities of the big ol' Xbox, and creating a fun game with innovative combat and memorable characters. This is hindered only by the lack of depth in non-combat gameplay and the somewhat brief nature of the game. I'm not sure how this came about, but it could likely have been due to budgetary or time restraints on the part of the game designers. There are many small elements in the game that lead one to believe that it is partially unfinished, in terms of the scope of the storyline and potential for side-development. So let's just agree that, though it could have been a better, ultimately more satisfying game, Sudeki still manages to provide a fun gaming experience for a wide audience.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/28/05