Solid mix of JRPG and early horror genres, with good voice acting and interesting story, albeit a bit short. The entire game is set in a huge haunted monastery filled with secrets and in that pre-rendered ps1 greatness in which every room feels like a piece of art. I really enjoyed the exploration, even though sometimes it can be a bit confusing to navigate. I wouldn't have it any other way though, as the vibe the game is going for only works so well thanks to the fixed camera angles.

Also I feel people exaggerate when they complain about the combat being too slow, it kinda is, but it gives you a ton of options on how to build your characters and you can, for example, pump magic to one hit everything, so personally I don't think its slower compared to most JRPGs at the time, including the famous ones. However I believe the random encounters don't really add much to the game, they're pretty easy to begin with, so you don't feel threatened and even the battle music at times feel too "usual" and kills the horror vibe the game is going for. Probably for scaredy people like me that's actually good though.

Koudelka is one of those few games that come along from time to time that really just hit ya know? Horror is kinda bobbed and weaved throughout JRPG's in different ways and concepts but there are quite few that tend to bathe themselves so completely in pure gothic horror fashion like this.

This game oozes an aesthetic that I fuck with on every single solitary level. The architecture, the music, the cold, dead and lonely vibes of this dead and fucked up place. Uncovering horror after horror, secret after fucked up secret as you get more and more around the facilities. It's beautiful.

The combat isn't perfect but honestly the fact that I can make magic so instantly overpowerdly busted and just blast through all of the fights so I can get to more of the plot and beautiful environment makes me not really give a shit. The enemies as well even being extremely well considered for the setting, themes and ideas of the entire game itself.

I absolutely fucking adore the plot to this game. It is absolutely one of my favorite JRPG stories simply because Edward and James are asshole bastards and Koudelka's hard edge stances towards the entire world creates a really interesting party dynamic where all of these people clearly either hate or at least definitely do not like each other to the point where they bicker and yell and argue at each other as they try to figure out what even is going on. Resulting in some actually pretty great for the time performances selling this tragic work about loss and being able to move on from it. About how these broken people all have no clue how to deal with the loss in their lives. Edward really being the only one who is so privileged that he can't relate to any of the characters and their awful experiences, problems or pasts. In a lesser game Edward would be the protagonist and focus on the "adventure" of it all when that's not what this is. It's a gauntlet through a person's psyche, unable to cope with the person they lost and extending out to harming now you the player as you fight and fight and fight through this medieval spencer mansion.

One of my favorite scenes in this game is specifically a scene where Edward and Koudelka get drunk in front of a fireplace. I feel like this scene in particular cements why Koudelka herself is such a strong and fascinating character compared to Edward. It strongly contrasts their differences and his childish outlook on the world versus the actual shit and awful times she's been through. The loss and pain that she's had to suffer from the world and how even after ALL of that she STILL wants to help spirits move on.

Koudelka is at this point in time my favorite JRPG ever made. I recommend everybody play it at least once. It's fairly easy and honestly pretty short at about mayyyybe 12 hours for a playthrough.

I'm happy that it leads into Shadow Hearts and I'm very excited to play those games. Happy I replayed this and excited to write a more concise video about it sometime soonish.

damn this game is actually peak horror
i like the in-game cutscenes and how people move like real people (pretty impressive for ps1 standards)
the gameplay is a mix of jrpg and srpg combat (you have your normal jrpg magic/physical attacks, weapons but you have a chess-like board that you can move around, very unique and surprisingly works well) although i hate the amount of backtracking in this game and how vague it is, playing this first-time without a guide was kinda painful for me
the characters are a charming bunch, they blend well with the overall setting of the game too
the ambience, story and cutscenes genuinely give the game a creepy vibe to it, one of the only horror games that made me feel fear
if you are into survival horror or jrpgs this is a must-play

When 'what games would you like to see remade' topics come up, this is always the game that comes to mind first. I don't think we need to see remakes of games that are already perfect or close, I'd rather see remakes of games like this - that have some great ideas and good things going for it but are held back by fixable things.

I really liked the cast, and the story was quite good, aided by worldbuilding and background lore that always got me more invested. The setting was interesting and atmospheric.

The battle system was a pretty big mess, and the difficulty was extremely inconsistent. This game has a breakable weapon system which I always find to be obnoxious and tedious to deal with.

It's a pipe dream but I really hope to see a remake someday, because the potential for an amazing game is clear.

Anybody that intends to play the Shadow Hearts series would do well to give this a look first if possible.

Koudelka é um jogo de RPG que possui uma atmosfera que passa uma sensação similar a Resident Evil, apesar de uma temática mais próxima ao período vitoriano, algo na vibe de Castlevania, mesmo que possua armas e outros equipamentos mais modernos. Tem a ver com o local onde o jogo se passa, que possui um ambiente puxado da arquitetura católica europeia.

O gameplay, infelizmente, é bem lento, com mudanças frequentes de câmera fixa, bem nos moldes dos RE de PS1, e praguejado de combates com animações que demoram a iniciar depois de selecionadas, loadings entre os combates e os saves beirando o insuportável de tão demorados, além de personagens pouco carismáticos. Isso é parcialmente solucionável acelerando o jogo se tiver jogando em emulador.

O combate possui um sistema um tanto confuso, com muitos atributos com múltiplas funções, caindo em velhos problemas de algo complexo demais pra ser bom. Ele também se utiliza de um sistema pouco ortodoxo de grid de batalha, que engana a primeira vista, pois não se trata de um sRPG, trazendo ao invés das convenções clássicas um sistema próprio de regras de movimentação e posicionamento.

Entretanto, a temática diferenciada e o escopo do jogo mixando puzzles e combate chamam a atenção o tornando um jogo bastante peculiar. A história também foge de clichês de RPG e traz algo fora do comum, misturando elementos de mistério, horror e suspense.

Contudo, as qualidades não são suficientes para vencer os defeitos que tornam o jogo bastante maçante e tedioso, resultando em uma experiência desagradável e com poucos momentos e características de destaque.

Me encanta la atmosfera que se genera sobre todo gracias a la música (no nos olvidemos que Sacnoth lo monto un compositor de música de videojuegos), y creo que hay una mezcla de survival horror y rol que funciona bien. La historia funciona menos por hechos que por tono y atmosfera, y aun así hay momentos realmente escalofriantes que han quedado algo obsoletos más de 20 años después, pero esto, la banda sonora, la ambientación gótica y la forma de usar las armas y los hechizos siguen teniendo no solo vigencia, sino también encanto.

This was an incredibly hard game for me to put down!! Looking around the internet it seems like people think the RPG gameplay weighed it down compared to more typical horror games, but I thought the battles were impressively well-balanced (I never died once, but most boss battles did have me close to the wire so every victory felt satisfactorily earned) and allocating characters’ stats proved to be meaningful and engaging, something which other games can flounder with. And for someone like me, who doesn’t do especially well with scary stuff (I usually get my friends to play scary games so I can watch…), Koudelka wound up being pretty perfectly tuned to my exact sensibilities of wanting that creeping, dreadful, oppressive atmosphere with some abstractly-gruesome imagery, while never being anything that discouraged me from playing by being “too much” (a balance I’ve only ever really found in Silent Hill games). What an incredible little thing!! A horror RPG that even wimps like me can have a wonderful time with - and doesn’t waste that time either, clocking in at only 13 hours in my sometimes meandering playthrough. Not even to mention some of the absolute best voice acting and choreography I’ve seen in any game, let alone one on the original Playstation. What a refreshing gem to have stumbled into by accident. Going in I knew nothing, but coming out I’m leaving with a new favorite.

Ended up playing a 3rd Playthrough for a video I've wanted to make about this game for a while. This playthrough absolutely cemented this as being one of my favorite PS1 JRPG's. Everything about it is so wonderfully executed. Everything about it absolutely fucking hits. It's beautiful.

The antagonists are deeply human and the protagonists are the same. The protagonists are deeply similar. James especially.

I'm very very excited to play Shadow Hearts but I honestly don't know if it's gonna live up to how genuinely perfect this game is to me.

If you want to see the analysis I did of the game it's right over here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDxQqABH3Y0

Please for the love of everything play this game. Give it a chance even if the combat isn't amazing.

I have such a hard time with RPGs, I have zero patience at all for menus and turn-based combat, Fallout was as close as I got. I wanted to try the Shadow Hearts games because they seemed so weird and distinct that maybe they could get me more interested in the genre. I don't think I'm dissuaded from them, but Koudelka definitely feels more compromised than Shadow Hearts itself (which was from the get-go going to be a JRPG.) the shift between haunting atmospherics to tactics gameplay is extremely jarring, but the surprisingly decent voice-acting and tone make it easier to get through than I expected. I also don't mind the tactics stuff even though it's woefully out of place. Probably best to just go to Shadow Hearts but Koudelka is an interesting little thing.

koudelka sits in this very awkward spot in my rankings where it's too good to be less than okay but not good enough to be really good, yet it's still a super memorable game despite its overall messiness.
there's so much i love about this game honestly... the voice acting is surprisingly really good compared to games that came out during this time. also koudelka's drunken speech before encountering the final boss haunts me and almost made me cry because of how utterly raw it is. that was the moment i became convinced trudging through this game was worth it and also the moment koudelka shot up to the top in my "favorite characters in gaming" list. i love her!

Koudelka was a more thorough exploration of Parasite Eve's genre-bordering. Like PE, it pairs survival horror elements with JRPG encounters, with a few differences though: A sluggish SRPG combat system instead of ATB, and a focus on the supernatural and religious subject matter over sci-fi horror. Its fixed camera and single-building setting requiring exploration, backtracking and puzzle-solving make it a more faithful interpreter of Resident Evil, but the real merit - however, lies in the long, dramatic, CGI cutscenes with plenty of voice acting and personality, approaching Metal Gear Solid's own drawn out passages. The battle system may be nothing special, and backtracking gets a little tedious, but its interesting cast and dark, disturbing themes paint the experience into something worthwhile.