Koudelka is an obscure title, but one that I’ve been looking to get my hands on as it’s one of the only horror-JRPGs out there and a pretty solid one at that. Taking heavy inspiration from the first Resident Evil that released three years prior, Koudelka has you scouring an abandoned monastery in the year 1898 and you’ll come across key items needed for puzzles while battling monsters, beast, and the macabre via random encounters.
The gameplay is turn-based and not too complicated. You’ll have a max of three party members that you meet very early on (Koudelka the Psychic, Edward the Adventurer, and James the Bishop) and they are suited for either magic or melee actions. The arena is grid-based, but doesn’t require much tactical thinking as the only thing you need to worry about is monsters passing your downed characters because if they do, they’re unavailable to be revived. There are some unspoken elemental strengths and weaknesses which can only be discovered through trial and error. Overall, the combat really isn’t anything special, but it gets the job done.
Game-play outside of combat consists of wandering around the old monastery searching for clues as to why there are beasts and ghosts roaming the premises. You’ll come across lost letters, forgotten bodies, and other people with their own stories to tell. I did find the map to not provide enough information when backtracking was necessary (and it is often) so I found myself visiting GameFAQs for the classic text-based walkthrough of old. I found myself enjoying reading the community-posted walkthrough of this game, missing the times were it was necessary for kid me to print out the entire walkthrough whenever I found myself lost to progression. However, whenever I entered a room with a cutscene, I dropped everything to pay attention. I found the voice acting to be way more entertaining than I thought, as dialogue is given as if it were a radio drama which gives completely different vibes than modern-day performances. I think the voice acting style suits the game, but there are some moments where the VA is generally poor, but you can’t help but laugh in those moments.
Graphically, I was impressed. With the pre-rendered backgrounds and the fixed camera angles, it seems like the developers behind Koudelka saw what made Resident Evil special to the eyes and improved on those elements. Just about every new scene is a treat and I was finding myself wanting to take screenshots of certain areas, but unable to do so since I played this on original hardware.
I really enjoyed my time with this game and I’m glad the spiritual successor series, Shadow Hearts, exists as well. I believe this game is somewhat forgotten which is a shame since I found it to have tremendous charm to it. The characters are likeable and their bickering between each other is a joy to watch, the environments are beautiful, and the story is pretty decent. I just yearn for more horror-RPGs and this one is probably one of the grandparents of the oft-forgotten genre blend. Here’s hoping that Penny Blood, the spiritual successor to the spiritual successor to this game turns out to be a solid companion to this game and Shadow Hearts.
The gameplay is turn-based and not too complicated. You’ll have a max of three party members that you meet very early on (Koudelka the Psychic, Edward the Adventurer, and James the Bishop) and they are suited for either magic or melee actions. The arena is grid-based, but doesn’t require much tactical thinking as the only thing you need to worry about is monsters passing your downed characters because if they do, they’re unavailable to be revived. There are some unspoken elemental strengths and weaknesses which can only be discovered through trial and error. Overall, the combat really isn’t anything special, but it gets the job done.
Game-play outside of combat consists of wandering around the old monastery searching for clues as to why there are beasts and ghosts roaming the premises. You’ll come across lost letters, forgotten bodies, and other people with their own stories to tell. I did find the map to not provide enough information when backtracking was necessary (and it is often) so I found myself visiting GameFAQs for the classic text-based walkthrough of old. I found myself enjoying reading the community-posted walkthrough of this game, missing the times were it was necessary for kid me to print out the entire walkthrough whenever I found myself lost to progression. However, whenever I entered a room with a cutscene, I dropped everything to pay attention. I found the voice acting to be way more entertaining than I thought, as dialogue is given as if it were a radio drama which gives completely different vibes than modern-day performances. I think the voice acting style suits the game, but there are some moments where the VA is generally poor, but you can’t help but laugh in those moments.
Graphically, I was impressed. With the pre-rendered backgrounds and the fixed camera angles, it seems like the developers behind Koudelka saw what made Resident Evil special to the eyes and improved on those elements. Just about every new scene is a treat and I was finding myself wanting to take screenshots of certain areas, but unable to do so since I played this on original hardware.
I really enjoyed my time with this game and I’m glad the spiritual successor series, Shadow Hearts, exists as well. I believe this game is somewhat forgotten which is a shame since I found it to have tremendous charm to it. The characters are likeable and their bickering between each other is a joy to watch, the environments are beautiful, and the story is pretty decent. I just yearn for more horror-RPGs and this one is probably one of the grandparents of the oft-forgotten genre blend. Here’s hoping that Penny Blood, the spiritual successor to the spiritual successor to this game turns out to be a solid companion to this game and Shadow Hearts.