Wanted to play this before going through the Shadow Hearts games. Yes, the combat is just as slow and painful as everyone says (and is also on a grid for some reason?) and has a lot of random encounters as you're trying to explore which is a real Old RPG pet peeve of mine BUT I'm really forgiving on this one because I was absolutely enthralled the entire way.
The vibes in Koudelka are unmatched. This game has such a sense of style in every single audio and visual aspect, and so much of it is made up of things that you rarely see in video games. The story is told in what I can only explain as theater-like segments that are voiced and motion captured (in 1999!) by stage actors which brings these characters to life so much. The way characters will subtly talk over each other and react to each other in a natural way makes you actively realize how clunky video game voice acting usually is, even in games that pride themselves on being 'cinematic'.
The environment design and UI is absolutely gorgeous, and fully commits to this vaguely European gothic aesthetic. The music is RPG-like but is fully aware of it's surroundings and is used sparingly to hold the mood and tension of the game.
It also just uses the PS1 Hardware incredibly well and pushes it to its limits. This isn't always a good thing - load times in battle are weird and slow as it seemingly often can't render in all three characters and enemies all at once - but overall this means that you get some of the best looking character models, environments and cutscenes from the entire PS1 era.
For this reason it also is probably the shortest 4 disc game in the PS1 library - each disc is no longer than 3 hours long, but it also maintains such a high standard of quality across every disc. I feel like with this era of games especially, the 'unfinished, overly ambitious masterpiece' gets talked about a lot, and while far from a masterpiece, Koudelka's insane ambition pays off in such an even and consistent way across its duration.
Not for everyone, but definitely worth a go if you're feeling intrigued.
The vibes in Koudelka are unmatched. This game has such a sense of style in every single audio and visual aspect, and so much of it is made up of things that you rarely see in video games. The story is told in what I can only explain as theater-like segments that are voiced and motion captured (in 1999!) by stage actors which brings these characters to life so much. The way characters will subtly talk over each other and react to each other in a natural way makes you actively realize how clunky video game voice acting usually is, even in games that pride themselves on being 'cinematic'.
The environment design and UI is absolutely gorgeous, and fully commits to this vaguely European gothic aesthetic. The music is RPG-like but is fully aware of it's surroundings and is used sparingly to hold the mood and tension of the game.
It also just uses the PS1 Hardware incredibly well and pushes it to its limits. This isn't always a good thing - load times in battle are weird and slow as it seemingly often can't render in all three characters and enemies all at once - but overall this means that you get some of the best looking character models, environments and cutscenes from the entire PS1 era.
For this reason it also is probably the shortest 4 disc game in the PS1 library - each disc is no longer than 3 hours long, but it also maintains such a high standard of quality across every disc. I feel like with this era of games especially, the 'unfinished, overly ambitious masterpiece' gets talked about a lot, and while far from a masterpiece, Koudelka's insane ambition pays off in such an even and consistent way across its duration.
Not for everyone, but definitely worth a go if you're feeling intrigued.