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Loudelka

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 09, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I am 18 and I think the game is great. A little complicated, but good. The caracters are not like any other RPG. I am not an RPG fan, but this is the best one yet. Everyone who likes RPG's needs to get their hands on this game. Don't take my advice. Use your own.

"B" for plot, "C" for personality

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: December 04, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Despite a few quirks that nearly drove me mad, "Koudelka" is the best console RPG I've ever played. It's the only one to even approach the intensity of a real friends, food, and dice-rolling role playing session.

The battle mechanics are a cross between the familiar Final Fantasy options and board control taken from chess. Despite the chess allusions in the game, characters can move freely within the area of the board they control but cannot move into the battle area controlled by the monsters. This was a small let down since it makes it impossible to outflank or move in behind your opponents nor can they attempt to do this to the player characters. Still, it makes it possible to position the characters so as to force the attack of the monster onto a single character.

The only real structural flaw of the game is that the inventory system is limited and once you reach the cap, you're forced to accept any new objects you find and must drop something already in inventory. Since the game doesn't allow you to simply leave the new items laying in the dirt, and requires you to carry crates full of items around in order to solve many puzzles, this gets sickeningly annoying the first time it happens and remains just as irritating throughout the remainder of the game.

The other sour note of "Koudelka" are the personalities of the main characters. To the designers' credit, three strangers who meet in an ongoing massacre really shouldn't immediately become hard and fast friends...but it seemed the views expressed by the characters during these bouts were pulled straight out of a night club in the 1990s rather than reflecting sentiments of England in the 1800s. The name dropping of historically significant artists throughout the game indicates a level of research and detail planning that seemed lacking in the personalities of the main characters, and when the mysterious medium Koudelka morphs into a whiny goth chick, it tends to throw off the feel of the game.

Despite these quirks, "Koudelka" puts the frivolous and simplistic plots produced by SquareSoft to shame, and the production quality of "Koudelka" is high enough that it makes the Final Fantasy series look shoddy in comparison. It is at last a game which can be enjoyed by those of us who successfully graduated from high school. I'll be watching for new titles from Infogrames.

Huge disappointment

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 7
Date: August 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game started out with an interesting story line, then I continued to play and had flashbacks of the original Resident Evil. The battle field was a joke and the enemies were rather unoriginal. The weapons broke every five seconds and were we. The only aspect of this game that I thought had a gleam of originality was the weapon effects on status. All and all this game was a disappointment to Atari.

Good game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: October 03, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I liked this game. It has good graphics and music and the controls were easy to learn. It has a good story and Koudelka look pretty good. hehe!

wateva

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: October 22, 2001
Author: Amazon User

the game is nice, although i haven't finished it yet(actually i just bought it a couple of days ago.)

what I really like about it is the atmosphere, it keeps you guessing, of what's coming next. that and the fact that the characters always keep you amused, since they always fight each other.

other tthan that, the game is very nicely done. it has great graphics, and gorgeous fmv's. the batle system is very simple, and very easy to learn. the characters talk in this game, which is nice for a change. finaly, the fact that the game has absolutely no money in it whatsoever (thank god, some of those game makers out there would put money even in this game) makes the game setting very beliavable.

there are only two things i could complain about. the first one being the batle speed. casting magic takes too much time, aspecially if you fight more than one character, and all of your people have weapons(the game loads each character and weapon separatly, each taking around two seconds, so do your math). the second part is the annoying battle music. these guys just couldn't live without a cheery balte theme. i think it ruins some of the suspense, and the monsters aren't as scary, when you hear "chocobo theme". if anyone knows how to get rid of the batle music, email me(dkdeathknight@yahoo)

other than that, the game is superb. i recomend it to all the people who are sick and tired of final fantasy love themes, and want to play something scary for a change. it's wel worth the (...) bucks i spent on it.

Scary

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 08, 2002
Author: Amazon User

i bought this game...actually by accident. i wanted a new rpg to play and since this one had 4 discs i knew i would be in for a challenge. boy was i!
i loved the storyline, the graphics rocked...and the ending that i chose was rather frightening...
however..the actual battle scenes were a great disappointment, after awhile it just became frustrating (the fight scenes).
all in all it was a great game and i am going to start playing it again just to check out the other endings :-)

A sad entry to a genre full of great games

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 8
Date: September 12, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The other reviews for this game are generally accurate. The story line in nice, the voice acting is above average, the character interaction is good, the script is better than average, etc. There are a lot of nice things about this game.

That said, this game is terrible. It has major design flaws. The control system is way sub-par. The worst I've ever felt. Don't like the way Lara Croft can't round corners? It's nothing compared to how hard is to move these characters around tight little pre-rendered rooms the way you want. Remember how disappointing "Fear Effect" was? This game is worse and doesn't even let you see the background while you do combat on a chessboard that bears no relationship to the size or space of the room you're supposedly in.

Also, the combat system is about as un-fun as it gets. If you like some of those mecha-shooters you might like it but there are a dozen games out there that are *so* much better. There are ten "Final Fantasy" games, all much better. It's embarrassing to live in a world where a game as good as "Vagrant Story" is in the same general category as "Koudelka."

Do yourself a favor, get "Vagrant Story" or any of the others, don't buy this game. Or buy it from me in the Auctions. I'm going to be selling mine for $5 with free shipping.

Not a bad game, but not so good either.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: December 29, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Koudelka is very interesting; it's got a nice horror feel to it, some elements of RPG thrown into the mix, but overall it's rather average. The graphics, even during the time period it was released, are great when used in prerendered backgrounds, but the character design is quite bad.

Another problem with the game is the movement and voice acting. It's rather difficult controlling the youngster as you attempt to run up stairs (using the EXACT stair-climbing from Resident Evil.. What a disappointment there) and even though the actors did a relatively good job, COME ON! They don't sound their supposed ages, and they do not have accents from where they are supposed to be from. It sounds like Konami didn't really feel up to it to make the game any better.

It's a nice entry into the survival horror field, and I like the battle system alright. You fight across a chessboard in a strategic kind of way. I HATE the bonus point distribution; it would have been better if you got a point on each attribute and had the bonus points too to do whatever you wanted with them. The game slowpaces like hell, too, offering no real fun.

If you can look past all these flaws, you'll find Koudelka a bit engrossing and a little original. I like the ghost thing as well. Don't mistake my words for something else; I'm not saying its a bad game, it just could have been much, much better.

A great quick game . . .

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: August 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

As an adult gamer I enjoyed this game - wasn't the biggest challenge or best I've every played but it held my interest, graphics were good, storyline was interesting, locales and battle were good and the game had different endings depending on the final battle.

Starts out with one character and you pick up the other two during game play. The battles were challenging without being to tough. Satisfying variety of weapons and spells - although the weapons do break after so many uses. You can also strengthen your magic with use.

Recommended!

A very cool new survial horror/RPG game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: January 03, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Koudelka takes a new look on video games. It's different than most you'll find these days. It's kinda like a mix of Resident Evil and your Final fantasy-like RPG.

GOOD THINGS-It has turn-based battle screens, however, you can move your characters around the battle field, much like Final Fantasy Tactics. Only the rest is your usual RPG battle system. The level-up system is very cool. For each enemy you defeat, you get a certain amount of points, in which you can distrubute throughout your chatacters status. For example, if you recieve five points, you can choose to increase your strengh, dexterity, speed, etc. Also, you get a wide variety of sweet weapons and flashy spells. When I first bought Koudelka I was very surprised in the smooth graphics, quick load time, and high quality cinematics. The entire game has extremely good voice acting. Their speaking even moves correctly with their mouths. The general environment is very dark and gothic. Very nice.

BAD THINGS-Koudelka didn't really have many notable screw-ups to mention. Although not as violent or gory as Resident Evil, it still has its share of blood and thrills.

The story line is huge(hence the four discs). It has a LOT of unexpected twists and turns. Not to mention, Koudelka herself looks pretty sexy through the whole game. All in all, Koudelka is a new, worht-the-money experience.

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