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This is what you can expect from ex-Square employees

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: July 18, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I love the beautifully- written horror storyline and great FMV, especially ones with the ghost Charlotte and Koudelka (almost all of them)!. Many of the pre-rendered backrounds are quite beautiful, too, and the gameplay is fun. You explore the huge, centuries-old Nementon Monastery which at times has been a place of worship, a pretty bad prison, and the home of very strange and evil people. It is 1898 and Koudelka Iasant has been called to the remote area by an unknown woman's voice.

You travel throughout many floors of the monastary and as new events happen and you get new items, more areas become open to exploration. People are still not returning from the monastery, so you try to learn what has happened to them. It's kind of like Castlevania:SOTN in 3-D, but more serious.

Early in the game, you get two more allies: Edward, a shady charcter looking for rumored treasure, and James, this really annoying bishop who preaches to you all the time. He's so angry and fanatical about religion you'll want to kick him out of the group.

The horror is based more on suspense and terrible things that have happened in the past and are still happening, rather than zombies jumping out at you from every corner. Hardly anything jumps out at you, but it still happens sometimes. Instead, battles are turn- based like in RPG's. It is annoying how it takes so long for your characters to do anything, but you get used to it. I suggest raising agility to around 15. The battles are annoying most of the time, as in most RPG's. It's also a bit short, about 20 hours if you don't use a FAQ or walkthrough.

And the story is completely read out by the characters; there is nothing that you have to read yourself. Thankfully, this is one rare case in which the voice acting is actually good. There isn't anyone's voice thats sounds at all stupid or annoying or makes you lose respect for them like in most other games with voice acting. The voices fit the mouth movements in the movies well, because when this game was in Japanese they had English voices with subtitles. A great game except for the battles!

One last thing: many reviews in publications (such as the "Washington Post") said there were too few save points, mostly after difficult bosses. They didn't read the intruction booklet, apparently. In specific rooms without a visible save point, you can still save by pressing the "menu button" when the name of the area comes up, if there is a "S" to the left of the name.

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!

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.

Koudelka: A pleasant surprise

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 17 / 17
Date: August 10, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I picked this game up never having heard of it before. What I found was a compelling story line, a unique main character, beautiful graphics, excellent voice acting, but a less-than-great battle system.

The story line is definitely one of the strong points of the game; talk about unexpected twists. The plot folds out through written documents found throughout the game, secrets that your companions are hiding, and through bizarre NPCs, including a quirky several-hundred-year-old man. The characters were unique, especially Koudelka herself, who's a no-nonsense, sarcastic tough cookie.

I've heard people complain that the graphics are too bleak and colorless, but I think they fit the atmosphere. Plus, it reminds you that the game takes place over 100 years ago. The cut-scenes are gorgeous; the characters' mouths match the words they're speaking. The voice-acting itself is much clearer than other games I've heard, which is good since there isn't any text to follow.

However, the RPG battle system is where I started to get annoyed and disappointed. You work with three characters on a grided battle zone. The battles drag on, especially when you're building up weapons and magic spells. You have less than 10 magic spells to unlock, but they get stronger with each use. The weapons do the same; the more you use axes, your axe strength goes up. Unfortunately, weapons have a VERY bad habit of breaking after a few whacks. You eventually find an abundance of them, but during the first quarter of the game, my stomach was in knots since I was down to so few.

What REALLY disappointed me was the lack of scary elements. The atmosphere was perfect for things to jump out and scare the daylights out of you, but the RPG-style battles eliminated monsters walking around. PLUS, the game relies on text to explain events. In one case, you open up a closet, see a mummy lying there and a message pops up saying something like, "You open the closet and a mummy dressed in a wedding dress jumps out at you!" Could you imagine how frightening it would be if it actually jumped out at you, accompanied by appropriate music? But no. *sighs* There are many cases in the game where scariness is sacrificed.

Koudelka, overall, is worth playing. It's short enough that I was willing to sit through the whole game and enjoy it, but I was still disappointed with several elements of it.

A wonderful nightmare

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: July 12, 2000
Author: Amazon User

In the game, you play as Koudelka, a young woman who has journeyed to an old monastery. After joining up with some of the people you meet there, you try to unravel the mysteries of the building...

Koudelka is one of the most frightening games made for the Playstation console. It has thrills and chills and it's characters and landscapes abound with secrets galore. The CG animations are breathtaking, and the voice-acting is on par, if not better than Metal Gear Solid. Think Resident Evil w/o all of the corny acting and nonsensical puzzles.

The games only fault lies within it's battle system, although those familiar with an RPG-style of battle won't be too out of their territory, the encounters are random, so be prepared to fight. Alot.

Other than the fighting system though, this game has some of the best stories and characters I've seen in a game, and the exchanges between the characters (in full voice) are amazing to hear, as they yell and scream at each other, struggling to figure out what is going on around them.

Do not pass this game up, you will not be dissapointed.

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.

Great ! Just great !

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: June 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

After being a major rpg fan I decided to try out a new kind of rpg instead of treading the same "Final Fantasy" wheel over and over again. Don't get me wrong, I love Final Fantasy and I try to get a hold of every game possible. Koudelka is a rpg/ horror game, in spite of some of all the negative things that's been said about this game - I'll go ahead and give it a shot.

Koudelka is a mixed bag, its great at times and very frustrating at others, just when you though you've defeated a certain kind of enemy, the bounce right back and kill you all over again!! and the leveling system is slow and they only seem to level every other hour, so you try out a boss and get your ass kicked - you level for an hour - and take another shot - but once again You get your ass kicked. The game moves at such a slow pace, you wander around for hours and hours without really having done anything - if this problem were fixed you could easily finish the game in 10 hours instead of 25.

But Koudelka also have some good things in it, the atsmosphere is so immersive and you get complete caught up in the story and the characters, the Monastery is one of the spookiest places I've ever played. The weapons however seems to brake once you've used them for a while - but not to worry, you'll find yourself a new bunch of better and higher evolved weapons as the game moves along. This way it won't get to frustrating.

The graphics in Koudelka are amazing, the FMV movies are fantastic and they really compliment the amazing story and the suitable characters. The atmosphere is so immersive, you can't help but to get involved - and even if you won't, the game will drag you right ind. The opening sequenze is alluring and it certainly sets the mood for the rest of the game - even though I haven't finished Koudelka yet, I look forward to see the ending, all in all Koudelka is a nice change from Final Fantasy.

Story 4.5/ 5.0
Graphics 5.0/ 5.0
Sound/ Music 4.0/ 5.0
Gameplay 3.5/ 5.0
Replay Value 4.0/ 5.0
Final Appeal 4.0/ 5.0

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 :-)

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