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Well, one good thing to come out of not getting Street Fighter IV over the weekend (and it still hasn't arrived yet, but I'm not going into that right now), is that I was able to play through the rest of Koudelka.
Even taking into account that it's an old PS1 game, it's still pretty cool. The battles may be a bit on the slow and easy-side, but that's about it. I'd recommend it, if you can find it.
However, now that I've finished it, I've moved on to its successor, Shadow Hearts. As I said in a previous post, I'd already played through this one time, but it's been a few years.
After playing Koudelka, Shadow Hearts so far just seems rather... juvenile, by comparison, more so than I remember it being when I played through the first time. Koudelka had a more mature, serious feel to it than does Shadow Hearts, at least so far. I mean, sure, Shadow Hearts does start with "Roger Bacon" (and after playing Koudelka, that name has much more significance now) massacring a bunch of Japanese soldiers, and chopping off Yuri's arm (he gets better) in the opening scene, but still. I'm only up to the sewers of Fengtian, which isn't very far at all, but I don't remember it getting all that much better in the way of the overall feel of the game, based on what I remember from the last time I played it. So far, and from what I remember, the entire overall scenario in the game is way more "out there" than the one in Koudelka. It didn't bother me before, but now, having first played Koudelka, it's rather noticeable.
The voice acting in Koudelka is worlds better than Shadow Hearts, and there seems to be a lot more of it as well. Every cut scene in Koudelka was fully voiced, and there was a minimum of text elsewhere, aside from menus. That scene near the end when Edward and Koudelka decide to get drunk while James is making nitroglycerin in another room is one of the more moving scenes I've seen in a video game. Shadow Hearts, by contrast, is mostly text, and what little voice acting there has been so far (only in the opening scene up to the point I am now) is atrocious.
Also, the number of missable things in Shadow Hearts just irks me. You have to have a guide or three if you want to have a hope of getting through without missing a lot of stuff. As far as I know, there was only one missable in Koudelka that, if you didn't have it and tried to approach the final boss, would lead to thebadhorrible ending. Well... aside from the ridiculous "save the game at these specific times with this specific number of items in your inventory then reload to get uber-game breaking gear" that is. I didn't even bother with those. But Shadow Hearts, from what I recall (and from what I gathered by browsing through a bunch of FAQs prior to starting the game), has a ton of missable stuff.
I don't know... I guess my point is that I think Koudelka overall is better than Shadow Hearts, at least so far, despite the fact that it's an older game for an earlier gen system. Though I do still want to play through Shadow Hearts in order to get to Covenant and From The New World, it's kind of starting to feel a bit chore-ish almost, and this is really early in the game. Though most of that, I imagine, is because I'm being anal about getting the acupuncture upgrades for the weapons as soon as possible, and am refusing to move on to a new area until I have done so. For some reason, I don't remember that being as annoying before as it is this time. I guess I should just not bother with that and keep going, at least until I get the end game weapons. I really hope the 3rd and 4th games, which I haven't played at all yet, improve upon Shadow Hearts, in the various flawed areas I mentioned above.
Even taking into account that it's an old PS1 game, it's still pretty cool. The battles may be a bit on the slow and easy-side, but that's about it. I'd recommend it, if you can find it.
However, now that I've finished it, I've moved on to its successor, Shadow Hearts. As I said in a previous post, I'd already played through this one time, but it's been a few years.
After playing Koudelka, Shadow Hearts so far just seems rather... juvenile, by comparison, more so than I remember it being when I played through the first time. Koudelka had a more mature, serious feel to it than does Shadow Hearts, at least so far. I mean, sure, Shadow Hearts does start with "Roger Bacon" (and after playing Koudelka, that name has much more significance now) massacring a bunch of Japanese soldiers, and chopping off Yuri's arm (he gets better) in the opening scene, but still. I'm only up to the sewers of Fengtian, which isn't very far at all, but I don't remember it getting all that much better in the way of the overall feel of the game, based on what I remember from the last time I played it. So far, and from what I remember, the entire overall scenario in the game is way more "out there" than the one in Koudelka. It didn't bother me before, but now, having first played Koudelka, it's rather noticeable.
The voice acting in Koudelka is worlds better than Shadow Hearts, and there seems to be a lot more of it as well. Every cut scene in Koudelka was fully voiced, and there was a minimum of text elsewhere, aside from menus. That scene near the end when Edward and Koudelka decide to get drunk while James is making nitroglycerin in another room is one of the more moving scenes I've seen in a video game. Shadow Hearts, by contrast, is mostly text, and what little voice acting there has been so far (only in the opening scene up to the point I am now) is atrocious.
Also, the number of missable things in Shadow Hearts just irks me. You have to have a guide or three if you want to have a hope of getting through without missing a lot of stuff. As far as I know, there was only one missable in Koudelka that, if you didn't have it and tried to approach the final boss, would lead to the
I don't know... I guess my point is that I think Koudelka overall is better than Shadow Hearts, at least so far, despite the fact that it's an older game for an earlier gen system. Though I do still want to play through Shadow Hearts in order to get to Covenant and From The New World, it's kind of starting to feel a bit chore-ish almost, and this is really early in the game. Though most of that, I imagine, is because I'm being anal about getting the acupuncture upgrades for the weapons as soon as possible, and am refusing to move on to a new area until I have done so. For some reason, I don't remember that being as annoying before as it is this time. I guess I should just not bother with that and keep going, at least until I get the end game weapons. I really hope the 3rd and 4th games, which I haven't played at all yet, improve upon Shadow Hearts, in the various flawed areas I mentioned above.
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Date: 2009-03-04 07:56 am (UTC)From:To give you an idea of what you'd be getting into if you decide to get it, I'll describe it a little bit more in depth than I have until previously.
As I said before (http://kane-magus.livejournal.com/238318.html), it's somewhat similar to Parasite Eve, in that it's one-half survival horror and one-half RPG. The setting and atmosphere and mood and plot is totally Resident Evil/Silent Hill style survival horror. The battles are turn-based RPG, with a bit of strategy elements thrown in. I won't say much about the story, so as not to spoil, so mainly I'll just describe the combat and mechanics of the gameplay, since that seems to be the main stickler for most people.
The combat is like this. When you enter (random) battles, you find yourself on a field of tiles. On each character's turn, you can perform an action (attack, cast magic, use items, etc.) and move, in either order. The enemies are on the other side of the map, and to attack them with melee, you have to move up next to them. Magic and ranged weapons can be used from anywhere, but attack magic is more effective if you are closer to the target. Oh, and you can't shoot something with a gun if there is teammate directly between you and the target enemy. You cannot go past the front most enemy in order to attack enemies that are farther back (unless you use magic or ranged). Likewise, enemies can't get past your front most character to get to ones further back, so you'd want to keep the magic-users behind the front lines.
Weapon and magic skills gain XP every time you use them (even outside of battle, if you use the heal spell), and can level up at any time, even in the middle of battle. They can gain up to level 3. For weapon classes, each level means you gain an extra attack per turn with that weapon type (up to three). Magic gets stronger, but requires more MP per cast. In addition to this, you also gain normal XP after each battles, and when you level up you gain 4 points to allocate to attributes of your choice (STR, INT, DEX, etc.) Full descriptions of the attributes can be found in game when you level up so I won't go into that here.
(Continued in next comment, for length.)