I remember buying this from KB Toys when I was a kid. Never heard of it, but loved it. First amd only time I remember seeing a turned based horror game.
Very happy to see this reviewed and you did a nice a job. Personally, I really enjoyed the acting and dialogue as it felt like I was watching a play. I also enjoyed the maturity of the dialogue immensely. Finally - an RPG with proper adults in them. What a rare treat!! The scenes with talk of poets, Koudelka's past and James tears at the end - I welcomed them with open arms. The monster designs are excellent and the soundtrack and sound effects really pulled the atmosphere together. Also - because there are only three characters, the story had time to really flesh them out. It's also a nice to play an RPG which is short in length. Unfortunately, all this is lost with Shadow Hearts. The monster designs are far less scary and unique, the characters are a departure from the maturity of Koudelka and fall into tropes much more easily. There are more characters to choose from your party - but that means less attention is given to these characters and they soon fall into obscurity, where they will be left sitting on the sub bench for the rest of your play through. I wasn't a fan of this game, but it does have great, multiple end cutscenes. The battle system in Koudelka is very clunky and not that great - but I liked the mechanic of leveling up the weapons which is similar to what Grandia does. However - the battle system in Shadow Hearts is much more enjoyable. I think if Koudelka had Shadow Hearts battle system, it would of elevated the experience to even greater heights.
I actually find the dialogue far better than most JRPGs, especially for it's time. It's going for a more theatrical, old literature approach; extremely stylized rather than the quirky one-liners that make up lots of these scripts. As for archetypal, that would sum up 99% of JRPG casts IMO; I can usually tell exactly how say a Tales cast member will act on character design alone.
I'm so glad you've made a video about Koudelka! Not enough people talk about this or the Shadow Hearts series. I'd love to see your perspective on those games, especially SH2 (Covenant) as it's easily one of the best PS2 games ever made.
I bought this game on release. Always have been impressed with the voice acting for its day. I think that it was better than even the work in big budget games at the time. Shame I missed your live stream of this. I guess that this means that you are playing Shadow Hearts next?
Oh, man! I am a pretty big fan of the Shadow Hearts trilogy (great games, BTW!) and it was my first time actually seeing Koudelka in action! Great review as always!
Just finished and loved it, mostly for its battle system and level design. It's one of the most complex battle systems I've played, but you can literally break the game with certain strategies, though most complete the game without realizing it's possible because game mechanics are far more obscured than ingame puzzles. It's also surprising how the character models have better environmental lighting than Shadow Hearts and its pre rendered backgrounds are more detailed on average.
Rock on never stop makin vids man. Its crazy that even now i can hear about a game i never knew existed once again, and thats one reason your channel is awesome.
Yes! Was waiting for this one. Really enjoyed your streams of this. Despite it's obvious flaws I really think this one is a diamond in the rough. The horror atmosphere is never really captured in any other JRPGs, not even in it's spiritual sequel Shadow Hearts. The large connected mansion makes for a really great, cohesive setting. Was not aware it cost that much in the US. In Europe it goes for around €20-30
I found this game when Shadowhearts came out because I wanted to play it first. Shadowhearts and Covenant are two of my favorite RPGs and this was an...interesting...prequel. I enjoyed it for the most part.
So glad you covered this man, this must genuinely be not only my favourite game on the PS1 but also my favourite RPG right next to the game 'Shadow Madness'. So big props for bringing attention to the game.
Yes they are, Shadow hearts is a semi sequel, with Koudelka & Roger Bacon acting as bridging characters between them. Pretty decent games, managed to beat Covenant back in the day an found the first shadow hearts in a charity shop, Just about trying to find the time to sit down and play a good ole jrpg.
Wow, a Shadow Madness fan! I love that game. So unknown and underrated, but absolutely amazing. The world it builds is so intricate and the script is one of the best ive ever read.
Got this game from some dude my cousin knew for like ten bucks. One of the disks got muffed up and I ended up spending over 200 for a new set because it’s that good. Disk 3 is now the most protected item in my possession.
Always great to see a new vid from you Derek! Boy, the games you've never heard of, eh?! Keep it up my man! BTW, random questions I've had for you for awhile now if you have the time: Do you have plans to review Grandia 3? And, ever considered Arx Fatalis? It was on the Xbox, but it's worth playing on the PC (in 4k easily). I've got a custom gamepad profile you could use. I'm good at making them. ;)
Thank you! I definitely do plan on playing Grandia III sometime, I just need to buy a copy sometime. I've never heard of Arx Fatalis, but maybe I'll give it a look! :)
Good to hear, what are you waiting for?! Hehe. :) For Arx Fatalis, google "Arx Fatalis mods" and click on its' arx-libertatis DOT org site and wiki. In all you'll (should) be playing it with Arx Libertatis and Arx Extended (and maybe another mod or two), and my gamepad profile for Pinnacle if you want to use a controller. Also, search out info for a still in progress mod called Arx Insanity Mod, a mod that should be frickin amazing when it's finished. This is assuming you really want to get into what this game is and has to offer of coarse! The history of Arkane Studios is a fascinating one, and their games... well, you'll have to find out for yourself! There's a good reason why they are now under Bethesda's umbrella... ;) :D
Retro gaming hippie approves! Great video! I am about halfway through the game now. I agree that it seems combat slow at times. I bought this about 6 years ago for 30 bucks and will review it soon
Shadow Hearts is way way better honestly. Shadow Hearts 1+2 are my favourite RPGs on the PS2. Koudelka makes an appearance in the first game though as a side character.
Shadow Hearts 1 has some very neat mechanics and SH2 extends them and the story nicely (it even has the option to carry over a savefile). You will love them if you enjoy mythology on different continents (as well as some more western constructs). You will have a lot of real world influence here, like maybe Illusion of Gaia, but darker (it keeps the RE vibe) SH uses a rythm based battle system, similiar to Legend of Dragoon, which you can adapt throughout the game. The story itself connects to Koudelka throughout a particular character and you visit a familiar place at one point. This particular character will be the thing connecting the whole series. Shadow hearts: From the new World is also a good game, however would describe it as the "Indiana Jones 4" of the series. It does exactly what the series got famous for, but by doing so, it also changed the flavour (Indy 4 switched from WW2 era to Cold war and changed the fundamental popculture beliefs. SH3 has a similiar situation) SH 1 can stand on it's own, SH2 does benefit from having played the one before and SH3 can stand on it's own again.
If you reviewed this you need to deffinitly play shadow hearts at least the first and second game . you'll learn that there is a character that connects this game to ShadowHearts
I remember the marketing for this game being simply atrocious in my neck of the woods. Picture of the main character with the text "Never has a woman got on your nerves quite like this". It said nothing about the game. In fact, it just looked bad.
Damn my encounters with Koudelka have been quite expensive. Had a like new mint condition copy back in 2014 that I got on Amazon for $40. Sold it two years later on Amazon for $180 to show how profitable the site can be to a exgirlfriend. Two years after that I dropped $150 on a brand new factory sealed copy of Koudelka that I will never ever get rid of.
Every time you say "I'm Super Derek...and this is ______" it always looks like you are watching a screen off to the side or something lol great video though! I never even heard of this gem!
I might glance to the side to make sure I'm not about to accidentally hit something with my flailing around. Hasn't happened yet but you never know! ;)
I don't know why this RPG+Survival Horror mix didn't catch on, most of these games just had a cult following, I personally would like this to be explored a bit more.
For a minute I thought this was the jrpg where the characters have to eat their follow humans in order to live it was on projared's top 10 non square Eixe jrpgs. Saying that this seems interesting but I want to check something you say that characters character-types are too anime is this due to the art look being more real world looking or are the characters more out there then what is seen in corpse parity? I think I can bat on what the answer is but I will asked anyway is this game on some places like steam? thank you for making this video.
Great review I never played this one I sould give it a try 😆 Have you ever considered reviewing strategy rpgs because one my favourite games on the ps1 was front mission 3 I would like to heard what you think of it
Wow, I did not know this game has gone up so much in price. Here in PAL region this games was dirt cheap several years ago. May I still got this game... It looked always promising, but never got into it
and here I am playing this game for the first time it certainly is unique I mean not very many horror theme/jrpg around at all. sad that not many people speak of this game I actually found about this game by total chance been start to play it. love the gameplay system you can train and grow yer characters however you see fit gameplay reminds me of Kawazu games such as the Saga series Romancing SaGa etc. or Final Fantasy 2 back on the NES which had similar gameplay in that you could customize at will yer team and grow them how you see fit. You can def tell this game took some notes from a few Squaresoft rpgs. But yeah the game is great playing my in an emulator my emulator runs it smooth for the mpst part except for when the game decides to randomly lock up and freeze on me forcing a restart haha so I am enjoying the game albeit a slight bumpy ride in that it works I'd say 99% perfect.
I don't like horror stuff all that much when it goes extremely overboard with disturbing imagery, though here I was kinda okay with things and enjoyed "Koudelka" quite a bunch myself. The game is kinda corny and humorous at times but I found that entertaining alongside the spooky castle atmosphere.
@@SuperDerek Oh, Iknow of them but I live in Europe. Not sure if they are easy to come by. I still have a game from the series called "Shadow Heart Covenant", I think. I remember there was like a wheel with a marker that you had to time for doing attacks with. I have yet to re-setup my old fat silver PS2 and see how well it works now. Last time I tried to play something, I needed to clean the laser inside. Currently I'm playing "EarthBound" for the first time. Did actually play the first "Mother" game beforehand.
I remember playing this fucking game to the very end and not being able to finish it. I didn't know how to speak english at the time so I didn't understand the dialogues or text. Unfortunately there is an object that is necessary at the end. The final boss will attack you with a ray of light and you and your party will instantly be killed. Unless you have this amulet that will reflect the spell. I didn't have it. I didn't know I should have it (probably some NPC told me, but since I didn't understand what the game said I knew shit). This was a game breaker for me and I never had the chance to finish it. God dammit.
thanks to you I learned the adjective form of archetype is archetypal i used to think it was archetypical, (english is not my mother language so dont judge... too much)
$70 4 years ago... Its now around $500. Shame really... I bought it in store new at the time of its release. I sold it later on for less money. Bought it again a few years ago. It was stolen.
Awful, awful game. I never got passed the bit with the giant tentacles as you climbed the stairs. Each one was like a boss battle. In short, it was a load of old shite.
Your poses SuperDerek are clearly sentai references, are you by any chance an amateur of the genre? Don't mention the thievery that is Power Rangers and the likes, these are just japanese shows extracted and put into american shows with some teens and bad acting...
Average viewers don't know what Sentai is, and MMPR is more universally understood in the world where my viewers are, making it more effective for drawing comparisons. I'm a communicator of ideas first and foremost, and on RU-vid and the Internet at large, brevity is sadly non-negotiable. As far as my motions, I'm not sure where the inspiration lies in all honesty. Might be Tattoed Teenaged Alien Fighters from Beverley Hills, for all I know. ;)
