1:18:51 “I don’t need to be loved. I just want my life to have some meaning…and just want someone to tell me they need me” I just discovered this game a couple days ago and omg that just hit deep. I can’t believe a game in this era had such good voice acting to make these low poly characters feel so real…so real that this made me start to tear up. Incredible…this game deserves a re-release or remake of some kind to get it out there because people are missing out on a quality story.
If you want a follow up, play the Shadow Hearts series. It doesn't have voice acting (except for the battle scenes) but it retains the gothic horror atmosphere and it introduces new gameplay elements.
She does end up finding that in her life. After the events of this game, she ends up pregnant with Edwards son. And this what ends up giving her meaning in her life. Such a relatable character for me.
I absolutely fell down and sobbed. I had a friend just like her and combined with myself and my friend, we're a lot like how Koudelka feels and it's terrifying.
It’s actually really scary how accurately this game’s dialogue can portray genuine human characters Koudelka is a very very familiar person to me because like the other person in this thread I have known people just like that.
Cosmic - Chris Matsuzo Itakura (Machida is his artist name) is working on a new game did he said in early 2016 and would love to create a western adaptation of it. He was art director of Koudelka and creator of Shadow Hearts. He wrote the plot for the first SH, directed and wrote SH Covenant and wrote SH From the New World. Atsushi Morita who become president of SIEJA in 2014 worked on the first Shadow Hearts as manager in the design department. I don't know if this means something. He knows the whole SH team (same as Koudelka) and the management so he could have good contacts and bring some of them to JAPAN Studio and get all three SH games on PS2 Classics from Universal Entertainment Inc (ex Aruze Corp Inc). With the success of Bloodborne there is room for dark horror RPG with cinematic storytelling. These games weren't as popular in the PS1/PS2 era. Uncharted made them mainstream because the technology had matured. We are now seeing more of that on PS4. And the audience is big enough for these kind of games. Yoshida is hyping up Sucker Punch and JAPAN Studio for Greg Miller and Colin Moriarty at E3 2015. It seems to be his most anticipated projects from WWS.
Cosmic - Chris Here's Matsuzo's credits, btw. Did story concept for From The New World and then left his staff because he wanted to create a new IP I assume, we can only speculate why he left. But only do story concept tells me he was done with SH. He went to Hamster to create a dark steampunk RPG (Arms' Heart) for PSP published by Konami in Japan. He directed and created the story and then left Hamster after that. He was under as a contractor to finish the game. He was also a scenario writer on Ninety Nine Nights II for Xbox 360 when he reunited with his SH staff on a D-action hack n slash game. After that he went MIA. It's not until now he confirmed in late 2015 (don't think the interview was made on January 2, 2016, it was uploaded on the site though) for Italian Geek Gamer he is working on a new game and would love to create a western adaptation of it. I don't know how Geek Gamer from Italy got in touch with him in Japan after being MIA for 5 years. However, Verendus said in June 2013 JAPAN Studio was looking for a new experienced game director or game designer with a vision for an RPG who will take on the challenge for a larger audience. Gavin Moore bailed out from retail games and Fumito Ueda wanted to be independent to spend more time with his life since he is now established and have a reputation. Ueda was never fired, it was his own decision. So with that JAPAN Studio needed someone who can fill the hole of Moore and Ueda. And Yoshida is super excited about Bend Studio, really excited about JAPAN Studio and Sucker Punch as well at E3 2015. Bend's Days Gone was now announced last year and two more to go. I seriously don't see a random publisher support a big project in scale with Koudelka and Shadow Hearts these days. It was ok in the PS1/PS2 era and not healthy in the 360/PS3 era. Only a platform holder would fund such ambitious project. Matsuzo hasn't announced yet if we assume the interview was made in late 2015. That would make you think why the new game hasn't been announced sooner if it was a mobile game and why he is saying the fans of a game with features from SH are in a minority compared to fans of other RPGs. Vice president of SIEA, Scott Rohde, said at PSX 2015 about game development on Sony's side they are willing to wait. You can't just crank this thing out, you get this budget and you have 2 years to do it, it's going to be a fail every time. Development phase starts with a prototype with a lot of staff and when you have spent decent of money then you decide maybe not for us and starts a new prototype till you find one and make it so it comes to a playable point. That's why it takes a lot of time for a new IP.
I’m so glad that I discovered this game in a small game store ages ago. I was intrigued by the cover and just bought it because of that. One of the best purchases I’ve made. This game is such an underrated masterpiece. This and Shadow Hearts.
MAN, i'm speechless!!!! :O i bought this game on PS1 like 15 years before, in 2002!!!! 4 cd's in the package! i was such a clild who didn't know how to play JRPG's games!!! an now, after SO MANY years, i can see what truly this game is...! the voice acting is realy amazing and so good for those ages! thank you for the upload mate!
It's quite ironic how absolutely outstanding and extensive the voice work was in this game as well as how good the animation is in the cutscenes both in engine and FMVs were, while Shadow Hearts 1 has every other line in Japanese and all scenes are done with roughly 10 animations per character (still better than some later RPG's like tales of symphonia which had like 2-3 per character). Than again Koudelka's battle system was lacking (not terrible like allot of people say, there is fun to be had with the stat system, also smart grinding yields good results in developing your own fighting style, I just wish the game had a bit more consistent difficulty and didn't have to load out the whole universe for every battle animation) while Shadow Hearts is some of the most fun you'll have with a turn based system (and it only got better in the sequel and the spin off).
Cali5556 Too bad Koudelka and Shadow Hearts are outcasts on the market because the consumers weren't that much into dark and cinematic RPGs back then. But now there is room for it and more thanks to the technology has matured.
Koudelka is the first in the series. Shadow Hearts 1 is the sequel to Koudelka story wise where she also appears at some point. If you have seen the endings and are confused it will be more clear when you have played it. The game is a horror atmosphere rpg style just like Koudela, but it lacks voice acting. Then there is Shadow Hearts 2 and 3 which are also sequels to Shadow Hearts 1 and 2, but 3 is kinda meh. But you should defiantly play 1 and 2. Try 3 if you enjoyed the series but it's probably gonna be hard to get into that since it's a complete change of atmosphere and characters.
This was an amazing game movie with cutscenes but the gameplay could've used some work though back then when I played this game. I feel like this game should be remastered or remake for others to play.
The voice acting and story are the best features of the game.....still pissed that they went behind the director’s back to make it a turn-based battle system, but I wonder what it would’ve been like had the combat been real-time? LoL, I still overlook that as a minor detail, as I genuinely enjoy this game!
You can only do much with the hardware capabilities of the PS1. Hiroki Kikuta did his best to make his debut as a game creator to make this masterpiece.
@@noahjester8471 nope shadow hearts is still an rpg. I took a look at them have not played them myself but they are rpg games too. I prefer Koudelka's gameplay though that Final Fantasy 2 like gameplay with how its leveling system works and stats. Shadow Hearts from what I saw got rid of it. I may still try it someday though since it is a direct sequel to this game and Edward and Koudelka has their son in that game heh.
what's so shocking to me is how in the world did the director not realize that his team changed the gameplay, was he so busy that he didn't playtest it?
I watched a trailer of Koudelka when i was a child and completed game 2-3 years ago. It's so nostalgic to watch now the cutscenes ;) Amazing atmosphere, nice plot and gypsy main female character - Koudelka
If I had to guess, I'd wager that the in-game cutscenes use one audio track (voices + SFX), making it easier to have the characters speak over each other at times. The somewhat exaggerated, presentational voice direction also works well with the static pre-rendered backgrounds and motion captured animation to add an almost theatre quality to these cutscenes. Reminds me a little of Drakengard's custscenes
Actually, if I am remembering right, all of the people were together in one room IRL when they recorded. They shot their conversations in one go each, playing out the full scene from start to finish; that is why its able to flow so smoothly. They're having a conversation together IRL and it works really well. Wish modern games could do this.
If it wasn't for the turn base system,that would be e a forever game.Great atmosphere and dialogs,suberb acting,deep scenarioAnd don't forget the music.8 out of 10.
I absolutely adored this game when I played it, I found it on a website that listed women fronted video games (there were only a few for ps1). I'm kind of surprised at everyone praising the voice acting... I still make jokes with my brother about how bad it was lol but I've found that's a minority opinion. Fantastic game, just wish I liked SH so I could continue the story.
Bought the game just recently but need to return it because the discs had too many scratches, making it unplayable Q_Q By the way BuffMaister, did you play this game with pcsx2?
My game glitched, wouldn't load the next screen, after the Secret, Pain, People Light puzzle.... had to finish the story here, but I just feel so robbed.
Flynn Infinite It's all personal opinions, and people hating on any game. If you would read/listen to what everyone is saying then all games out there are considered bad, and this even includes the triple A games. It just depends if you would enjoy the old school game play or not.
