Shadow Hearts and Koudelka

[Ando85]

Took me awhile, but a few years back I discovered how much I love the Shadow Hearts series. I even loved From the New World, which a lot of people didn't care for.

Because of this I decided I'd pay about 60 bucks to get Koudelka in very good condition. Despite loving Shadow Hearts so much I simply cannot get into this game. I've tried on several occasions.

The combat system of Koudelka was agonizing to me. I guess its the combination of a simplified and slow paced srpg esque system within traditional random encounters just didn't do it for me. I've played a vast amount of JRPGs so I know patience is a virtue, but I simply can't get into it.

So, I ask if there are any fellow Shadow Hearts fans can give me their thoughts on Koudelka?

 

[Jazoni89]

Hehe, I bought Koudelka complete great condition for like £2. It's common as muck over here in the UK. All retro shops sell at least one copy.

I haven't played it much at all though, but I remember it's graphics being pretty rubbish even for a psone game.

 

[DigitalAtlas]

Koudelka? Treat the combat system like a zombie survival film. Constantly move people strategically away or closer pending on the weapon and do everything to keep them alive. Game gets fairly tough and incredibly interesting so read all that text.

 

[CAPTCHA]

That game takes me back (Koudelka), assuming you are talking about the PS1 game that is. Never heard of Shadow Hearts though.

I remember Koudelka been very unbalanced. I think the one time that I managed to beat the game, I did so with one party member down all the time thanks to the way the exp system works. Every time I reached a boss this guy would get knocked out and miss out on the exp, then he'd be even easier to knock out in the next fight. I think his chain of fail began with the only human boss in the game, a guy with a gun.

Never managed to beat the Gargoyle optional boss.

 

[Arqus_Zed]

The original Shadow Hearts is an ugly game (worst pre-rendered backgrounds ever) with a very generic and limited combat mechanic (not counting that one spark of genius known as the Judgement Ring). But my God was it awesome. The characters, the story, the music - simply the overall atmosphere. It was dark, gritty, funny, exciting and sometimes just downright crazy. And I loved the fact that there was art for every item in your inventory - and the compendium that kept track of all the enemies and NPCs.

As for Shadow Hearts Covenant? It's somewhere in the upper regions of my personal top 10 best RPGs ever. Great character and monster design. The best CG-intro movie to any game ever. A magnificent soundtrack, with tons of battle themes, using everything from modern Japanese percussion and violins to synthetic electro sounds. Enjoyable characters involved in a well written story, incorporating both comedy and tragedy. And last but not least: the best equipment/magic system since Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VII (and I'm not a FF VII fan, but the Materia system did bring something new to the table).

Also, those people that didn't care for From The New World? I'm one of them. No Yuri. Only 4 fusions as opposed to the 23 from Covenant. The horror-aspect is completely gone and we're left with nothing but silly humor. It has the absolutely WORST and most useless vampire character of all three games. The Stellar Chart mechanic is a step back from the Key of Solomon mechanic. You don't meet Koudelka (she went to America at the end of the first Shadow Hearts, so you'd think you could meet her in this game). And I swear the graphics became worse. The only redeeming factor was that they still had Yoshitaka Hirota and Yasunori Mitsuda doing the soundtrack (which has been awesome throughout all Shadow Hearts games).

As for Koudelka, it was a broken game. The main cause of this lies with the conflict between the producer and the developer. They both decided that the game should have a sinister atmosphere, but the developers wanted RPG gameplay resembling Final Fantasy, while the producers were pushing a more survival/horror style of gameplay the likes of Resident Evil. A game with lots of potential, destroyed because of internal conflict. Happens all the time.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

Love Koudelka, other than the combat. I love the enemy designs and music though, which carried over to the rest of the series. Its also the only game I can think of where you need to lose to the final boss to get the best ending.

SH1 was great, SH2 even better but really really long. I have yet to finish my 2nd playthrough, but that is mostly due to my not missing a ring so far and getting to Kurando's village. I really wish it didn't keep track of those things, let alone grade you on them.

If I'm not ranked as Seraphic Radiance it irks me...

SH3 was pretty good. It had H.P. Lovecraft, Shania, and a Brazillian Ninja. It also unfortunate had a crap plot, and a less than stellar cast compared to the rest of the series.

The series is probably dead, but at least we got some great music out of it.