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Chapter 1: Stop Talking, or I'll Leave You Here
Today we begin a very different sort of role-playing game, Koudelka. It's a bizarre experiment that didn't quite work out so well, but the things that it does best (story, music, atmosphere) are amazing. Let's begin, with our main character Koudelka Iasant on horseback, traveling across the countryside...
Koudelka Opening
Music: Requiem
Koudelka gets her ass kicked by a werewolf
Incantation Again ~ Boss Theme
Immediately, we're thrust into our first battle. Let's go over some specifics.
We have a few options available to us, as Koudelka plays like a strategy RPG. Since we're equipped with a gun, we can attack an enemy no matter where they are. We can also cast Magic.
There are a number of spells already available, but we don't need any of them for this first battle. We can also swap out weapons, but we have none of those besides the pistol.
Guns are one of the least useful weapons in the game, primarily because, like in survival horror games, they are dependent on ammo. You don't get ammo for gun-type weapons often, so training them is a bit of a hassle.
Immediately afterward, we're given the option to move, wait, or check our status. Koudelka has a wide range of movement, but doesn't need to go anywhere for this battle.
Our status can show us how well-trained she is in the weapon that she's holding. Each use of the pistol gives us 40 EXP towards pistols and guns.
This guy will get close, but he's no threat to Koudelka.
He doesn't tend to attack, but prefers to boost his AP. I'm not entirely sure what that does, honestly.
The werewolf only has about 300 HP, so it goes down fast.
After the battle, we get High Listel, which restores MP. The item rewards you get from fights vary, which is part of the bullshit in the battle system, since drops are randomized. We also learn Flare, the first attack spell, and it's Fire element.
Guess we can check out our surroundings... we're in an attic, and the only noise to be heard is the crackling of torches.
Our status menu has a lot to check out at the moment.
Aside from our gun, Koudelka has her knife from the cutscene as well.
There's a lot to go over here.
Strength boosts your physical attacks, both bare-handed and with weapons. This is only useful for physical attackers.
Vitality increases HP amount and physical defense.
Dexterity increases your accuracy with attacks. Physical attackers need to balance this and Strength to ensure they do the most damage.
Agility increases a character's speed, which allows that character to act more often. In a game with as slow of battles as this one, you can take all you can get.
Intelligence affects your magical strength, so Koudelka is most likely the character with the highest in that department for the game.
Piety is strange. It raises MP, but it also raises resistance to magical attacks. However, this also raises your resistance to healing spells, so a character with high Piety won't be healed from magic very well.
Mind affects successful magic hits, and you'll need this for your casters.
Luck does a variety of things: It influences the likelihood of getting into fights, the accuracy of your attacks, the effectiveness of your defense, the likelihood for escape, how often an enemy will target that character, AND drop rate. For each point added, it increases the drop rate for a normal item by 0.8% and a rare drop by 0.4%.
Another part of Koudelka's status menu lets us look at her proficiency in different weapons. Currently, she has 120 EXP in guns, but she won't be using them often.
Finally, we can check out how we are leveling magic. We haven't used any yet, so this is not important.
Our pre-rendered, wounded ally is over there. Let's go talk to him...
Koudelka, meet Edward
With Edward joining us, we have two of our future three whole party members. I apologize for any slight audio hiccups, getting Koudelka's audio to work in an emulator is kind of annoying. For reference, she said ?I'm not like you...? before it cut off.
Edward is built to be a physical fighter, while Koudelka is built to be a mage. The game allows you to mold your characters however you want, but it's pretty easy to just go with what the game intends for each character to do. Edward will be taking all our hits for us.
As you can see, equipment gives you stat boosts. The majority of your stats will come from equipment you pick up. For now, Edward's going to carry a knife, just because.
We can now alter formations. All three characters are arranged on a chessboard. The Queen is Koudelka, and the Knight is Edward. When you start each battle, the characters will be in these positions. For now, we'll put Edward up front, and keep him there.
Waterfall ? Normal Battle Theme
After entering the caretaker's quarters (a temporary save point, meaning you can save here but you won't be healed), we get into another random battle. This time, against a familiar foe from those who've played Shadow Hearts, the hanging man with the pistol, called the Inverse in this game. He's the most powerful foe we'll meet at this point.
Edward does quite a bit of damage with weapons already, so it's good to keep him constantly equipped.
Koudelka's not quite proficient with magic yet, but this is Flare. Each use of Flare gives you 40 EXP, and it takes 1,000 EXP to go up a level (for spells and weapons, too).
She's MUCH better at healing, thankfully. Each use of Heal gives you 30 EXP.
Like in Shadow Hearts, he falls to the floor upon defeat.
He also drops a Fire Axe, which we'll keep in our inventory for now.
God I hate locked doors.
Thankfully, there's also a potion in the same room.
A leftover from Resident Evil is the animations Koudelka takes to slowly walk up stairs, which is pretty annoying.
More rounds for a weapon we'll rarely use! Guns are actually not as bad as I say they are. They don't break, like all other weapons besides crossbows do, but you have to manually refill them with bullets from your items during battle if you run out. Our standard pistol carries six rounds.
Like Shadow Hearts, Koudelka has... inventive enemy designs. I'm not really sure what this thing is.
I'll note now that once a character 'claims' a row on the battlefield, an enemy can't move past that character on the battlefield. It's a good idea to keep Edward up front so that Koudelka is never in range of physical attacks. The same is true for enemies as well.
After the battle, we get our first level up. Koudelka will be focusing primarily on boosting her Intelligence, Mind, and Piety. With occasional boosts to Agility and Vitality.
We also get some armor, which is stupid rare to get in the game. Even Rags are better than nothing. These rags are Water Rags, and they boost Piety, which isn't super useful for Edward right now.
This attic is creepin' me out...
Dancing chairs... because why not?
As well as dancing demon knife juggling jesters.
That will be most helpful.
Like survival horror games, it updates as you explore rooms. We're currently on 3F after climbing the ladder.
We then head back down the ladder to the second floor. The type of dirk you get here is randomized, it could be Mystic, which drains MP upon each attack, or a certain element. We got a Dark Knife, which nails a weakness for many enemies in here.
Weapons can break, which is particularly annoying. The stronger the character using those weapons, the more often they'll break. Thankfully, you do get lots of weapons over the course of your adventure through drops, so you won't be out of things to equip very often. It's best to save good weapons for bosses, however.
We can explore a good deal of the second floor at the moment.
Eventually we reach a corridor, with another temporary save point.
Guess that way won't work...
Flying heads... sure, why not?
holy shit what are you (these guys can cause Paralysis, no fun)
Sometimes, enemy attacks (and your own) will knock enemies or characters back a whole row. This happens if the attack is particularly strong.
Instead, we head back and down the stairs. The first door leads us to some... interesting new characters.
who say they are the caretakers of the Nemeton Monastery.
Let's meet Ogden and Bessy.
The kind old caretakers give us some pistol rounds, and then lock the door behind us (we can't come back here until much later). But what the hell are they doing in a place filled with dancing demon jugglers and corpses filled with jagged pieces of glass?