When SNK announced it was publishing an RPG from Sacnoth, a Japanese developer boasting former Square Japan talent, our ears immediately perked up. After all, even the worst Final Fantasy game still stands heads and shoulders above most other PlayStation games. Koudelka is still in a very early stage but looks to be amazing. Dark atmosphere, well-written dialogue and real character development are set to combine with beautiful graphics to create a surprisingly compelling RPG with horror overtones.
In fact, at first glance, the main gameplay screen looks more like Resident Evil than Final Fantasy or Grandia. The characters are large, nicely animated and lifelike as they move around the screen. When they spot an item of interest, you can actually see the characters' heads move to focus on what caught their eye. Set camera angles, action buttons to open doors and prerendered backgrounds make the feel of a survival horror game even more profound.
Interestingly the plot actually could be from a survival horror game. Koudelka Iasant, a young psychic, Edward Plunkett, a gadabout adventurer, and Father James O'Flaherty, a struggling priest, have all been drawn to an abandoned monastery in the Welsh mountains for reasons of their own. Upon arrival, each discovers a piece of the horrible secret that keeps the place shrouded in secrecy and fear. Demons, the undead and mysterious monsters will all make an appearance before the story is done, and each will attempt to have its way with the heroes.
As in most RPGs, as the heroes wander the halls of the various buildings that make up the monastery grounds, they will be set upon by various monsters and will be transported to a separate combat screen. The difference, however, comes in the way the combat screen is handled. As in Grandia, characters can be maneuvered and arranged for more advantageous battle strategies as well as moved on the fly. This allows for flanking and guarding strategies that end up being deeper than just "mages in the back". It does seem a bit strange to be attacked by a random 30-foot-high demon that the characters failed to see while walking across a 10-foot-square room, but that's pretty standard RPG fare.
What immediately struck us about the game was not the creepy environment or the intricate battle system but the compelling character action. The game's dialogue was originally recorded in English with Japanese subtitles, so there was no translation necessary, and we didn't see one conversation that was done with text. This could have been frightening, were the voice talent as terrible as most of the English work done in Japan, but each scene was nicely put together and seemed very believable. We're not talking Oscar contenders here but not Resident Evil either.
Each of the characters seems emotionally guarded for one reason or another, their interactions frequently laced with tension and barely-suppressed anger. This is not the same disdain that made Squall so unlovable but a real tension that belies deeper emotions underneath. Koudelka, the main character, is a perfect example of the troubled protagonist trying to use a rough-and-tumble manner to hide her tender side. If this level of character interaction continues through the entire game, SNK has magic on its hands.
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