Koudelka (PlayStation)

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Description

The year is 1898. A young gypsy woman named Koudelka, who possesses unique spiritual abilities, is off to Wales, to investigate the mystery of the Nameton monastery. This monastery was once a regular place of worship, but later was bought by a mysterious man whose death circumstances are yet unclear. Rumors say that supernatural powers have appeared in the monastery since then. But when she begins to explore the monastery, Koudelka discovers she was not the only one who was interested in its past...

Koudelka is a role-playing game with elements of survival horror. Players take the role of Koudelka as she explores the monastery, gathering clues and solving puzzles. This aspect of the gameplay is therefore similar to a survival horror game; however, the combat is strategic and turn-based. During battles, players can position and move the party members freely on the battle field. The amount of actions that can performed during a turn depends on the dexterity of the character. There are also various support and attack spells to cast.

The game features a refined weapon management, in which the damage that is inflicted with a particular kind of weapon (bare hands, guns, maces, etc.) increases the more that the weapon is used. Eventually weapons will break, but new ones can be found from defeated enemies. When one of the characters levels up, players can freely distribute experience points to increase and customize any of their statistics and parameters.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Trailer

Alternate Titles

• "クーデルカ" -- Japanese spelling

Part of the Following Groups

• Console Generation Exclusive: PlayStation
• Gameplay feature: Character development - Skill distribution
• Koudelka / Shadow Hearts universe
• Protagonist: Female
• Setting: Belle Époque

User Reviews

Surviving the horror of random battles	Unicorn Lynx (181393)
Disturbing the Priest	Zovni (10623)
A Finely and Carefully Crafted Interactive Experience	D P (139)
Amazingly pretty for the original Playstation, but boring and repetitive as a game	weregamer (169)

Critic Reviews

Gameplay RPG	Oct, 2000	91 out of 100	91
Quebec Gamers	Aug 25, 2011	8.2 out of 10	82
Gamer's Pulse	Sep 07, 2000	79 out of 100	79
GameSpot	Jan 14, 2000	6.7 out of 10	67
Absolute Playstation	Sep, 2000	65 out of 100	65
Just RPG	Dec 16, 1999	64 out of 100	64
RPGFan	Jun 29, 2000	60 out of 100	60
Super Play (Sweden)	Aug, 2000	6 out of 10	60
Just Adventure	2000	C	50
Thunderbolt Games	Mar 27, 2005	4 out of 10	40

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
Weapon Questions...	3	MasterMegid (902) Jan 26, 2008
Shame on those "professional" review sites	4	Indra was here (20839) May 25, 2007

Trivia

Location

The cut scene at the beginning of the game says that it is set in Aberystwyth in Wales. This place does exist and has a ruined castle which looks similar to the monastery in the game. However, the game states that Wales is "small country in the north of England". This is wrong in two ways - firstly Wales is a principality, which like England is part of the United Kingdom. Secondly, it's actually in the west of the UK, and borders part of the west of England - geographically they must have confused it with Scotland.

References

Koudelka features a true historical figure: the medieval Franciscan monk and savant Roger Bacon makes his appearance in the monastery graveyard.

Mystic symbols

Just a small detail: one of the FMVs of the game (the one with strange symbols floating around, when the heroes talk about alchemy and mysticism) shows circles with Hebrew words engraved: Keter, Khokhma, and Bina. Those words (meaning Crown, Wisdom, and Understanding) are the attributes of God, according to the medieval Jewish mystical teaching, the Kabbala. They actually bothered to dig up 100% authentic and rare historical/occult material.

Information also contributed by festershinetop

Related Web Sites

• Koudelka (official website)
• Official Website (Koudelka homepage that contains game info, animations, music, wallpapers and more about the game.)
• Wikipedia: Koudelka (Information about Koudelka at Wikipedia)