Introduction

Alternate title – A thief, a psychic and a priest walk into a bar in Wales.

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What is Koudelka?
Koudelka is a JRPG with a heavy Survival Horror influence for the original Sony Playstation in June of 2000 in North America. It was the first major game released by Sacnoth which later became Nautilus and eventually came under the banner of AQ Interactive which also used to own our old friends Cavia. Sacnoth/Nautilus suffered the exact same fate at the exact same time when it was shut down and absorbed into its parent company. So that’s a fun parallel. Anyway, they are best known for making Koudelka and the Shadow Hearts series and... that’s about it! They did one other game on the Neo-Geo Pocket Color that’s not worth mentioning. But it’s pretty much just the Shadow Hearts series.

Koudelka is actually the progenitor of the Shadow Hearts series, taking place in the same universe and having a few characters and other elements that would later crop up there. But don’t worry about any of that!

So what actually is this game?
Koudelka is a weird mesh of survival horror in the vein of the PS1 era (read: Resident Evil.) A character utilizing tank controls is tasked with navigating a spooky gothic mansion setting (composed of 2D images from cinematic camera angles) full of dark secrets and bizarre monsters. The actual combat is more in line with a JRPG complete with random battles, turn based combat and movement on a grid. I suppose the closest comparison would sorta be Parasite Eve... if you squinted real hard. Sorta... Kinda...?

It is... honestly kind of a total mess. Apparently the director of the game, Hiroki Kikuta (who would be best known as the composer of Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 3) wanted to make a straight Resident Evil type action/survival horror game while the rest of his staff wanted to make a RPG. So you get a weird splitting of the difference where there’s a robust RPG battle system full of all kinds of stats and numbers and esoteric bullshit confined to a... like 10-12 length game. Which would be more like 4-6 hours if there wasn’t random battles and dealing with a janky RPG battle system and just a standard Survival Horror type gameplay.

In summary, it’s a real jank mess of a game I’d not suggest playing but is worth experience. Like say in a LP or something. I dunno...

Does this mean you’re going to LP the entire Shadow Hearts series?! Should I start annoying you by asking straight away?!
Yep. I’m totally going to do the entire Shadow Hearts series right after I LP Parasite Eve 1 and 2. Or maybe the rest of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII? Or perhaps Clock Tower 1 and 2...? I haven’t decided yet...

If that’s too intricate an answer: No. I don’t have plans at the moment to LP all the Shadow Hearts games and I’ll get annoyed if you asked. So don’t be a muppet and ask. Just enjoy the LP at hand. Sheesh!

With that said... let’s begin...