Koudelka (Game)

“	The Journey. The Horror. The Will to Survive.	„
	~ Tagline

Koudelka (クーデルカ, Kūderuka) is a console role-playing game for the PlayStation developed by Sacnoth for the Sony PlayStation, and the first game in the series that would become the Shadow Hearts series.

Sacnoth founder and CEO Hiroki Kikuta acted as the game's director, producer, writer and composer, following his wish to create a mature, dark, horror RPG, as he was unsatisfied with what he considered as the disjointed, juvenile, and stagnant nature of the genre.

Set in 1898 Wales, the game follows the mysterious occurrences surrounding the distant Nemeton Monastery and the three protagonists who, by chance, are forced to investigate its dark history.

The gameplay combines a mix of grid-based RPGs with survival horror elments, and exploration of the Nemeton complex to solve puzzles.

The game was released on December 16, 1999 in Japan, June 29, 2000 in North America and September 29, 2000 in Europe. Console Classics announced a Steam re-release in 2015^[1], although nothing further came of this.

Gameplay

The gameplay is split between two styles of play; exploration, and combat.

Controlling the main protagonist, Koudelka Iasant, the player explore the Nemeton Monastary and grounds, controlling a 3D model on pre-rendered backgrounds, with fixed camera angles, via tank-controls, akin to the Resident Evil series.

In this environment, the player is able to see story scenes, pick up items, weapons, and ammo, and engage in puzzle-solving.

Combat is triggered through random enounters, warping the player to a flat grid environment, where they are in control of all three main characters.

With enemies and playable characters positioned on this grid, the combat is turned-based, with the order determined by the Agility stat governing both players and enemies. Each party has access to physical and magical attacks with the ability to inflict status effects, buffs, debuffs, and healing magic, with the player party also able to escape from battle.

After battle the party gains experience points, which can be freely distributed to any stat for any character, and occasionally items, Key items, and weapons.

Weapons and magic will also gain skills points, which increase with use in battle, allowing many benefits such as; multiple hits per turn, wider area of effect, or simply better damage/healing.

The survival horror elements are the limited inventory (although ammo and restorative items stack), and the weapon breakage system. Melee weapons will break after a set amount of use, while guns are limited to the amount of ammo currently stocked.

Setting

Koudelka is loosely in the genre of Historical Fiction, wherein actual historical figures and events are referenced and depicted, but with the addition in Koudelka of supernatural elements and secret histories.

Characters

Playable

Koudelka Iasant - The main protagonist. A young, psychic, Romani gypsy woman who is drawn to the Nemeton Monastery by the cries of a troubled spirit.
Edward Plunkett - Secondary protagonist. A young man in search of adventure and riches, who gets caught up in the ongoing events at the monastery.
James O' Flaherty - Tertiary protagonist. A Bishop from the Vatican on a quest to retieve a mysterious and dangerous, stolen tome.

Non-Playable

Ogden Hartman - Elderly caretaker of the Nemeton Monastery. Formerly a sailor, he and his wife care for the Monastery, despite the recent appearance of monsters and other unexplained events.
Bessy Hartman - Caretaker and wife of Ogden. She cares for her husband deeply, and serves as a cook, although there is something decidely sinister about the couple.
Charlotte D'Lota - The ghost of a young girl who was beheaded. She haunts the halls of the complex trying to lure others to her sad fate.
Alias - A mysterious thief who pursues the main characters throughout the monastery. He is interested only in his own survival.
Elaine Heyworth - A gentle, but forlorn spirit who cries out to Koudelka to save her.
Patrick Heyworth - Owner of the Monastery. A scientist with an interest in alchemy, his disappearance coincides with the appearance of the monsters.
Roger Bacon - An eccentric who was found sleeping inside a coffin. He claims to be the 12th Century alchemist of the same name, he nonetheless assists the party in their investigation.

Story

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. (Skip section)

Set in 1898 in Aberystwyth, Wales, the game follows the mysterious occurrences surrounding Nemeton Monastery and the three protagonists who, by chance, are forced to investigate its dark history.

After a series of troubling visions, Koudelka Iasant, a young gypsy girl with supernatural powers, arrives at the Monastery. There she meets and rescues Edward Plunkett, an adventurer, and Father James O'Flaherty, a bishop on a holy mission from the Vatican.

During their investigation, the trio encounter as series of troubling events, with both human, and supernatural elements at play; The tragic phantom, Charlotte D'Lota, who haunts the monastary spreading misery and hatred over her unhappy death. The furtive thief, Alias, who lurks in the shadows to ambush the unwary. Roger Bacon - an enigmatic man who claims to be the 13th century philosopher, rendered immortal. And an encounter with bestial Gargoyle, an amalgam of the malignant energies of the monastary.

Many years before these events, Elaine Heyworth, former belovèd of James, and wife to his friend Patrick Heyworth, was murdered in her home by a band of thieves.

Out of sheer grief, Patrick pursued dark means to bring her back from the dead, and sought the forbidden text - the Émigré Document - reputed to have to the power to do so.

He and his servants, husband-and-wife, Ogden and Bessy Hartman, moved into the Nemeton Monastery to pursue his endevour. With many human sacrifices he managed to bring his wife's corpse back to life, except she was an inhuman monster, with her tormented soul seperated from her body, and crying out for help.

It was Elaine's tormented soul that Koudelka had heard, drawing her to the monastary. After fighting their way through monsters, Koudelka, Edward and James eventually uncover this, and determine to put a stop to it.

With advice from Roger, they set monastary ablaze, and make their way to the Church, where Elaine resides.

There are three endings to Koudelka;

The Worst Ending - If the player has not found Koudelka's Pendant, Elaine blasts the party with a corrosive power that melts the flesh from their bones, resulting in a non-standard Game Over.
The Good Ending - The party find the pendant and defeat Elaine in their final battle. Elaine's soul appears to reunite with her body, but she plummets to her death in the fire below.
The Bad Ending - The party find the pendant, but lose to Elaine in their final battle. James sacrifices himself to kill Elaine and allows Koudelka and Edward to flee from the burning building.

Given the events seen and referenced in Shadow Hearts, the Bad Ending is considered the canonical ending.

Spoilers end here.

Development

Hiroki Kikuta, best known for composing the music to Squaresoft's Seiken Densetsu 2 and Seiken Densetsu 3, while working at Square Co., Ltd. established Sacnoth in 1997 with funding from SNK Playmore|SNK. Unhappy with what he considered as the disjointed, juvenile, and stagnant nature of most Computer role-playing games, Kikuta had intended to take the genre in a whole new direction.

Internal quarrels within Sacnoth had led to a compromised product. Kikuta had wanted to develop an action-based battle system, citing Resident Evil as a source of inspiration. However, his employees were adamant about releasing something closer to the kind of games that Square had been making.

The game was fully voice-acted, and starred Vivianna Bateman as Koudelka, Michael Bradbury as Edward, and Scott Larson as Father O'Flaherty. The game also featured several FMV cutscenes.

Adaptations

CD Drama

Main article: Koudelka Drama CD''

Published by "Pony Canyon", Nov 17, 1999, the game was adapted for a brief six-part radio drama. It loosely follows the plot of the game, but makes many alterations to fit the short running time.

Novel

Written in January 2000, "Koudelka - The Mansion's Scream" is a novelization of the main story, written by Japanese author "Nahoko Korekata".

Publisher: Ascii
Label: Famitsu Bunko
ISBN: 4-7572-0665-8

Illustrations

Legacy

Manga

Main article: Koudelka Manga

A manga sidestory, written and illustrated by Yuji Iwahara, was published in Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Ace Next.

Set six months after the events of the game, it follows Koudelka as she is pursued by a mysterious organisation who seek to use the power of the Émigré Manuscript for their own dark purposes.

While written as a sequel, and considered as such by Kikuta at the time, it is no longer considered canonical.

Unrealised Sequels

While nothing was ever formally developed, Hiroki Kikuta had several ideas for follow-ups should the game have been a success.

Set shortly after the events of the manga, Koudelka 2 would be set in 1900, and seen Koudelka visiting the Exposition Universelle in Paris, 1900, drawn by mysterious goings-on at one of the temporary pavilions there. Her investigation would eventually lead her to exploring the newly excavated Paris Métro subway system, and Parisian catacombs which would have become haunted by monsters and spirits, disturbed from the disruption.

Koudelka 3 would be set in Chicago 1973, and featured Koudelka's grandson, Rodmell Koudelka*, the thirty-something anthropologist son of her daughter, Amelia Koudelka - who would also feature.

Rodmell was to have worked for the University of Chicago. The premise of the story would be a spate of mysterious murders committed by soldiers returning from Vietnam, either possessed by evil spirits.

Roger Bacon would also have made a return, wearing a modern suit, and assiting Rodmell in putting a stop to the evil spirits.

Koudelka 4 would again have followed Rodmell, in 1984 on a trip to Japan, where he would visit the Asuka stones, and try to remove a powerful curse on one of his professor friends, placed on him by an evil onmyōji.

Shadow Hearts

Koudelka is the precursor to Sacnoth's Shadow Hearts series, which exists in the stange position of being side-games and semi-sequels to Koudelka.

The events that occur in the Koudelka have repercussions across the series, despite only being directly referenced in Shadow Hearts, but the games take place in the same universe and feature various locales and characters from Sacnoth's debut work.

Reception

Dutch magazine Power Unlimited gave the game a score of 6.0 out of 10, praising the cutscenes, but criticizing the combat sections and calling Kikuta's music "a disaster".