Sudeki - Review

poor
key review info
  • Game:
  • Platform: PC
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  • Gamepad support: N/a
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Story To make a long story short: from all the gods the void had created, one raised above the others. His name was Tetsu and he ruled over the real of Omnium. He received a gift, Sudeki, a world like no other. But he was lonely so he created a twin brother of his, the dark. At first, there was nothing more than peace and joy between them.

But the dark grew stronger and cast Tetsu out. In need of help he turned to the habitants of Sudeky, both animal and human. With their help he defeated his brother, but not without a cost. In his rage, the dark split Sudeki in two and so put an end to the first age.

This brings us to the time of the game. Four friends have come together to aid their queen and have her considerable powers thrown into defending her kingdom against the invading Aklorians. Though destined to encounter ancient gods, primordial wonders and marvelous inventions, foes and betrayal haunt their every step. A keen eye can unveil vital, exposing essential clues. And as the companions make their way through darkness and light, they discover that those two extremes have more in common than they have imagined...

Gameplay

Unfortunately, four characters are three to many. This is the first impression. Even if you eventually get used to control so many characters, the game could have had a grater impact if the developers would have chosen only one or maybe two at the most. The real problem is that you don't get to control them at once, like in Dungeon Siege or any other RPG with multiple characters. Furthermore, for their AI isn't so good, you get to spend most of your time healing the others or giving them potions because they get hurt? a lot.

The first character you are introduced to is Tal. He is a warrior and his specialty is the sword. Then there is Ailish (a princess of course) with magical powers, which happens to be one of the most skilled magicians in the known realm but without much knowledge, so you'll have to train her. The other two are Buki (an exotic mix of human and animal with "Wolverine" blades and very good senses) and Elco (an inventor with all sorts of weapons in his arsenal, like pistols and such).

The interesting features begin to emerge. Two of the characters are controlled with a 3rd person perspective (Tal and Buki) and the other two - with a first person perspective, but only during battles (Ailish and Elco). All of the characters have special moves that consume skill points (like mana) with a very well implemented system. To perform such a move you only have to press one key to open a small option screen and the whole world slows down like in bullet time effect. You character can still move with his/hers normal speed so you can position him wherever you want before performing the blow. Keep in mind that is a Japanese game, so the effects of the moves will be totally devastating.

The whole gameplay is quite interesting, but it will take you some time getting used to it. They have done a great job in porting the title from the console, with very few bugs and without the difficult controls of other similar games. Unfortunately the replay value is pretty low, because the story takes you in a very linear way and there are very few items to discover (a big minus for an RPG game).

Sound

That is nothing interesting in this department. The sounds are rather dull with normal weapon sounds and a very strange choice in ambient music (especially in towns); they just don't seem to fit. Furthermore, the fatigue sounds made by some character when climbing a ladder will almost certainly distract you. There are explosions, big bangs, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Graphics

The quality of this game is surprising considering that it's coming from a console. All of the low-resolution textures are gone, with very few exceptions that you probably won't even notice. It's very playable even on a medium system without glitches, but with a compromise: the shadows have to go. For some odd reason the shadows tend to eat all your processing power.

Another bug in the video department is the occasional slowdown (even on a system that runs the game at high frame rates). Apparently some enemies are poorly implemented and when they appear the whole game slows down.

Multiplayer

There is no multiplayer component, which is major drawback, but an understandable one.

Author impressions

It's a game that will keep you in front of your monitor and won't let you down until the end. It has a very well implemented inventory system that will please even the most exigent RPG player. Without asking too much, it accomplishes more than filling a game position in the RPG market. This one is a definite buy, despite its predecessor's not being much of a seller. The computer version is an obvious improvement and a proof that developers can really learn from their mistakes.

Graphics: 9 Audio: 7 Gameplay: 8 Concept: 8 General impression: 8

SOFTPEDIA MARK: 8

SCREENSHOTS

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story 0
gameplay 0
concept 0
graphics 0
audio 0
multiplayer 0
final rating 0
Editor's review
poor