Sudeki

Nearly two years after it was first announced, Sudeki finally hits Xbox. We all know Climax has worked hard, but is it enough for your cash?

	Version Xbox	Developer Climax Studios UK	Publisher Microsoft	Genre RPG / Action

By Cori Graham

Climax UK partnering with Microsoft for a killer Xbox exclusive RPG had to be a good idea, right? One smash hit will lead to another, correct? Well, when one would-be smash hit is quietly shipped to US retailers without a single reviewable copy in sight, surely something fishy's going on?

Within any genre we've come to expect certain standard ingredients. A racing game should have great physics and fun tracks. A fighting game should be well balanced and feature a diverse cast of characters. With an RPG you'd expect deep rewarding game play and a well thought-out story. Unfortunately that is one of the main problems with Sudeki. You keep expecting more, and not getting it.

Your introduction to the world of Sudeki is from the view of your stereotypical male foot solider, Tal. You start off in the glorious Illumina Castle in the realm of Haskilia, but you don't get to stay for long. After being betrated by your father you're off on your very first mission to dispatch a brigade of Aklorian warriors terrorizing the Illumina countryside.

Each member of your party basically fills a slot, almost as if the game was made with a checklist. Tal is your strong male lead. He's great with a sword and is the man to call when you face one of the numerous (any annoying) block puzzles. Princess Ailish is your beautiful female sorceress who you expect to heal your party in time of need. She's also good at dispelling magical spells blocking your path. Elco is the four-eyed science geek you probably made fun of in algebra. He also carries a jet pack that enables him to cross land formations you otherwise couldn't cross. And finally there's Buki. Half human, half animal, all exotic, Buki carries Wolverine like claws good not only for dicing up the enemy but climbing as well.

Despite Climax's attempts to make each member standout, the format of gameplay is often a hindrance to all parties. Sudeki offers little in the way of truly original puzzles; relying more on the typical box puzzle instead. So Tal being the strongman is great, but pushing around block after block gets tiresome after about the fifth time. Ailish can dispel magic to reveal hidden secrets. But more often than not the hidden secret is just a few feet away. Akin to turning a doorknob to open a door, being able to dispel a hidden passage you're standing right next to is nothing amazing.

Elco can fly, but only a few inches off the ground. No full range of movement here. Also, your pack only has a limited charge so you can't fly for long. Basically you walk up to land mass, quickly charge your pack, and then hastily fly to the other side before you fall. You might as well just have walked there. And Buki can climb walls, but everything she climbs is predetermined, and often you're only climbing to push a button and come back down.

Those are just the side traits for exploring. It gets worse in combat. Both Tal and Buki use timed combos in combat, meaning that as you attack with the X button, timing your next button press can lead to a devastating combo. The only downside is that Tal and Buki basically have the same moves separated only by cosmetics. So if you're tired of playing with Tal, picking Buki offers no relief.

The same problem can be found between Ailish and Elco. Both are long-range fighters, Ailish with her wands and Elco with his guns. But no matter who you choose, the gameplay is still the same. Furthermore, both use weapons that can become depleted if overused. So firing one powerful shot meant waiting a good five seconds before firing another. Not exactly edge-of-your-seat action, when you spend the fight running backwards away from the enemy.

But I also hated the fact that you couldn't charge your blasts. If you wanted a stronger attack you had to get a stronger weapon, or upgrade your weapon at the blacksmith - but you couldn't just hold down R to charge a blast. What sucks even more is that for the melee fighters R is their block button. But since Ailish and Elco use R to attack, neither can block. So if you're waiting for a weapon to recharge, and you're stuck between a rock and an Aklorian, you have little to protect you. But it is cool that whenever you use Ailish or Elco you enter first person view to attack.

Not to be content with just melee attacks and mindless blasting, Sudeki's beloved children also have a set of attacks called Skill Strikes. By pressing Y you slow down the game and bring up a menu listing the various special attacks you have at your disposal. But remember, don't spend too much time browsing through the menu since the game never actually stops, only goes into slow motion. Enemies can still attack if you're not careful.

Now I wish I could say that each character's Skill Strike is very unique and original to that character -- but they're not. Both Tal and Elco have a Skill Strike to raise the team's defense. Both Tal and Buki have a whirlwind attack. Both Elco and Ailish have Skill Strikes that shoot giants balls of energy. And the overlap just goes on and on. Not only do the warriors fight the same, they share special attacks as well. You don't feel as though you have to incorporate all four members into one cohesive strategy. You can really just have one main character you like to play with and then use the others for wasting away their Skill Strike points before switching back.

Now this is important to remember for combat. The AI controls your team members if you're not using them but they will not heal themselves. So keep an eye out for any member that is getting low on health. You'll have to push either the black or white button to switch to that character and manually heal them. But there is something you can do to make your life easier.

By pressing Y you can control the AI settings for each individual team member. Choose Attack if you want your guy to go all out with total disregard for their health. Choose Defense if you want them to fight but block when they need to. And choose Retreat when you don't want them to fight at all. It's best just to choose Defense because then you can have the best of both worlds. Your team members will block most attacks meaning you don't spend all day watching their life bar, plus they will still dish out their fair share of damage in battle.

And finally, fights just become too predictable after a while. There are no random encounters here. You walk into an open area, walls pop up blocking your escape, and then enemies keep porting in until every last one of them is dispatched. There's nothing worse than entering an area for the twentieth time knowing the same thing is going to happen.

This problem is amplified by Sudeki's map system and level design. Often I've walked into an area and quickly cleared it of all foes. But since where I came from and where I need to go look just a like, I end up backtracking. And since I backtracked, I now have to re-enter the same area I just came from and re-fight those same enemies. That can become very annoying, very quickly.

Fortunately all is not completely lost on Sudeki's gameplay. I have to admit that I did enjoy some of the countless melee fights and mind-numbing block puzzles, despite those being my main gripes. There was a certain charm to Sudeki that made me want to pop the game inside my Xbox and keep playing. However, don't expect to be floored.

Okay, so maybe you don't get deep, rewarding game play with Sudeki. What about the story? Er - what about it? The world of Sudeki needed a good ol' fashioned fleshing out, but that part apparently missed release. Any good RPG worth its salt is about exploration. Taking your heroes off the beaten path and exploring the world that you live in. But Sudeki comes up short on so many levels that I don't know where to begin.

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For starters the lands you visit are all plot driven. You go there because you have to go there. There's little to no exploration to be had. Also, traveling on foot can be a pain since you have to go through countless inescapable fights. You would think Sudeki would at least give you the option of running away every once and a while, but such is not possible. So if you want to adventure it becomes tedious, but since there's only a small handful of places to venture to, once the plot takes you there you've seen almost all there is to see.

Essentially the world of Sudeki is limited to a couple towns with absolutely nothing worth checking out. Like most RPGs, you can do little side quests for NPCs, but why bother? Let the seamstress get his on damn fur.

Something else I extremely disliked about Sudeki was their shops. Each town had the same shops all selling the same product. The blacksmith in New Brightwater offered the same weapon enhancements as the blacksmith in Illumina Castle. The merchant in the dark realm of Akloria sold the same product as every other merchant. Even worse, all the merchants look the same also. There wasn't a separate shop for anything. There wasn't a weapons shop that existed in Illumina and Illumina alone, or a single merchant who sold only the most rare of rare items.

Almost everything you buy from a shop can be found by just breaking a nearby box. Even the weapons you find aren't purchased at a store. They're often just lying in some unlocked treasure chest in a dungeon. Sadly, Sudeki doesn't make you work for much at all. Even leveling up leaves much to be desired. Such is the case with another form of attack, called Spirit Strikes. But while Skill Strikes must be earned, Spirit Strikes are given to you, ususally at predetermined plot points. And the only real difference between a Spirit Strike and a Skill Strike is that Spirit Strikes use both your Skill Strike bar and its own separate bar. Got all that?

But poor timing for receiving your Spirit Strikes coupled with an even worse leveling system can be bad. In Sudeki when you level up your stats do not automatically change like in most RPGs. Instead, you get an attribute point to use. Sometimes you get two attributes point at a level up, but if you want to raise your health you have to put an attribute point there. A big problem with this is not knowing how to actively plan ahead for the future. Here I am at the end of the game using Tal to dispatch a slew of enemies when I decide to use a Spirit Strike simply because I can (or so I thought). I hit Y and go to the Spirit Strike menu and choose my Spirit Strike -- but nothing happens.

You see, my max Skill Strike points were only 180, but I needed 200 Skill points to perform that particular Spirit Strike. But I'm at the end of the game! And it's not as if I didn't put Skill points into Tal's Skill attribute. In fact, I put a lot there. But attribute points for each character are different. Since Tal starts far below Ailish in Skill points, even if they have the same number of points in that attribute Tal will still be behind her. [as would I - Ad] So now you have a level up system that prevents your character from ever reaching their max potential.

However, this was just lovely. I received Elco's first Spirit Strike about fifteen and a half hours into the game -- but I beat the game an hour later. What the hell is that? Why am I receiving such an awesome attack when I have no one to use it on? Why does the game end as soon as you think it's beginning? Oh boy, I can go on and on with the whys and wherefores. But why bother?

Graphically Sudeki is a mixed bag. During certain cutscenes the developers added in enhanced lighting that really make the graphics shine. But most of the time Sudeki looks a lot like... well... a Dreamcast game. I know that may sound a bit harsh, but hear me out. The Dreamcast certainly isn't capable of textures of special effects on this level; it's just that how it looks will remind you of Grandia or Skies of Arcadia. Sudeki has simple, well-alternated textures where you can clearly see where one texture ends and another begins. Such was the case with many Dreamcast games where textures weren't blended as realistically as they could have been. Each texture and color is very distinct, and your eyes can't help but to be drawn to them.

But while you're looking at those bright, well-alternated textures, you can't help but to think to yourself that the Xbox is capable of much more. There's no normal or bump mapping to be found, so get those fantasies out of your head. In fact, most of the Xbox's power just seems wasted. And again, that's not to say Sudeki is a bad looking game. Visually it looks pretty good. But with the Dreamcast inspired design, and simple textures, you're not going to wet your pants. The only time I can actually say I was impressed with the graphics where during those handful of cutscenes with enhanced lighting, and that's not really enough.

Now I've been quiet regarding Sudeki's musical score. And that's because there really isn't much to talk about. Every grunt, footstep, and sword strike is... generic. None of the cutscenes have any pulse pounding, blood flowing tunes that will totally immerse and bewilder you. Sudeki's soundtrack is totally forgettable. Not to say there aren't a couple tunes that are easy on the ears, but once you turn off your Xbox none of those tunes will be humming in your head.

Woah, this was a pretty negative review, but don't let it keep you from at least trying Sudeki. Despite all of the flaws I still managed to have some fun. But Sudeki is just a mediocre game and there's no way around that. Sudeki is good if you're looking for something to rent, beat, and never see again. Because after you finish Sudeki you're just left with a shallow, hollow feeling. And that's the last thing you want to feel when your pockets are fifty notes lighter.