Sudeki

Sadly, the graphics and presentation are the only defining features of the title. Once completed, there's very little reason to play through again and the game is not exactly long to begin with.

As much as I enjoyed it, I now spend most of my time nitpicking on small issues that in the end keep this game from being a classic.

While playing Sudeki, one might sense the potential it had to be a far better game. Unfortunately, a lack of truly engaging puzzles and a somewhat flawed combat system hold it back.

Think of Sudeki as a trip to the Renaissance faire with your crystal loving anime fan friend from the new age bookstore. You can choose to either drink in the experience, enjoy it for what it is and not scratch too deep; or you can over analyze it, shatter the illusion and trudge around miserable all day.

The combat system which at first feels quite intuitive, can at certain times become overly repetitive and tedious. Plus the fact that the NPC characters are just inherently boring doesn't help matters either.

The switch to first-person view for the longer ranged weapons works better than we'd expected, and the battles run pretty smoothly – quite unlike the standard fare. The storyline is strong.

Sudeki had a lot of potential. It has been in development for a few years now and looks great visually but is let down by a slow start.

Despite the game's terrific combat, Sudeki is sadly let down by a plodding story, clumsy dialogue and forgettable characters.

Having a battle fall apart when the healer is killed because you forgot to pay attention to her for fifteen seconds. Uh, a healer should be able take care of herself, at least, right? It's in their freakin' job description.

From a visual standpoint Sudeki is pretty much a letdown. Being that it was an Xbox exclusive, we were expecting the game to take advantage of the advanced hardware architecture. With the exception of some neat lighting and particle effects, it looks like a pretty basic PlayStation 2 title.

The storyline is full of old school clichés and the adventuring part of the game, with its basic puzzles is quite frankly boring.

Along with crowds of evil creatures, you'll have to contend with an often-cumbersome battle system and some odd design choices that rob much of the adventure of its luster.

Most maddening is the game's unstable framerate. [Oct 2004, p.76]

Even with all the problems, Sudeki is still worth your time. It's not the best RPG it could have been - Climax needs better writers, that's for sure (especially concerning dialogue and character motivation) - but it gives you a big, pretty, and at times smartly designed world to explore. [Sept 2004, p.92]

The lead characters are abysmally designed. Waxen, ugly and uninspired, with more than a whiff of committee behind them, they're the most dislikeable aspect of an otherwise magnificent world. [Sept 2004, p.96]

The game ends just when the story starts to get interesting, and hardcore RPG fans should be able to beat it over a single weekend of dedicated play. [Oct 2004, p.114]

Sudeki is sure to be seen as a letdown by the hardcore RPG community, but there are still enough features here to recommend it. [Sept 2004, p.106]

The combat part of the game is pretty nice (but not perfect), and as we mentioned earlier, many of the game's key components are weak or just plain bad. In the end Sudeki feels like an incomplete RPG experience that needed a lot more development time.

Sudeki is your typical, average RPG - but it doesn't wear out its welcome. At around 20 hours, the entire game is about half that of standard RPGs but it also doesn't drag events out to mind-numbing, repetitive proportions.

Character animation also seemed to have a problem with direction and consistency. You will notice the character animation becomes choppy, especially when the group is united and all four are running together.

While it does offer a few innovative features, ultimately the lack of really solid characterisation, and a plot that meanders in a variety of directions without ever really getting there makes this a rather ho-hum title.

Another battle boo-boo is the inability to lock-on to an enemy while using the third-person melee characters. First-person shooting is no problem, but trying to face a specific enemy while running around with a big sword/claws is a chore.

It's madness to think that Climax can excuse Sudeki's awful storyline and blasé characters with some interesting stabs at combat, when there are so many competing RPGs that offer quality in every respect rather than just one or two.

Both the hokey dialogue and overly dramatic voiceovers are on par with a late-night B-movie on Cinemax. [Oct 2004, p.111]

The one thing left nagging in the back of your mind is that it could have been so much more.

Even its cleverest ideas are generally just amalgamations of things we've seen before - like a puzzle where you have to replicate a five-tone tune by touching five symbols on the ground in the right order. It fails to take advantage of so many breaks - the technology, the voice actors at its disposal, the potential for the synchronicity of the two worlds, the use of four characters in designing dungeons.

Another shortcoming is that the game's world is relatively engaging with its cotton candy color scheme and map hinting at tons of locations to explore, and yet the real world of the game is little more than a series of interconnected pathways with arbitrary roadblocks to keep players progressing in the most linear fashion possible.

Instead of a deep plot with equally deep profound characters and an enjoyable, intricate battle system to boot, you get a shallow plot with boring characters and broken combat.