hen the Xbox launched, the one genre of games where it glaringly lacked an entry was role-playing. After some lackluster attempts to fill that void, Microsoft got its signature game in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Now every role-playing game released for the Xbox has to be compared to Knights. Sudeki, a fantasy RPG set in an original world (or in two original worlds, depending on how the counting is done), is the latest Xbox role-playing title to face that comparison.
The history of Sudeki is shown in an opening animation as a shadow puppet show. The god of Sudeki created a dark brother from within himself, and when the two ended up fighting, Sudeki was torn in two. In the game, now it is time for the decendents of the mortals who originally helped the god to come to his aid again. These characters are Tal, a swordsman; Ailish, a princess and sorceress; Buki, a warrior cat-woman; and Elco, a scientist. Players start out controlling Tal and quickly pick up the other three characters, which the player then controls one at time, switching at will, while the computer AI controls the others.
Sudeki is more linear than Knights; for each problem in the game, whether a puzzle or a fight or plot point, the player's role is to execute the correct solution, not to choose what that solution is. The characters earn experience points for executing solutions and fighting and can gain extra points by doing side quests. If players are very patient, they can earn even more extra experience points by fighting over and over again, the battles in the game always triggered when players enter their spot, as opposed to the majority of battles that happen only once.
Beautiful, but with no bounce
Prominent on the box are Ailish and her breasts. Sudeki is one of the few console games where the babe on the cover looks as good in the game as she does in the cover art. So do all the characters and the world they explore. The game is a pleasure to watch, although the camera control is limited (the player can't look up or down), so not as much of any of them can be seen as is wanted or, in some cases, needed. Players are encouraged to see the entire world by the presence of breakable pots, barrels and chests, which are literally scattered all over the world and often contain money or items.
The limited camera motion hurts most in combat, which, unlike Knights, is not turn-based and not pausable. Tal and Buki fight hand to hand; Ailish and Elco have ranged weapons. Sudeki's designers made the decision to test the player in combat by always, unless it is a boss fight, pitting the characters against lots of enemies. In hand to hand, the view is third-person, but it is kept very close to the player's character, which makes it impossible for the player to get an idea of how the entire enemy force is arrayed, or what the player's other characters are doing. In ranged combat, the view is first-person, but again, the camera can't be raised or lowered, so while first-person is a better way to view the battles, it is still far from perfect.
It is difficult to mesh action combat with party play because the average player will find it hard enough to keep one character alive, much less three. The AI runs the other characters, but only in a limited way. The player must take over a character to have it heal or use an item or unleash a special attack. When there are four characters facing lots of enemies and the player can see only part of the battle, this is difficult, but Sudeki adds the element that it does not actually pause during combat; it just slows way down when the player hits the menu button. Thus the player can't pause the game and hop around the party setting the characters' next round orders. This creates stress that is not the fun kind.
Sudeki is a fun, beautiful game that could have been better with a better combat system.
I would have had more fun with Sudeki if I could have saved the game whenever I liked, as I could in Knights, interrupting things even during combat. The save points in Sudeki are hit and miss, and much of my time was spent covering old ground when I died well after the last save point.
— Eric
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