Shadow Hearts: Covenant - Yuri's Family

Here's a bit of trivia for you.  Yuri has beaten up every relative he has.

In the first Shadow Hearts game, he faces Ben/Jinpachiro multiple times, though, in fairness, this is a manifestation of his own issues and not literally his father's soul.

In Shadow Heatrts: Covenant, Yuri greets both his cousin and his aunt by attacking their fused forms.  He also defeats his own mother's reflection in the Glass Castle you enter when you first reach Goreme Valley.

Edit:  I tell a lie.  Yuri does not physically attack his great-grandmother in St Marguerite.  But, his mother attacks his reflection in the Glass Castle, and his aunt and cousin beat the crap out of one another.

Walking Over Alice's Grave - Chapter 2

The Miniskirt Enables Young Ladies To Run Faster And, Because Of It, They May Have To.

- John V. Lindsay

Gepetto and I soon left Zurich.  There was nothing left for me there, and I found it hard seeing Yuri’s grave every day.  We stayed just long enough for me to finish carving a tombstone.  It was rough and uneven, but I couldn’t let anyone else do it.  It was my job.

Gepetto and I moved to Domremy.  When the shock from Yuri's death had begun to wear off, I asked myself what I could do with my life. I had not forgotten the thought I had had as I was burying him. If Yuri's soul had any regrets it would still be hanging around, but where? His soul was not here with me, I knew that much.  Yuri had never seemed to get over losing his father – perhaps he was in Shanghai, where his father had died, or in Japan, where Yuri had grown up?  In China, where his mother died?  In Russia, where she came from?  In Wales, where we had talked with such joy among the ruins?

Would I search the entire earth for a soul that might have moved on already?

I have not replaced my hair ribbon; I feel that it would cheapen the one I gave to Yuri if I simply wore another one.  Instead, I keep my hair loose, about my shoulders.  In a larger town or city, I may have found myself accused of immodesty, but the people of Domremy are used to me.

. I still wear Yuri's father's coat, but the crucifix I left draped over his headstone.  It was the last thing I did before Gepetto and I left Zurich.  I spent hours there in vigil, hoping his soul would come to me, but it did not.

I am twenty-one now, but my birthday passed unnoticed, by me at least. Gepetto had a tailor make me new clothes and shoes, an expensive gift.  They are black, which is an appropriate colour for a widow.  Gepetto and I settled on that claim, as we were concerned I might be pregnant after the night Yuri and I spent together.  I was not, am not, and a part of me regrets it.  It would be wonderful to have a part of him still here with me, but thinking that way makes me feel like I am closer to accepting his death.  I don’t believe I will ever accept Yuri’s death, and I don’t want to.  I would give anything to have him alive again, even my own soul.  I will not simply accept that he is gone, after all we went through together.

I saw the inside of Yuri’s soul once.  After he took the Seraphic Radiance inside himself in Shanghai.  We found him in Bistritz, six months later, violent and confused.  Zhuzhen, Keith and I managed to subdue him, but as soon as we did, both Yuri and I fell unconscious.  I did not realize at the time that that was what had happened, of course – Keith and Zhuzhen told me later.

Yuri’s mind was a graveyard.  There were graves for each of his fusion monsters, each one linked to a feeling or memory of his.  I examined them, and was left with nothing more or less than a desire to protect him and keep him safe.

I saw a gate leading to another part of him; through it, I could see Yuri digging.  He didn’t respond when I called to him.  Searching for another way, I saw a doorway guarded by four masks.  I felt a deep sense of malice coming from the door, but with no way to reach Yuri, I headed towards it.  It was then that I began to hear someone calling my name.  I tried to ignore the voice – I knew I had to find a way to get to Yuri.  But, the world began swirling and dissolving as they called to me.  Turning back, I threw myself against the gates, again and again.  As they dissolved, I crashed through them, falling into Yuri.  We both fell into the hole he’d been digging.  We fell through the darkness for a long time before we awoke.

I woke up soaked to the skin, with Margarite slapping at my face.  She’d thrown icy water over me in an attempt to wake me.  Yuri sat next to me, quiet, subdued, but undeniably himself.  I gave him back his father’s necklace as soon as we had a quiet moment together.  I had hoped that it would cheer him a little, but it didn’t seem to.

Eventually, after a while in Domremy, I made up my mind to visit Zhuzhen. We had worked as exorcists and psychic investigators together, and with his years of experience, he may think of something I hadn’t.  He had also known Yuri’s father, and might well know where Yuri had grown up, and where his mother was buried.  His father had never had a grave, having been killed when he had tried to fuse with the Seraphic Radiance, years before Yuri had managed it. 

I had considered asking Koudelka, as her psychic powers were greater even than my own, but after the life she had had, it seemed best to let her in peace.  Besides, I had no idea how to find her.  I did, however, attempt to contact Margarite, in the hopes that she would accompany me.  She has always been a stronger fighter than I am alone, and I was wary of attempting a journey without her.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find her either.

            Alone, I set out for Shanghai. War had been declared in Europe, but had not yet touched us; I hoped the town would be safe until I was able to return.

Walking Over Alice's Grave - Chapter 1

This is a fanfic I wrote about five years ago, exploring what could have happened if Yuri had died and Alice had lived in the first Shadow Hearts game.  The original is here; this is a rewrite.

I Can't Keep That Promise

Yuri Volte Hyuga, Shadow Hearts: Covenant

My dear, sweet Yuri is dead. He is dead. He is gone. I hope that by repeating this, the pain will be numbed, but no…it still hurts.  Yuri is gone. Just like my father, and my mother before him.

We were on a train, travelling to Zurich, my mother's hometown. I still had family there, and with no other pressing engagements, Zurich was the only place we had any reason to visit.  Yuri had no family, but if he did, I would have gone with him.  I would have followed him to the ends of the earth.  It is only fear of disappointing him that keeps me from following him into death.  He fought so hard for my life.

We had fallen asleep on the train; when I awoke, Yuri did not. I shook him, and I even slapped him, but he would not stir. I picked him up - he is so much lighter now, in death - and carried him off the train. I carried him as far as I could, then I placed him gently on the ground. I checked again that he was truly dead, and, oh god, he was, he was. I dug a hole with my bare hands, tears flowing down my face. 

It was only a few days ago that I kissed him for the first time, after our victory in Neameto.  I shake the memory from my head as I loosen my blue ribbon, but removing that ribbon brings back another memory, of the only time Yuri has ever seen me with my hair loose.  I grit my teeth, and tie the ribbon around his wrist.

Then I take the crucifix from my throat.  It belonged to Yuri’s mother, Anne.  She gave it to his father, who gave it to Quihua, a little girl he met. When we were in Shanghai, Quihua’s father gave it to Yuri.  Yuri gave it me. We had not known each other long at the time, but he was so caring.  He told me to wear it in battle. He said it always had a calming effect, and as I was not used to battles it might help me.  It did. Whenever I felt myself start to panic, to go berserk, I looked at the cross and more often than not, I would snap out of it and find another reserve of strength

.

I was undecided as to whether Yuri would want the cross or would prefer that I kept it. He loved me, I knew he did. This is not pure vanity. Last night, when he thought I was asleep, he whispered it to me. I very nearly was asleep, so I didn’t reply, only smiled a little. More than anything now, I wish I had answered him. I love him. I hope he knew that. I wish I'd told him. No, if I am to wish, I wish I could tell him right now, and he could answer. But the dead cannot answer.

That thought gives me pause.  I am an exorcist.

I had forgotten that, in the horror of this moment. I cannot call unwilling souls, souls that have passed over. Only those souls with regrets, those that are still here on this plane. Does Yuri have regrets? I wonder…

After defeating the godlet, Yuri, the others and I all hid the émigré away, and then stayed in Rouen for a while, while we planned for the future. It was…four or five days, I believe. Meiyuan brought Koudelka from London, and she and Halley stayed overnight in Rouen before heading to Le Havre to catch a boat to America. Koudelka and I shared a room. Margarite had a room to herself, as did Yuri. Margarite said she needed her privacy. Yuri refused to share with either Halley or Zhuzhen, on the grounds that one was an adolescent with too much energy and the other was a grumpy old man. I do not believe he was serious, but Yuri got his own room anyway. Margarite jokingly suggested that she share with him, at which point he hugged me and said that I was his woman. I blushed, but I do like it when he refers to me that way. It makes – made – me feel protected. The suffragettes would not agree with me, but I do not care. It is not – was not – a case of Yuri seeking to control me, he merely wanted to protect me.

I cannot believe he is gone.

Halley and Zhuzhen shared a room. Meiyuan wanted to share too, but Halley and Zhuzhen were very…definite…about that. I think Zhuzhen's words were "Over my dead body". Keith had already turned into a silver bat and flown back to his castle in Bistritz.

That night Koudelka told me about everything that had happened when she had first visited the Neameton Monastery, over a decade ago.  James O’Flaherty, a friend of my father’s had run into her there.  I had vague childhood memories of him as a serious man, one who disapproved of my mother.  I, in turn, disapproved of him.  Who was he not to like my mother?

Koudelka had run into Edward Branckett when she first entered Neameton.  He was Hally’s father.  Koudelka and Edward were close in age – nineteen and twenty, respectively.  Neither took to James O’Flaherty much, particularly as he was much older, in his forties, and prone to disagreeing with people. 

Patrick, the owner of Neameton, had been using the émigré manuscript in an attempt to revive his wife, Elaine.  Coincidentally, Elaine had also been James’ love, once, though Patrick had won her.  After her death, Patrick had gone mad with grief.  He committed numerous murders, in his attempts to make the spells in the émigré work as promised.  I heard of some of those murders, the ones where he hadn't been able to take the body away from the crime scene. The police never solved the case. Still, though it was evil, it was done out of love. I do not believe that the end justifies the means, but I believe the dead should rest in peace. Patrick has paid enough. I shall not be the one to give him away.

Koudelka and the others had found poor dead Patrick, rotting and run through with vines.  His wife had become an unholy horror; her body had revived, but her soul had not returned to it.  They realized that this creature had been the one to kill Patrick.  James’ sacrificed himself to save Koudelka and Edward.

That was the night Koudelka and Edward had become lovers. I asked her why. Did she love him?

She said that she didn’t know.  She was young, younger than I am now, and had honestly believed she was going to die.  I wonder if those are the things that brought Yuri and I together.

She also told me that Edward had made her feel normal.  I was fortunate in that my father was able to hide my powers, and I had not suffered.  Koudelka had been turned out by her family, hated and feared as a witch.  Feeling normal was unusual for her.

I see a little of Yuri in her words.  His mother was torn apart by their possessed neighbours right in front of him, and his father was killed when he tried to fuse with the Seraphic Radience.  Without them, he had been forced to fend for himself.  After watching his mother’s death at the hands of men he had known and trusted, it had taken him a long time to be able to trust anyone.

When I expressed these thoughts, Koudelka told me that that was why she’d sent Yuri to me.  She’d sensed the turmoil in his mind, as well as his strength.  She’d also felt drawn to me, due to the similarity of our powers.  She’d hoped we’d be able to help each other.

I blushed, and attempted to change the subject.  I asked why she was looking for Edward now.  Simply because he was Halley’s father?  Or was there something more to it?

Inside, I contemplated all the ways it could go wrong.  What if Edward had another family?  What if he pretended not to know her?

Koudelka picked up on my thoughts.  She has a most disconcerting habit of doing that.  She told me exactly what would happen to anyone who hurt her son, and I feared for Eddward Branckett if he wasn’t a good man.

She did not complete the sentence, but I wondered what it would be like to care for someone that much. I care for Yuri, of course, though in a different way than I would a child. He is older than me, by four years, though he does act like a child at times. I would not have him any other way.

The next day, Koudelka and Halley left, Zhuzhen going with them.  He was headed to Shanghai, and Le Havre was a good place to start from.

Koudelka looked at me, then Yuri with a strange expression on her face, before hugging us both and saying goodbye.  I wonder if she knew then what was going to happen?  I hate that she didn’t warn me, didn’t try to stop it, even though, logically, I know she couldn’t have done anything.

Margarite stayed in Rouen with us for a while. She asked me how I was feeling, whether I felt ill in any way whatsoever. I wondered why she was so concerned; as far as I could see, there was no cause for it.  She left Rouen the day before Yuri and I did.  She gave me one of her pistols when we said goodbye, told me to use it for my own protection.  I thanked her, but I did not think I would have need of it.

That was yesterday.  Last night, Yuri and I shared a room, and a bed.  Last night, Yuri told me he loved me.  Last night, Yuri was alive.

I am thinking about these stupid, irrelevant things to keep myself from crying, but it isn’t working!  Oh, Yuri, Yuri, how could you leave me again?! In those months after you disappeared in Shanghai I had hope.  I hadn’t seen you dead, so there was hope that you were out there somewhere.  But now, your corpse is in front of me, growing colder. 

I cling to him, crying, sobbing.  “Please don’t leave me!  Please, Yuri!”

He can’t be dead.  How can he be dead?  He was alive, only a few hours ago.  I fell asleep in his loving arms, and woke up wrapped in a corpse.  I pray that I am dreaming.  I pray that the universe is mistaken, and that, soon, it will fix itself, and everything will be all right, and I’ll tell Yuri I thought he was dead, and he’ll laugh…

I howl at the sky, like an animal.  There is no other response.  My lover lies dead in my arms.

He had given me his father's coat on the train, told me to keep it forever.  He couldn't have known he was leaving me when he said that.  He couldn't.

I think that I should give it the coat back; he might be cold. But, he told me to keep it. He wrapped it around me and told me to keep it.

I lay him gently in the grave, placing his hands over his chest.  My ribbon curls around his wrist.

His pendant is still around his neck. The gem is a dull red colour, like dried blood.  Feeling guilty, I gently unclasp it and place it around my own neck.  I already have his coat, I know.  But I need more.  I need to keep more of him.  Dear god, I would keep all of him if I could.

His eyes are closed. I felt a morbid desire to open them, to see his eyes in death, to find another way to prove it to myself.  I keep trying to prove myself wrong.

His eyes were flat and grey, with nothing of their usual warmth.  I closed his eyelids and kissed him.  Then I turned away and began covering him over.  I didn’t let myself think, else I couldn’t have done it at all.

When I had finished I stood over the – the grave, oh god, it’s Yuri’s grave - and I opened the small bible my father had left me. I said a short prayer. The wind had begun to blow now and my hair blew in front of my eyes, obscuring my view. The wind tore my words from me the instant I said them, snatching them away.

Eventually, pushing my hair back with one hand, holding Yuri's necklace with the other, I screamed at the sky "I commend his soul to any God worthy of it!"

I was left panting.  I screamed again, no words, just raw emotion spilling out of my mouth. I ended up kneeling in front of Yuri's grave crying as though my heart would break. I had no hope now. Suddenly, I heard a voice from behind me.

"What's all the screaming for, girl?" It was a man, speaking French. I turned and saw…no.  Even after all these years, he was unmistakable.  I was astonished by the coincidence, even though I’d come here trying to find him.

"Uncle Geppeto?"

He peered at me through the gloom, adjusting his glasses. "Uncle - Alice? Is that you?"

I nodded. "Yes," I sniffed a little, and wiped the tears from my face. It was raining now, so the gesture was more for effect than anything else.

He hobbled toward me. "Whatever's happened?"

I sniffed again, trying to hold back the tears. "Yuri. It's Yuri. He's gone,"

He put his arm around me. "Come home with me. I haven't seen you in years. Now, tell me, who's Yuri? Someone special to you?"

I nodded and started crying again as he took me back to his home.

Paralells Between Shadow Hearts and Final Fantasy X/X-2

In playing the Shadow Hearts series and Final Fantasy X and X-2 I've noticed a number of parallels.

Warning; Spoilers for SH and FFX/X-2 From Here On In

Shadow Hearts focuses on Yuri and Alice.  It begins when Yuri saves Alice from Albert, and continues with their journey together.  Yuri is tormented by the fusion monsters inside him, and Alice bargains with them to rescue his soul.  In the bad ending, which is canonical, Alice dies and Yuri lives because of this deal.  In this canonical ending, Yuri doesn't know that Alice is going to die until it happens.

Final Fantasy X focuses on Yuna and Tidus' journey.  Yuna is attempting to attain the final summon, which will kill her.  Everyone but Tidus is aware of this.  Once he does find out, he vows to find a way to prevent it, which he does, sacrificing himself.  Final Fantasy X does not have any alternative endings.

The parallels here are obvious.  Both Yuna and Yuri would have died without Tidus' and Alice's interventions.

Shadow Hearts II and Final Fantasy X-2 focus on Yuri and Yuna coming to terms with the death of Tidus and Alice.  Shadow Hearts II focuses more on Karin and her feelings for Yuri, so his feelings are purposefully obscured, for the purposes of fucking with us.  However, what we do see of Yuri involves him not getting over her death.  Of course, she's been dead for less than six months, if I recall correctly.  Furthermore, Alice's ghost lives deep inside his mind, like his father did in the first game.  That makes sense - that's where her grave appeared once she'd made the original pact.  This is most likely not helping him to recover, at all.

Yuri himself has been cursed, yet again.  This time, his soul is going to dissolve, leaving him an empty shell with no memories. That on top of everything else gives him a reason to cling to Alice's memory even more.

In the good ending of Shadow Hearts II, Yuri evades the mistletoe curse by dying.  His soul goes back in time, to the start of the first game, with the implication that the good ending becomes canonical the second time around.  This is confirmed in the third game, when Roger Bacon claims he's never performed the Emigre ritual before.  If that's the case, then this Roger Bacon cannot have lived through the events of Shadow Hearts II, indicating that, in this timeline, they never happened.

Anyway; Yuri's journey in Shadow Hearts II can be described as him striving to keep Alice.  In the first game, he told us he'd rather die than live without his soul.  This game is him coming to terms with the fact that that is his choice; he can lose Alice and his soul, or he can die.

Final Fantasy X-2 has a number of endings.  The two best endings involve Yuna reuniting with Tidus.  The mechanism for this is not her dying, but rather his being brought back to life.

Yuna's journey is entirely focused on searching for Tidus.  In the other endings she longs for him still, despite building a new life without him.  In one notable ending, she can choose not to revive him, despite attaining the ability to.

Looking for parallels, we can see that in both sequels, the pairs are reunited.  In Shadow Hearts, it's by Yuri dying.  In Final Fantasy it's through Tidus being brought back to life.

It is worth noting that both games included mechanisms by which Tidus and Alice could be revived.  The entire Shadow Hearts series is built around the Emigre maniscript, a document which explicitly explains how to revive the dead.  We later see it work successfully, in Shadow Hearts 3. 

Tidus was a creation of the fayth the entire time; he was never real in the way that the rest of his world was.  However, the entire mechanism for his imagining was destroyed during Final Fantasy X, which is why he disappeared in the first place.

In short, you could find a lot more justification for Alice being revived than for Tidus.  So why did Yuri die while Tidus lived?

 I feel that the reason for this difference, and the contrast, is because Shadow Hearts  is darker and edgier, and more realistic.  Although it has fantastical elements, it is more firmly rooted in reality.  The first world war is a major plot point, and real world people and locations are used.  In that world, Alice couldn't come back to life.  Her death was real, it meant something.  She couldn't be revived for the same reason Aeris couldn't be revived; because her death was real to the players, and it hurts too much when fictitious deaths that feel real are revoked.  It highlights how it can't happen in real life.

In Yuna's world, Tidus could be revived.  X-2 was happier and lighter than the first game, while, in contrast, Shadow Hearts II was often darker than the original - see Yuri brutally beating the politician who'd caused the deaths of both his parents for example.  I feel that X-2 departed further from reality to the point where we could accept Tidus' revival.  It felt like it made more sense within the plot and the tone of the story.

Foreshadowing Zwei

...Yuri's second set of malice monsters are counted in German.

Foreshadowing....

Yuri, after Alice comes to the graveyard to save him. "I'd much rather die than go on living with a dead soul."

Koudelka - Review

A repost of the review I wrote three years ago for Koudelka.

Warning: The following contains major spoilers.

The year is 1899. Through a horrible storm, a young woman makes her way to Neameton (also occasionally spelt Nemeton) monastery, somewhere out in Wales.

Finding no answer when she knocks on the door, she climbs to the roof, dropping her pendant into the monastery's magnificent courtyard in the process.

Finally, she kicks in one of the windows and climbs in through the roof. Therein, she finds a young man being menaced by a monstrous creature. He throws her his pistol, and you are plunged into the first battle of Koudelka.

After this short introduction to the battle system, you are further introduced to two of the main characters of the game; Koudelka Iasant and Edward Plunkett.

Koudelka, the title character, is 19 years old, and, as becomes clear throughout the rest of the game has had a somewhat traumatic life due to the manifestation of her psychic powers early on. Koudelka hears the voices of the dead; that's what brought her to the monastery, and what enables some of the game's creepier moments, as your party explores the darker areas deep within the old building.

Edward Plunkett, known in some versions of the game as Edward Brankett, is a 20 year old American/Englishman (again, depending on the version), who had heard about a rich man living in the monastery. Hearing about the amounts of money being spent and prostitutes being brought there, he claims that he decided to "put the poor man's fear of God into that rich bastard", which is the goal that brought him to Neameton.

Further on in the mansion, Koudelka and Edward run into the third member of their party - 45-year-old James O'Flaherty, a priest who, at first, does not reveal his intentions. Much of the conversation between the three characters consist of Koudelka and Edward arguing about James' varying prejudices. It's not like Edward and Koudelka get on perfectly, however - they argue a lot too. Unlike in most RPGs, the characters of Koudelka don't like each other very much. They are not together through choice, didn't grow up together, and don't even have to keep the peace because they were commanded to by some kind of superior officer. They stick together, at first, because they are three people in a scary monastery, where anything that moves is more than likely trying to kill them. They are together through fear, but this doesn't stop them sniping at each other, and, to be honest, it's fairly hilarious at times.

The voice acting is what holds this game together more than anything. It's amazing, particularly Koudelka and James. If you've played the sequels, I'd say it's better than Shadow Hearts: Covenant.

Koudelka is a curious cross between an RPG, a strategy game, and a survival horror.

Your three characters are trapped within a small monastery. There are no shops; you are reliant on items dropped by monsters or found within the building. There are no inns, either, although your characters are healed at every save point and every time they level up. Then there are the creepy caretakers, the bodies littering the monastery, and the discovery of its history as a political prison; the ghosts are not happy about this, and lose no time in telling Koudelka so. Those that don't just attack, that is. Several documents can be found which add to the history of the monastery, and explain more of what's going on. However, in many ways, it seems their main purpose is to freak people out.

There are many cut-scenes and conversations which propel your characters through the plot, and several puzzles which tend to be either slightly too difficult, or slightly too easy. In essence, you run through the building, various battles, conversations or puzzles unlocking more areas to explore, much like in the later Project Zero (known as Fatal Frame in the US) games.

The battle sequences are an interesting combination of various genres. You are pulled into a separate battle screen, like in RPGS. Your characters move on a grid, like a strategy game, although the grid is always the same. Your characters can go no further forward than the enemy - you can't sneak up behind them. This allows for a small amount of tactics, such as having a weaker character hide behind someone else and use a gun. You can also pin your enemy up against the opposite wall, and prevent their moving while you pick them off. However, if they are strong enough to throw your characters back, they can do the same to you.

The stat system in Koudelka is also unique enough to be worth mentioning. Every level, your characters get 4 points to add onto any stat. Although the stat limit is 99, this means that, essentially, your eight stats only rise by a cumulative amount of four hundred points, assuming you level up as far as possible. This really isn't that many. However, many of the weapons and armour you can pick up raise your stats by a significant amount, considering the relatively low limit. If a weapon raises someones stats above 99, you will see the benefit - you just can't raise stats that high manually. The problem with this, or rather, the challenge, is that weapons break after a certain number of uses. This does go well with your limited inventory, but can be frustrating at times; for instance, when your best weapon snaps in half right before a major boss fight.

All of your characters can use the same spells and equip every weapon, and your skill with both weapon types and spells levels up with use. The spell levels affect the area of effect, and strength, while the weapon levels affect the strength and amount of attacks, rising up to three. The movements of the characters in battle look pretty good, considering the age of the game, and, to be honest, Koudelka is pretty gorgeous in a tough kind of way. However, getting back to the subject at hand, it's difficult to level your spells up enough to be really useful without some serious training. Weapon skills rise much faster than spell skills, and, luckily for some, bare-fist is a class; raising a characters skill either without a weapon or with a pair of knuckles equipped is a very useful strategy, and is easy on your inventory. The bosses in Koudelka are fairly tough, especially the final boss, and the optional boss, Gargoyle.

Released towards the end of the PlayStations life-span, Koudelka's graphics were pretty good at the time, and, in general don't look too bad now, although they're nowhere near as incredible as some more recent games. Koudelka, your on-screen character, moves fairly realistically, especially on stairs. She's also, as mentioned, very attractive in a tough kind of way. Not physically tough, but emotionally so; at first, she comes across as unnecessarily mean, but as you go through the game you come to realise why she is that way. At first, she's really kick-ass, and has some of the best lines in the game, but then you - or rather, I did, at least - really start to care for her. She's one of my favourite video game characters, right up there with my first love, Deis.

The movements could be compared most to the Project Zero/Fatal Frame series, which does seem to have borrowed a fair few elements from this game, while the in-battle movements most resemble the original Shadow Hearts. However, the game does have some loading problems, especially in battle sequences, which causes it to play slower. It's said that this is due to the style of the graphics.

Koudelka is a very short game, at around twenty hours for a slow play through. It has very few side-quests; there is the optional boss, Gargoyle, and the extra items. Gargoyle is amazingly tough, especially considering that he levels up with your characters, and the extra items are difficult to get. The game needs to be saved at a particular time - ie, 1 hour, 11 minutes, and 11 seconds - with a certain number of items in your inventory. If done properly, quitting the game and reloading will result in an extra item. This can be a pain.

There are three endings, and they mostly depend upon your actions towards the end of the game. If you don't find Koudelka's pendant, and have it in your inventory at the end of the game, you'll get the worst ending. Otherwise, it depends on how well you defeat the final boss, much like the Breath of Fire series.

The company behind Koudelka, Sacnoth, was originally made up of ex-square employees, and it's noteworthy to any Final Fantasy addict for that reason alone. Wikipedia states that;

"Hiroki Kikuta, most known for composing the music to Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu III (also known as Secret of Mana II) while working at Squaresoft, created Sacnoth in 1997 with funding from the video game company SNK. Unhappy with what he considered as the disjointed, juvenile, and stagnant nature of most RPGs, Kikuta had intended to take the genre in a whole new direction. Koudelka was to be his magnum opus, the game that would show the world just how far RPGs could go".

Although in a way, his vision did come to pass, with the next games released, the Shadow Hearts series, Koudelka alone is generally considered more noteworthy for being the prequel to that game, than a stand-alone. However, I played this game long before Shadow Hearts, and although not amazingly unusual by today's standards, it does have a charm all its own.

The game can be difficult to find now, and can be expensive; it's best bought second-hand from game stores who sometimes don't realise what they're dealing with.

In summary, Koudelka is a great game, although slightly let down by the short length and long loading times. However, the short play-time doesn't let down the amount of character development, which is a major part of the game. It's tough at times, but in my opinion, that kind of works. It's worth looking for if you enjoyed Project Zero/Fatal Frame, or the Shadow Hearts series (although, due to various plot links between Koudelka and Shadow Hearts, the games are best played in the order they take place.

It's difficult to define exactly why, but I guess what I'm saying is that Koudelka will always have a special place in my heart and on my shelf; despite its flaws, it's a great game. The plot is intriguing, and the occasional moments of humour are a welcome relief from the creepiness of the rest of the game. You really get to care about the characters, and when a few of them showed up in Shadow Hearts - which I wasn't expecting, since, although the games are linked, it's not in an obvious way - I was genuinely delighted.