Koudelka (PSX) - Part 2

Previously on part one: Koudelka (who has the same name as game title) goes inside an old monastery. She meets Edward, the treasure hunter and James, the holy man who has despicable personality as politician. They form a party to venture this place each with their own motive. Undead and monster shenanigans occur here. Last time, they fall on a room with floor that as tough as thick cookies. Do they survive from that fall?

Of course, they do! You have to check pile of corpse in this jail room to trigger this scene so you can progress. The party once again meet the little ghost beet lady. Her name is Charlotte. James pities her and say that her mother must be loving her. That makes her mad and tell them to die.

Then you have to fight (presumably) her friend, the musketeer. I'm still uncertain what person that is described as a musketeer. Is it the one who like Arthas, Porthos, Athos, or D'Artagnan? Which is the most befitting with our adversary here. Or is it the one who wield musket (renaissance-age rifle)? So everytime i hear word 'musketeer', i imagine he/she is both fencer and rifleman. Anyway, he isn't so tough thanks to Koudelka's Lvl 2 Flare (again). After you defeat him you get...

 

...a rifle! Sniper_specialweapon05.wav. You should use the rifle instead of relying on long needle with handle and old chivalry, mate! Moreover, We don't care about valiant codes at all.

Then a wall crumbled. We can get the hell out of this jail!

 

Next room is torture room. It's kind of not right if there is a torture room (like here) that doesn't have an iron maiden or two. I give you hints about the position of a mace and a knuckle/cestus, because basically i'm generous person.

Next is, there is a green key between these mummies. Will you take it?  

 

If your answer is 'yes'. Well, that's wrong answer. You will fight the ghost of those mummies. The ghosts aren't doing anything at all and you can't inflict damage even a bit with any means. So, all you can do is escape. To make our heroes run away, press circle button and escape option will pop-up. Worth to mention: running from battle is useful for conserving ammo, MP, or melee weapons.

 Heavy_taunts02.wav. I make Edward beats the hell out of this midget creature to increase bare-handed/knuckle weapon proficiency. It almost level 3. So i'm not feel sorry for him.     

 

Hmmm, again?

 

This time, the boss is grotesque and hideous creature that has big face on abdomen and has several tiny arms. Also it's flying. Here i told James to cast Lv 2 'FortifyAgl' magic on enemy so they can breathe easier here. In case you forget, clueless or anything, stats-buff spell such as 'FortifyAgl' can be casted on enemies to decrease their stat instead of increasing it like you do to allies. I discover this by accident, by the way.

 This abomination is immune to wind spell that's hint that it's weak against earth spell. BHAM! Take that!

 

The boss has tough physical defense. So, yes! What i do here is wrong. But in my defense, Edward got nothing to do better. I ordered him to use gun. But in my opinion, it was just wasting 9 mm parabellum bullet unnecessarily. So i give him knuckle weapon and tell him "Do your best, champ!". That lots of punching (& occasionally kicking) that he did earlier is paid off. Here is his 3rd hit attack, front jump kick. Awesome, isn't?! Anyway, with what this monster appearance, you feel you want to kick it really hard, right?!  

 

With that flying monster gone (for good). Holy water fills this place which mean we have secured permanent savepoint that not only you can save your game here but also you can replenish HP&MP for free!

 

After traveling further a bit, there is cutscene on this treasure room. James is astounded by these fortunes. He is thinking to donate them to Vatican. Though, Koudelka and James are uninterested by this riches. Furthermore, she say the treasures is probably cursed what's with this place is haunted and stuff. I wonder if Dr. Jones has problem with cursed treasures in his adventures. Maybe there's something useful here.

 

Sniper_specialweapon02.wav. At this point, we got a permanent savepoint and lots of weapon. Why don't you leveling here, guys?

At the same room, we encounter the (higher lvl) winged head and hopping jester. It's time to tell you about element, non-boss enemies tend to have certain tone color. It represents what element the enemy has. Red means fire element, blue means water element, green means wind element, and (if i'm not mistaken) brown or pale white means earth element. In this case, the jester in in red tone. That means, he get hefty damage from water magic.

Soldier_DominationScout09.wav. He drops bowgun arrows. Thanks!

 

Beyond the treasure room, we found this. So there's fountain upstairs, huh?!

 

Yes, of course! By this point, you can guess that if Koudelka says "Something's not right" that means there is a boss fight and sealed holy-water-fountain (a.k.a permanent savepoint). I think Koudelka becomes over-traumatized thanks to the first monster which attacks her from behind.

 The boss here has tentacles. Oh, God! I have seen enough "H" to know where this is going. Luckily, it uses its tentacles as magic-casting device not as physical weapon. It relies its fat legs for that. Koudelka's Lv 2 Flare and everyone's 'FortifyAgl' make this atrocity falls relatively easy.

 

Now that that fountain is activated. We found this key item 'Goat Statue'. I should mention earlier that key items will occupy party's inventory beside consumable items, and equipments (both the equipped and unequipped). Also max. capacity of their inventory: 50 and there's no storage box or anything like that. Hope, you don't mind about item management. ^_-

 

On the next room from latest permanent savepoint, someone shoot down a chandelier at our heroes. But no one get hurts. Even so, the culprit shall not go unpunished. Let's go upstairs, guys!

 

This scoundrel is the culprit. "He is just human. So he should be no problem, right?" Don't get cocky! Maybe he is different from other bosses which are demon/monster/undead. But he's very difficult boss because:

• First, his attack is 3 shoots from his handgun with 100% chance! Also without reloading! Unlike, says one of our heroes.
• He covers himself with barrels and crates. This is the only boss fight with obstacle things. While they're still exist, he can't be harmed with any means (including gunshoot).
• Damaging and stats-decreasing magic toward him always miss! Maybe our heroes need more mnd stats on themselves. But i don't think that's the case as we didn't encounter this problem before (on previous battles).

I built Koudelka as professional magic-caster with a handful of vit stats so she is in deep trouble here. She is knocked out many times and her damaging-magic is useless except to get rid of the crates (she 1-shot them with her flare magic). At least, James and Koudelka can practice Healing magic several times here.

 

He takes lot of bludgeoning before he goes down. Explain yourself, bastard!

 

He is a "survivor" from the malevolent couple. Of course, James denies that (once again) then they argue for a moment. Finally, Edward shoots him for safety measure. James and Koudelka are shocked with Edward's rash decision to kill this guy. Though, i agree with his deed. That guy need to rest (forever), anyway.

 

Then Edward proves his argument by pointing his gun to James. Even though he is our reliable healer & buff-caster, i don't mind if you pull the trigger, man. I still dislike him. Very much.

 

Do we can have the bastard's gun? Of, course! But, i don't think it's worthy to keep. Because when i compare it with Edward's gun, it only has more 1 Str improvement and 4 Dex improvement but sacrifice Vit, Agl, and Pie further. By the way, magic-caster like Koudelka should equip ranged weapon or melee weapon that enchant her Int & Mnd like Cat's Eye. Where did we get it?

From killing goddess-Bast's-vassal (cat for short) him/herself! I'm the real monster! Even though black cats are associated with black magic or witch, killing one is just really not right. Next time, we encounter another black cat, we just gonna spamming stats-buff then escape. Unless Koudelka broke Cat's eye. By the way, the Cat's Eye is a ring with valuable stone in it. Not the real one that i told Edward to pull it from dead cat's eye socket like you think. Why he/she has the ring? Probably the cat's owner spoil him/her so much that the master put valuable ring in their paw eventually.    

 

The rascal also dropped "Red Key". So we can unlock a room that adjacent with treasure room and the couple's room. What lies behind this door is: Caretaker's quarters, 2nd floor! So we can go to the couple's room easily.

 

Thank goodness! Our inventory is already full with key items (that we don't need for this moment), HP restoration items (that are useless since we have 2 reliable healer), and bunch of melee weapons. Start breaking using them diligently, guys!

 

Pyro_jeers01.wav. Actually, that's fine at this moment. If this happen earlier in Disc 1, i will seriously tell Edward to pull the trigger back there.

 

Inside the couple's room, there's a dragon statue, a mask, one of the mummy's doll, rifle ammo and this CGI scene. Koudelka stares at one the painting of a ship's tragic accident then she got vision of dead bodies that are presumably that ship's passenger. By the way, Mr. Hartman claims that he is a sailor. Coincidence? I think not!  

 

Now, i like to inform you about the secret items. Someone in internet told me that if you manage to keep the inventory to number 10, 21, 32, or 43 (which all have first digit of second digit plus 1) and save the game at time with same number (i.e: 01:11:11, 02:22:22, 22:22:22), then you reload the gamesave, you will get a secret item. I manage to get Charlote's (the little beet lady) book, which is consumable item to cause Flare Lv 3 toward enemy (Yes, it's "Fire Scroll"). Also i got Tamakos soup which is another name for elixir, which is consumable item to fully replenish HP & MP on 1 character. I got them from savetime 04:44:44, and 05:55:55 respectively. I remind you that this secret is really absurd to do. But i can tell that for longer playtime, you get better reward.

 

Like many other RPG, you can adjust party's formation. Koudelka is represented by king chess-piece because she is the main protagonist. James is represented by bishop chess-piece, befitting his occupation/title/etc. Edward is represented by knight chess-piece. Why? He is far from knight-in-shinning-armor person. Maybe, i (sensibly) built him as physical damager/warrior type character, perhaps.

 

Back to game-progress making, Koudelka finds these floor with symbols. It's puzzle time! You have to make her step on right floors to unlock door over there. The hints will be in the corner of stairs room above room with goat statue and in red-key-locked room near treasure room.

 

Here's the clues. I stitch them together for your convenience, reader. So, she has to walk on symbol of triangle, mortar & pestle, Erlenmeyer flask, then roman numeral for '4'. But pot flask symbol is located in front of Erlenmeyer flask symbol. So Koudelka has to trackback to Erlenmeyer flask floor before she step on symbol of pot flask, y, an eye, and finally horned circle with cross. To me that's not right. Puzzle like this is supposed to flow smoothly! Any backtracking step is unacceptable. Sacnoth is rebellious, isn't?!

 

Behind that door is this large room and there is this inaccessible room which can be entered from large relief besides this walled door. But the relief has missing pieces in order to open up, so there's nothing we can do right now.  

Delve further, i triggered another CGI cutscene. This time, she get vision of her "client" (named Ellie), ancient scribing, secret door behind the big relief, and Ellie's husband. Strange thing is Edward and James is nowhere in this cutscene, they probably are highlighting Koudelka with flashlight to make her really dramatic as you can see in this screenshoot.    

 

After that clairvoyance, we found a working printing press. This is where the stone tablet that we picked from a room with lion statue, plays role. We use the stone tablet then we got map and one vacant slot on our inventory!

 

Here's the map. Its layout is bit convoluted to read. Blinking part of the map signifies our location. Checklist sign means the puzzle in that place is resolved while cross sign means the otherwise. decorative square is pointing available permanent savepoint.

While we print the map, the printing press making big vibration enough to make crack on thin wall that reveal a door (in front of it/ behind Koudelka). Thank thee so much, ye olde printer! 

 Before we go to secret door, we might as well check the ordinary ones first besides it. Inside of that room, we find door with hole of the animal statues! Now we can get rid of that (annoying to keep) key-item statues. And behind this door...

 ...we encounter this grotesque monster that seals another Holy Water Fountain. I kind of questioning the normality of this-monster designer. He/she must be has specially twisted mind to come up with monster that has 3 hideous heads with red-fleshy necks, and 4 breasts! Unlike other bosses, it's immune to fire. But Lv 1 geyser from High-Int Koudelka is enough to wear this diabolical abomination. As per usual, it gets lot of 'FortifyAgl' from everyone.

 After we activate the permanent savepoint, James looks at the collection book here while mumbling. Edward ask him what he searches for. James replies with "I'm not obliged to tell you" lines. You always know how to make me despite you, James. By the way, Koudelka's pose is like some street thug minus flicking his/her finger.

 Walk through the secret door, we end up in this church with the relief's missing piece on floor. Time to headback!

 Before Koudelka can climb the clock to put the relief's piece, this headless creature intercepts us. You think it's not good idea to shank a creature that has glasses piece all over its body, but Edward doesn't mind about that at all. He is ready to slash and stab anyone/anything in front of him with his rouge-ish knife style. Just look at his stance! He really looks like ready-to-kill rouge/thief/bandit, especially he occasionally twirl/spin his knife which is awesome.

 101spookything # 17: Music box that play itself. Inside the relief is this room. Koudelka has to step the right button to open door over there. The order is: blue, orange (the leftside), red, then yellow (the bottomside). The music box isn't useful anymore so we can discard it. I prefer to throw it away in underground chasm, guys.

 Inside that door is a room with a coffin. With how haunted this place is you can guess: its inhabitant awakes. But he isn't hostile. He is babbling about Emigrant document then he sleeps again. That said document is James's reason in this damned building.

 Then James explain further about Emigrant document. It's manuscript about Druid's ancient magic/alchemy/technique/mambo-jambo to resurrect the dead one. Pffft! That's rubbish. Everyone know that Druids are adept at Natural Magic that involve trees or any forest animal, not life-death alteration. That's Necromancer's department. Get you fact right, Sacnoth!

 Back to the church, we insert any glass pieces to unlock the other door on the church. The pieces are Boss fight's loot and in obvious place. So, you can hardly miss any of them. Unless you're really ignorant or imbecile. Anyway, those Greek letters on glasses are password for locked cabinet in a room that adjacent with a big room with big relief.

 Inside of said cabinet is "Happy Birthday" to Charlotte from her mother. Here comes the question. Do you hate the creepy & cheeky brat that you want to vanquish it with violence means? Or do you forgive her wretched attitude and you don't want to fight her instead give her peaceful solution? If you answer 'Yes' on

• 1st question, don't take the letter!
• 2nd question, take the letter!

Either way, we will get a brooch next time we meet her at her cell. I missed this cabinet on my first playthrough so we got Star Brooch (that boost Agl stats big time) from her vaporized remain. But that's fine by me, as James was really slow back there and i hate her.

Back to venture in church, the bells ring wildly and then there is this enormous orb form in front of the party. What could it be?

 Why of course it's The Gargoyle, the optional boss. His head should be belong to a gremlin or goblin. But compare him to other demonic atrocities that we fought, surprisingly he is normally designed. Even though, he is the most difficult boss in this game.

Spy_taunts11.wav

 Of course, Koudelka must run for her own life especially as her companions have ran before her, leaving her alone with the gargoyle. Thanks, guys! =m=

 And that's the end of Disc 2 also my review.

What can i say about Koudelka? For starter, i dare to say that "Koudelka" is the true spirit successor of Capcom's "Sweet Home" instead of -you know?- Resident Evil. Because "Koudelka" is RPG, same as "Sweet Home" (also the Final boss is female too). Unlike Chris & Jill's game that shifts its genre to shooting action albeit keep the survival horror aspect by limiting ammo, health item, carry capacity, and ink ribbon. Still, "Resident Evil" wins the heart of everyone (except me) because it contains zombie outbreak or what have you. I usually whining about RPG that starts with one-man adventure for quite long time but "Koudelka" doesn't do that so it gets another plus point. That's like shooting game that start you with melee weapon. Oh, wait! Bioshock does that, doesn't it?! The survival horror aspect of "Koudelka" is kind of bias. Sure, your inventory are solely filled by something you find on part of rooms or enemy's drop. It went fine untill we are in Disc 2 and have secured permanent savepoint where we have abundant weapon & ammo to waste. It reminds me of Castlevania: Circle of The Moon (GBA) where has the same method of item gathering and without trading means. Who want to sell stuffs in haunted monastery or Dracula's castle anyway? The lost merchant at Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA)?! I would rather not to talk about that castlevania. Personally i like the battle gameplay which stands perfectly between front-back row field (that can be finished with not paying attention) and complex tactical field (that feels slogging and tedious), which also can differentiate well between short melee's, long melee's, and gun/bow's range. The presentation pretty good. The battle music is creepy yet intense. The hostiles are more grotesque, disgusting, or bland rather than scary except of Valma & Vigna, and the bride mummy. The skill-building-through-repeated-action (a kin to Elder Scroll series) is nice feature. "Koudelka" has many savepoints especially the temporary ones which makes the game's difficulty loosen. Although "Koudelka" is in 4 CDs, its gameplay is no longer than "Resident Evil" (aside of leveling/grinding). Maybe because it contains lots of CGI scene that it packs in more than 1 CD. Though unlike Umbrella's mansion that has reasonable/well-designed locks or such (i.e: Sword-Key doors), Nemeton Monastery doesn't have that. Most of the time, the party's venturing is halted by not triggering certain cutscene. If you want to play the closest thing to sequel of "Sweet Home" on PSX platform, i heartily recommend "Koudelka". As long as you don't mind about the atrociousness of the monster's design. Like in my another article, i finish this article with character's stats analysis. Plus other info about each of them.

First, we got Koudelka Iasant, the main protagonist (clue: game's title). Initially, she has high Intelligence and i don't have reason not to build it further. Thus her main stats Intelligence and at: 5/5. She has skinny arms but strong enough to climb rope and grab ledges. So it's 2/5. I think her class is mixed between mage and rogue (because she wields knife on opening scene), and i like to call it: reaver. She is psychic and religion-skeptic. I recommend you build her as main magic-caster also healer.

 Next is Edward Plunkett. Initially, he has high strength and high luck. He is suitable as warrior-class type which is adept at inflicting physical damage. So his 1st main/primary stats is Strength at: 4/5. Because he doesn't possess big muscles. But he can handle melee weapons and guns though everyone can but Edward is just simply the most suitable one. So his 2nd main/secondary stats is Dexterity at: 3.5/5. Although he is probably seasoned adventurer, he is bit clumsy especially to first monster and couple's poisoning scheme. I recommend you build him as physical damager with big hit points and strong physical defense.

The last but not the least (i hate for) is James O' Flaherty. Initially, he has high piety with decent vitality. Also not carries any weapon! You think it's idiocy that someone who is ill-prepared goes to old building that houses malevolent creatures. And you're right! His assets to venture of said place is God's protection or his status as a -so could- Bishop. I bet even God doesn't like his arrogance and cheeky personality. His high-faith earns him Intelligence as his 1st main/primary stats at: 4/5. Coupled it with ability to wield any weapons, his 2nd main/secondary stats is Dexterity at 3/5. Perseverance goes hand in hand with Dexterity, don't you think?! Initially, he has the lowest agility so it's sensible that his Agility is 0.5/5. I recommend you build James like in-between Edward and Koudelka. But prioritize his role as healer and stats-buff caster then as decent damager.