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.

Koudelka (PSX) - Part 1

In late 90's, Survival-Horror Genre is trend thanks to Capcom with their Resident Evil. Middle-schooler me and High-schooler me didn't taste any of this kind of game except Parasite Eve 2. A couple year ago, i caught another one albeit in RPG sense. It's Koudelka (2000).

I have no idea what picture is exactly that. That circle thing looks like ornamental roundshield as part of concrete wall to me. By the way, Koudelka is name of the first protagonist in case you're thinking really hard what it means. The game is in 4 CDs and i'm gonna review it till the end of 2nd CD. So, let The Sacnoth's Survival Horror RPG begin!

 

The game begin with CGI scene: after knock that gate with no-one's respond, Koudelka bring her horse to the other side of this building.    

 

She has prepared a rope attaching at part of rooftop! Why she bothers knocking first then? To make sure the building is vacant? Then, i suspect she is an empty-building thief. That's no good occupation for RPG's protagonist besides Cloud in FF7 as terrorist.

 

Then she climbs to the top and sounds bit astounded how big this place is. She thinks "Imagine how much fortune i can reap here. I'll be rich, b***h!". You can see how gorgeous or scary this place is, depending on your perspective.

 

Shortly after that, she fell and manage to grab a window's roof. But leaving her equipment free-fall to the ground thus making her inventory to minimum. On the bright side, she can carry more loot on this state.

Inside of that window is a room with badly-wounded blonde guy. He call Koudelka angel for flirty reason, obviously. Little did he know that she is just another thief like himself. He state that he's not dead yet and has something to do while trying to point his gun toward Koudelka. It's "I kill you so we can be in after-life together!" kind of romance, huh?!     

 

Actually, what he point his gun at isn't Koudelka but the monster that attacked him before. I'm bit surprised with how dense Koudelka is. I mean how come you don't feel monster's presence earlier what's with it hissing and growling a much. For her denseness, the monster rewards her with swipe claw that knocked away her. But not before she stab her knife at its solar plexus. The blonde guy shoot at the monster but not slow it down then he throws his revolver at Koudelka and tell her to use it. Thus first battle ensues.    

 

I think you get the idea of the gameplay a bit. Basically, Koudelka's battle phase is like tactical RPG albeit in tight/narrow field to make battle's pace fast. It's akin to Inindo - Way of the Ninja (SNES). As Koudelka is using revolver right now, it's unimportant to move next to the monster. So i choose attack then wait. Rinse and repeat. The monster is significantly less threatening than when in CGI scene. It just move toward Koudelka so short, occasionally buff itself. But it's already dead before reach Koudelka. Maybe some of you will think "Why not using magic? That be cool". At this time, Koudelka has Heal and stats-buff spells so it's pointless for now. But after defeating this monster, she get 'Flare' spell which is fire magic.

 

After that 1st battle, i make Koudelka talks to Edward, the blonde guy. She kind of reluctant to heal the dying guy. But he is 2nd party member also the only way to make progress is to go behind door where Edward leaning to. If he turns corpse, it's troublesome to move him away from the door. So, basically she help herself too.

Here comes the exploring phase! Notice circled 's' symbol on left of area's name! That means you can make temporary save here by pressing circle button at the moment you enter this area. So no need to worry about finding ink ribbons and typewriter, or notepad to save your game here. By the way, Koudelka is steered by actual direction system instead of tank control ones. Good news for those who hate tank control!

After i walk Koudelka a bit, then blurring flash happens. It's random encounter a la Final Fantasy series! Luckily, she and Edward only encounter giant tumila and giant cockroach. Yes, they're disgusting but they're hardly as bad as undead or yōkai. I gave the revolver to Edward while Koudelka resolve the battle with shanking. The revolver is belong to Edward in the beginning, afterall.

After that bug extermination, Koudelka get level up where i can spend 4 stats points into these 8 stats. According to AP Explanation (by pressing R2):

·         Strength (Str) determines a character's physical attack power, including using guns. Sure, why not?!

·         Vitality (Vit) determines a character's physical defend power and maximum Hit Points (HP). So it's really vital (*sic*).

·         Dexterity (Dex) determines a character's physical attack accuracy.

·         Agility (Agl) determines a character's how swift he/she takes his/her turn.

·         Intelligence (Int) determines a character's magical attack power.

·         Piety (Pie) determines a character's magical defend power and maximum Mana/Magic Points (MP). Strangely, not only high piety will makes someone takes less damage from magic, but also take less healing from heal spell. But you can compensate this problem by making high-Int character do the healing magic.

·         Mind (Mnd) determines a character's magical attack accuracy. Healing magic is always accurate, i think.

·         Luck (Luc) determines how lucky a character is. My guess is: it determines how often enemy encounter (as group) and how often/good you get loot from enemies (as individual who lands the killing blow).

I found a Dirk behind boat picture. Do i pick it up? Of course i do. This question protocol here is another Survival-Horror game's specialty. In some of them (including Koudelka & Resident Evil), it's relevant to limited-capacity inventory. While in T.R.A.G/Hard Edge, and Silent Hill that have unlimited-capacity ones, it becomes irrelevant. If i have unlimited item storage in my bag/cloth/etc, i will take everything for sure! In game though. I'm not real-life kleptomaniac, you know!

I found Ogden and Bessy Hartman, the keeper of this Monastery. Mr. & Mrs. Hartman here tells us about monster's appearance lately (Thanks Captains Obvious!). Mrs. Hartman offer the party potato soup. I never taste one in my whole lifetime! Koudelka politely refuse, though. Also Mr. Hartman gives Handgun bullets! Did you think we have unlimited bullet to shoot in this game?! You, silly!

But then Edward got stomachache. Koudelka sensed that potato soup is poisoned, so that's the reason behind her refusal. But don't worry! Soon, Koudelka cures Edward even though there's no poison-removing spell or we don't have antidote yet. She tells him not to rush back to the traitorous couple there as she think it's better for us to fake our death so we can reveal what their secret better. I disagree with her. Why we don't go back to those old couple then squeeze every little bit of facts from them? They're just human. No big deal.

 

Well, shoot! They lock the door now. Well played, there! By the way, how come she know that we need Red Key to unlock this door? Because she's psychic. Or she's really professional thief.

So we go back to the kitchen then encounter 3 baldy-marionette's ghosts or whatever these transparent creature. Apparently, you can slash them with ordinary knife and bleed green splash, here

 

The ghosts drop whiskey! I can imagine Captain Haddock will become a ghostbuster for alcoholic loot, in this monastery. But, what benefit we can have by stocking this alcohol beverage?

Basically, it's Phoenix Down with drunkening effect. Got it! 

 

It's another encounter. But what are these? Are they angels?! I assume so because they're really similar with Bayonetta's enemies. Not only they're serene faces with wings but also susceptible 9 mm bullets. So, yeah! They're angel. Evil ones.

 

I found a sledgehammer. Without hesitation, i rename it to become 'Homewrecker'. Here's another special thing that Koudelka has than any other RPG, you can rename items, equipments, and weapons. Not important key item, though.

Of course something's not right when there's a man lies before you, Koudelka!

Oh, right. A boss fight. Really ugly-looking monster on top that. Because it's in herb garden, it must be plant monster. As you know that plant are weak against fire. So, the strategy to defeat it: use fire. Both fire magic and gunfire work well against this monster. Just, don't forget to reload the gun by using handgun bullet item! After you defeat this atrocious being, you get the water magic 'Geyser'.

 

Actually the man isn't dead yet. He just knocked out cold after attacked by the plant monster. He is James, the irritating priest. Why i call him irritating? Because:

·         At first, he don't believe that Koudelka and Edward save his life (by killing the boss monster).

·         He insists that the despicable couple is purely kind-hearted as fellow pious christian because they treat him good not like when they try to poison Koudelka and Edward.

·         He believes that he's always in God's protection while he ventures this monastery. But he joins the party as precaution measure. Yes, he is smug is, my point.

Then the font is filled with holy water now that the boss monster perishes. It serves as permanent savepoint, which you can save your progress here and fill party's HP and MP! It may sounds cruel to face the boss first then you can save your progress. But you can save in temporary savepoint before this point though you can't refill party's HP and MP by saving with this mean. Also, the boss fight isn't difficult.

Heavy_meleedare05.wav. I make Edward ditch his gun with his very fists to save bullets for tougher fight. Furthermore, his handgun proficiency has leveled up.

 

See that handgun icon on right column! It's level 2 now. When a character's weapon proficiency goes to level 2, he/she unlocks 2-hit attack with related weapon. Though the special attack is executed by chance and i guess Luck stats determine it. So right now, Edward has chance to shoot twice with revolver and that mean he can waste the bullet unnecessarily. You don't increase the weapon proficiency by raking experience from enemies. But, by using it frequently a kin to Elder Scroll series. Everytime a character using weapon, the experience (number besides the level) increase by 40. When it reaches 1000, that related-weapon proficiency is leveling up. Max level is: 3 (it allow you to unlock 3-hit attack, certainly). The same proficiency system goes to spell too. Instead of multi-hit attack, leveling up magic proficiency will allow a character to cast bigger effect magic but with bigger cost. Furthermore, Lvl 2 healing/damaging magic effects 2 adjacent target and Lvl 3 healing/damaging magic effects 3 adjacent target. Now that there's mean to refill party's MP for free, so don't hesitate to spam magic spell!      

 

I suggest you spam stat-buff spells especially 'FortifyAgl' before healing/damaging spell. Because unlike healing/damaging ones, stat-buff magic's effect aren't determined by Int, only by magic proficiency. So, Edward who has the lowest Int can use stat-buff magics as good as anyone else. Why 'FortifyAgl' magic? Because you can lower Boss's Agl thus making it so slow (by casting it to Boss many-many times) that it get barely chance to do anything and your party can do whatever you want moreover most boss is alone. Why, yes! I have completed this game before. So trust me that 'FortifyAgl' at max lvl can make any boss fight easy even Gargoyle, the optional boss! But maybe to use stat-buff spells to lower enemy's stats, you have to consider about caster's Mnd stats.

 

While the party chit-chatting about poetry and religion related stuff that i'm not so understand, few gunshots happen. Luckily, no one gets hurt otherwise i have to do healing again. Edward accuses the couple is culprit of this assassination but James insists that they're not. Seriously, James?! -_-

 

At the end of that corridor i found this locked-by-mysterious-force door. No other way, then?

Nah it's another boss fight. This time against demonic eye. They aren't definitely beholder, though. Beholder is big eyeball demon with round shape unlike these demons. The one blue eye is weak to Fire magic while the red one is weak to water magic. This is not difficult battle unless Koudelka is low on MP and you refuse to use replenishment items like in my case here.

Beside the door become unlocked, i get Rapier, Tabarl, J Ring and wind magic, Tornado. Hooray!

 Down the corridor, a CGI scene is triggered. A white haired girl with white dress appear. Edward  calls and chases her.

 Edward will falls to his death if Koudelka not grab his arm. The girl is obviously a ghost. Have you not learn anything from horror movie, Edward? After she float a bit, she disperse into a wall there. That's as creepy as freak, man!

At the same corridor, i enter a room where this chest lies. I don't know the combination even though i search for clue everywhere when i'm at final part of the game. If you will be so kindly, tell me in comments!

There is a door besides the combination-locked chest that leads to this door and another scene triggered. Koudelka tell her crews that the reason she go here is because she hear plead of one-specific female spirit's voice (i insist that plundering fortune here is her second objective :P). So, she try to be spirit's median hoping she can contact with her "client". You can guess that's terrible idea what with so many tortured spirits loitering around here. Eventually, a mean evil spirit possess her but soon she can ejects it. There's a closet here. When i open it...  

BOOO! Even though this is the 2nd time i open this goddamn closet, i get jump scared. Hope you too because i'm douchebag. Then it's another boss battle.

The mummy is less scary than before especially when James hit her with club that looks like the one which wield by cavemen. From many RPG or any fantasy medieval media that i consume, I know that Priests or clerics are supposed to wield blunt weapon, right?! Moreover, the club can inflict poison status. So it's worthy to use. All she does are casting magic instead of choking you or any other creepy mean of attack. Also she is vulnerable to wind magic. After she is finished, you got earth magic, Megalith. That's mean we got all element magic in this game! Now the cabinet's "occupant" is gone, you can get rope ladder inside of it. The rope ladder is used on the end of corridor where Edward almost fall off. Onward!   

 Everyone can use any weapon. But you have to mind about wearing certain weapon will affect stats on wearer (the weapon proficiency comes later!) just like other equipment (cloth & accessory). For example, Edward here wields dark rapier and when change to Air Tabar, his Dex & Agl will go down while Str & Vit will go up. Other things that you have to consider about the arsenal: the element of weapon and its durability. Light weapon is totally scrap to me because it will heals enemy (other than zombies and zombie dog) instead of damaging them. There is no durability status on melee weapon unlike Dark Soul, so you kind of have to guess whether the melee weapon that you currently wield is used often or not. If yes than prepare to have spare of it (especially with the same category). To summarize the combatfare: magic use MP which can be replenished by items or in permanent savepoints, ranged weapons use ammo, and melee weapons can/will break according to how many time they are used. It's kind of unfair for RPG. But i think this is the survival aspect of this game, right?! You can also see that i invest too many points on Edward's piety hoping he can cast magic more which is very stupid decision (should put them to Vit, instead). But investing on Edward's Luck seems good decision to increase chance of gaining loot.

"Something's not right" said Koudelka. I wonder what is that?

  Of course, it another boss battle. Duh! This time the party fight against their ghastly doppelgangers which are in green tone and leg-less. Early clone battle also occurs in Castlevania: Symphony of The Night. So, i'm not surprised. Anyway they got wiped pretty easy thanks to Koudelka's Lvl 2 Flare.

 See that big damage! Also thanks to fake Edward's and fake Koudelka's position, they receive such big fiery under their butts. But fake James is the sensible ones, he separates from the other and able to cast healing magic on himself. (*slow clap*)

 After that clone battle, we get items and 'revive' spell. Also another permanent savepoint! So far so good. Let's go to that door!

 But first, other cutscene! The party talk about dead bodies around this part, some are old and other are fresh. The fresh ones most likely the evil pair's successful "deed". Then James (once again) denies that and states that victims deserve to die because they're thieves and liars likes Koudelka and Edward. See the reason why i really hate this priest, reader! Oh, what's that, James? You're Bishop? Well freak you anyway! You aren't supposed to disrespect the dead unless you have through zombie apocalypse or necromorph catastrophe, Mr Holy Jerk!

 Behind that door is a room where our heroes fall because floor is crumbling. Oh, Joy!

 And that's the end of Disc 1 also my first part of my review. You can read the second part later. In the mean time, stay away from old buildings! Unless you want some unlucky adventure like Koudelka and Co. have.