An exclusive RPG landed on the original Xbox when Sudeki was released in 2004. The action-focused fantasy was developed by Climax Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Four heroes must transverse through different realms and unite together to defeat the God of Darkness, Haigou. Let’s put our magical staffs together and unite some realms in the Sudeki review.
Sudeki Plot:
Sudeki is the name of a land in a fantasy world that has been torn apart by two Gods. Tetsu was the original God but grew lonely ruling the land by himself so he created a twin to keep him company. This twin named Haigou began to rule a land called Akloria. Soon, the twins began to fight and Haigou overthrew his brother sending the separate realms into chaos. Tetsu is able to banish Haigou with the help of four warriors who work together to defeat Haigou and return the lands to normalcy.
A thousand years pass and all is well in the land of Sudeki or so it seems. The two realms of the light world called Haskillia, and the dark work called Akloria exist in mostly peace until Akloria warriors begin to appear from the sky and attack cities. The Queen of Haskillia instructs her staff to build a mega-defense that includes a giant shield that will protect her kingdom. This is where the story of Sudeki picks up.
There are four main characters from Sudeki each. Tal is the swordsmen, a soldier in the Queen’s army whose father is the commander. He lost a brother to the Akoloria while out on patrol and his father blames him for the loss of his brother. Tal is unoriginal and a bit bland for my taste.
Ailish is the princess and daughter of the Queen of Haskillia. She seems a bit dimwitted but has good magical powers and an even better body. It’s clear that the designers of Sudeki wanted their female characters to “pop” in all the right places. Ailish is your typical support character for healing and uses her magical staff. Ailish and Tal have some weird and very awkward tension between each other. It’s the type of flirting and weird interactions that you’d find between middle schoolers, well middle schoolers pre-2010. I think now, most middle schoolers are giving blowies and having circle jerks but in the innocent days, Tal and Ailish would be right at home in awkward flirtations.
Elco is the science geek. He has an array of gadgets and does battle with a gun. He uses facts and reason to calculate his life’s work which working for the Queen. He’s one of the lead designers for the mega-crystal shield and has dedicated his life to completing it. His arm was mangled in some failed experiment so he has a robotic arm as a replacement.
If Elco is the scientist, Buki is the spiritualist. She lives her life by trusting in her God. I don’t think she is fully human either, throughout Sudeki there are many humanoid-animal creatures. Buki seems to have some characteristics of cats including pointed ears and stripes. It comes as no surprise that her weapon is large metal claws that she wears. Like Ailish, Buki does her squats. She and Elco bicker as they have opposite beliefs but she seems to be polite about it as opposed to Elco who is snobby. Buki is a solid fighter too, she’s both quick and powerful.
These four heroes travel together throughout Sudeki finding crystals in various places to help build the wall. Tal sets out to get away from his abusive father, Ailish is tired of being cooped up in the castle, Elco is instructed by the Queen to find crystals, and Buki is a guest who realizes her people will die too if nothing is done. As the four are out battling enemies and collecting crystals, the Queen of Haskillia concedes to her personal bodyguard that she is gathering the crystals not to build a barrier but to revive the dark God Haigou in hopes of him turning her immortal and ruling the land together.
The four warriors travel between realms to reclaim crystals but discover that the dark realm hasn’t been attacking them under orders. Something in Haskillia is driving the Aklorians mad and causing them to attack Haskillia. While in the dark realm, Tal, Ailish, Elco, and Buki meet their dark versions as the two realms are identical including the people that inhabit it. They decide to work together to figure out what’s going on except Elco who steals the last crystal and takes it to the Queen.
Realizing he made a terrible mistake after giving the Queen the crystal, Elco buys time by sabotaging the machine. He travels back to the dark realm and meets up with the others. In a ritual, they combine themselves to form their true being. The Queen’s personal bodyguard shows up and throws a decapitated Queen at their feet and challenges Tal. In a one-on-one fight, Tal weakens Haigou as the other three chant magic spells at him killing him once and for all. With the crystals gone, and Haigou dead, the two realms reunite into Sudeki once again.
Sudeki Gameplay:
Sudeki has not aged well. Graphics certainly don’t make a game but by the standards of 2004, the 3D character models look cringy. It reminded me of the poor CGI characters in late 90s commercials. What’s even worse is the terrible writing and voice acting. I’m not talented in the voice acting department but these are one of the times that I think to myself “who the hell listened to these actors and gave them the green light?”
Do you know who Tommy Wiseau is? He’s the director and actor in the cult film “The Room”. His accent is a mystery and no one really knows where the hell this guy is from. Every character from Sudeki seems to be voiced by Tommy Wiseau. Not only do you not recognize any accents but they purposely are exaggerated. In reality, it makes all the characters come off as stupid, not only in design but in intelligence. I know I’m starting off this review tearing Sudeki apart but these are sores in a game that has potential.
Where Sudeki does soar is the actual gameplay and that’s why my Sudeki review score won’t be as terrible as you might think. It’s a fun and challenging game to some degree. As an action-RPG, you’ll hack and shoot plenty of enemies while you raise your stats as you level up. You’ll be able to control each character. They all have their strengths and unique abilities. Tal can pull heavy boxes, Buki can climb certain structures, Ailish can unveil items hidden by magic, and Elco can use his jet pack to fly to other areas. If I had to rank my favorite characters to play as I’d say Buki, Elco, Tal, and then Ailish in that order. As I mentioned, Buki is quick and powerful making her ideal to battle with.
During the story, there will be times where the characters are separated and you’ll control only two of them or sometimes just one. Each character will also encounter a boss that they will have to fight on their own. I liked this idea and all bosses were challenging to a degree. I died a few times during Sudeki but never twice in the same area.
To heal in the game you can use magic or items. There aren’t many areas in the game that will fully heal you and only one outside of towns. I wish they would have incorporated a “camp” feature where there were areas in the wilderness to fully heal your party. Depending on the character you’re playing with your view will change. With Tal or Buki you’ll be in third-person while fighting. Inputting buttons promptly will result in higher damaging attacks but after I learned that enemies can cancel these by attacking you during the animation, I quickly just started to mash buttons. It’s quicker but sloppy. You also have a shield and roll button but I never used them.
The most powerful attacks come when you have enough magic points to pull them off. These attacks cause large amounts of damage and can alter stats or inflict negative elements on enemies. It wasn’t until I was almost finished with the game that I discovered the spirit attack which you can pull off after filling a meter. This mega attack wrecks almost every opponent besides bosses but takes a good chunk out of them. Speaking of bosses, the final one wasn’t difficult. I beat him on my first try and didn’t struggle. With enough magic attacks, I defeated him within five minutes. The ending of Sudeki is quite stupid as the screen just cuts to credits with no mention of the characters or what happened to the land of Sudeki.
There are some fun moments from Sudeki. The characters may be voiced poorly and the writing atrocious but it results in hilarious situations. When the party enters a cave full of mermaid drawings the girls reference the boobs on her and the guys ogle the painting. Another moment of laughter was when Tal and Ailish finally kiss and it looks like his kiss kills her as she immediately droops her arm like a lifeless corpse.
I wonder if there are multiple endings to this game. Near the end when you take control of Elco you have the option to steal the crystal or do nothing. I chose to not steal it but I’m not sure if that decision changes anything. Sudeki isn’t special, but when you turn the cut scenes into laughter and just go along with the dialogue, there’s fun to be had with the battles.
Memories:
In the Summer of 2020, I started to collect video games. Not out of boredom but just because my passion grew suddenly. I’d visit a few stores including a place called Disc Traders. They had Sudeki out CIB for $8. I had never heard or seen of this game before but I saw the huge tits on Ailish and thought that it would be a game that I would enjoy.
It sat in my collection for over a year before I popped it in and played it through my Sudeki review.
Sudeki Review Score:
Sudeki is a game that isn’t special. It’s not terrible either. Nothing about it stands out and besides the terrible voice acting and writing, the game features good gameplay. If you want another RPG that will kill a weekend or a game that you can sink your teeth into without much effort, Sudeki is great for that. Nothing about Sudeki is innovative or special and that’s okay, not every game needs to be. It is what it is, and that’s an average RPG that many have probably forgotten. Gameplay and puzzle-solving are entertaining. If the voice acting was better, it might reach the low 8s. Too bad.
Sudeki scores a 7.4 out of 10.
What would you write in your Sudeki review? Who was your favorite character to play as and did you cringe at the voice acting too? What other forgotten RPGs are out there? Let me know your thoughts, I’d love to read them. If you’d like to own a used copy of Sudeki for the Xbox you can purchase a used copy of it on eBay for $15.
Tiger Chainsaw 