Sudeki

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/rpg/sudeki/review.html

The world of Sudeki is actually two. The lands were rent--light from shadow--long ago, when a dark god decided that he'd rather not share with his kindhearted brother. The light god, Tetsu, appealed to the peoples of the world for aid, and four legendary heroes rose to strike down the evil deity, Heigou, to restore peace to Sudeki. That was several hundred years past, and since all ancient evil is unionized and contract-bound to rise again, you can bet that Heigou's resurgence draws near. This is where you come in. You'll take control of the swordsman, Tal; the sorceress, Ailish; the beast-woman, Buki; and the gun-toting scientist named Elco to fight and protect the land of Haskilia from invasion--so that you can ultimately save the world of Sudeki. Unfortunately, along with crowds of evil creatures, you'll have to contend with an often-cumbersome battle system and some odd design choices that rob much of the adventure of its luster.



Sudeki represents the epic battle between light and dark, good and evil, the X and A buttons...
You'll start off just controlling Tal, though the game picks up speed fairly quickly, so you'll meet your three other companions in short order. In your journeys, you'll move through a lot of towns, dungeons, and countryside, and you'll meet a variety of fully voiced non-player characters who will chat with you, offer clues, and sometimes give you side quests. You'll also meet a large number of crates, barrels, vases, and other such breakables (which dot the landscape) that often hide useful items. As a result, you'll reflexively start kicking open everything you see while you roam. To get through difficult areas to solve the many simple puzzles you'll encounter as you go, each character has a unique special ability to use. Tal, the soldier, possesses a surfeit of strength. As a result, he's good for dragging large objects, like boxes or statues, to where you need them. Ailish, as a spellcaster, can dispel magic that would otherwise block secret passages or hide valuable treasure chests. Buki can use her hand weapons to climb certain kinds of walls (much like another Catwoman who's currently prowling the scene, but Buki doesn't have her own movie). And, finally, Elco comes equipped with a rocket pack on his back that you can charge via a special kind of crystal. Once it's been charged, Elco can use the rocket pack to reach otherwise inaccessible objects and areas. The game generally leads you by the nose when a special ability is required, so you won't spend much time figuring out how to handle puzzles.

Combat pits your fighters against monsters in often-tight areas that present opportunities for 3D, real-time, button-mashing frenzies. Tal and Buki are melee fighters, so they typically engage their foes up close with swords and claws. You'll control their moves from a third-person perspective. Pressing the X button will cause them to perform horizontal slash attacks, while pressing A will cause vertical, uppercut attacks. The B button is a roundhouse move that can clear out a pack of enemies around you. You can hit various three-button combinations of the X and A buttons to pull off slightly different attacks, including a couple of extended combos that let you "juggle" your enemy with successive strikes. Ailish and Elco are ranged fighters. Ailish uses a selection of magic staves, and Elco uses an assortment of energy guns. When you switch to one of these characters, the view changes to first-person mode while you run and gun. Different weapons have different rates of fire, and by pressing the X button, you can cycle through the various weapons that Ailish or Elco happen to possess so that you can select one that is more appropriate for the situation. The black and white buttons on the controller let you switch the character you are directing while on the fly. You can have all four characters in battle at once, though the other three will act according to the artificial intelligence you have set. There are only three AI settings--attack, defend, and retreat (and retreating, naturally, causes the character to avoid battle).



Kill bats. Kill robots. Kill everything!
Characters can also use something called skill points to pull off various special moves called skill strikes. Many skill strikes are devastating attack moves, though there are also skill strikes that boost the party's defenses, increase its ability to dole out damage, heal damage sustained by the party, and so on. At certain points in the game, you'll encounter the light god, Tetsu, who bestows upon individual characters abilities called spirit strikes. Spirit strikes use a separate meter (the spirit strike point meter), and they invoke the power of one of the four legendary heroes who saved the world so long ago.

Overall Rating: 6.5