Considering Buying?

Sudeki, when on sale, isn't a bad value for your money. When I was writing my review of the game, I felt constrained by the character limit, and a lot of what I had to say about the game was left by the wayside.

Most of the reviews have a bloated star rating. Sudeki isn't a bad game, but it does quite a few things in an odd manner, and most of what it does do is some weird hybrid that leaves no one happy. One review mentioned this in regard to the game's art style: It apes manga and anime characters, but doesn't really feel like a genuine representation of that style, and combined with the pretty lackluster animations, can be off-putting.

A better example of this is seen in the game's combat. Half of the characters use an action RPG hack-n-slash "combo" melee style, and the other half are basically running around the small enclosed combat areas FPS style. Interspersed with this is the special abilities the characters have (all of which are unique to that character). There's a Quick menu (Space or Y) you can open when in combat to select your abilities or use healing items, and while the menu is open, time slows down.

The melee combo system for the combat is pretty basic. You alternate two buttons to do a three button combo (those buttons are Mouse 1 and 2, or A and X on the Xbox 360 controller - which works perfectly with Sudeki). However, you have to time these button presses, you can't mash them.

If the combat for Sudeki doesn't sound appealing, be warned: There's a lot of it.

For the most part, the rest of the game is doing various quests and side quests, solving really simple puzzles using character specific abilities, and traveling to the next cut scene. The game isn't linear per se, but the game really only has a few branching paths that lead to the same locations. You could consider the Realm of Shadows as a hub of sorts, since it links most places via portals about 3/4 through the game.

Resting can only be done at specific places in the game, and recovery items are capped at pretty low numbers, so you won't be running around with 99 Health Ointments. The most I've seen of any one recovery was 15, and higher power items are capped at lower numbers (for example, you can only carry 5 Green Panacea's, which are necessary for curing the Poison status effect).

During my playthrough of Sudeki, the game CTD'd three times. If you do ultimately get the game, save often.

One final note, this game has anthromorph (furry) characters and NPCs. It's not terribly in your face, but it's there, and if you have an intolerance for that sort of thing, you might want to skip this.

So, you saw this Sudeki game on sale, and you bought it. What now?

Well, discussing the game's mechanics sounds like a good place to start. Each character begins with an amount of the following stats:

HP, Skill, Power and Essence.

HP is self-explanatory for RPG fans, but in case you aren't familiar with the term, it determines the amount of points in your health bar, and every time you take damage from an enemy it depletes this number. The melee characters need more hit points than the ranged characters since they'll be mixing it up with the enemies.

Skill determines your Skill Power Points. Skill Powers use up an amount of points that varies between abilities. Abilities include Ailish's Healing Kiss (which is very useful) and Tal's Iron Warrior (which reduces damage received by 70%!). In general, the ranged characters require more of this than the melee characters, but since everyone in Sudeki has abilities I find pretty darn useful, it's a good idea to make sure they can cast your favorite abilities several times before needing to use SP recovering items or resting. You can think of it as Mana, if you wish.

Power determines a character's base damage with weapons only. This stat is essential for the two melee characters. Raise it as often as possible. For the ranged characters, it's less important for Ailish (the healer), and slightly more important for Elco.

Essence is extremely important for Ailish, and slightly less important for Elco, and much less important for Tal and Buki (but that doesn't mean you should neglect it for them!). The reason Essence is important is because it is the stat that determines your Skill ability damage and Skill ability duration. Tal, as I mentioned has the Iron Warrior ability. Tal's Essence score will determine how long that sweet 70% damage reduction will last in combat. So, in general it's a good idea to invest some points in this. For Ailish, this and Skill should be her primary stats, unless you want a weak ranged character with no helpful abilities.

When a character levels up, you get 1 or 2 advancement points which you can then spend to increase the character's stats. When you increase a stat, they increase by their base amount. So, it works out kind of like this:

Base+(Base*advancement points spent)

Because each character has different starting stats, they increase at different rates. Tal has 500 base HP. Ailish has 300. You can see how Ailish does not have the same potential HP as Tal. Moreover, stats are capped at 10 advancement points.

The Characters

You begin the game as Tal, the ostensible main character. He's a melee character, so you'll just have to get used to using him for a while. If you enjoy the combat, then this won't be a problem, but I personally don't like the melee combo fighting system Sudeki uses, since it reminds me of Phantasy Star Online, but isn't quite the same, and I end up messing things up.

Tal has one party buff, Iron Warrior (70% damage reduction, as mentioned previously), and his other Skill abilities are damage dealing. Geyser Charge is particularly useful, so you should pick that up when possible. Blade Dance is also helpful (though honestly, Tal doesn't have any useless abilities). Essence determines the duration of Iron Warrior, and the damage of the other abilities.

Later you'll get Ailish in your party. Despite the fact that I'm not taken with Ailish as a character, I controlled her more often than not in my playthrough because she has the healing spells, controls like an FPS character, and has fewer HP than everyone else (and I'm much better at avoiding damage than the computer is. Babysitting AI Ailish is a pain). Ailish has Healing Kiss, which heals an amount of HP based on her Essence stat. Further cementing Ailish's usefulness is the Shadow Nexus ability, which revives fallen comrades and restores some HP (again determined by Essence). Finally, Ailish has a party buff that hastes the entire party, increasing both movement and attack rates called Gaze of the Wind. The duration is determined by Essence. Ailish's other three abilities are damage oriented. Blaze Ball fires a ball of flame in a straight line. Celestial Circle is a burst centered on Ailish, and Permaforce is a burst centered on Ailish that temporarily freezes foes. Damage is determined by Essence. I'm betting you can see why I play her more often than not.

You'll get to use Elco and Buki after Ailish. Elco is also ranged, and he has one exceptionally amazing party buff: Nano-Enhancement (it's magitek, roll with it). This buff DOUBLES the entire party's damage, and since critical hits are also double damage, critical hits end up being QUADRUPLED. If you use Elco for nothing else, it'll still be worth it. Essence determines the duration. Elco's second party buff is Tesla Shield, which cures the party of all status effects, and reverses them! Poison becomes Regeneration, Slow becomes Haste, etc. It's very useful, but also situational. My party was rocking immunity to status effects thanks to runes (which I'll discuss below), so I didn't use it very much, but you may find it more to your liking. Toxic Cloud poisons enemies (and don't underestimate the power of this. I was able to take on more powerful enemies thanks to poison effects from this and some weapons which come with it). His other two abilities are more direct damage types. I never used Trick Shot, but Plasmatica was helpful. Essence determines damage for Toxic Cloud, Trick Shot, and Plasmatica.

Finally, we can talk about Buki. Buki is a crazy powerful character, and I like her enough that I wouldn't have minded an entire game with just her. Call me a pig if you like, I won't deny it, but another perk of having Buki around is that posterior. Damn. Anyway, Buki's abilities are straight up insane. Spirit Wind is a party buff granting regeneration (Essence determines duration), Path of the Warrior allows Buki to enter what amounts to bullet time, slowing everyone else down (Again, Essence determines the duration), Asilas the Wolf summons a spiritual wolf to help out in the fight. Clawed Frenzy, Storm Kick, and Dragonfire are all damage dealing abilities. Buki is a powerhouse. Shame about the furry connection though. For Buki, focus on Power, and HP, but don't neglect Essence and Skill. You want to get a decent number of uses out of Spirit Wind at the very least, since combined with Iron Warrior you basically can't die. Essence will help with the duration, meaning you won't have to reuse it in the middle of a fight.

One final note on characters: In the Quick menu (Space or Y) is a setting for party AI. I recommend setting Tal and Buki to Attack, and Elco and Ailish to either Defend or Retreat. Attack is just what it sounds like. Defend means that the AI will attack any creatures that are threatening (chasing, trying to attack) the character you are currently playing as. Retreat causes the character to avoid standing still and letting the enemy wail on them, but they will still attack.

Play whomever you like, but be mindful of the AI settings. The less babysitting you have to do, the better.

A Word on Runes

Runes are very important. I think part of the reason I hated this otherwise mostly enjoyable game (not good, or great. Enjoyable) is that when I played it on the Xbox I went straight for damage, and ignored things like the armor runes and the critical hit runes. After playing it again in the last few days, I've realized that what I did before was not only exceptionally foolish, it actually hurt my enjoyment of the game. This is compounded by the fact that Sudeki is very transparent about what everything does, unlike Dragon Age: Origins, which actually has a mod that explains what abilities actually do! (Don't believe me? Check this out: http://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/248)

Basically, there are two types of runes: Basic, and Advanced. Every weapon has slots for runes. They are square or round. Square runes are the basic runes, and can be purchased at the beginning of the game. The round runes are advanced runes, and you can only unlock them by defeating bosses. Not every weapon can use round runes, and some weapons have round runes that cannot be changed (poison and slow usually - Elco has a weapon that curses foes, which means they take more damage).

Personally, I think that for the early part of the game, the Bat (10% life steal) rune will come in handy. Later on, it's probably better to use the Vampire (20%) rune and the Jagged Edge runes (+10% critical hit) to get the later weapons to approach 50% critical hit rate. You'll end up doing a fair amount of damage that way (especially stacked with Nano-Enhancement) and you'll stay healthy to boot, meaning HP recovery items won't be a big deal.

A Final Note, and a Walkthrough Recommendation

Sudeki has "ultimate" weapons for the characters that you have to unlock by searching for totems and taking them to the correct shrine. Buki, for example, needs the Cat Totems, and those need to be taken to the Shrine of Mo to unlock her ultimate weapon. Tal needs the Wolf Totems, and those are taken to the Shrine of Kalistan. Elco's is the last one you can unlock, and it takes a while. He's also the last one to get upgraded armor.

The weapons have much higher stats than anything you've gotten before, and they usually have 2-3 advanced rune slots, making them a step up from anything else. Still, in some cases, it might be better to equip Elco with something that does Slow or Curse, and Buki to equip a poison weapon. Status effects can really change how a fight plays out. What doesn't change is the need for health. Though there are SP stealing runes, they only steal 1-2% on hit, and in my mind, are hardly worth it.

Back to armor. At certain arbitrary points in the game, the characters will get upgraded armor. They start with one rune slot, and eventually will get up to three. Personally, I used the runes that convey immunity to status effects, since I heavily dislike them, but near the end of the game it might be best to switch out for the "buffing" runes. They basically grant double damage, half damage received, and regeneration for the first minute of combat. They are particularly useful for Tal at the very end of the game, as he will fight the final boss alone.

In addition, there are Orbs that can be found around the game world, gained when you turn in Totems, and obtained through quests. The Orbs add a permanent boost to your stats and can make a character more powerful than their advancement points and level would normally allow. While you can split them between party members, it is my recommendation that you don't. With life-stealing runes and abilities like Iron Warrior, Gaze of the Wind, Nano-Enhancement, and Spirit Wind you should have no problem making it through the game. Save the Orbs for Tal. He has to face the final boss by himself, and the more powerful Tal is, the less frustrating this will be. You don't have to take that recommendation, but if you get all the way to the end of the game and are having a hard time, just remember that I did warn you.

Lastly, this walkthrough is well written, concise, and can answer any questions you have in more depth. I highly recommend it: http://www.gamefaqs.com/xbox/562275-sudeki/faqs/35248

Addendum - Getting the Ultimate Weapons

If you're following the walkthrough, you should end up getting all of the totems. There are sixteen total. Four for each of the four characters. I recommend hanging on to the totems rather than turning them in when you get them. Once you have all sixteen (4 Wolf Totems, 4 Eagle Totems, 4 Cat Totems, and 4 Dragon Totems), you should then and only then turn them in. The earliest that I believe you can reasonably do this is during the trip to Transcentia, though you have to wait until you finish the Omnium Collector quest, and may have to wait until after defeating Krenn. Once you have, heed the good Doctor's advice, and don't talk to him at the portal. Instead, travel to the shrines, collect the Orbs and ultimate weapons, spend the Orbs on Tal, and upgrade the weapons.

For Tal's Rune Blade, I recommend the Vampire rune and two Jagged Edge runes. Set up the other characters in a similar manner. However, I'm no "expert" where Sudeki is concerned, so try some experimentation if you have the florins and see if different setups work better for your play style.