The unapologetic audacity of the dialogue and voice acting needs to be heard to be believed. It’s like you almost want to see how Japanese a British developed RPG could possibly be. In fact, it’s this cringe factor alone that makes the game worth the small price of admission it demands today. Sudeki’s art, story, and characters are such a blatant and poor imitation of Japanese RPG norms that you are almost guaranteed to cringe. It's a game that hasn't aged too well by today’s gaming and RPG standards, but for what it’s worth, you’ll at least experience a rather unique RPG that tried its hardest to be something it wasn't. The end result was Sudeki, a game that was deemed to be average at best when it was first taken apart by critics back in the day. To solve this pressing issue, Microsoft Game Studios along with a British studio by the name of Climax Group, decided to join forces and fill the glaring void with the most-Japanese RPG they could possibly create, without actually enlisting a studio from the native territory. The PlayStation 2 was housing all big name AAA JRPG releases: Final Fantasy, XenoSaga, Dragon Quest, Suikoden, and several niche cult titles by Atlus and Nippon Ichi. The Xbox had next to nothing save for a few obscure flop releases that never really left Japan. Apart from SEGA and Team Ninja/Tecmo, the Xbox got little to no love from Japanese developers. People like to complain about the limited Japanese support that the Xbox 360 received in the last generation, but I’m guessing they forgot how completely non-existent it was when Microsoft first entered the console wars with the original Xbox. Then you have something like Sudeki, which was a rather unusual title released for the original Xbox back in 2004. The indie developed Pier Solar is probably one of the better examples of a solid Japanese-style RPG developed by team with little to no Japanese staff. What happens when non-Japanese game developers attempt to create a Japanese-style role playing game? One with all the tropes, anime aesthetics, and presentation values typical of a Nipponese video game? Well… it’s a bit of a hit or miss affair really. Guilty pleasures are a blast - so long as no one’s watching. How many times have you bought a game and told yourself that if it’s terrible, it was only five bucks? This brings us to the “Bargain Bin” realm of gaming, a second glance at games far enough down that they don’t see light. Some games aren't worth the $60 release price.

Sudeki walkthough