Welcome to the Dark Side
Thanks to the Xbox® and its ability to deliver stunning visuals, today’s players can glory in RPGs that blaze to life with colors so rich and textures so deep that the games all but leap from the screen. Sudeki™ takes full advantage of this technology, showing players the vibrant nation of Haskilia and its beautiful capital, Illumina Castle. This city of soaring spires and brilliant lights is home base for our heroes—Tal, Ailish, Buki, and Elco—who struggle to discover the source of the violent evil that’s seeping into Haskilia, robbing their home of its peace and tranquility.
The answers to this mystery remain elusive until the conclusion of a difficult mission in the mechanized city of Transentia. The heroes find themselves transported to another world, literally—a bleak, foreboding location that demonstrates how the Xbox® graphics engine can feature eerie darkness just as well as wholesome light.
Crystal Reef? More like “Pitch Black Really Scary Reef.”
Toto, I Don’t Think We’re in Haskilia Any More …
As the crackling portal energy dissipates, our heroes are treated to a panoramic view of Crystal Reef, a collection of weather-beaten dwellings hugging a stark, rocky coastline. From their high vantage point near a beacon that resembles a crude lighthouse, Tal and company have a clear view of the area, and it’s immediately apparent that something’s not quite right here. Maybe it’s the fact that there’s no sign of life—not a single person or animal is visible. Or possibly it’s the boiling mass of black storm clouds that looms offshore, neither advancing nor retreating as it spits jagged forks of lightning at the dark surface of the sea. Or it might be the abandoned, ravaged condition of the buildings: The smashed windows and boarded-up doors suggest some kind of terrible invasion, not unlike the attacks which devastated villages back home.
But this place has none of the vibrant color of home. The blood of innocents stains the ground here, too, but it’s dried and black. All around, the trees are leafless and the grass is dead or dying. The palette of grays, browns, and midnight black gives everything a stark, nightmarish, and lifeless atmosphere. The sense of desolation is so complete that you can practically feel the chilly ocean wind turning your arms to gooseflesh. The overall effect is disturbing and disquieting … and yet eerily familiar! There’s a weird resemblance that grows with each passing moment between Crystal Reef and a certain seaside area the heroes know well. Could this be the parallel world hinted at in earlier adventures?
About what you’d expect from an area called “Devil’s Belch.”
Is Anybody Home?
A translucent figure floats through the air just inches from Tal’s head! Turning quickly to look, he catches only a fleeting glimpse as it flits away. Moments later another appears, this one hovering in mid-air between Buki and Ailish before disappearing. More appear, circling curiously about the heroes and darting to and fro, as if trying to convey some arcane message. What are these ghostly apparitions? Are they even real?
Crossing the river—a glossy black ribbon cutting through the forlorn landscape—, Tal and company make their way to the heart of town where, after an exhaustive search, the companions discover a familiar face: Kamo, the mercantile-minded waterfowl! Apparently even this strange and distant realm isn’t quite far-flung enough to escape his commercial empire. The entrepreneurial duck confirms that the heroes have arrived in Akloria—the home of the enemy forces now invading Haskilia! He sums up his thoughts about the place succinctly: “Dark, cold, wet, but thankfully almost child-free!”
Yes, you really do have to go in there.
Deeper Into Darkness
Kamo isn’t the only surviving inhabitant of Crystal Reef: An enigmatic priest guards something precious at the church, a lone fisherman maintains a vigil at the docks, and the strangely jovial Lord Mewsley presides over all from his hilltop manor. Each new acquaintance imparts a little more information about the current state of affairs, and soon the heroes discover that their original quest has expanded beyond what they could have imagined, and that their exploration of this dark new world is only just beginning.
Where in this dark half of Sudeki’s world will our heroes find themselves next? You’ll have to do your own dark digging to find out.
By Jason Carl
