Sudeki

Sudeki is an original action RPG from 2004, created by British studio Climax Studios and published by Microsoft as one of the few new franchises for Xbox not derived from an existing property. The game takes place in the colorful, fairy-tale world of Sudeki, split into a Day and Night realm, where the player alternately controls a quartet of heroes with different combat styles - from fast close-quarters combat through bow-fighting to devastating magic - with the ability to switch between characters at any time depending on the current situation in battle.

The combat system combined fluid real-time action with elements that let players chain combos and special abilities; for ranged characters, the camera additionally switched to a first-person view, and combat momentarily turned into a shooter with manual aiming at enemy weak points. Experience was distributed across individual skills, letting the player gradually shape each character according to their own play style. The narrative built on a classic fantasy story of family betrayal, the unification of warring realms, and a search for one's own identity, accompanied by extensive voice acting and cinematic cutscenes.

Critics particularly praised the distinctive art style inspired by Japanese animation, the elaborate combat system, and the variety of playable characters, though the story and technical execution of some parts of the world felt uneven. Sudeki never received a sequel or major commercial success, yet it is remembered today as one of the bolder attempts by a European studio to create an original RPG tailor-made for Xbox at a time when the genre was dominated by major franchises like Fable and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The contrast between the radiant Day realm and the dark Night realm was among the game's most striking artistic ideas, meant to set it apart from rival fantasy RPGs.