123-704: Koudelka ( Japanese : クーデルカ , Hepburn : Kūderuka ) is a role-playing video game developed by Sacnoth for the PlayStation . The game was published by SNK in Japan in 1999, and by Infogrames internationally in 2000. Set in the haunted Nemeton Monastery in Wales , the plot follows protagonists Koudelka Iasant, Edward Plunkett and Bishop James O'Flaherty as they uncover Nemeton's secrets and confront monsters created from its dark past. Its gameplay blends exploration and puzzle elements with turn-based battles waged on
246-549: A larger composition by Maurice Duruflé —was performed by the London Oratory School . A CD soundtrack album was released in December 1999 by Pony Canyon and Scitron Digital Contents , with over an hour of music and 34 tracks. The album, which included all tracks from the game and live versions of three battle themes (arranged by Naoya Akimoto), received generally-positive reviews from music critics. Its music
369-467: A "pure artist" that creates art for art's sake, Kikuta says that his primary goal in composing is to entertain the listeners. He has not been influenced by other video game composers, though he claims to admire Hitoshi Sakimoto , whom he worked with at Square. He has named Pink Floyd as his single biggest musical influence, and guitarist Allan Holdsworth as the artist he would most like to collaborate with. Kikuta stated that his favorite song he composed
492-637: A benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action. Japanese "pronouns" also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one does not say in English: The amazed he ran down
615-569: A composer. After being rejected by his first choice, Nihon Falcom , he applied to Square without expecting to be hired, as they had many applicants for the job and he had never played any of the company's games. At the interview, however, Nobuo Uematsu was attracted to their shared love of progressive rock , and he was chosen over 100 other applicants. He started off debugging Final Fantasy IV and creating sound effects for Romancing SaGa , as there were not enough game projects in development to open up new jobs for Square's new hires, but Kikuta
738-407: A composer. Searching for a way to expand his role, Kikuta was introduced to the chairman of SNK ; during their talk, he outlined many perceived pitfalls in the role-playing genre. Leaving Square, he formed Sacnoth in 1997 with other Square employees and SNK's funding. As Sacnoth's CEO and the game's main creative lead, Kikuta wanted to create a horror RPG. Koudelka began development after Sacnoth
861-517: A cool, "unique" air. Kikuta called Edward's actor, Mickaël Bradberry, the "mood maker" for recording. The rest of the cast included Gavin Carlton (Ogden), Denise White (Bessy), Scott Larson (James), Rob Brownstein (Alias), Kim Weild (Elaine), Keith Barry (Patrick), and Brian Kojac (Bacon). Koudelka and its publisher, SNK, were first announced in September 1999. As part of its marketing campaign,
984-555: A degree in Religious Studies, Philosophy, and Cultural Anthropology from Kansai University . He spent the next few years working first as a manga illustrator, then as a composer for anime series, before coming to work for Square in 1991. After composing the soundtracks for his first three best-known works, he formed his own video game production company, Sacnoth , for which he was the president and CEO . After producing and composing Koudelka in 1999, he left to become
1107-414: A distinct language of its own that has absorbed various aspects from neighboring languages. Japanese has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long version. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a macron ) in rōmaji , a repeated vowel character in hiragana , or a chōonpu succeeding the vowel in katakana . /u/ ( listen )
1230-403: A fire which begins consuming the building. Depending on the player's actions, three different endings are unlocked. If Koudelka does not regain her pendant, they are killed when they confront Elaine and the game is over. If she finds the pendant, Koudelka uses it to block Elaine's attack and they are cornered in the mansion's bell tower. If the party defeats Elaine, they contemplate the situation as
1353-568: A freelance composer. Since his departure he has formed his own record label, Norstrilia, through which he produces albums of his own compositions and collaborations with other artists, as well as his previous scores. His music has been performed in concerts such as the Symphonic Fantasies concerts in Cologne , Germany in September 2009, and selections of his works have been published as piano arrangements in sheet music books. Kikuta
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#17327834922921476-419: A glide /j/ and either the first part of a geminate consonant ( っ / ッ , represented as Q) or a moraic nasal in the coda ( ん / ン , represented as N). The nasal is sensitive to its phonetic environment and assimilates to the following phoneme, with pronunciations including [ɴ, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, ɰ̃] . Onset-glide clusters only occur at the start of syllables but clusters across syllables are allowed as long as
1599-570: A grid. Koudelka was created by Hiroki Kikuta , a former employee of Square who formed Sacnoth with other Square staff members in 1997 to develop the game. Kikuta was its director, producer, writer and composer. The staff travelled to Wales for research, and all dialogue was spoken in English. The traditional turn-based battle system was created without Kikuta's involvement, due to staff disputes. The game, which saw moderate commercial success in Japan and received mixed reviews from critics worldwide,
1722-429: A listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations. Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it
1845-619: A music CD and promotional poster were offered as pre-order bonuses. The game was released in Japan on December 16, 1999, and was scheduled for a Western release by Electronic Arts . It was later announced that Infogrames would publish the title in North America and Europe. It was released overseas in 2000: on June 28 in North America, and September 27 in Europe. In addition to the PlayStation version, Sacnoth were reportedly developing
1968-413: A negative, alongside the characters' voices not matching their models despite decent quality. Sacnoth is one of a group of video-game companies—with Monolith Soft , Love-de-Lic and Mistwalker —founded by Square staff who had worked on notable titles produced during the 1990s. After Koudelka 's release, Kikuta resigned as the company's CEO and founded a music label; his planned sequels, continuing
2091-424: A part in combat. Kikuta wanted to break away from RPG conventions, but other Sacnoth staff were reluctant to follow his example and retained traditional ideas from Square. Kikuta later regretted his lack of direct influence on the game design. About the battle-system design, art director Matsuzo Machida (credited as Matsuzo Itakura) said that it was designed to be easy so adults who did not normally play games could see
2214-574: A potential four-part series following her family through the 20th century with events and themes from the original clash of science and magic. In the first sequel, Koudelka would attend the 1900 Exposition Universelle ; the second would move to Chicago in 1973 during the late Vietnam War and follow Koudelka's grandson, Rodmell, through an urban fantasy scenario. In the third, Rodmell would travel to Kyoto in 1984, where magic and modern life were still closely connected. Some backstory elements relating to Koudelka were created by Kikuta, such as her meeting
2337-458: A sense of "obsessive passion" to the project, reading what he claims were over 100 books on British history and taking the design team on a trip to Wales to study the country. The game was released in December 1999 to poor reviews which criticized the game's combat system, though they praised the concept, art direction, and music. Kikuta left Sacnoth soon after; the company changed its name to Nautilus and went on to produce four more games including
2460-408: A sentence need not be stated and pronouns may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. In the example above, hana ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long", while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! ( やった! ) "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below),
2583-428: A single adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! ( 羨ましい! ) "[I'm] jealous [about it]!". While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. In some cases, Japanese relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate
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#17327834922922706-481: A story blending realism and fantasy; the end of the 19th century symbolised, to him, the intermingling of superstition and the next century's technological advances. Kikuta wanted to explore the uneasy coexistence of magic and science in the game. He bought over 100 books on British history during his research, from the medieval to the Victorian eras. His inspirations for the story included Umberto Eco 's The Name of
2829-598: A third original album in 2011, titled Tiara . A piece from Secret of Mana was performed by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra for the third Orchestral Game Music Concert in 1993, while one from Trials of Mana was performed for the fifth event in 1996. His music from Secret of Mana was also performed at the fifth Symphonic Game Music Concert in 2007 at the Gewandhaus Leipzig , Germany. Music from Secret of Mana made up one fourth of
2952-568: A typical RPG world map into a limited exploration space and permit detailed backgrounds within the console's hardware limitations. Nemeton used a blend of architectural styles, with elements ranging from its origins as a Gothic monastery (inspired by St Davids ) to contemporary additions. Koudelka's CGI model was created by Sacnoth and a company founded by artist Nobuji Watanabe, whom Kikuta chose for his passion for good work. The model went through multiple redrafts, with Kikuta making adjustments. In creating Koudelka 's storyline, Kikuta conceived
3075-608: A version for the Neo Geo Pocket Color . Console Classics announced plans in 2015 to port Koudelka to Microsoft Windows via Steam , but nothing further has been announced. The first volume of a three-volume Shounen manga adaptation originally serialized in Ace Next, written and illustrated by Iwahara , was published in November 1999 by Kadokawa Shoten ; the third volume was published in September 2000. The manga
3198-495: A wide variety of musical genres. After graduating from Kansai, Kikuta worked first as a manga illustrator under the pseudonym and later as an anime composer. The manga he illustrated, including one titled Raven , were done under the pen name Yūki Nijūroku ( 結城 二十六 ) . As an anime composer, he worked on The Adventure of Robin Hood and The Legend of Snow White . In 1991, Kikuta was hired by Square (now Square Enix ), as
3321-491: A young Jack the Ripper , but not included in the game. Kikuta found composing the score the easiest part of development, since he primarily worked on his own. His concept for Koudelka 's musical elements were created with the setting and narrative. The score was arranged by Kikuta and Nick Ingman . To compose most of the game's tracks, Kikuta used Atari Notator sound software. While he found lack of compression an issue,
3444-680: Is compressed rather than protruded , or simply unrounded. Some Japanese consonants have several allophones , which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese language up to and including the first half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence /ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [tɕi] , approximately chi ( listen ) ; however, now [ti] and [tɕi] are distinct, as evidenced by words like tī [tiː] "Western-style tea" and chii [tɕii] "social status". The "r" of
3567-421: Is topic–comment . Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or form questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender , and there are no articles . Verbs are conjugated , primarily for tense and voice , but not person . Japanese adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has a complex system of honorifics , with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of
3690-402: Is a Japanese composer and game designer . His major works are Secret of Mana , Trials of Mana , Soukaigi , and Koudelka , for which he also acted as producer and concept designer. He has composed music for seven other games, and worked as a concept designer in addition to composer for the unreleased MMORPG Chou Bukyo Taisen . He became interested in music at an early age, but earned
3813-448: Is also seen in o-medetō "congratulations", from medetaku ). Late Middle Japanese has the first loanwords from European languages – now-common words borrowed into Japanese in this period include pan ("bread") and tabako ("tobacco", now "cigarette"), both from Portuguese . Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the Edo period (which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese,
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3936-527: Is also used in a limited fashion (such as for imported acronyms) in Japanese writing. The numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals , but also traditional Chinese numerals . Proto-Japonic , the common ancestor of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages , is thought to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from the Korean peninsula sometime in the early- to mid-4th century BC (the Yayoi period ), replacing
4059-440: Is appropriate to use sensei ( 先生 , "teacher"), but inappropriate to use anata . This is because anata is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher status. Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun hon ( 本 ) may refer to a single book or several books; hito ( 人 ) can mean "person" or "people", and ki ( 木 ) can be "tree" or "trees". Where number
4182-701: Is associated with comedy (see Kansai dialect ). Dialects of Tōhoku and North Kantō are associated with typical farmers. The Ryūkyūan languages, spoken in Okinawa and the Amami Islands (administratively part of Kagoshima ), are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family; not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryūkyūan languages. However, in contrast to linguists, many ordinary Japanese people tend to consider
4305-466: Is better documentation of Late Middle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for instance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam ). Among other sound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to /ɔː/ , in contrast with /oː/ ; /p/ is reintroduced from Chinese; and /we/ merges with /je/ . Some forms rather more familiar to Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear – the continuative ending - te begins to reduce onto
4428-509: Is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi ( 私 , literally "private") or watakushi (also 私 , hyper-polite form), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word ore ( 俺 "oneself", "myself") or boku . Similarly, different words such as anata , kimi , and omae ( お前 , more formally 御前 "the one before me") may refer to
4551-417: Is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word ) or (rarely) by adding a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g. 人人 , hitobito , usually written with an iteration mark as 人々 ). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mx Tanaka . Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through
4674-755: Is less common. In terms of mutual intelligibility , a survey in 1967 found that the four most unintelligible dialects (excluding Ryūkyūan languages and Tōhoku dialects ) to students from Greater Tokyo were the Kiso dialect (in the deep mountains of Nagano Prefecture ), the Himi dialect (in Toyama Prefecture ), the Kagoshima dialect and the Maniwa dialect (in Okayama Prefecture ). The survey
4797-420: Is often called a topic-prominent language , which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō wa hana ga nagai ( 象は鼻が長い ) literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose". Japanese grammar tends toward brevity; the subject or object of
4920-498: Is preserved in words such as matsuge ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern mieru ("to be visible") and kikoeru ("to be audible") retain a mediopassive suffix - yu(ru) ( kikoyu → kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) → kikoeru (all verbs with the shimo-nidan conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in Early Modern Japanese )); and
5043-450: Is similar to the early Resident Evil games; Koudelka—rendered as a 3D character model—explores environments created with pre-rendered backgrounds shown through fixed camera angles. Items and weapons are found in the environment or gained after a battle, with the number of items which can be carried limited. Combat is triggered through random encounters , with battles governed by a turn-based system . The three playable characters and
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5166-402: Is the version of Japanese discussed in this article. Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( 文語 , bungo , "literary language") was different from colloquial language ( 口語 , kōgo ) . The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then kōgo gradually extended its influence and
5289-471: Is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) aspect , similar to the suffix ing in English. For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect aspect. For example, kite iru means "They have come (and are still here)", but tabete iru means "They are eating". Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have
5412-405: Is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced , "your ( majestic plural ) grace") or Portuguese você (from vossa mercê ). Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom. The choice of words used as pronouns
5535-468: The Shadow Hearts series before folding in 2007. In March 2001, Kikuta founded Norstrilia, named after the novel of the same name . The company serves as his private record label, and publishes his albums. For the next few years he worked as concept designer, game planner, and composer for Chou Bukyo Taisen , a Chinese MMORPG, the original design for which he proposed to Enix . Development of
5658-690: The Japanese people . It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan , the only country where it is the national language , and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. The Japonic family also includes the Ryukyuan languages and the variously classified Hachijō language . There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as the Ainu , Austronesian , Koreanic , and
5781-462: The Japonic language family, which also includes the Ryukyuan languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands . As these closely related languages are commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is sometimes called a language isolate . According to Martine Irma Robbeets , Japanese has been subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in
5904-950: The Mana series have been published as Seiken Densetsu Best Collection Piano Solo Sheet Music first and second editions; songs from Secret of Mana and Trials of Mana are featured in both. All songs in each book have been rewritten by Asako Niwa as beginning to intermediate level piano solos, though they are meant to sound as much like the originals as possible. Selections of remixes of Kikuta's work appear on Japanese remix albums, called dōjin , and on English remixing websites such as OverClocked ReMix . Kikuta has said that he enjoys listening to these works, mentioning OverClocked ReMix by name. Kikuta finds composing music to be natural, "like breathing". He considers it to be his "vocation", and contrasts it with designing and creating video games, which he calls his "wish" and finds to be very difficult to do in comparison to composition. Kikuta does not worry about
6027-514: The Philippines , and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil , with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGE data, more than
6150-738: The United States (notably in Hawaii , where 16.7% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and California ), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao Region and the Province of Laguna ). Japanese has no official status in Japan, but is the de facto national language of the country. There is a form of the language considered standard : hyōjungo ( 標準語 ) , meaning "standard Japanese", or kyōtsūgo ( 共通語 ) , "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times. The meanings of
6273-806: The de facto standard Japanese had been the Kansai dialect , especially that of Kyoto . However, during the Edo period, Edo (now Tokyo) developed into the largest city in Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard Japanese. Since the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen many words borrowed from other languages—such as German, Portuguese and English. Many English loan words especially relate to technology—for example, pasokon (short for "personal computer"), intānetto ("internet"), and kamera ("camera"). Due to
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#17327834922926396-527: The 1.2 million of the United States ) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru , Argentina , Australia (especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in Vancouver , where 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry),
6519-512: The Hartmans are responsible for the deaths, since they did not try to poison him. They also encounter the ghost of Charlotte D'lota, a young girl who was executed in Nemeton, and are attacked by an intruder named Alias. From visions, human remains and confiscated artefacts, Koudelka learns that Nemeton was a prison for dissidents that now haunt the mansion. They learn from Alias that he survived
6642-423: The Hartmans' attempt to kill him and the mansion's monsters, and saw the Hartmans kill anyone who trespassed in the mansion. Admitting that he tried to kill them to keep Nemeton's treasures for himself, Edward kills Alias because he is a threat. Koudelka discovers a room full of paintings of the destroyed SS Princess Alice and has a vision of Elaine Heyworth, wife of Nemeton's current owner Patrick. The group finds
6765-486: The Japanese language is of particular interest, ranging between an apical central tap and a lateral approximant . The "g" is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it may be pronounced [ ŋ ] , in the Kanto prestige dialect and in other eastern dialects. The phonotactics of Japanese are relatively simple. The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), that is, a core vowel surrounded by an optional onset consonant,
6888-736: The Old Japanese sections are written in Man'yōgana , which uses kanji for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'yōgana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct morae . Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of kanji for each of the morae now pronounced き (ki), ひ (hi), み (mi), け (ke), へ (he), め (me), こ (ko), そ (so), と (to), の (no), も (mo), よ (yo) and ろ (ro). (The Kojiki has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo 1 and mo 2 apparently
7011-639: The Rose (and its film adaptation ), William Hope Hodgson 's Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder , H. P. Lovecraft 's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and novels by Lord Dunsany . Koudelka 's setting and story were primarily inspired by Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder . Kikuta incorporated a number of historical events and figures, including the sinking of the Princess Alice and fictionalized versions of Lord Dunsany and Roger Bacon. Charlotte's mother
7134-539: The Ryūkyūan languages as dialects of Japanese. The imperial court also seems to have spoken an unusual variant of the Japanese of the time, most likely the spoken form of Classical Japanese , a writing style that was prevalent during the Heian period , but began to decline during the late Meiji period . The Ryūkyūan languages are classified by UNESCO as 'endangered', as young people mostly use Japanese and cannot understand
7257-409: The added audio processing power to expand his musical creativity, including pieces such as songs in unintelligible Thai and Malaysian by Japanese singers. The game itself, however, was not a success, and Kikuta decided that he wanted more direct control over the next project he worked on. After Kikuta finished Soukaigi , he left Square and founded the video game development company Sacnoth , assuming
7380-543: The addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as -tachi , but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us", while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in form. Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present (or non-past) which
7503-456: The apparently-dead Roger Bacon , who briefly revives and mentions the Émigré Document, in the library. James says that he was sent by the Vatican to recover the Émigré Document, a book of Celtic rituals to gain immortality and revive the dead. James was asked by the Hartmans to save Patrick, who stole the Émigré Document. Koudelka is separated from the group when a monster attacks them, and finds
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#17327834922927626-526: The better sequencing software was useful in creating the score for the CGI cutscenes. With less music than the average RPG, the score was completed within six months. Instead of the looping tracks of Kikuta's work with Square, Koudelka used ambient sounds and short tracks related to cutscenes outside battle themes, and featured influences from church music . Its opening theme "Requiem" was performed by Catherine Bott . The ending theme "Ubi Caritas et amor"—taken from
7749-436: The capture of up to four people in each scene, impossible with technology available in Japan. Through the original staff of Soukaigi , Kikuta contacted Santa Monica -based special-effects company FutureLight . Intrigued by Kikuta's concept, FutureLight agreed to help record the cutscenes. In a later interview, he said that the techniques used for the motion-capture sessions were on a par with those used by Hollywood studios at
7872-578: The effect of changing Japanese into a mora-timed language. Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to 1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughly equivalent to the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period , respectively. The later forms of Late Middle Japanese are the first to be described by non-native sources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries; and thus there
7995-401: The enemy are positioned on a grid, able to move to a new square and perform an action with each turn. Each party has access to physical and magical attacks and other abilities, such as status effects, healing magic and the ability to escape from battle. Each player character can equip any of a variety of weapons, which break after being used a number of times. At the end of each successful battle,
8118-455: The flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese is an agglutinative , mora -timed language with relatively simple phonotactics , a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent . Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure
8241-673: The game ceased in 2004 due to disagreements between Enix and the Chinese company that was to maintain the game while it was in progress and it was never released. He spent the next few years composing for video games only released in Japan, including the eroge visual novel Sora no Iro, Mizu no Iro and the MMORPG Concerto Gate . Beginning in 2010 he started working as a composer for projects with several artists, such as Soulcalibur V (2010) and Rise of Mana (2014), which continues to date; his first solo work since 2010
8364-420: The game's ending; in hindsight, the team could have increased the challenge. To create an authentic atmosphere, Kikuta used advanced motion capture technology to give realistic physical mannerisms to the character models during real-time cutscenes. Kikuta's decision to use motion capture, which he called "epoch-making", was part of his attempt to move away from RPG conventions by adding drama. The story required
8487-402: The game's environment and character design, and Sato enjoyed its CGI cutscenes and real-time graphics. Zdyrko praised the graphics (despite their dark tone), and Alley called them "wonderful". Chu disliked the in-game graphics, but enjoyed the CGI segments; Both Electronic Gaming Monthly and Power Unlimited also praised the cutscenes. Bratcher cited a lack of atmosphere in general navigation as
8610-490: The game's story, an issue magnified by its slow pace. Electronic Gaming Monthly faulted the weapon durability system, random encounters, and inconsistent difficulty as issues with the game. Sato was generally disappointed by difficulty and balance issues. Zdyrko faulted several mechanics, such as saving and equipment limitations. Alley found the mixture of gameplay styles strange, faulted the game's weapons limitations and praised its innovative take on RPG mechanics. Chu criticized
8733-516: The game's tone, presentation and localization. According to Ken Chu of RPGFan , the story "fails to inspire more than a passing interest" despite its strong characters and unconventional use of horror. Eric Bratcher of Next Generation cited its atmosphere as a strong point in its narrative. GamePro found the turn-based battles too slow for enjoyment, a sentiment echoed by the Dutch magazine Power Unlimited . A GamePro reviewer could not follow
8856-424: The gameplay, finding several aspects unbalanced or poorly designed. Bratcher called the battles a "welcome change" from standard exploration, but found several other gameplay elements poorly implemented. The game's slow pace was a recurring complaint by reviewers. Although Famitsu praised Koudelka 's CGI movies and art design, one of its reviewers found some areas too dark to navigate easily. GamePro lauded
8979-609: The genitive particle ga remains in intentionally archaic speech. Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian period , from 794 to 1185. It formed the basis for the literary standard of Classical Japanese , which remained in common use until the early 20th century. During this time, Japanese underwent numerous phonological developments, in many cases instigated by an influx of Chinese loanwords . These included phonemic length distinction for both consonants and vowels , palatal consonants (e.g. kya ) and labial consonant clusters (e.g. kwa ), and closed syllables . This had
9102-430: The language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese . Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of European loanwords . The basis of the standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region (modern Tokyo ) in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid 19th century). Following the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853,
9225-458: The languages of the original Jōmon inhabitants, including the ancestor of the modern Ainu language . Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, there is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period must be based on internal reconstruction from Old Japanese , or comparison with the Ryukyuan languages and Japanese dialects . The Chinese writing system
9348-449: The languages. Okinawan Japanese is a variant of Standard Japanese influenced by the Ryūkyūan languages, and is the primary dialect spoken among young people in the Ryukyu Islands . Modern Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ryūkyū islands) due to education , mass media , and an increase in mobility within Japan, as well as economic integration. Japanese is a member of
9471-427: The large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a distinction between [tɕi] and [ti] , and [dʑi] and [di] , with the latter in each pair only found in loanwords. Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has also been spoken outside of the country. Before and during World War II , through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and Korea , as well as partial occupation of China ,
9594-469: The monsters. James says that he and Patrick courted Elaine, but James' social background prevented a marriage and he joined the church to ease his pain. Confronted by Charlotte, Koudelka can use letters written by Charlotte's mother to let her pass on. The group rejoins Bacon, who achieved imperfect immortality after learning the Émigré Document's secrets while copying it for the Vatican. Koudelka summons Elaine's spirit, and they learn that Patrick and Ogden used
9717-737: The music in the Symphonic Fantasies concerts in Cologne in September 2009 which were produced by Thomas Böcker as a part of the Game Concerts series. In 2012, five more performances of Symphonic Fantasies were given in Tokyo, Stockholm, and again in Cologne, with an additional performance in 2016 in London with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eckehard Stier. Two compilation books of piano sheet music from
9840-482: The music; he began working on the music before the design of the game was finalized. This freedom was helped by the fact that Uematsu ran the music group as a separate division in the company from the game developers. Kikuta was originally chosen for Secret of Mana after Kenji Ito , who had composed the first game in the Mana series, Final Fantasy Adventure , was forced to drop the project due to other demands, such as
9963-418: The now-discredited Altaic , but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance. Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), extensive waves of Sino-Japanese vocabulary entered
10086-425: The only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions. The basic sentence structure is topic–comment . For example, Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu ( こちらは田中さんです ). kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by
10209-463: The original composition and the Super Nintendo. Kikuta spent nearly 24 hours a day in his office working on the soundtrack, alternating between composing and editing. Secret of Mana led to an arranged album, Secret of Mana+ , which is composed of a single 50-minute track made up of "experimental" sounds like waterfalls, bird calls, and cell phone sounds. For Trials of Mana , Kikuta
10332-470: The out-group gives a benefit to the in-group, and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta ( 教えてもらった ) (literally, "explaining got" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta ( 教えてあげた ) (literally, "explaining gave" with
10455-415: The particle wa . The verb desu is a copula , commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"), though technically it holds no meaning and is used to give a sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence literally translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mx Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like many other Asian languages,
10578-403: The party gains experience points (raising their experience level) and ability points (to increase attributes, such as agility and speed). Depending on usage, weapons and abilities increase in power as their skill level rises with use. In 1898, near Aberystwyth , Wales , Romani psychic Koudelka Iasant is drawn by a mysterious voice to the isolated Nemeton. A former medieval monastery, Nemeton
10701-463: The position of the president and CEO from 1998 to 1999. During this time, the company created Koudelka for the PlayStation; Kikuta was credited as the concept designer, game planner, scenario writer, producer and composer. His philosophy in designing video games is that the best projects have a limited number of people designing the overall experience and making key decisions. He tried to follow this philosophy in creating Koudelka , and tried to bring
10824-481: The proposed larger Altaic family, or to various Southeast Asian languages , especially Austronesian . None of these proposals have gained wide acceptance (and the Altaic family itself is now considered controversial). As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support. Other theories view the Japanese language as an early creole language formed through inputs from at least two distinct language groups, or as
10947-406: The room where Ogden killed his victims. Ogden captures her and rants about his guilt for the Princess Alice disaster, but Bessy shoots him before he can kill Koudelka. Before shooting herself, Bessy explains that Ogden killed intruders to avenge Elaine, who was killed by a thief. After meeting Bacon and rejoining the others, Koudelka decides that something else was driving the Hartmans and spawning
11070-459: The same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, ii desu ( いいです ) "It is OK" becomes ii desu-ka ( いいですか。 ) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle -no ( の ) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning
11193-433: The soundtrack to Romancing SaGa . Rather than create MIDI versions of his compositions, like most game composers of that time did, and hand these over to the sound engineering department, Kikuta made his own samples that matched the hardware capabilities of the Super Nintendo. This way he would know exactly how the pieces would sound on the system's hardware instead of having to deal with audio hardware differences between
11316-439: The speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned. The Japanese writing system combines Chinese characters , known as kanji ( 漢字 , ' Han characters') , with two unique syllabaries (or moraic scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters: hiragana ( ひらがな or 平仮名 , 'simple characters') and katakana ( カタカナ or 片仮名 , 'partial characters'). Latin script ( rōmaji ローマ字 )
11439-817: The state as at the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese during the South Seas Mandate over the island shown by the 1958 census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific that found that 89% of Palauans born between 1914 and 1933 could speak and read Japanese, but as of the 2005 Palau census there were no residents of Angaur that spoke Japanese at home. Japanese dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent , inflectional morphology , vocabulary , and particle usage. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this
11562-471: The story of Koudelka's family, were never produced. Sacnoth would go on to develop Shadow Hearts , a role-playing game for the PlayStation 2 and the first instalment of the Shadow Hearts series . Shadow Hearts is set in the same reality as Koudelka , taking place after the bad ending of the latter. Sacnoth produced two more Shadow Hearts titles ( Covenant and From the New World ) before it
11685-481: The street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun) But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese: 驚いた彼は道を走っていった。 Transliteration: Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct) This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you" ( 君 "lord"), anata "you" ( あなた "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" ( 僕 "servant"). This
11808-432: The studio was not fully soundproofed, recording was sometimes halted due to exterior noises. Equipment around the soundstage was used as props for the actors, so the in-game immersion would not be broken. According to Kikuta, his research for the narrative and the basic elements of Koudelka took three months; the one-night timescale and singular location were due to the game's limited staff and development time. Aberystwyth
11931-531: The style of music that he composes, considering it to only be a tool or method. As a result, his music is frequently composed of combinations of styles mixed together. He is inspired to create his music by things that he has seen, especially while traveling; he credits much of the musical imagery in Secret of Mana and Trials of Mana as being inspired by several islands in Fiji he has visited. Rather than trying to be
12054-492: The sun rises over the ruined mansion. If Elaine defeats them, James sacrifices himself to destroy Elaine, and Koudelka and Edward escape the collapsing tower. After spending the night together they part, although Koudelka believes that they will meet again. Koudelka was created by Hiroki Kikuta , who composed Secret of Mana , Seiken Densetsu 3 and Soukaigi at Square . Kikuta wanted to direct his own game, but Square's corporate structure prevented him from moving beyond
12177-466: The time. The CGI cutscenes were created by Digital Media Lab. The motion-capture sessions took place in January 1998 at FutureLight's local studios. The motion capture and animation processes were handled by FutureLight and Sacnoth staff, with Kikuta the sessions' executive producer. Rehearsals, supervised by Kikuta, were held in a nearby hotel. The recording sessions were in a converted sound studio; since
12300-621: The topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Kore wa? "(What about) this?"; O-namae wa? ( お名前は？ ) "(What's your) name?". Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan o taberu ( パンを食べる。 ) "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan o tabenai ( パンを食べない。 ) "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread". Plain negative forms are i -adjectives (see below) and inflect as such, e.g. Pan o tabenakatta ( パンを食べなかった。 ) "I did not eat bread". Hiroki Kikuta Hiroki Kikuta ( 菊田 裕樹 , Kikuta Hiroki , born August 29, 1962 as Yūki Kikuta )
12423-419: The two consonants are the moraic nasal followed by a homorganic consonant. Japanese also includes a pitch accent , which is not represented in moraic writing; for example [haꜜ.ɕi] ("chopsticks") and [ha.ɕiꜜ] ("bridge") are both spelled はし ( hashi ) , and are only differentiated by the tone contour. Japanese word order is classified as subject–object–verb . Unlike many Indo-European languages ,
12546-577: The two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s. Bungo still has some relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived World War II are still written in bungo , although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). Kōgo is the dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect. The 1982 state constitution of Angaur , Palau , names Japanese along with Palauan and English as an official language of
12669-480: The two terms (''hyōjungo'' and ''kyōtsūgo'') are almost the same. Hyōjungo or kyōtsūgo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 , meiji ishin , 1868) from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see Yamanote ). Hyōjungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications. It
12792-407: The verb (e.g. yonde for earlier yomite ), the -k- in the final mora of adjectives drops out ( shiroi for earlier shiroki ); and some forms exist where modern standard Japanese has retained the earlier form (e.g. hayaku > hayau > hayɔɔ , where modern Japanese just has hayaku , though the alternative form is preserved in the standard greeting o-hayō gozaimasu "good morning"; this ending
12915-548: The world. Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or language families such as Ainu , Korean , Chinese , Tibeto-Burman , Uralic , Altaic (or Ural-Altaic ), Austroasiatic , Austronesian and Dravidian . At the fringe, some linguists have even suggested a link to Indo-European languages , including Greek , or to Sumerian . Main modern theories try to link Japanese either to northern Asian languages, like Korean or
13038-409: The Émigré Document to resurrect Elaine; they resurrected her body as a monster, which caused the events at the mansion. Elaine—who summoned Koudelka to aid her—asks them to destroy her body so her spirit can be free. Bacon tells the group how to do this, in a section of Nemeton which has been converted into a temple. The three enter the temple and find Patrick's body. James destroys the temple, starting
13161-675: Was Indivisible in 2019. Kikuta released Lost Files , his first album of original music, in 2006. The album includes the demo tapes Kikuta submitted when first applying for the job of game composer at Square, using the sound source of the Nintendo Entertainment System . It was followed in August 2007 by his second original album, Alphabet Planet . He has also composed three other albums and two singles in conjunction with other singers or performers; these albums have been released through his Norstrilia label. He released
13284-409: Was assisted by a sound programmer, Hidenori Suzuki, which allowed him to compose over three times the amount of music he had created for Secret of Mana . The move to the PlayStation for Soukaigi allowed Kikuta to focus on creating live music for the soundtrack, rather than tweaking the synthesizer instruments to make the music files fit in the game cartridge as he had to for the Super Nintendo. He used
13407-514: Was based on Sophia Dorothea of Celle . The story's tone was influenced by the history and folklore of Wales. Its characters were designed by Yūji Iwahara , who created over 100 character sketches for the game. The visuals were inspired by the work of Bob Carlos Clarke , Jan Saudek and Holly Warburton. Koudelka was among the first elements of the game created by Kikuta, with Iwahara's first character drafts created in March 1998. Koudelka's given name
13530-539: Was based on 12- to 20-second-long recordings of 135 to 244 phonemes , which 42 students listened to and translated word-for-word. The listeners were all Keio University students who grew up in the Kanto region . There are some language islands in mountain villages or isolated islands such as Hachijō-jima island , whose dialects are descended from Eastern Old Japanese . Dialects of the Kansai region are spoken or known by many Japanese, and Osaka dialect in particular
13653-419: Was chosen because he wanted a location across the sea from Ireland. Due to a lack of Japanese resources on British architecture, Kikuta and several staff members made a research trip to Pembrokeshire to see local scenery and church architecture. The region's coastal cliffs, ancient ruins and weather conditions influenced Koudelka 's setting and design. Kikuta's choice of 1898 was influenced by his wish for
13776-475: Was converted into a mansion and is now infested with monsters. Koudelka breaks into Nemeton, losing her magic pendant in the process, and saves wayward adventurer Edward Plunkett from a monster attack. They are offered hospitality by the mansion's caretakers, Ogden and Bessy Hartman. Their food is poisoned, and Koudelka—having detected the poison and refused to eat—cures Edward. Exploring Nemeton, they meet Catholic bishop James O'Flaherty; James refuses to believe that
13899-445: Was founded, and Kikuta was its producer, director, writer and composer. Although Koudelka used turn-based combat on a grid and random encounters (similar to traditional RPGs), this was not Kikuta's original intention. He originally planned a real-time battle system with free movement within the environment, combining mechanics from simulation and adventure games . Interactive environments, such as furniture, were also planned to play
14022-680: Was imported to Japan from Baekje around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism. The earliest texts were written in Classical Chinese , although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the kanbun method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order. The earliest text, the Kojiki , dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese, kanbun , and Old Japanese. As in other texts from this period,
14145-449: Was inspired as a child by music from movies. It was not until he got a synthesizer, however, that he began to feel his potential as a composer. Kikuta went on to earn an interdisciplinary degree in Religious Studies, Philosophy, and Cultural Anthropology from Kansai University , which he attended from 1981 to 1984. He never received any form of formal musical training, and instead taught himself by reading music theory books and listening to
14268-547: Was intended to tie into Kikuta's planned sequel and is set after the game. Shadow Hearts doesn´t acknowledge the events of the manga. A novelization, Koudelka - The Mansion's Scream by Nahoko Korekata, was published by ASCII Media Works in February 2000 as part of its Famitsu Bunko imprint. An audio drama based on the game, with Japanese actors and excerpts from its score, was released in November 1999 by Scitron Digital Contents. While no sales figures were reported, Koudelka
14391-474: Was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of morae shrank to 67 in Early Middle Japanese , though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for /je/ , which merges with /e/ before the end of the period. Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language – the genitive particle tsu (superseded by modern no )
14514-402: Was merged into company owner Aruze in 2007 and ceased video game production. Iwahara's work on the game and its manga adaptation influenced anime director Tensai Okamura into hiring him for the anime series Darker than Black . Japanese language Japanese ( 日本語 , Nihongo , [ɲihoŋɡo] ) is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by
14637-423: Was praised and criticized by reviewers of the game. The game had English voice work for all characters, with Japan using native subtitles rather than a Japanese dub. The game's cast provided motion capture and character voices. They were chosen from 100 actors who auditioned for the roles, including the twelve-year-old Sara Paxton as Charlotte. Vivianna Bateman, who played Koudelka, was chosen to give her character
14760-522: Was said to have been "moderately successful" in Japan. The title was not mentioned by Infogrames during its financial report at the end of the 2000-2001 fiscal year. The Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu compared Koudelka 's atmosphere to Western horror films. The dark atmosphere was one of the points of praise for Electronic Gaming Monthly . GameSpot ' s Ike Sato called the story "quite entertaining", and David Zdyrko of IGN enjoyed its cinematic tone. RPGamer ' s Jake Alley praised
14883-490: Was soon given game soundtracks to compose. During his seven years at Square, Kikuta composed the soundtracks to only three games: Secret of Mana and Trials of Mana for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Soukaigi for the PlayStation . Kikuta says that he was given complete freedom to compose the soundtracks, in that he was given no direction at all as to how to compose
15006-455: Was taken from photographer Josef Koudelka ; Kikuta liked its mysterious sound and lack of any specific ethnic origin. Kikuta's wish for a lonely character resulted in Koudelka's background as an exiled gypsy. Her design required several redrafts to be carried over into the game, which had severe polygon and memory restrictions. Machida's design of Nemeton was intended to compress the variety of
15129-422: Was the foundation of Sacnoth's Shadow Hearts series. Koudelka is a role-playing video game (RPG) set in the fictional Nemeton Mansion. Controlling Koudelka Iasant, the main protagonist, the player explores Nemeton. Gameplay is divided between event scenes, in which story sequences play; exploration, incorporating puzzle-solving; and a battle screen where players fight monsters spawned in Nemeton. Exploration
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