If there’s one thing the video game community can always be relied on to do, it’s second-guessing itself, often in the least-diplomatic manner possible: some measure of debate is to be expected amongst a sizable group with such varied tastes, but gamers have long made it their mission to turn “my dad can beat up your dad” into its own art form. Even within this hyper-neurotic little culture of ours, however, few genres split so deep and wide a gulf betwixt fans and detractors as role-playing games, particularly those of Japanese origin. Documenting the often-heated back-and-forth concerning the intrinsic “worth” of these “JRPGs” could easily span an article (if not a website) all by itself, but two long-standing complaints from the naysayers’ camp tend to occupy the center around which the rest of the conversation revolves:
1) The JRPG has lain all but completely stagnant for years, if not decades, in terms of narrative and setting, dominated to the point of exhaustion by bloated and predictable fantasy clichés and tropes; it’s sometimes difficult to even tell competing series apart from each other without looking closely.
2) JRPGs do very little to involve the player from a physical standpoint, beyond the single-button confirmation of menu selections, repeated ad nauseam; it’s far too easy to “zone out” and let the game more or less play itself.
Even as they tirelessly highlight every exception to the above that they can recall, honest JRPG players will find it difficult to maintain that these criticisms don’t hold more water than they ought to. Regardless which side of the line you’re on, it would seem, a shake-up of sorts is in everyone’s best interest: a unilateral declaration, as it were, that this storied genre, like any other, can branch out and do something both different and fun without being altogether untrue to itself. A shot in the dark and a shot in the arm, rolled into one.
Welcome, one and all, to Shadow Hearts.
First off, you can forget all about Tolkien-styled medieval kingdoms and glossy pseudo-sci-fi dystopias: these games, for a change, take place in “our world” during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sure, copious liberties are taken with matters of record to spice things up, but you’ll still be journeying to real-life places, meeting famous figures of the era, and observing as the series’ fiction is interwoven with documented events of the day. Those thirsty for a break from the latest round of Goblins vs. Elves are almost certain to find this somewhat more “grounded” tale both intriguing and refreshing compared to yet another Far Far Away spun from whole cloth.
The requisite storyline is similarly unafraid to leave behind its kin’s all-too-typical melodramatic drone: Shadow Hearts players can expect liberal doses of everything from freakish horror to goofy humor, not to mention a near-wholesale disregard for any and all political correctness. A plethora of personalities, controllable and non-, play an integral part in bringing their world to life, and are more than a little hard to forget once you’ve made their acquaintances: if you yawn at the notion of standard-issue knights and wizards in your party, for instance, how does taking a pro-wrestling vampire for a spin sound? Or a mariachi guitarist with an itchy trigger finger? Then again, you could always unleash the fury of a klutzy white-guy ninja dangling an anglerfish lure from his forehead.
While you’re at it, cancel the trip to the dragon’s cave in favor of a climb up a forbidden Vatican tower. Or perhaps you’d prefer a hike along the majestic Grand Canyon...heck, feel free to break into Area 51 if the mood strikes you. While you’re there, rather than traipsing into another ye olde shoppe for a potion or two, procure your goods from an incredibly enterprising gay couple cruising the globe via motorcycle. Once you’re outfitted, don’t seek further upgrades at the usual shady gladiatorial arena; test your mettle versus a lengthy succession of skinny dudes balancing plates of curry on their heads.
So yeah, in case I need to say it again, you’re pretty much guaranteed to never mistake a Shadow Hearts game for anything else.
Even more importantly, while the general gist of exploring, talking to people, finding/buying stuff, gaining experience points/levels and fighting turn-based battles should be familiar to anyone who’s played a JRPG before, Shadow Hearts insists that its players possess not only a sense of strategy and proper preparation, but a keen eye and quick fingers too. Sure, you manipulate a cursor to initiate actions as per usual, but that’s only the first step: here you’ve got to earn the right to actually put your decisions into effect.
The linchpin to this end is the “Judgment Ring” system. Whenever you opt to launch an attack, use an item, or just about anything else of note, a circle will pop up onscreen, and a radial line “indicator” will start to rotate within it, akin to a radar display. Along its path are one or more color-marked “hit” sections of the circle: as the indicator passes through each of these, the player has to quickly press a button before it exits. Successfully “hit” each segment and your action will successfully execute; put the hammer down too early or too late and your command will be either partially or completely canceled, leaving you to wait until your next turn to try again.
This simple mechanic not only puts the tired “no skill required” JRPG criticism to bed by demanding a measure of focus and concentration, but comes and goes quickly enough that battles don’t needlessly drag: those days of half-awakedly mashing “confirm” over and over until you decide to head back to the inn are but distant memories. It must be noted that “revolutionary” isn’t exactly an appropriate word here, seeing as this is far from the first appearance of a “timing” element in a role-playing game, but the Shadow Hearts games infuse the Ring with a greater degree of vitality and depth than most any competitor, certainly more than enough to elevate their approach into a league of its own.
Tragically, some of these long-overdue departures from convention may indeed drive a subset of potential players away, likely dismissing it as “too weird” for their liking on the way out (adding fuel to the “JRPG’ers just want the same generic crap over and over again” insult while they’re at it). To be perfectly frank, it’s their loss, and the same goes for any know-nothings who refuse to have a taste and judge for themselves “because it’s a JRPG”: everyone else with an open-enough mind will almost certainly find a lot to love, and a lot to talk about, when it comes to Shadow Hearts.
As you might expect from such an out-of-the-ordinary bunch, of course, theirs was not a “traditional” path from the drawing board to the disc.
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Koudelka – Playstation (1999)
While none of the “proper” Shadow Hearts games saw daylight until the PS2 era, a significant portion of their groundwork was laid here, in what was fated to become a spiritual precursor to the series. While Koudelka resembles its descendents only vaguely in most respects, it unquestionably sets in place both the story elements and overall tone that would help to define those more illustrious offshoots.
In 1997, SNK (of King of Fighters and Metal Slug fame) founded a small internal development house and dubbed it Sacnoth, after a mythical sword from a short story by Irish author Lord Dunsany. At its helm was Hiroki Kikuta, who up to that point had spent most of his career within the video game industry as a composer, most famously for Square’s SNES entries in the Seiken Densetsu (“Mana”) series. His first (and, as it turns out, last) major project with the new company was a largely unprecedented cross-breed: an RPG that would follow primarily in the footsteps, not of Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, but the suddenly-popular “survival horror” genre.
Kikuta threw himself and his team headlong into the project, even organizing a group “field trip” to Wales for some on-location research; as gamer lore would have it, however, the development cycle was marred by numerous disagreements among the staff over just how far in a Resident Evil-esque direction they ought to venture. The eventual final product of this group’s disjointed collective energy, though retaining vestiges of its original creative vision, ends up succeeding only sporadically in its stated mission to turn the tired old JRPG on its ear.
Unlike most role-playing releases, which are all but expected to span vast worlds or even multiple time periods, Koudelka firmly plants its stakes at the tail end of the 1800’s and never ventures outside the walls of a single, remote Welsh monastery. The titular protagonist, having experienced a series of foreboding visions connected to the place, has journeyed there to investigate matters in person: before long, much to her chagrin, she finds herself saddled with a pair of fellow unwelcome interlopers. The trio must quickly find a way to work together, figure out what’s going on, put a stop to it, and make it out alive.
Characters
Koudelka Iasant – A young gypsy medium with a checkered past, an unknown spirit’s voice beckons her to Nemeton Monastery, and she has little real choice but to comply. Attitude-wise Koudelka is all business, with an unrelenting, acidic streak: her mind is almost exclusively focused on solving the mystery at hand, whatever the cost, and she won’t hesitate to chew out anybody who threatens to slow her down, whether they mean to or not. It’s not until late in the story that the player finds out why she’s more devoted to her often-grisly line of work than to the people around her.
Edward Plunkett – Koudelka’s first face-to-face meeting inside the monastery walls comes courtesy of this wounded but scrappy fellow, which is fortunate for both of them since her second is with a nearby monster eager to finish them both off. Having journeyed to Aberystwyth to confirm (and possibly profit from) an inflammatory rumor he’d heard in London, Edward quickly encounters more than he bargained for, and is forced to stick with Koudelka to have any chance of escaping in one piece. While his upbeat, earthy mannerisms at first invite only scorn, he perseveres and gradually builds a bit of rapport between them. His name, not coincidentally, mirrors the birth name of the aforementioned Lord Dunsany.
James O’Flaherty – A bishop who journeys to Nemeton on a rather murky “mission from God”, the aggressively pious and dogmatic O’Flaherty wastes no time in rubbing both of his newfound companions the wrong way…right after they’ve saved his hide from one of the mansion’s creepy creatures, no less. His ironclad spiritual convictions are at once his greatest strength and his Achilles’ heel, granting an indomitable drive and sense of purpose whilst simultaneously preventing him from accepting the obvious at times; if James’ conviction threatens to waver for any reason his personality pulls an instant 180.
As was mentioned earlier, you’ll spend the game’s entirety trapped inside a single building: the place is bigger than it might appear at first, but your journey is still a relatively short one for an RPG, despite spanning four discs. Much of the time you do spend here will be devoted to carefully exploring every fixed-camera room’s numerous nooks and crannies in search of hidden items and secret passages; your character’s default walk is thus slow and deliberate, though holding the “cancel” button can double as a “run” command.
Barreling full speed ahead is often unwise, however, as there’s lots of stuff to find, and you’ll end up needing most of it – while some important pickups are immediately visible, many less-obvious points of interest need to be sniffed out. If you watch Koudelka closely in the field you can see her turn her head towards nearby things you should investigate, though in practice snuggling up against walls and objects while mashing “confirm” will often suffice, if inelegantly.
While a majority of the puzzles you need to solve to progress aren’t overly difficult, you’ll occasionally need to backtrack a ways for something you missed: you do find a map early on, but it’s rather vague, so you’ll have to get accustomed to the place’s layout largely on your own. Fortunately, while full-fledged save points are somewhat widely dispersed, many rooms give players the opportunity to “quick save” upon entering them, meaning that you’re never all that far from an opportunity to stop and take a break if you need to.
Naturally, like most any old and foreboding bit of architecture, Nemeton is populated by a vibrant, close-knit community of bloodthirsty eldritch critters, and as you wander around you’ll randomly encounter them and be spirited away to the Battle screen. Fights in Koudelka resemble a simplified version of the system used in many Strategy-RPG (SRPG) titles: you and your adversaries appear at opposite ends of a flat 5x7 grid, and when ready everyone can Move (up to three spaces total) and Act once apiece, though choosing to Wait instead causes one’s next turn to come up faster. Neither the player nor his enemies, under most circumstances, can move past the front-most member on the opposing side, so advancing rapidly can limit the opposition’s mobility; in exchange, physical attacks can be aimed diagonally as well as straight ahead, and have a chance to knock the target backwards.
Magic and items, for their part, can hit anywhere on the field, though it takes a bit of time to charge up an incantation; everyone in your party has access to the same spell list, so as long as someone’s got enough MP he or she can cast anything you’ve learned. Honestly there’s not a heckuva lot else to the fighting – certain offensive equipment (including guns, which need to be regularly reloaded) allows for attacks from farther away, and there’s a mostly-standard handful of enemy elemental weaknesses and status ailments to consider, but other than that if you can walk up to something and smack it you’ve got the essentials down. It should be noted that while you unfortunately can’t take back mistaken commands mid-turn, you do have the handy ability to switch weapons (at the cost of your current Action) and can also check an active character’s stat list freely; hardly make-or-break amenities, but you’ll still appreciate having them.
Koudelka’s experience system tacks a bit of flexibility onto your long-term strategy: when a character levels up, you’re free to distribute several “bonus” stat points between his/her eight parameters however you see fit, giving you some freedom to tailor your party to your liking. As the game warns you, however, you do need to take into account that certain stats play off of each other (i.e. a high Strength rating is useless if your Dexterity is too low for you to accurately hit anything). It’s not too huge a deal as long as you aren’t utterly reckless, but be aware that many pieces of equipment (all of which can be equipped by anyone) will lower certain numbers while raising others, so your choices might limit the potential usefulness of certain gear. Speaking of which, as you utilize certain spells and weapon types repeatedly your proficiency with them will gradually increase, leading to wider effect areas and chances for extra hits; again, just make sure not to become overly reliant on any one thing.
While Koudelka’s uncommon setting and structure infuse it with a fetching dose of personality, the designers were unable to work out all of the kinks that came attached to their ambitions…even more unhappily, excessive ambition is hardly the only problem here. There are no shops (or money, for that matter) in the monastery, which leaves you totally dependent on found items and monster drops for the stuff you’ll need to survive; moreover, the precise nature of the equipment you get is just as vulnerable to the whims of chance. For instance, early on you’ll find a “knife” weapon in a preset location: a knife of some sort will always be there, but its innate type (“Normal”, “Water”, “Vital”, “Mystic”, etc.) will vary with each play-through, and the same goes for nearly every weapon, armor, or accessory you lay hands on from beginning to end. Once you factor in the even less predictable nature of battle rewards, whether you end up with a dominating or near-useless arsenal becomes a roll of the dice.
To be fair, there’s enough loot lying around that you’re unlikely to get completely screwed over, but your inventory’s rather limited storage capacity certainly doesn’t help, especially seeing as you’ll be saddled with certain crucial “event” items across several discs, and thus forced to throw away other stuff you’d rather have kept in the interim. Oh, and did I mention that weapons possess an invisible “durability” rating and will suddenly break in the heat of battle? Then there’s the lack of any means whatsoever to check the HP, weaknesses, or other relevant information about the monsters you meet; none of your foes have even been given names to tell them apart, so when you encounter the inevitable palette swaps it’s up to you to remember whether it’s the blue or yellow one that’s weak against Air.
Perhaps in acknowledgment of their game’s rather haphazard framework, the designers implemented a very mild overall challenge level: while this “solution” does blunt some potential frustrations, it also robs Koudelka of much of the tension that its horror-inspired trappings should be feeding off of. Level-ups not only occur quite frequently, but refill the recipient’s HP and MP when they do, to the point that you’ll rarely need to bother with healing items or spells. Moreover, before long your stats will likely be high enough to make most battles, even bosses (which, by the way, you’re usually free to run from if they’re by some chance giving you trouble), a cakewalk: this goes double if you find yourself lost or stuck and end up unintentionally “grinding” in the interim.
To that end, you’ll probably end up taking more unwanted “side trips” than you’d like, as certain background doors and objects can be tough to make out, and may remain overlooked even after a room has been scoured thoroughly. The somewhat clunky field controls can be an additional hindrance: while they’re unlikely to ever cost you your life (unlike many “pure” horror titles), Koudelka will sometimes fail to climb a box or activate a switch unless you’re directly facing it when you hit the “confirm” button, further dragging down the already-sluggish process of moving things along. An additional handful of comparatively minor design foibles, such as the lack of a pause option during cutscenes (though they can be skipped), don’t make the game feel any less outdated and/or unpolished.
One is treated to a similar impression on the presentational side of things. While not graphically lacking to the point of offense, Koudelka doesn’t look particularly impressive for a late PS1 title: the pre-rendered environments are mostly static, and the polygonal characters and monsters, stray triangles popping out here and there, definitely could have benefited from some clean-up. The battle screen, despite foregoing any semblance of a background, still loads slowly, and ill-advised cut corners in “exploration” mode further hamstring the air of macabre that the designers were shooting for: most of the moments that could have provided some sorely-needed punch are reduced to bland text blurbs (“As you try to move deeper into the herb garden, a giant plant attacks you!”), hardly the ideal avenue to send chills up expectant spines. On the plus side, the game’s modest selection of CG sequences look pretty good, and the characters’ motion-captured animations have some spark to them: in battle, for example, if you move your character forward he or she will eagerly dash to the spot you specify, but if you choose to back up then they’ll tentatively hop in that direction, keeping their eyes on the enemy.
The aural department of Koudelka is, in a word, sparse: save a handful of battle tracks, the only times you’ll ever hear music are during cutscenes, as the rest of the journey is all but totally unaccompanied. The few songs you do hear aren’t bad at all, employing an appropriately-unsettling mix of exotic tribal instruments and ethereal electronic drones, but the heavy lifting here is taken on by crisply-executed sound effects: dripping water, howling wind, the crackle of a torch, the low vacuum of a tornado spell and the “squish”, “clatter”, or “crunch” of an approaching monster all serve to keep one’s ears perked up nicely. Story scenes are also voiced in English across all regions, and while the lines being read are hardly poetry (and can sometimes be muffled and hard to make out, exacerbated by the lack of a subtitle option in the Western versions), the main performers give them a laudable effort all around.
At the end of the day few are likely to bestow Koudelka with any label much more generous than “mediocre”: the lion’s share of any potential value it holds for contemporary gamers is as a curio rather than something truly worth playing for its own sake. For those familiar with the later Shadow Hearts titles, however, there’s additional appeal here, thanks not only to a handful of kinda-maybe-sorta-essential plot points, but a steady stream of unexpected and charming minutiae: while these stylistic bits and pieces hardly make up for Koudelka’s larger failings, the developers deserve a pat on the back for carrying them forward into their more successful future projects, allowing their lovingly-applied detail work some much-needed breathing room to stand out.
One such “tradition” that got its start here is the displaying of unique weapons on the character models wielding them, a small but welcome touch, especially considering the era and budget. An even classier artistic streak is discovered within the “Item” menu: not only can players freely rename every single pickup they find, but each listing is accompanied by a brief text description and a lovely hand-drawn illustration. In the years to come, by the way, both the pictures and text would be completely redone for each successive game, recurring items included; in like manner, the physical design of the Judgment Ring is changed up for each Shadow Hearts entry, and upon close inspection contains, among other esoterica, a Latin palindrome and excerpts of 14th-century poetry.
Koudelka and its kin are also notable for featuring multiple endings, whose appearances are affected by certain actions (or inactions) taken by the player – moreover, the lot are rather infamous for making some of the best-hidden catalysts very difficult to find without the help of a guide or FAQ (not in the same realm of “…huh? Seriously?” as, say, Valkyrie Profile, but getting there). Finally, it should be clarified that while Koudelka’s much-vaunted horror flavoring apparently raised enough eyebrows at the ESRB to earn it a “Mature” rating in the USA, it’s not as harrowing a journey as it makes itself out to be. Most of the gritty, gory stuff you encounter is simply described verbally or glimpsed in the aftermath of an unseen event, as nearly all of the really nasty stuff happens offscreen; for comparison’s sake, the famously stingy USK panel in Germany chose to rate the game “12+”. The Shadow Hearts series largely follows suit, with completely bloodless battles and mostly “high-end T-rating” content at worst.
Despite its creators’ high hopes of breaking new ground and getting themselves noticed, Koudelka failed to resonate much with either critics or consumers, and sales were feeble across all three regions, leading to Kikuta’s abrupt resignation from Sacnoth. There wasn’t a heckuva lot of merchandise left in the game’s wake, but a non-canon three-volume Koudelka manga (or, more likely, its fan translation) originally published in Monthly Ace Next and penned by mangaka Yuji Iwahara (who, interestingly, was once a graphic artist at Hudson Soft) might be worth a look, along with a light novel, drama CD, promo mini-CD and the official soundtrack. A doujin remix compilation (Best Album Vol. 2) by the usually Touhou-centric circle Fragile Online also features an arrangement derived from Koudelka.
Beyond this rather disjointed freshman effort, however, a much more interesting future lay ahead for developers and players alike: the decision was made by Sacnoth’s remaining staffers to take one more shot at unlocking the latent potential stirring within the dark alternate history envisioned for Koudelka.
MP3s
Dead
Incantation
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Shadow Hearts – Playstation 2 (2001)
By the time the fledgling outfit’s next project rolled around, Matsuzo Itakura, Koudelka’s art director and another Square alum, had taken Kikuta’s place as head of the company, and Sony’s shiny new PS2 was hungrily gobbling up the original Playstation’s clout for itself. Sacnoth’s first shot at the up-and-coming system was in some ways a more by-the-numbers RPG than Koudelka, but in other respects bucked its genre’s prevailing trends to a far more significant degree.
Remaining true to its ancestor’s macabre setting and atmosphere but working off of a design blueprint both more familiar and more complex than before, the Shadow Hearts series was “officially” born. In Japan the game was published by Aruze (currently operating under the uber-generic Universal Entertainment Company label), which had recently bought out a bankrupted SNK; it was also, against all odds, picked up for distribution in the USA and Europe by none other than the similarly ill-fated Midway.
Plot-wise, Shadow Hearts takes place 15 years after Koudelka, in 1913, and spans a number of locales, fictional and non-, across the Eurasian continent. World War I hasn’t yet thrown the globe into unprecedented turmoil, but a palpable sense of dread still fills the air, thanks not only to rising international political tensions but a laundry list of dark rituals and supernatural phenomena occurring further behind the scenes, fueled by forbidden tomes and relics with a cadre of mystical sects and secret societies pulling the strings. This latter portion, of course, is what the player will find himself most involved with, in the guise of a scrappy new hero and his suitably offbeat supporting cast.
Characters
Yuri Volte Hyuga – A 24-year-old man purportedly of mixed Japanese and Russian heritage, Yuri (known as Urmnaf, or “Uru” for short, in the original Japanese version) possesses the abilities of a “Harmonixer”: essentially, he can transform into a variety of powerful monsters. Despite this distinction, Yuri’s only true source of direction in life is an unpredictable and painful voice in his head, which has recently instructed him, without further explanation, to find and protect a girl named Alice. More than a little rough around the edges (and unapologetically proud of it), Yuri rarely backs down from a good fight, whether for a worthy cause or just the sheer thrill; these traits tend to earn him enemies in high places, not to mention the business end of more than one nasty curse.
Alice Elliot – After her father, a famed exorcist, is killed before her eyes, Alice, wearer of perhaps the shortest skirt in priestess history, suddenly finds herself hunted down by a range of sinister interests, all intent on somehow exploiting her divine gifts for their own ends: Yuri, as it happens, first enters her life by foiling an imminent abduction on the Trans-Siberian railroad. Initially put off by his blunt, crude mannerisms, Alice eventually comes to understand the nature of his struggle and determines to assist and comfort him however she can; over time the two grow close. As you might expect, she’s your white mage, most proficient in healing magic.
Zhuzhen Liu – Introduced to the player early on as “Quack Oracle”, this old master of the mystical arts is far more knowledgeable than such a moniker would suggest, having seen or experienced firsthand many of the major happenings leading up to the world’s current and volatile state of affairs. While kindly and diplomatic when he wants to be, Zhuzhen always keeps a sharp tongue at the ready for anyone who gets on his nerves (usually the incorrigible Yuri, of course). His “Yin and Yang” battle techniques are a mixture of curative and offensive elemental spells.
Margarete G. Zelle – A spy and explosives specialist intent on tracking and disrupting the movements of an increasingly-aggressive Japanese army, she crosses paths with Yuri and company during a not-so-delicate operation. After observing them in action she determines to tag along, certain that the motley crew has something of value to offer her mission. Margarete lacks superhuman abilities, but does carry a nifty (and anachronistic) cellular phone that can be used to call in anything from bazookas to giant healing syringes, all of which drop instantly out of the sky in superbly goofy fashion. She’s named after and (loosely) based on the actual historical spy popularly known as Mata Hari.
Keith Valentine – As a vampire of noble birth Keith possesses not only extraordinary strength and longevity but immunity to sunlight, garlic, and most such other traditional weaknesses and wards: thankfully, he’s also an upstanding, soft-spoken sort, well-liked by his neighbors and especially kind to children. Unexpectedly roused from a prolonged stasis by an out-of-control Yuri, once the rest of the group arrives at his castle Keith decides to join up and help out instead of returning to his slumber and letting things outside solve themselves. Most of his “Ritual” special attacks are purely offense-oriented, though some, appropriately enough, can also absorb life from enemies.
Halley Brancket – A slingshot-brandishing London street urchin. His mother, an exceptional psychic, has been accused of witchcraft and taken away by force; Halley, left to fend for himself, has inherited some similar mental powers but struggles for control when they manifest themselves. He and his impoverished gang of orphans trick and pickpocket Yuri when he first arrives in town, but once the group is caught Halley’s story comes out, and the protagonists agree to help him find Mom (a hint as to his origins: his first name, “Harry”, was mistranslated…and so was his last name). Halley’s “ESP” abilities have a variety of effects in battle.
Roger Bacon – An English gentleman who wields an extraordinary command of dark magic, he is Alice’s most dogged pursuer and a dangerous rival for Yuri, though the two also harbor a sort of cordial respect for each other. His name mirrors that of a famous alchemist (and real-life thirteenth-century philosopher) who is said to have achieved immortality hundreds of years earlier, but opinions vary as to whether or not this could be the same person.
Shadow Hearts’ most noteworthy innovation is its revamped battle system: enemy encounters are still random, but Koudelka’s grid-based framework has been deep-sixed in favor of a more conventional and efficient turn-based setup. This occasion also marks the birth of the iconic Judgment Ring, which requires players to demonstrate a measure of button-pressing precision to successfully pull off attacks, obtain deals while shopping, or even progress the story at certain points (though the latter is kind of silly, as you simply keep trying until you get it right; you do get better prizes if you nail it on the first go, at least).
While utterly mastering the Ring isn’t necessary to get through the game, honing your timing will definitely make progress smoother, especially in combat, where not only are more powerful attacks trickier to nail, but successfully snapping the indicator within an extra-thin “Strike” zone awards heightened power. Careful, though, as some adversaries can afflict Ring-specific status ailments custom-tailored to screw up your timing.
Another distinctive tweak to the usual RPG song and dance is the presence of “Sanity Points” (“SP”) in addition to your standard stocks of health and magic – as the in-game explanation goes, getting up close and personal with freakish monsters does a number on your characters’ minds, and their sanity ebbs a bit with each action taken in fending off the nasty things. Different characters’ mental thresholds vary, but if anyone’s SP ends up completely depleted they’ll freak out, go “Berserk” and become uncontrollable: while not technically “dead”, if they’re still Berserk when the fight is over they won’t receive any experience.
It’s not quite as pressing a concern as it sounds, since SP is automatically refilled after every encounter and most skirmishes end before it becomes an issue, but against hardier foes (especially ones with the ability to drain additional SP) you’ll want to keep an eye on the meter and have a supply of items on hand to replenish it when needed. Basically, Sanity Points serve as motivation to finish your battles as quickly and efficiently as possible, and to add an extra layer of psychological dread to the proceedings; like them or loathe them, the design team chose to make them a permanent series fixture, so you might as well get used to ‘em.
Then there’s the “Malice” system, the result of one of the aforementioned curses that Yuri has to deal with. As you kill enemies you’ll accumulate their “malice” towards you, and if you let too much of it build up a super-powerful baddie will be drawn to its source (i.e., you), quite likely ending your game unless you’ve prepared specifically for him in advance (and even that’s no guarantee). To prevent this from transpiring Yuri needs to periodically enter the foreboding “Graveyard” within his own mind and fight a solo battle to temporarily purge the malice from himself: the longer you wait the more powerful the “manifested” enemy there will be, though it’s never anywhere near as dangerous as the alternative.
As with SP, Malice generally isn’t a major issue, but since you can only access the Graveyard at save points it’s something of an annoyance, since it prevents you from wandering too far away from “home base” even if the local pests aren’t giving you much trouble. On less-frequent journeys inward Yuri can also choose to spend “Soul Energy”, simultaneously earned from battles, to unleash, confront, and gain control of new fusion monsters: the specific type of soul energy you get, however, depends on the elemental affinity of the adversaries you beat up, which can be a bit irritating if you’re on the cusp of unlocking a new Fire-type fusion whilst stuck in an area with no Fire monsters.
Other features include the ability to pay for “acupuncture” from the first in a long line of aggressive, homosexual “specialty” merchants, something of a series hallmark in and of themselves. This can either strengthen a weapon’s attack power or widen the size of its Ring hit zones: unfortunately, the process is expensive, and buffing one aspect will weaken the other. Enhancements also only apply to individual weapons, so as soon as you upgrade to a new piece of equipment all the money you spent on the last one goes out the window, rendering the service largely useless. Items and accessories do exist that allow you to tweak the Judgment Ring in a more practical fashion (daredevils can even hide hit areas from sight, forcing a reliance on muscle memory in exchange for heightened power), though they tend to be rare.
Shadow Hearts also establishes itself as one of the few non-Roguelike RPGs to “score” and rank players throughout the game based on how far they’ve progressed and how capably they’ve performed in various categories: starting a “New Game Plus” upon completion doesn’t carry over most of the stuff you’ve obtained or the levels you’ve gained, but your old score is still available for viewing, to see if you can top it this time around. You also get to keep all the character and monster information you’ve amassed in the game’s handy Encyclopedia, as well as a “Help” menu which can be accessed at any time if you need a refresher on the various systems at your fingertips.
You’ll definitely want to make good use of every advantage you’re given, since the game, while not impossibly tough, is relatively challenging for a JRPG: not only are cash and supplies often tight, but baddies, bosses in particular, tend to take considerable effort to bring down even if you’re well-prepared. Shadow Hearts also embodies a Shin Megami Tensei-esque cruelty, insofar as it sometimes throws you into situations which are almost impossible to survive the first time out: characters, like monsters, possess an innate and unchangeable (except for Yuri, via his transformations) elemental affinity, and it can be tough to guess in advance who you should bring to a given fight for the best results. Similarly, if you run into a meanie brandishing an “instant death” spell when you haven’t equipped the proper defensive accessories, you’re pretty much guaranteed an express trip back to the last save point. Such instances aren’t frequent enough to completely hamstring the game, but do evoke some unwelcome frustration when they pop up: the fact that Yuri can only equip and access up to three Fusions at a time in battle doesn’t do much to improve your odds.
Our hero’s journey is another relatively short one, clocking in between 20 and 30 hours per run-through for most players; it’s also a mostly-linear trip, as side-questing and backtracking opportunities are kept scarce until late in the game. Most of the individual places you visit follow suit, lacking many offshoots from the main path to explore, though some players (even disregarding Malice management) might be relieved to not have to worry about losing their way too often, especially since, unlike Koudelka, there’s no in-game map at all.
On the other hand, Shadow Hearts still caters in a big way to players with ADD: in both towns and dungeons, exploring the obscure nooks and crannies that do exist frequently pays dividends, as “invisible” pickups are plentiful. Thankfully, also unlike Koudelka, when you strike gold a clearly visible question mark appears over your character’s head, so you’ll always know when you’ve stumbled onto something. Notwithstanding, much of the optional side content here remains quite easy to miss: be sure to take full advantage of the few opportunities you’re given to check previous areas, and be prepared to canvas absolutely everybody in hopes that a random conversation with some citizen or other opens up a new location to kick around in or some other reward for your persistence.
Presentation-wise, on quantifiable merits alone the game still comes up a bit short, even for an early PS2 release. While the generational jump means a de facto step up from Koudelka, backgrounds are still pre-rendered and sparsely animated. Characters and monsters (some of whose designs have been carried over from the PS1) do look a good deal better than before, but some clumsily blocky polygons and pixelated texturing are tough to ignore outright. On a positive note, the frame rate has been bumped up considerably so everything moves smoothly, and the grimly-realized locales and often-disturbing monster designs, inspired by Chinese and Christian mysticism with a generous dollop of Lovecraft on top, succeed better at offsetting the more systematic deficiencies than Nemeton Monastery ever did.
Cutscenes have also dramatically improved in both the technical and directorial departments: the CG sequences look particularly great, but the game also makes occasional, jarring use of grainy, stylized live-action footage as well, which will probably throw most players for a loop when it first shows up. All things considered, while Shadow Hearts’ visuals don’t really detract from the experience, if you’re looking for a graphical landmark this isn’t where you’ll find it.
On the musical front, new composers Yoshitaka Hirota and Ryo Fukuda, working alongside industry veterans Masaharu Iwata (aka “Rezon”) and Yasunori Mitsuda (perhaps best-known for the “Chrono” games, though his work on Tsugunai: Atonement is the most similar to Shadow Hearts in spirit), put together a strong and eclectic soundtrack, capturing everything from the cheery and upbeat to the brooding, dissonant and threatening, infused with myriad “mystical” overtones, especially along the lines of vocal chanting and wailing (the main theme, ICARO, serves as a prominent example).
Despite the game’s short running time, said soundtrack spans two CDs and over 60 tracks: to give you some idea of what to expect, not only will you be treated to several different battle themes as you go, but if a character goes “berserk” in a particular setting there’s a unique musical transition for that too. Voices, on the other hand, are completely absent outside of CG intermissions and the “hyaas” and “oofs” of battle; the monsters are at least as vocal as your characters, growling and yowling as hits are exchanged. Strangely enough, in the game’s Western versions some of the in-fight clips were redone in English while others were left in Japanese; as a result a character may even speak with two distinctly different voices during the course of a single attack sequence, which is far weirder to hear for yourself than to read about here.
In the end, second only to the crucial implementation of the Judgment Ring, Shadow Hearts’ best single asset is its nigh-unmistakable “vibe”, especially as embodied by its rough-and-ready protagonist – while most RPG heroes fall squarely into either the “valiant goody two-shoes” or “brooding angst machine” category, Yuri manages to settle into a comfortable spot somewhere in between while maintaining his own effortless flair, keeping an “edge” about him while remaining likable and down-to-earth enough to root for (and that’s without taking into account how vitally versatile he is in combat, unlike many “teenager with sword” headliners). Of course, just about everyone else helps to keep things interesting in their own way, including standard-issue NPCs, every one of whom possesses a unique name or title (“Fidgety Pot-Bellied Man”, “Dissatisfied Fumi”, “Diehard Smoker Ryan”, etc.): both sequels would end up taking the same tack with their own dramatis personae.
While the story doesn’t completely sidestep the narrative pitfalls players have come to expect, for the most part its goings-on will keep comers invested even if the gameplay occasionally elicits groans. In like manner, the creators don’t let the dark atmosphere grow overwhelming, peppering in welcome pockets of silliness here and there, from kooky, bizarre set pieces and dialogue snippets to out-and-out slapstick interludes: one infamous (and recurring) sidequest involves tracking down a naughty magazine for an old perv. That said, even some of your less-embarrassing exploits are pretty unique, from the Lottery (exchange rare tickets for a one-time shot at the Ring for a rare item via certain “undercover” NPCs) to the Pedometer (the farther you walk in dungeons, the better the prizes you get…and you eventually get the opportunity to cheat by equipping accessories to inflate your step count).
Despite showcasing a truckload of promise, Shadow Hearts was unfortunate enough to release around the same time as Squaresoft’s hotly-anticipated Final Fantasy X, and thus never stood much of a chance on store shelves, especially as a new IP reaping mixed critical reception. A little bit at a time, though, curious PS2 owners began to notice and sample its unique flavor, unofficially promoting it from “anonymous commodity” to “cult artifact”, to the point that a “Best” reprint (packaged with a bonus DVD, but also containing a save bug in some early copies) was eventually issued in Japan.
For many similar “niche” RPGs with a solid foundation in need of additional refinement this likely would have been the end of the road; aside from the aforementioned soundtrack (which features a “plus one” in its official title, to note a bonus song) and a strategy guide or two, little merchandise was ever produced (though PAL pre-order customers got a mini-guide, and there’s a garage kit figure of Alice floating around). Odds in favor of the developers getting a well-deserved opportunity to reassess and improve the formula seemed slim: defying expectations yet again, however, the Judgment Ring would soon begin to turn anew.
MP3s
Brain Hopper (China Battle)
Atmosphere Blow-up (Europe Map)
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Shadow Hearts II/Covenant – Playstation 2 (2004)
Though Shadow Hearts had made it out the door in time for Sacnoth to engrave their name on it, Aruze’s acquisition of SNK and its assets finally caught up with the group not long afterwards: thankfully, their new baby had garnered just enough positive attention for the suits to both keep the development team intact (despite changing their moniker to “Nautilus”) and give the all-important green light to a sequel. After a few years of work this second chapter, which would again be brought Westward by Midway with the added subtitle “Covenant” (and an offer to receive a copy of the first game for free if you pre-ordered in the USA), finally made it to market, and thank goodness it did, for this is the point at which the series truly hits its stride.
In an unusual twist, the first game’s “bad” ending has been evoked as its (more-or-less) canon conclusion, and as a result Yuri’s hard-fought victory over both his outward enemies and inner demons has exacted a painfully heavy final price: Alice’s life. Of course, the coinciding march of real-world history only makes matters more depressing, for while mankind has been spared all-enveloping supernatural darkness, it turns out that he doesn’t need any help to unleash a globe-altering cataclysm, and the first World War erupts before Yuri or his friends have so much as a chance to exhale.
Eighteen months after they resignedly go their separate ways, however, malevolent forces beyond the grasp of mere mortals are stirring with newfound strength amidst all the chaos: seeing as our social studies textbooks have done a shamefully inadequate job of covering this side of the story, the onus falls to video games to keep the public duly informed about what REALLY happened.
Characters
Yuri Volte Hyuga – Once again lacking direction or aspirations for himself following Alice’s untimely passing, Yuri eventually wends his way to the remote French village of Domremy, which he settles into and defends from invasion once Axis forces begin to loom on the horizon. Time and loss have softened his countenance a bit, as he’s more susceptible to periods of quiet contemplation than he used to be, but when push comes to shove he still relishes any opportunity to say “bite me” to some looming, emoting underworld demi-god sorely in need of an attitude adjustment. His signature fusion powers are sealed away by yet another curse early on, but it’s not long before he sets out to earn all of his “special friends” back and resume kicking some unholy ass.
Karin Koenig – A German army lieutenant whose once-distinguished family name has fallen on hard times, Karin and her unit are one of many would-be occupiers of Domremy to be chased off by the town’s mysterious “guardian”. When she’s sent back for a second try things quickly escalate beyond what she signed up for, and she finds herself fleeing for her life not from Yuri but alongside him; tragically, she gradually begins to harbor feelings for the young man, despite knowing full well that his heart already belongs to Alice. A balanced user of both physical attacks and magic, she also (somehow) learns a handful of unique sword techniques by tracking down scattered musical scores from Wagner’s Nibelung opera cycle.
Gepetto – Alice’s elderly uncle and a famous puppeteer who, after the sudden death of his only daughter, retired to Domremy and met a sullen Yuri there. The latter, as it turned out, had just arrived from Zurich, where he had laid Alice to rest with his own hands; Gepetto decides to stick by the young man until fate takes him elsewhere. Like Zhuzhen before him Gepetto is chock full of helpful information and experience, though at times his better judgment is overtaken by a weakness for liquor and/or lechery. He fights indirectly, via a favorite marionette named Cornelia: buying and equipping different costumes for her both changes his elemental affinity and unlocks new special spells for his use.
Blanca – A friendly white wolf “adopted” by a certain young girl from Domremy (guess her name, history buffs...and Wikipedia readers), he helps Yuri watch over the village and continues to follow after him once he’s forced out. Intelligent and resourceful, Blanca’s animal instincts provide his human compatriots a way out of numerous tight spots, though he’s frequently frustrated by the fact that they can’t understand (and often misinterpret) what he’s trying to tell them. Throughout the game he can challenge other wolves he meets to one-on-one bouts (Fatal Fury fans will get a particular kick out of one of them): victory brings new attacks and treasures, as well as tidbits of insight into his past.
Joachim Valentine – Keith’s older brother is about as disparate a personality from his kin as you could possibly imagine: a showboating but well-meaning (and ambiguously gay) muscle-head, Joachim lays the smack down with a combination of large blunt objects he finds lying around (from tables to mailboxes to statues to the classic frozen tuna) and over-the-top pro wrestling techniques. What’s more, his “unique biorhythms” periodically shift his body between several different forms with varying stats and abilities, including sentai-style masked super-hero Grand Papillon. Even in a game hardly wanting for colorful personalities, Joachim may well take the crown as the strangest of them all.
Lucia – An orphan raised and trained in the arts of dancing and fortune-telling by a onetime Florentine beauty named Carla, Lucia’s physical allure and grace are equaled only by her bubbly, perky and somewhat ditzy personality. Initially suspicious of the party (not that one can blame her, really), she’s urged by Carla to join up after they win her trust…and survive a series of clumsy attempts to do them in. During battle she can mix a variety of Aroma Oils together to add support effects to allies, or randomly produce a Tarot card from her deck, which may either help or hinder your situation depending on the luck of the draw.
Anastasia Romanov – While her real-world counterpart’s story was cut short by the Russian Revolution, this game’s version of the young princess is defined by her tireless pursuit of unapproved snacks (much to the chagrin of the exasperated palace guards) and a fierce desire to do what she can to help her country, even if it means leaving home to adventure with Yuri’s band. Covenant’s resident “blue mage”, she brandishes a camera to snap pictures of enemies and reveal their vital stats; certain adversaries will also bestow special abilities when photographed. Curious and tactless to no end, she frequently schemes and squabbles with the lumbering Joachim.
Kurando Inugami – A polite, disciplined samurai from a backwater Japanese village, he agrees to travel with the group after Yuri helps him defend his master and the latter’s adopted daughter (based off of an actual Japanese spy and the Chinese princess he expatriated and raised) from repeated ambushes. Kurando possesses “Fusion” abilities similar to Yuri’s, though more limited in scope – the player finds out precisely why before long. The 14-year-old Anastasia, as it happens, develops a rather sudden and slightly uncomfortable crush on him; Kurando’s reaction, like ours, is one of befuddlement above all else.
Nicolai Conrad – Initially identified as a representative from the Vatican assigned to assist Karin on her return trip to Domremy, in truth Nicolai is affiliated with a reclusive underground society known as Sapientes Gladio (“Sages of the Sword”), who were covertly working on the same side as Yuri in the first game but have since become opposed to the so-called “Godslayer”. Smooth-tongued and self-confident, he quickly turns ruthless if things aren’t going his way. Rumor has it that Nautilus was actually considering making him Covenant's primary protagonist early in the design process, though concrete info on this possibility tends to be elusive.
For players of the original Shadow Hearts, the first thing likely to stand out in the sequel is how much more “open” almost everything feels: bringing the “wrong” party or equipment to a given area used to mean drudgery-a-plenty, but here you can almostalways do fine no matter who’s up to bat, so long as you take a little time to make sure you’re “generally” well-prepared. While everybody on your team still sports their own unique combat abilities, this time most of them can also be outfitted with magical “crests” (bearing names borrowed from demons featured in the “Goetia” segment of the apocryphal Lesser Key of Solomon) which enable a variety of interchangeable “common” elemental spells.
There are few restrictions, aside from an overarching “Dominance Capacity Point” (DP) limit, on who can be equipped with what, which translates to a much-needed injection of flexibility into your available battle strategies. Yuri is unable to equip Crests, but in exchange can access all of his Fusions at once; as an added boon, transforming now consumes a set amount of extra SP per action instead of a big chunk upon activation, so if you accidentally select the wrong creature you don’t need to risk going Berserk to fix your mistake.
The overall flow of the game, in fact, has taken a more relaxed approach, as you’re far freer than before to check previous areas to make sure you haven’t missed anything, or venture off to the side for a break from the main quest. Naturally, there are still lots of elusive nuggets that you’ll drive yourself nuts tracking down, especially towards the end, but most of the time you can seek them out more or less at your leisure. You’ll also still venture into Yuri’s inner “Graveyard” to enhance his abilities, but thanks to Alice’s sacrifice (and good design sense) both element-specific Soul Energy and the “Malice” system have been canned, so not only can you unlock new fusions in any order you please, but there’s no more threat of a sudden Game Over looming over your head if you just feel like meandering around for awhile.
Nowhere, though, is this heady sense of freedom more evident than within the retooled and spit-shined Judgment Ring: the vestigial “acupuncture” service has been mercifully replaced with a wide and welcome variety of free-form means to tweak the Ring’s performance to your liking. Almost right from the get-go you’re able to choose from several basic “styles” of Ring, which can be switched up at will via the main menu: you’re free to exchange raw power for more forgiving timing (or vice-versa), enable a one-shot “gamble” Ring, or even disable manual Ring input altogether if you’d rather not bother with it.
Items to adjust the Ring’s hit areas, speed, and other characteristics (including adding status effects to your physical attacks) are far more plentiful than before and can be equipped or unequipped relatively easily, which basically gives you the wherewithal to customize the game’s most prominent system to your own preferred specifications. Newbies can ease into the swing of things, veterans can challenge themselves for greater rewards, and the mostly-pointless “event” Rings are gone too, so now every time a Ring pops up you know something is truly at stake.
Battle, of course, is where most of this stuff comes into play: in addition to the aforementioned customization options a bevy of new combat features are on tap to keep things interesting. First and foremost, combat now occurs in “actual space” – participants on both sides will constantly break formation to deal physical strikes, or cast spells to slam enemies away and even into walls. Unlike Lunar or Grandia there’s no “move” stat to consider, and thus no real need to ever worry about being “out of range”, but positioning must still be taken into account since most special attacks and magic have a limited area of effect. To help keep track of this more involved brand of combat the overall turn order is now displayed onscreen, as is an HP meter for enemies, which makes formulating and adjusting strategies mid-fight much easier.
By the by, four party members can brawl at a time, up from the first game’s max of three, and two or more of these can pool their efforts via the newly-minted “Combo” tactic. When someone’s turn comes up, you can opt to delay their action and instead have them run over and link up with someone else farther down the line; once the latter takes his/her turn the waiting member(s), following a quick button prompt, can then immediately follow up, and the more consecutive hits are landed the greater the damage bonus you get. To maximize effectiveness, everyone’s standard physical attacks can be directed to knock enemies into or out of the air, or farther away, to set them up for the next step of the beating; if you can successfully orchestrate a full-party Combo you have the option of finishing it off with a super-powerful special spell. Lastly, as you use certain party members more often their “Affinity” for each other will gradually increase, leading to more effective Combos.
A bit of experimentation is required to determine which sequences work best (i.e. if Member A uses a strike that knocks a lightweight enemy high into the air and Member B follows up with a ground-based move, the latter will whiff and the chain will break...on a heavier opponent, however, the combination might work), but it’s not all that hard to figure out. Some enemies can Combo you, too, though both they and your allies can be nudged out of (or occasionally into) the setup formation with a strong enough blow: there is a special “Resist” defensive option to prevent this, but it costs SP. Speaking of which, Sanity Points are no longer your only motivation to always do your best in battle: finish things up extra-quickly, without taking damage, or in a couple of other “above-and-beyond” fashions, and you’ll receive a bit of bonus money, items, and/or experience, which can add up nicely if you’re consistent.
While still not as sweepingly “epic” as some of its RPG brethren, Covenant is definitely a bigger production than its elder sibling: though its pacing is generally faster, the game now spans two discs and will likely command around twice the original’s play time to finish. You’re still restricted to destinations around Eurasia, but you’ll visit a wider variety of places and hobnob with even more (jazzed-up) historical figures than last time, including famed British military officer Lawrence of Arabia, Indian wrestling legend The Great Gama, and Russia’s infamous “Mad Monk” Rasputin. Some of the everyday townspeople will also flap their jaws about artists and other personalities of the day, so those with a yen for history will have plenty of (half-accurate) tidbits to take in as they progress. Dungeons are likewise much larger and more labyrinthine than before, and as a result getting lost now rears its head as a less-then-inviting possibility, but a mini-map offers at least a little help in finding (or re-finding) your way.
Despite tossing players several more balls to juggle than the first game did, the sequel’s focus on flexibility makes for an easier quest to finish all around: a few might argue that the first Shadow Hearts’ sometimes-frustrating brand of challenge was an integral part of its je ne sais quoi, but the majority will be none too heartbroken to see most of the insta-deaths and grinding boss battles gone for good. Some nifty new shortcuts, such as the ability to pre-set favorite party formations and assign “combo” strings to single buttons, will render them even less likely to gaze too despondently over their shoulders.
That all being said, it’s confession time: when I stated earlier that Covenent’s “openness” would be the first thing you’d notice about it, I lied. That distinction belongs to the much-improved graphics. While the game doesn’t quite reach the topmost tier of PS2 visuals, it’s still impressive to look at, especially considering the rather spartan foundation it’s been built up from. The mostly-lifeless pre-rendered backdrops have finally been ditched in favor of real-time environments, while character and enemy models, particularly in terms of facial expressions, have been drastically spruced up. Even with the fresh coat of paint animations are still silky smooth, and the lauded CG cutscenes are even more impressive to behold than they were last time.
If there’s a potential downside to the presentation, however, there is some truth to the notion that it’s not quite as distinctive as it might be – though there are certainly some revolting creatures slithering around, the first game’s marquee horror flavoring has been inarguably pared back, as reflected in a less-restrictive “Teen” ESRB rating. On the flipside of the coin, the humor quotient has been well and truly let off the leash: a parade of bizarre personalities and situations is on hand for players to gawk at in disbelief, from an out-of-nowhere Metal Gear Solid spoof sequence (proof positive that yes, it is possible to make Metal Gear Solid even sillier than it already is) to a giant, fluffy pink kitty-cat boss (prompting the inevitable “That is one giant pussy” outburst from Yuri). To be sure, straight-up comedy isn’t a whole lot more common than horror when it comes to JRPGs, so the overall mood does still stand out from most of the competition. One long-running side mission in particular was…interesting enough by itself to inspire a Penny Arcade comic strip.
To some extent, the same principle applies to the game’s aural elements. Hirota and Mitsuda are back on the job, with newfound assistance courtesy of Kenji Ito (the “SaGa” series and others) and Tomoko Imoto (nee Kobayashi). Covenant’s music takes things in a bit more of an orchestral direction, and thus remains just as fitting to the occasion, though this in turn means that some of the most unique, eerie interludes aren’t as prevalent; there are still sections that can make your hair stand on end, especially as you get farther in and encounter some of the ickier baddies, but generally speaking, while the music makes for a great listen, it’s also a touch more predictable in nature than its predecessor’s was. Character voices, for their part, are much more prevalent both in and out of battle, and hey, Midway (employing none other than Konami veteran Jeremy Blaustein) actually bothered to translate the whole thing this time ! A majority of the English VAs do a good job, though it wouldn’t be a localized JRPG without some mismatched text and cringe-worthy lines sprinkled in.
In any event, you’ll have to pardon the cliché, but there’s really no avoiding it: in nearly every respect, Covenant truly does take what was good about the first Shadow Hearts and make it better, smoothing out both literal and figurative rough edges to put together a better-executed and all-around more enjoyable package. These welcome developments did not go unnoticed by either players or reviewers, as the sequel elicited a much warmer welcome to retail than the original: most fans today still cite Covenant as their undisputed pick of the litter.
Of course, with great popularity comes great heaps of swag and other promotions: another 2-disc soundtrack and a complement of guides and artbooks are no-brainers, but how about, say, a cell phone fan club (featuring ringtones, wallpapers and the like), phone cards, calendars, tote bags, alarm clocks, music boxes, a TGS promo DVD, and pre-made cosplay outfits? While some Japanese copies of Shadow Hearts II were again afflicted with a save bug (the transition to Disc 2 could corrupt your file; victims could mail their card in to have the data fixed), the country was also the only one to receive a “Limited DX Pack”, which threw in a cell phone strap, choker and pouch, media DVD, and a pair of Judgment Ring drink coasters(!) alongside the game for a few thousand yen extra.
More depressing for Westerners, though, is the fact that they missed out on the “Director’s Cut” re-release that Japan got about a year after the original printing: similar to the “FES” edition that Persona 3 would receive in 2007, it not only retailed for a “Best” label’s discount price but included some supplemental content. Most of it is pretty standard “omake” fare, like new items, music, and plot scenes, plus HDD support and a few other tweaks; the main attractions here are a pair of additional dungeons. One is an optional end-game side trip with an uber-boss at the end, but the other is a sudden cut-away in the middle of the story, during which you get to temporarily play as Nicolai and two other central villains. The extras on offer aren’t exactly indispensable, but they are nice bonuses for anyone with access to them; as it happens, owners of the later-released PAL version with enough technical know-how can actually dig up some of the hidden stuff nestled away in the coding.
In any case, non-Japanese fans must have been thrilled all the same to glimpse a poster, cardboard standee or even a themed employee “pre-order now!” pin in brick-and-mortar stores around release time, a surefire indication of just how much hard-earned clout (relatively speaking) the series could now boast. More Shadow Hearts, they could be certain, was on the way.
MP3s
Vicious 1915 (Europe Battle)
Gathering God (Thrill)
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Shadow Hearts From the New World – Playstation 2 (2005)
Considering Covenant’s rather impressive surge in popularity, you might assume that the Powers That Be would be eager to chart a similar course for the next installment – as it turns out, you’d only be half right. While in many ways the third and final series entry, dubbed “From the New World” across all territories, does retain and build on the well-received shifts and add-ons of its immediate predecessor, from other angles it’s more accurately cast as a rather unexpected throwback to the first Shadow Hearts: all at once it’s bigger and smaller, scarier and sillier, steadier and sloppier than ever. Players can almost feel themselves being pulled in two different directions right through the controller, though thankfully things turn out decidedly better here than in the similarly-conflicted Koudelka.
As the title suggests, From the New World leaves behind the Eurasian backdrop of its ancestors in favor of the Americas, near the conclusion of the “roaring” 1920’s. All of the places you visit there are (obviously) new, as is the playable cast, though there are plentiful and distinct echoes of the past all over the place, from plain-sight cameos to veiled references that only veterans of the first two games would recognize. Anyway, due to a certain major event that transpired in Covenant, the creepy, surreal occurrences and encounters that Yuri and his posse had been dealing with in their neighborhood are now popping up all over the world; on the American continent a fresh set of faces take up the case, and handily claim the title of “wackiest team yet assembled” while they’re at it.
Characters
Johnny Garland – A 16-year old Manhattanite who’s recently started up his own solo detective agency, Johnny recently lost his father, sister and some of his memories (groan) to a terrible accident, but instead of simply inheriting the family business and moving on he decides to grope about rather haphazardly in search of answers. Thanks to this being a video game and not real life he actually finds some, as there’s more to his story than meets the eye. From the outset Johnny takes over Anastasia’s enemy-photographing duties (and can even trade the photos he takes with other shutterbugs he encounters), though later on he obtains other tools and battle aids by solving a string of puzzles and riddles.
Shania – Princess of the Garvoy, a fictional Southwestern Native American tribe, Shania serves, in a far greater capacity than Johnny, as a stand-in for Yuri, possessing some similar (but not identical) fusion abilities, hard-nosed personality traits, and a job as a fiend-hunter: her inmost motivations to this end are at least as personal as his once were, if a bit more impulse-driven. She also happens to be one of the most shamelessly fan-servicey creations in all of RPG-dom: while certainly not the first Shadow Hearts character (Yuri included, at times) to raise an eyebrow or two, her costume, fusion animations, and even the creatures she turns into are a whole new definition of boob-tastic.
Natan – An imposing Garvoy warrior who accompanies Shania as her guardian – like most “big, servile guys” in role-playing games he’s strong and mostly silent, though quite amiable beneath the taciturn exterior. He dispatches evil with a potent combination of twin pistols and traditional martial arts: in case you’re wondering whether the developers took the super-tacky Equilibrium route and dubbed his style “Gun-Fu”, yes, yes they did. At least he also gets to hunt and trap Bigfoot, the Chupacabra, and other iconic urban legends via sidequests along the way.
Frank Goldfinger – Who knew that a secret Shinobi training dojo lay hidden smack-dab in the middle of the Amazon rainforest? In the aftermath of a tragic light-plane accident, Frank stumbled upon the ninjas’ tropical headquarters and opted to remain there for a time, mastering the clan’s ancient techniques before returning home to defend his beloved USA…or so he claims, anyway. Though he utilizes ninjutsu (or something like it) instead of wrestling moves, Frank has inherited Joachim’s flashy/embarrassing penchant for poses and catchphrases, not to mention his utter lack of hesitation when it comes to granting random detritus a second life as improvised weaponry.
Mao – Just in case you were convinced that Frank’s storyline couldn’t get any weirder, meet his Master, an oversized, bipedal talking cat who also happens to be an expert “drunken fist” kung-fu practitioner (“Prohibition doesn’t apply to cats”, she reasons), one of Al Capone’s right-hand agents, and a budding Hollywood actress to boot. Yup. Mao typically exudes serenity, keeping cool as a cucumber even under duress, but completely loses it in the face of her erstwhile pupil’s frequent screw-ups. She learns new techniques by filming “action scenes” versus other (parody-ridden and pun-loaded) feline actors, in similar fashion to Blanca’s “Wolf Bouts”.
Hildegard Valentine – Youngest of the Valentine siblings and goth-loli quotient filler, the government mistakes her for a space alien after a strange aircraft she’s aboard crashes near Roswell. Like Joachim she can take on several different physical combat forms (and harbors super-hero aspirations…with a merchandising line!), but this time you have some direct control over when they show up: unlike her brothers, Hilda doesn’t siphon life, but can instead absorb scrumptious calories directly from enemies. Thanks to her “sensitive metabolism”, Hilda’s stats, abilities, appearance, and even her personality will drastically vary depending on how many delicious kCals she’s hauling around. Quite the high-maintenance type.
Ricardo Gomez – A suave wandering mariachi musician who’s largely settled down in Chicago since meeting the woman of his dreams there…of course, the path to true love turns out to be a VERY rocky one, and Ricardo once more takes to the road in search of meaning and inspiration. Possessing a natural flair for the dramatic, his trusty guitar is chock full of hidden guns, flamethrowers, and heaven only knows what else. Ricardo’s other major combat options are his songs, each of which is actually accompanied by a unique acoustic flourish, a nice touch; many of them buff allies like Lucia’s Aroma Oils did, though some have more impressive effects.
Killer – A notorious serial murderer whose name has been all but forgotten in favor of his single, grisly moniker. Just as he’s finally been cornered by the authorities after a lengthy and violent chase, a strangely-dressed woman shows up, without a word, to slay the pursuing police officers and heal Killer’s wounds in one fell swoop. Unable to discern why or how she’s come to his aid, Killer becomes intrigued and chooses to follow after her, out of both simple necessity and a gnawing curiosity as to how he might fit into whatever she wills next.
Lady – The seemingly otherworldly woman described above; since she never speaks or changes her expression, Killer decides to simply call her “Lady” until he can find out more about her. She wanders from place to place, effortlessly meting out both death and life (with a few “minor” side effects) to and from the unwilling subjects she encounters in an almost random fashion; few, if any, know where she comes from or what her motives could be. Doesn’t quite match Shania in the “you’re making me wear WHAT?” department, but she’s in the ballpark.
Let’s start by covering the in-game systems that New World has inherited directly from Covenant. Ring customization, as you’d hope, is still here, and pretty much the same as you left it, which is hardly a bad thing. Common spells can still be distributed among a majority of your party members, but this time the process has to occur within the boundaries set by Zodiac-inspired “Stellar Charts”, which operate in similar fashion (no pun intended) to Final Fantasy X-2’s “Garment Grids”. Each character can equip one chart at a time, and each chart, in turn, contains a set number of “nodes” which can hold one “Stellar” (spell) apiece, of specific types and strengths.
This setup more tightly restricts the raw amount and variety of magic that any individual can access at once, though you can fork over some cash to have any chart altered or upgraded; if you’re getting unwelcome recollections of the first game’s poorly-conceived “acupuncture”, rest assured that this process is nowhere near as pricey, not to mention that Stellar Charts are kept throughout the game, so you can basically pay for a handful of enhancements and adjustments at a time as you obtain more powerful magic and need a place to put it. The system is thus a smidge more limiting than the “crests” from Covenant, but just barely: you’re still pretty free to assign spells as you see fit, though you’ll need a more balanced approach than before to take full advantage.
An entirely new layer to the proceedings, specifically during battle, arrives in the form of “Stocks”, which are akin to the “super meter” found in many fighting games. As your party members give and receive damage their individual “stock” meters gradually fill up: once topped out, that fighter receives one “Stock”, and each person/cat/vampire/etc. can keep up to two at a time. Stock is required to power two special techniques. The first of these is the “Double”, which (surprise!) allows a character to perform two consecutive actions, along the lines of the “Boost” in Xenosaga (it also delays your next turn, though, so it must be used judiciously). The second is none other than the Combo, back by popular demand: unlike in Covenant, where all you needed to form combos was enough SP to last the turns necessary to set one up, a combatant must now expend one Stock to keep the chain going and send it on to the next attacker.
In exchange for this limitation, however, players are treated to several nifty advantages to help turn the tide back in their favor. For one thing, you no longer need to waste turns grouping your members together in preparation for the big assault: as soon as someone selects the “Combo” option everyone else will immediately be ready to go, and there’s no need to worry about being knocked out of formation. The game has also eliminated any guesswork involved in stringing together attack chains, and now tells you outright whether or not a selected technique will successfully hit an enemy before you confirm it. Also, if you decide to change tactics and cancel a combo halfway through, there’s no need to whiff an attack on purpose: the acting character can simply choose to not spend any Stock and serve as the “finisher” for the sequence.
Even better, if your Stocks are maxed out, you can blow it all at once to go straight from a Double right into a Combo, which can translate into huge damage potential if the party has a lot of energy saved up. Beware, however, as your enemies can “Stock” just like you can, and if you’re not careful they can dish out the pain just as quickly – to counter this your characters’ “Hard Hit” attack variation now sacrifices half a Stock to deplete an enemy’s Stock by one (and an “Endure” defensive maneuver replaces Covenant's “Resist” to prevent the same from being wrought upon you). When all’s said and done, New World requires players to act more discerningly when planning a major offensive even as it widens and spices up their options: in so many words, the already-entertaining combat system from Covenant is now even more fun to play around with.
From here, we move on to the ways in which New World recalls the series’ more humble beginnings. For starters, towns and dungeons are once again relatively compact and straightforward affairs, just a tad more expansive in nature than the original’s. Interestingly, amidst this simplification of sorts the developers have finally decided to include a full-fledged map; while it almost seems like overkill at this point, at least you’re most always certain to know exactly where you’re going. Your journey from beginning to end has also been “downsized” somewhat; it’s back to a single disc, with a total runtime settling somewhere in between those of the two previous games. To balance things out the challenge level has been beefed back up a bit: while New World isn’t as taxing as the initial Shadow Hearts could be, it’s a noticeably steeper hill to climb than Covenant.
The series’ semi-dormant horror influences have also reasserted themselves with panache: if you’ve been missing those most nightmarish monster designs from the olden days, rest assured that there are lots of them back in town for your, um, pleasure. More than a few of your destinations eagerly follow suit: right at the outset you’re tasked with scouting out the decrepit depths of a condemned, decaying theater, as a scratchy, eerie record of Mozart’s “Oh smania! Oh furie!” from Idomeneo groans somewhere off in the distance. Not to be outdone , of course, the developers’ often-bizarre sense of humor has simultaneously reached its apex: not long after you narrowly escape the abandoned performance hall you’ll happen upon a pirate hideout in the Caribbean…a candy-colored pirate hideout set up like a cheesy amusement park attraction (oh, and the storied Captain is an 8-year-old girl). Whether this off-kilter mishmash of “aesthetic sensibilities” registers as kookily endearing or jarringly repugnant is largely a matter of taste…or possibly a lack thereof.
Graphics-wise, New World is pretty much on a par with Covenant. A handful of detailing touch-ups and other improvements have been applied, but by and large it’s about the same quality as its precursor, i.e. still looking good, but a little bit of the luster has worn off a year or two later. That being said, a newfound visual strength can be found in the game’s increased emphasis on presentational variety. While some of the first two titles’ people and places could start to blur together after awhile, New World compensates for its more modest running time by treating players to something fresh just about everywhere they go: the afternoon sun in New York feels decidedly different from seedy nighttime Chicago, and the ancient ruins at Chichen Itza are easily distinguishable from those at Macchu Pichu and a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilcabamba,_Peru”>Vilcabamba.
From a shamelessly America-centric perspective, it must be noted, there’s also the added bonus of seeing homebound landmarks and legends strangled within an inch of their lives – while the rewritten history and other assorted silliness in Eurasia was certainly fun to experience from a distance, it’s a whole new ballgame when you get to see historical figures and other sacred cows straight out of your middle school textbooks given their own WTF-worthy once-overs. Who knew, for instance, that ol' Scarface was such a stand-up guy beneath it all, and that he and Eliot Ness actually embodied a classic “friendly rivalry” of sorts? Or that H.P. Lovecraft, whose eponymous sci-fi/horror style has left such deep and evident marks on the series, ran a monster-battling arena on the side (well, that one’s actually kind of plausible)? Only Sakura Wars: So Long My Love and Metal Wolf Chaos have New World beat on this front.
Series stalwart Yoshitaka Hirota returns to headline the soundtrack once more, with former sound effects maven Tomoko Imoto lending a hand, but their more illustrious Square-affiliated partners from previous games are MIA. Perhaps inevitably, then, while their songs for this project exude appropriate touches, both country and cosmopolitan, to reflect the new time and place, the score most closely recalls the spirit of the first Shadow Hearts: warbling vocals, rattling percussion, and a smorgasbord of exotic instrumental flashes abound, especially once you’ve set foot in South America. The localizations’ English voice acting is once again solidly executed, save a handful of rough spots.
At this point some outside observers might be wondering, off the cuff, why so many players cite Covenant as their favorite Shadow Hearts game over New World; on paper, at least, the third game retains the “core” improvements which made the second such a success, whilst both buffing in an additional layer of polish and paying due tribute to the distinctive approach that got everyone’s attention back in the original. So what’s the catch? Well, you might say that the game experienced as a whole is a bit less than the sum of its admittedly impressive individual parts. To wit, each of the cast members is entertaining on his or her own, but the whole lot, heroes and villains alike, never truly gels into the engrossing, intermingling ensemble that Covenent’s did. This aura emanates particularly strongly from many of the returning NPC guests, who come across as somehow “gutted” for their walk-ons here.
In the same vein, New World’s locales all make for attractive places to visit, but rarely feel like pieces of anything more significant; many have a decided “hey, why not go here?” air about them when they appear on the map, as the overarching plot makes little effort to tie things together in any sort of focused, deliberate manner. On another wavelength, of course, there’s New World’s unflinching embrace of sparkly rainbow weirdness in all its forms, which undoubtedly caught newer fans, brought up on the somewhat more inclusive direction taken by Covenant, off guard: the replacement of beloved protagonist Yuri with “Tidus’ kid brother” certainly didn’t help, not to mention the accurate, if rather unfair, criticism that the third game in the series wasn’t as big a “leap forward” as the second.
None of this, of course, is to say that From the New World isn’t worth playing – it remains a fine series entry, in some respects the best of the bunch, and a great RPG, period. For the majority, however, it just doesn’t quite live up to its pedigree, and ends up taking a back seat to its elder sibling. Shortcomings notwithstanding, New World rated not one but two special retail editions in Japan. Early adopters could shell out for a “Premium Box”, which stuffs in a “special sound” music CD (which includes the bonus tracks from the “Director’s Cut” of Shadow Hearts II), DVD, t-shirt, keychain light, cell phone straps, and notebook (styled to resemble one of the game’s more infamous quest items, rendering it nigh-unusable in public settings). Second-print buyers could instead snag a “Starter Pack”, packaged with a pair of extra guidebooks.
In the real-life “New World”, however, Midway had by now jumped ship as publisher. Thankfully, Xseed picked up the slack for them in the USA and Ghostlight took over in Europe, though these smaller outfits couldn’t conjure up much in terms of extras, and New World’s generally diminished reception compared to Covenant didn’t exactly grease those wheels. Importers can instead partake of the usual complement of artbooks and the like, plus various shop-specific pre-order items (concept art booklet, phone card, alarm clock, pencil board, media disc, etc.) and one last 2-CD soundtrack: there’s also “Near Death Experience”, a stand-alone album featuring remixes of songs from all three Shadow Hearts games, released around the same time.
MP3s
Moon Shine (City)
Mauve (South America Battle)
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Cameos
Chaos Wars – Playstation 2, 2008
The video game industry can be a funny place sometimes. Consider the focus-grouped phenomenon of the “crossover” game, which recruits characters and other elements from two or more separate titles, sometimes by totally different companies, and duct-tapes them together in an effort to siphon in fan dollars from both ends of the marketing spectrum. The best-known specimens dwell within the fighting game sphere, a la Capcom’s collaborations with SNK and Namco, but the RPG realm has also crashed the party on occasion: the Mass Effect costume DLC for Final Fantasy XIII-2 is but one recent example.
No other outfit, however, can hold a candle in this area to prolific and oft-maligned developer Idea Factory: responsible for such left-field collaborations as Cross Edge and Trinity Universe (featuring various Nippon Ichi and Gust characters, plus Darkstalkers’ monster brawlers in the former), not to mention Hyperdimension Neptunia (hopefully the phrase “moe-fied Game Gear brandishing Keiji Inafune as a sword to slay a villainous R4 card/sorceress” sums up all you might have cared to know), perhaps their strangest brew of all appeared back on the good ol’ PS2.
Chaos Wars’ lineup, to be frank, may as well have been pulled at random out of a hat filled with the names of less-than-mainstream gaming brands: alongside a small handful of original protagonists, you’ve got characters from Atlus’ SRPG Growlanser, Red Entertainment’s action offerings Gungrave and Shinsengumi Gunraw Den (aka Code of the Samurai), a more-than-generous schmear of Idea Factory’s in-house roster (primarily the long-running “Spectral” series), and, finally, as you probably inferred, Shadow Hearts. Interestingly, the latter’s inclusion seems to have been conceived as a major selling point: while no more than two or three characters were borrowed from most of the other included games, nearly the entire primary cast of Covenant is here in playable form, as is Alice, and Nicolai tags along as a villain with a few nameless underlings and a surprise NPC or two in tow.
The game itself is an isometric, turn-based strategy-RPG that, true to its nature, plays like a chimera of features and ideas lifted from other series, though not necessarily the ones Idea Factory got the rights to. Movement during battle is handled in “gridless” fashion, a la Phantom Brave and Makai Kingdom; the well-documented Nippon Ichi penchant for flashy team-up techniques and super moves is certainly not lacking either. Then there are the ever-shifting “sun phases” (which affect enemy strength) and the chance for one of a character’s abilities to randomly mutate into something completely different (though you do have the handy ability to “lock” stuff you’d rather keep), seemingly inspired by the Shin Megami Tensei games. Characters can also enter a temporary, powered-up “Realize” state, similar to Jeanne’s divine armor from Level5’s Jeanne d’Arc…which, to be fair, wasn’t out yet when Chaos Wars released.
Despite its cobbled-together origins, at a glance this unholy amalgamation’s prospects don’t look half bad: the stumpy sprite-based graphics, while hardly state-of-the-art, have a certain charm about them, and the developers have made at least some effort to be faithful to their inspirations (though obviously the dimension-rending plotline shouldn’t rate more than a moment’s attention). For Shadow Hearts fans, little “tributes” to the original games (and unlockable character bios and artwork) are frequently on exhibit: dialogue text is littered with references and in-jokes for the initiated, battle music from Covenant plays whenever a series character’s turn comes up, and certain special attacks will evoke weapons and transformations from the original games (yes, Grand Papillon is here in all his manly glory).
Unfortunately, despite some surprisingly promising (if uber-nerdy) foundations, Idea Factory again shoot themselves in the foot via their infamous penchant for glossing over the essentials with lots of confusing numbers and glittery otaku window dressing. Base stats are wildly imbalanced across the ever-ballooning cast, and leveling everyone and their moves up (via a Final Fantasy II-esque “stats increase through repeated actions” slog) to the point where they become useful is a Herculean task, relegating a good portion of your army to a near-permanent seat on the bench. Certain in-game systems are never clearly explained, loot and quest appearances are irritatingly random, and the challenge level can make very sudden jumps, leaving you grinding (and grumbling) through skirmish after skirmish without progress for far too long.
So you’ve got a mostly-“meh” SRPG populated with personalities from a smattering of highly niche titles, many of which have seen only limited release in the West…or no release at all. What do you do with it? If you’re budget publisher O3 Entertainment, you localize it, that’s what! Seemingly eager to add yet another layer of “seriously, this happened” to Chaos Wars’ personal file, the game hit American shelves with a near-audible “thud” late in the PS2’s life cycle, as a Gamestop store exclusive, no less. Needless to say, it was a tough sell: even most of the intended audience, who could recognize some portion of what was on offer, were left out of the loop a good deal of the time, asking “uh, who is this, again?” when many of the supposed headliner characters showed up.
Then there’s the localization itself: most anyone who remembers Chaos Wars at this point probably owes the distinction to a YouTube video or two of the painfully horrid English cutscene voice acting, some of which was phoned in on the fly by (brace yourselves) family members of O3’s CEO. Fortunately, the original Japanese voices play in battle and can also be turned on for story sequences, but the roughly-translated text has its own problems: so little cleanup was done, for instance, that Yuri’s original Japanese name, Uru, was left intact, and if you believe this was an artistic decision I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
Coincidentally or not, Chaos Wars would be O3’s last stand, as the company found itself out of business later that same year. In the end, while not a complete loss, this one’s not even close to an essential pickup, though if you’re willing to sniff out a copy at this point it can be had for a song. If the leftover cash is burning a hole in your pocket feel free to seek out some Japanese promo posters, a pre-order DVD, or an OP single containing the game’s theme song and an extra track or two on the secondhand market.
MP3s
The Endia and the Knights
Slot Shadow Hearts II (2008)
In case you weren’t already aware, Aruze/Universal’s primary business is the production of pachinko and slot gambling machines, and they aren’t exactly shy about fully exploiting the properties they own: as such, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to know that the company eventually got around to producing a Covenant-themed slot machine. It would appear that, unlike the game that inspired it, the machine never made any noteworthy appearance outside Japan, so scant information exists as regards its inner workings, save the various blurbs about “Evo-Reels” and a “Crystal White Version” and such on the Universal web site…then again, I suppose there’s only so much to be said about any given one-armed (or, in this case, no-armed) bandit in the first place.
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Legacy
Unfortunately for Shadow Hearts’ modest but devoted fan base, the corporate writing was on the wall for the series: after rumors of Nautilus’ imminent dissolution had been swirling for a bit, Aruze made it official in 2007, and the original team has since found itself spread far and wide across the Japanese game development landscape, rendering any worthwhile resurrection of their most prestigious creation a near-impossible prospect. Devotees have been left precious little else, game-wise, to cling to aside from a pair (or trio, depending on your calculation method) of obscure Neo-Geo Pocket titles produced under the Sacnoth label: the unusual mecha-strategy offering Faselei! is one, while the even weirder submarine sim/RPG Dive Alert, released as two Pokemon-esque carts (“Matt’s Version” and “Becky’s Version”) with a bit of variable content, is the other. The fact that the Shadow Hearts PS2 trilogy has been reported as running inconsistently on some backwards-compatible PS3s only serves to add insult to injury.
If you know where to look, however, a little bit of Shadow Hearts’ essence is still floating around in a handful of more recent projects. If the series’ near-legendary strangeness is your thing, for example, you might want to check out Tri-Ace’s Resonance of Fate (“End of Eternity” in Japan), released in 2010 for the Xbox 360 and PS3. While it looks and plays almost nothing like Shadow Hearts, there’s definitely an inherent kinship in the two developers’ senses of humor: to cite one early example, your party is assigned to deliver a package to the elusive Cardinal Pater, one of the most powerful figures in the game’s world. After fighting your way (via lots of ridiculous [i]Matrix[/i]-esque air flips and gun-blazing) to Pater’s headquarters, you gain his audience, only to discover that he’s the portly, geeky, long-lost cousin of Fanboy from [i]Freakazoid[/i], complete with a big green t-shirt that reads “LOVE ME” on the front. Rest assured, there’s more where that came from if you’re up for it.
If you’d prefer to follow a more substantial link, quite a few Nautilus alumni landed at feelplus (whose parent company, AQ Interactive, has since been absorbed by Marvelous Entertainment), where they lent a hand in 2007 to the production of Mistwalker’s second X360 production, Lost Odyssey, which is incidentally about as close to a “spiritual successor” to Shadow Hearts as we’re ever likely to get. Though Lost Odyssey is for the most part a much more traditional JRPG, series veterans will instantly recognize the inspiration behind its own simplified “ring” system, which adds bonus effects to physical attacks if the player can hold and release a trigger button with proper timing. The developers have also seen fit to once again include plentiful side missions and “invisible” items for the persistent to find, not to mention the occasional, endearing dose of nuttiness (equipping stalwart protagonist Kaim with sparkly pink eyeglasses or cat ears is always good for a chuckle) to lighten up the proceedings.
One last name that sometimes crops up in The Search for a Shadow Hearts Substitute is Arms’ Heart, a 2010 PSP RPG by budget publisher Hamster. Despite the “Heart” in the name there’s still no direct connection to Yuri’s adventures at play, but the two do feature some similar ingredients: not only did Sacnoth/Nautilus veteran Matsuzo Machida contribute, but the battle system’s “Howling Gear” gimmick utilizes (guess what?) a timing-based reel mechanic for better results, and can be customized to a degree. Two considerable roadblocks exist for potential fans, though: 1) The game was only released in Japan, and 2) Reviews, often citing a high encounter rate and slow battles, were pretty dismal, so even those committed enough to import might end up regretting their decision.
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WARNING: Lots of spoilers in some of these links.
shadowhearts.net – Official series site (Japanese)
Shadow Hearts Covenant – Official English page
Shadow Hearts From the New World – Official English page
Shadow Hearts Wiki
Koudelka Heaven – Fan site (German)
Let’s Play Archive: Koudelka
Let’s Play Archive: Shadow Hearts
ICARO: The Mythology of Shadow Hearts (no longer updated)
Chaos Wars Official site (Japanese)
Audio Atrocities - Chaos Wars
Slot Shadow Hearts 2 – Official page (Japanese)
Resonance of Fate – Official site (Japanese)
Lost Odyssey - Official site (Japanese)
Arms’ Heart - Official site (Japanese)