Shadow Hearts

PS2

Aruze corps/Midway - 2001

Hmm, an rpg for the PS2 that doesn't suck. You must be talking about Final Fantasy X right? Well, I have a game for you mine friende. It's called Shadow Hearts, and while you are sitting in your room watching all those pastel colors with pretty graphics, trying to win that Chocobo race with a perfect time, I will be sitting in my room with the lights out, the music on high, staring at an extremely dark screen, watching people bleed. No, I am not talking about Grand Theft Auto 3, I am talking about FFX's older, more mature brother, Shadow Hearts.

In a perfect world, FFX would not exist. Wait, no, I liked that game. In a perfect world, Shadow Hearts would have come out a few months before FFX, and gotten the respect it deserves. This game is morbid beyond belief. It starts out with one of the coolest scenes in any rpg ever. An old "gentleman" walks up to the heroine, kills the guards around her, and plans to kidnap her away. While you are thinking, "Man, that sounds sooo normal," let me tell you this. What rpg lately have you seen that does this with graphics that rival FF8, and blood everywhere? Man, there was soo much blood. I don't know how to comment best about it. But the best part comes right after. The hero, Yuri, (What a terrible name) comes in. The bad guy, (Roger Bacon, yes, THAT Roger Bacon) sends this demon to kill Yuri, the demon that just tore up the guards, with exquisite detail. Yuri grabs the demon and squeezes his head apart, smiling with bad-assitude the whole time. Then we notice that he's missing an arm. Turns out the demon tore it off as it flew at Yuri. Yuri doesn't seem to care, he's still smiling as he picks up his arm and re-attaches it. It doesn't get much better than that, folks.

The problem with this game is that it never got the respect it deserved, coming out the same time as FFX. It's graphics looked like the red-headed stepchild's version of FFX. In one word: terrible. Still, compared to any other game, like Shadow of Destiny, or Mr. Misquito, the graphics were incredible. It's just it wasn't advertised enough, then everyone had played FFX, and they were afraid of something with such "bad" graphics.

The great thing about the game is that, 1. It is set in the 1920's. It takes place in THIS world. You go to REAL towns. You travel throughout the world, and you meet some cool cats. 2. The battle system is really innovative. Every turn, for everything, you get this "Wheel of Destiny." You spin the wheel once, clicking every time when the pointer passes a colored area. Then they preform their magic, item, attack. They can get 3 hits in, if you clicked on the 3 areas of the wheel. If you didn't, they don't get any attacks. This is both cool, innovative, and annoying at times. Like when you need to use an item and are about to die, then miss the spin, you're screwed.

What people don't seem to know about this game, that is rather important, is that it is a sequel. The game was made by former Squaresoft employees that quit after making FF8. They formed a team that made a game called Koudelka. I'm not surprised if you haven't heard of it. If you are thinking, hmm, sounds like a cool game, I'll go buy it, well, don't. Here is all you need to know about Koudelka to play Shadow Hearts. 1. Koudleka is a woman, the hero of the game, who stopped an evil genius from creating artificial life in a mansion around the 1890's. 2. Roger Bacon was a really really old man (looked like that Tales from the Crypt guy) who helped Koudelka. That's it. Shadow Hearts uses new characters, but builds upon those things in Koudelka.

This game focuses on status ailments like no other before it. Each boss will have some sort of status ailing attack, and this ailment really screws up your character. So basically you need to save right before a boss, fight it once to find out what sort of status ailment it sends to your party, and equip something to block this. For if you don't, you will not win the fight. Guaranteed.

Haven't you ever wondered what happens to enemies after you kill them? Their spirits, I mean. Wouldn't they like congregate and stuff? Well, these developers wondered this. They created this area called the "Graveyard" where the hero must go many, many times during the game to dispatch of the enemies ghosts. If you don't go there, the ghost you have to beat will get stronger and stronger until it becomes the Grim Reaper and comes a' calling at your house. Seriously, you have to fight the Grim Reaper if you don't dispatch of the ghosts. And he utterly decimates you every time.

Before we hit the Liked/Disliked section, I need to mention this. The creators thought it would be cool to make plot progress in towns instead of dungeons. I, personally, am used to going to a town to rest and heal before entering a dungeon. Turns out, the towns are the dungeons, as most of the battles are fought in towns. It leaves no where to rest, and creates a cool sense of urgency. But that mostly annoyed me. You get used to it quick, but be ready come the first town.

What liked: The battle system was neat. The characters were pretty cool, Yuri was bad-ass like Squall wished he could be. I would compare Yuri to Spike from Cowboy Bebop if it helps. He saves the heroine, then while she is unconcious, thinks of feeling her up. Games don't get better than that, folks.

What disliked: The heroine, Alice, wins hands down for most annoying heroine ever, though. I wish they could make an rpg with a cool, "I can handle myself" heroine. Halfways through the game the writers try to make you think that she can handle herself, but for Goodness sakes, she fights by hitting the enemy with a book and making squeeking noises. It's extremely annoying. She also wins the award for shortest dress in history, even shorter than Kid from Chrono Cross. There was also a lot of darkness in the game, which was to be expected, but I wish there was a way to brighten the screen some. The towns were all very small in general, and while the people in the towns weren't that annoying, there weren't many.

What to expect: A modern, dark and enchanting plot. Final Fantasy 8 graphics. A cool hero and a heroine with an extremely short skirt.

What not to expect: Final Fantasy X graphics or colors.

What's so different from this and other games of it's genre: Set on Earth, in the 1920's. Innovative fighting system. Focuses a lot on status ailments.

Ratings on:

Control: 7 - Sometimes it is hard to see where you are and where you are going.

Graphics: 5 - Due to playing FFX right before this.

Sound: 9 - The battle music is the best stuff I have ever heard for battle music. It made me stay fighting for hours. People are singing in the battle music. The normal battle music. It's great. I am going to go put it on right now. Aaah, that's great music.

Style: 5 - It's got some great new additions to the rpg world. Too bad some of the execution failed, and the game wasn't advertised well enough.

1st hour: 10 - That was an amazing opening. Now I hope I can play this game.

5th hour: 7 - I'm thru the first town. I hope not all towns are like that.

1st week: 6 - Apparently they are.

5th week: 7 - The game's cool, but hard. It infuriates me, for I die a lot more than I am used to.

#1 reason why I hate this game: There are enemies in this game that attack you with their giant testiclites. Yes you read it right. Testiclites.

by Hawke