Shadow Hearts: Covenant

"The pinnacle of an underdog series is perhaps the best RPG to date."

Shadow Hearts: Covenant is the second installment in a, as of this review, 3 part series. The Shadow Heart series evolved as a spin-off franchise from a PSOne game named Koudelka.

Despite being released to mild critical acclaim and poor sales, Shadow Hearts' potential was strong enough to warrant two more sequels. Midway took a bold financial risk in releasing Covenant but it seems to have paid off.

Overview:

Take a unique RPG game with solid gameplay, a captivating and dark story, outlandish characters and then improve upon every single aspect of said game and we arrive at Covenant. An RPG with a dark and gritty setting, a humours script, an extraordinarily unique cast, and an innovative battle system flawed by little.

Story:

Set somewhere in the early 1900's in Eurasia, Covenant takes gamers to real world locations choosing to bypass the over-done space and medieval settings of most RPGs.

Covenant follows our somewhat anti-hero from the first Shadow Hearts game, Yuri, on a ride to save both the entire world and his own desires from the clutches of abolishment forever.

Yuri "Godslayer" Hyuga (24 years old I believe) is not the typical hero of most modern RPGs. Yuri is not afraid to say what is on his mind nor fight for what he believes in. Yuri, is introduced from an opening CG video, which will captivate any gamer in wonder, as a complete badass and remains a magnificent centerpiece for this grim tale.

Yuri is joined by a wonderfully varied ensemble. One member, perhaps the most interesting design, is a vampire pro-wrestler who just so happens to be a super hero at night. Not only does his hilariously developed persona affect the story but it also affects the gameplay. This character, Joachim (yo-ah-keem), randomly turns into different forms before battle. These forms include a bat with high attack and low hp, a superhero with amazing stats but low probability and an invisible man who can not be targeted by the enemy. That's just one character of this crazy collection.

The cast is wonderfully well designed to make them all likable and attention holding throughout the 40+ hour tale. Sadly, there is little character development for a few of the cast like a puppet wielding magician who is never even formally introduced to the player yet thrust into the adventure from the start. Despite this qualm, developer Nautilus, does a good job in making the cast's presence felt through sidequests and localization team Aruze Group equally holds well in translating each zany and serious line.

The main plot holds a few twists to keep gamers guessing and interested in the lengthy tale but is marred heavily by an ending that takes all logic and tosses it out the window. This is the only real flaw of the entire game that bears any mention and it is a dousy. Overall, however, Covenant is a fantastic ride filled with gorgeous CG scenes, lengthy in-game dialogue scenes, and several badass moments that won't fail to disappoint any seasoned RPG gamer. The game keeps things fresh with new bosses and locations quite well. The variety and uniqueness of this combination really holds gamers to the end.

You really should play the first Shadow Hearts game prior to this one as it is a direct sequel. Despite that, the game does contain some flashbacks and info on the prior installment to help gamers who may have missed out on the prequel.

Gameplay:

Based almost entirely around what is dubbed "the Judgement Ring", Covenant is designed to keep gamers more interested in every random battle, shop purchase and mini-game than most RPGs ever thought to try.

Covenant consists of random battles that toss the player into a separate battleground like such classic RPGs as Final Fantasy VII (for example) and Xenogears. The difference is the aforementioned Judgement Ring, which returns from the prequel, and the new addition of combos.

The Judgement Ring is quite simple in execution but fun enough to keep gamers interested in besting there own score which Covenant does a wonderful job of tracking via an in menu option. How this system works is as follows: for each action performed in Covenant, a ring appears to the side of the screen. One must time the press of a button (X for American gamers) as a line spins around the circle over designated areas in order to land a hit on each highlighted area.

There is also a very small red area that players can hit. Hitting all red areas gives players a perfect ring hit and does more damage per attack that landed in red. It makes for quick, simple, fun and yet more depth than most RPGs before it. Not only this but battles offer rewards for various performance accomplishments such as nailing perfect on all attacks or beating the enemy without suffering damage.

Another great aspect of the ring system is the implementation of various hit area and strike expands which players can allot to any character on any part of the ring to make it easier. Not only this but players also find attack ups throughout the game which allow the characters to have more hits per turn but makes each hit area smaller. The game does a fantastic, if not unmatched, job of keeping the player growing stronger while maintaining roughly the same challenge throughout. As you get better with the ring and expand the areas, you add more attacks to shrink it. It really pushes the gamer to best their own score.

Covenant also builds upon its forbearer by adding Combos and a new sidequest-like system of magic collecting that allows allocation on members of your custom built and named battle team. Combos allow for multiple characters to follow one another in quick succession as to assure you can land some hits before your foe and yet rack up addition damage based upon the total amount of hits of the combo itself. Magic while simple in execution is quite fun to find in the world and equip on charts/nodes to build a character to your own liking.

Yuri himself, much like in the first game, can morph into different demons each with a unique look, skills and spells for different situations at the cost of SP (sanity points). For each turn, a member of the party will lose some SP, as will Yuri with each morphing though morphing costs more. When a character reaches 0 SP, they go berserk and cannot be controlled again till the battle ends or the player tosses that character an SP restoring item/spell. This simple addition to the battle system adds more strategy and tension in the many boss fights throughout the game in particular.

Covenant itself is a bit on the easy side. There is some challenging boss fights and it is always a challenge to try to land a perfect ring spin but the game overall doesn't ever really push the gamer to their full limits. Personally, it wasn't too big a deal for me as I enjoyed the battle system and the story more-so than the challenge. Players really looking for a challenge can customize the judgement ring to make the hit areas smaller or use some of the harder but more rewarding rings you can select from.

Audio:

The soundtrack for Covenant is quite fitting but fails to rank as a classic collection of tunes. Most of the music of Covenant fits the mood quite well. Overall it really is a solid collection. Some tracks are especially nice and stand as a testament to the games overall solidity. One tune in particular, that of when Joachim gains a new weapon found on the field, an always rather funny event, does tend to get stuck in a gamers membrane though.

Voice overs in Covenant are fitting but a good portion of the game is done through text like older RPGs. There is plenty of voiced scenes though and all of the main characters are well cast. Yuri sounds quite well and I really took a liking to Karin's, Kato's, Joachim's and Anastasia's. While the non-party member Roger may have a weird voice it is very well cast and grows on you. He's meant to be comical. NPCs are all done through text but the bosses are also fitting. Covenant doesn't break any barriers here but it holds up well enough.

Video:

From the opening CG scene (which is one of the best in any game I've ever played) to the the in-game engine, battle engine, and everything else, Covenant is a work of art. While it may be outdated by newer games such as the third Shadow Hearts game, Covenant still pushed the PS2 to a good extreme in squeezing out some solid character models, vibrant and varied colors and beautiful CG work.

Artistically, Shadow Hearts has always went down its own path with highly original and freaky monsters, varied and colorful characters, unique locations, and breath taking badass cutscenes. The game leans more towards a darker side than most RPGs and follows its own path which is a breath of fresh air in this overdone "cliche" RPG era.

There's little downfall in this category for Covenant.

Replayability:

Covenant does sport a new game + option. Your fusions for yuri, some of the rarer and harder to get special items, all the magic crests you found, and your previous score carry over. It's especially nice to try to best your older score on a second play through. What's great about the new game+ is that while it may make the game even easier it is quite balanced. Though you may have the best crests you can only equip so many (you can equip more with each level you gain) and are still restricted by not having the mp to cast said spell. It makes the game easier and allows the player to focus on other stuff they may have missed yet doesn't break the balance too badly. Nicely done.

Do note Covenant also contains two endings though a well made save could lead a gamer to see both without much hassle. Also beating the game opens a theater where you can watch any of the numerous scenes from the game, not only the CG but also the in-game essentially allowing the whole game's plot to be re-experienced.

Conclusion:

Shadow Hearts: Covenant is a game that will restore your faith in RPGs. While it may not be the best in any single category (that's up to the beholder) it is technically solid in every category which is a rare feat for any game. Chocked full of sidequests (over 6 hours worth of endgame ones alone), a lengthy story, and a new game+ option, Shadow Hearts: Covenant is worthy of a purchase at full retail value. Though not required, be sure to play Shadow Hearts first to fully understand Yuri's plight. It will make for a great gaming experience either way.

By the end of it all, most gamers will consider Yuri a top five all-time RPG lead and Covenant a worthy expedition into the RPG genre if not one of the best.

Critical Score: 9.3/10 (based on technical achievements)

Bias Score: 9.7/10 (based on personal preferences)
+ .2 RPG fan
+ .2 Shadow Hearts fan

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/19/06, Updated 08/13/07