Shadow Hearts: Covenant

"Demons, humor, an epic quest-this game has it all!"

Despite being dubbed Shadow Hearts 2, this is actually the third game in the series. The first game was called Koudelka, in which you played as the titular heroine, who was possessed of powerful psychic powers. In the sequel, Shadow Hearts, your main character was a man named Yuri, a ruffian who could fuse with various demons, enhancing his fighting power. Both of these games had dark overtones, and humor was used mostly to relieve the tension and lighten the mood. This game's story picks up six months after the ending of Shadow Hearts 1.

Graphics: 8/10

The graphics are good, but aren't going to win any awards. The characters are detailed, the lighting effects are good, there aren't any noticeable jaggy edges (usually), and the environments are well rendered. All the characters animate very smoothly, and never move jerkily. In battle, the characters move realistically, and stay in the place where they end their attack, unlike in other games where they run back to their original positions after whacking the enemy. However, in some cutscenes the backgrounds are bland and the characters look a little bit rough, although these instances are rare. Everything looks great in the FMVs.

Music/Sound: 9/10

The music is awesome. It really gives the game a unique feel. One problem is that the music is pretty much the same in every town, and the "urgent" music is quite annoying, but it's nothing major. The soundtrack sets this game apart from the all the other RPGs. The sound effects are average. Thankfully, the voice acting is much improved over the first Shadow Hearts. Every character has a unique voice, and they fit really well. You can really tell what kind of person the character is by their voice.

Story/Characters: 10/10

The story resumes six months after the end of Shadow Hearts 1, during World War I. It starts with one of the main characters, Karin, leading a raid to kill the demon that guards the town of Domremy. She realizes that he isn't evil, and after he gets impaled with the Holy Mistletoe, she joins him in his adventure. The story attempts to be serious, but there is so much humor that it rarely feels really dark; the mass amount of funny scenes prevents it from being a true gothic masterpiece like its predecessors. This doesn't mean the story isn't good, because it's one of the best. It just means that there's more humor in this game then most others. Also, the story of Shadow Hearts 1 is explained, so you won't be confused if you haven't played it. The characters are very well fleshed out, and all have their own history and distinct personality, making them seem real, unlike Shadow Hearts 1, where all the characters besides Yuri were 2-dimensional. They are all special, and have their own unique abilities that they can power up, so Yuri isn't the only character that has a special thing that only he can do.

Gameplay: 10/10

You do the normal RPG things, like walking around town, buying and selling items, doing sidequests (of these there are many), wandering around dungeons, and fighting in random battles. After you gain enough experience points from these, you level up and all your stats are boosted. However, unlike many other RPGs, you can customize your characters. How, you ask? Besides the usual equipping of weapons, armor, and accessories, you can equip Crests to your characters. Crests allow them to perform magic attacks of various elements, healing spells, and status-enhancements. To prevent you from putting all your crests on one character, there is a "DCP" limit. You have a certain amount of DCP (the amount increases as you level up), and every Crest has a level. When a Crest is equipped, you subtract the level of the Crest from your DCP. If you have enough DCP, you can equip it, and the amount remaining is how much DCP left to equip other Crests. Once you unequip a Crest, you regain the DCP it used. For example, if a character has forty DCP, and you have a level 20 Crest, and you equip it, your character will now have 20/40 DCP, and cannot equip Crests that have combined levels that exceed 20. Also, once you obtain all the Crests of an element, you can solve a puzzle to get all those Crests an extra spell. In addition to Crests, you can customize each character's Judgment Ring. The Judgment Ring is the core of the battle system. In battle, whenever you want to perform an attack, physical or magical, or use an item, a circle appears with colored pieces on it, and you are supposed to press the X button when the "Ring Cursor" (a line moving in a clockwise motion) is moving over the colored pieces. There are also differently colored pieces that are smaller, called Strike Areas. If you hit these, your attack/item becomes more powerful. The number of attacks your character has determines how many hit areas there are on physical attacks. You can customize a character's Judgment Ring by selecting a Ring type that is more difficult to use, but allows for more powerful attacks, or easier, but makes your attacks weaker. In addition to this, once you find power-ups, you can equip these. You can find Attack boosts, which allow your character to have an extra attack on their turn, Hit Expand, which makes the area you are supposed to hit bigger, and Strike Expand, which makes the Strike Areas larger. You can even equip accessories that make the Ring Cursor move slower. The Judgment Ring makes this game unique, but you will either love it, or hate it. If you haven't played Shadow Hearts 1, you should try before buying. In the dungeons, there are usually puzzles to complete, and some of them are maze-like (thankfully, you have a small onscreen map). Dungeons can sometimes be mildly annoying to navigate, but it's nothing that will ruin your enjoyment of the game.

Replay: 6/10

If you aren't a huge fan of the game, chances are after you beat the game, you will put it away and play something else, and only come back to this once in a while. But, if you do love this game, there are many side-quests to complete, and two endings. If you do all the side-quests, you will probably complete Shadow Hearts: Covenant in about 50-70 hours, although you could just run through the game in a far quicker time.

Last Words: If you like RPGs, get this, as it is one of the best to be released in a long time. If you aren't sure you will enjoy it, at least give it a rent, because this adventure is too good to be passed up.

Score: 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/05