Shadow Hearts

"It begins here…"

On a dark eerie night, a priest is brutally murdered and his daughter has gone missing. Moments later, a scene takes you to a train sequence that takes place a month after the brutal murder. A couple of Japanese soldiers chatter amongst themselves while a young girl sleeps peacefully. All of a sudden, a quick swoosh and one of the Japanese soldiers lie on the cold floor with his face brutally disfigured. His companion looks on with fear, but his fear is quickly ended, as he too gets slaughtered. More Japanese soldiers confront the evil with guns blazing, but to no avail. The evil man is nothing more than an old man or so it seems. This old man wields tremendous power. It was apparent the moment he started slaughtering trained soldiers. It looked like the young girl would meet the same demise as the soldier, but strangely, the old man is just looking to detain her. A few seconds later, the story's protagonist shows his face and immediately shows his power by crushing a demonic creature.

And the saga begins

The story follows a young man, who has a dark and mysterious past that is filled with despair and hatred. These are the words I would use to describe our story's protagonist. Shadow Hearts follows the lives of Yuri. Yuri is a harmonixer who can transform himself into different unworldly creatures. Yuri is out to protect a girl by the name of Alice. Alice is a young and innocent girl, who is the key to the world's salvation. If fallen into the wrong hands, Alice could lead to the world's destruction. It is up to Yuri to keep her safe and along the way; you will meet some interesting characters. While the story isn't quite as good as Covenant, it still offers an interesting and cohesive story. There will be plenty of plot twists and with plenty of moments that will slowly pull you into the game's story. Throughout the whole adventure, I was completely involved in the storyline. The story itself is arguably the best part of the game.

Shadow Hearts uses the judgment ring, which utilizes a ring with different hit points. Each hit point serve as one of the attacks in an overall attack. Each hit zone also has a red portion that allows you to do extra damage. These hit points are the bases to Shadow Hearts combat system. While this game is turn base, this form of combat allows the player to be more involved in the gameplay. The combat system is perhaps the most unique form of turn base that I have ever seen. When the judgment ring comes up, there will be three hit points and hitting each one can perform an attack.

The magic and special system in this game further expands the judgment ring. Every time, you decide to use a magic attack, the ring comes up and there will only be two hit points. This allows you to perform a magic attack and like the normal attacks, hitting the small red area will allow you to perform more powerful attacks. Special attacks can also be utilized, for example, Margarette's sniper shot is quite deadly. Special attacks have the same fundamental concept as the magic system. Both systems follow the judgment ring.

Shadow Hearts is fairly customizable. The player can certainly buy items and upgrade the character's weapons. Buying items can drastically improve the defense and offense of a character. Another key element to Shadow Hearts is Yuri's ability to transform. His ability to transform allows you to choose which monsters you want to turn into. Being a Harmonixer, it really makes this game quite unique.

The game is quite linear, but there is plenty to explore. The maps are fairly large and offer plenty of room to explore and interact with characters. The character interaction in this game is plentiful and one can expect to read a lot. However, there is plenty to like because the game allows you to get to know the characters. For the most part, the characters are quite interesting, but there are some characters that seem unnecessary. I definitely enjoyed the character's interaction with each other, but there are portions where the character's dialogue is incoherent to the grand scheme of things. However, even with its flaws, Shadow Hearts offers a well-wounded cast with some likeable characters.

With all the random encounters that the player will encounter, there will be times where combat will become repetitive; no matter how good the combat system is. However, Shadow Hearts does a great job at immersing the player into the battles with its wide range of different enemies. Boss battles are also plentiful and one can expect to see some grueling and disgusting bosses. While the variation in enemies and bosses is a big plus, the enemies are quite easy to defeat. I've had my shares of easy rpgs, ala Final Fantasy X, but unlike FFX, Shadow Hearts has enough problems where the ease brings down the game. I wished some of the bosses were harder and I wish I would of received a bigger challenge, but there is still plenty of bright spots in Shadow Hearts.

In terms of graphics, Shadow Hearts is a mixed bag. In some areas, the game shows off its bright and lush settings. In other areas, it is painfully obvious that this game was a supposed PS1 game. The game has a very dark and mature atmosphere, but in the very beginning, Shadow Hearts has a very dull atmosphere. The FMVs in this game are pretty good, but after all the other game's magnificent FMVs; I can't help, but realize the flaws of this game's graphical capabilities. I must admit though, this isn't really the game's fault, since I am playing this game, four years after its initial release. The character models are…well under whelming. And since the camera is placed at a high arc, the character models look small and lack details.

The melody in Shadow Hearts is simply astonishing. The soundtrack features an assortment of different cultural flavor. Being in different countries, the game will have a matching tune that is befitting of that country's culture. For example, when you are in Shanghai, the music feels like it came from an old 80s Hong Kong television series. The musical notes are very soothing and bring out the flavor of the game.

In terms of length, Shadow Hearts is one of the shortest Japanese Rpgs I have ever played. At my last save, I clocked in at 21 hours. The game itself was quite linear and this was one of the main reasons why one can run through the game really quickly. There simply isn't enough content on here to put it above other games, but the content it does have is quite gratifying. Perhaps if the game was longer, then I would start considering it a good or perhaps even a great game, but as of now, Shadow Hearts is a solid rpg; nothing more and nothing less.

Solid all around

The first time I saw the words “Shadow Hearts” was when I was at a local game store and saw a box art of Shadow Hearts: Covenant. Being a big rpg fan that I was, I quickly came home and looked up some reviews for Covenant. It looked like a good, solid rpg that would strengthen my rpg lineup. To my realization, the game was more than good; in fact it is my personal favorite rpg this generation. I absolutely loved the game; it had an impressive atmosphere that just sucked me in. With that said, I purchased the first Shadow Hearts game without any hesitation. The Shadow Hearts series has quickly become one of my favorite series. While, Shadow Hearts isn't necessarily the best rpg around, the game features an astounding cast with one of the best combat systems around. Shadow Hearts may not be the brightest, but it is a noticeable candidate in a pool of other selectable games. There may be better rpgs, but there are few that will make you feel so cool, so amazed, and utterly convinced that this game has the necessary components that make rpgs good, however, at the same time Shadow Hearts definitely has its flaws, and the length of the game definitely leaves a lot to be desired. Had it been longer, then this game is a good solid 8 in my books, but with the truncated length and its apparent flaws, I simply cannot say this game is good game, but it is definitely solid. Perhaps if I did not play Covenant first, I would have given Shadow Hearts a higher score, but even with that said, this game is still worth every minute.

Final Score: 7

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/09/05