Vandal Hearts II

"The Greatest Tactics Game for PSX"

When I first played this game, I thought it would be boring because of its political themes. I was dead wrong. The storyline is great as well as the gameplay, which I will go into detail later, but right off the bat I recommend this game to anyone who likes RPGs or tactics games. Now on with the review...

Graphics:
The graphics are decent, nothing very special, but they work. The graphics are very much like Breath of Fire III's with 2-d sprites on a 3-d polygonal world (If you've played BoFIII, these graphics will seem like copies of BoFIII). There are no flaws in the graphics and they run with the game smoothly. The special effects of the game are pretty good. They aren't overdone like FF7 or FF8 and are much more realistic looking than the above mentioned games, with enough eye-candy to keep you entertained. I give the graphics an 8/10.

Sound and Music:
The music in this game is pretty good, not like Konami's Symphony of the Night, but good nonetheless. The theme of the music is oriented towards the medieval period. The battle music sounds like the type of music you could hear during a medieval battle and it doesn't wear on your nerves like many other soundtracks in other games. The sound effects are quite good. They have sounds for every type of movement your characters do, whether is is swinging a weapon, killing an enemy, or just walking. These sound effects are very realistic sounding, except maybe when you kill an enemy (that sounds more like an explosion). I give the sound and music a 9/10.

Story:
The story has unbelievable depth to it. Unlike to corny love theme of FF8, this game is more focused on the turmoil of a war between different countries. After almost every battle there is a cut-scene that gives more info on the story as it develops. The main story is about a kid who realizes he wants to be more than a peasant, who then goes out to save a man named Nicola who influences the rest of the decisions that your hero makes. The rest of the story is for you to find out should you play this game. The story is probably the greatest part about Vandal Hearts II. I give the story a 10/10.

Gameplay
This game has very original gameplay. You control a lot of characters who have to move and attack enemies with different weapons or spells. There are an infinite amount of possibilities of how you can build your party and each one has its advantage over the others. Terrain is also a major factor in this game. Like real life battles, high ground is the factor in many of the fights. For example, and archer at the top of a steep slope on this game can take out up to 3 people before they reach him, while on flat ground or bottom of a cliff an archer is next to useless. Another great thing about the gameplay is that there are many hidden weapons you can find. Many of these weapons are very good and finding them is a necessity. The downside of the gameplay is that some battles are very, very hard and can take you up to 3 tries to beat. Most of these fights are because you start at the bottom of a cliff and archers and wizards have the high ground. This can get frustrating because you can lose nearly all your people before you even reach your targets. Another downside is that the battles are long, most are about 25 minutes long, but some can take nearly an hour to beat. This makes the game pretty long since there are 50 something battles and you will be revisiting some areas to get the hidden items. I give gameplay a 9/10.

Overall:
This game is one of the best I've played (I've played a lot of games, I'm not one of those people who started playing RPGs at the advent of FF7, so I do know what a good game is) due to its depth and story. I recommend buying it because it can take several rentals to beat it and the price on this game isn't bad.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/13/00, Updated 11/13/00