Vandal Hearts

"Still a very engaging game 5 years after its release"

Vandal Hearts is one of the earliest strategy RPG games to be released during the early years of the Sony Playstation. As with any strategy games, Vandal Hearts allows the player to delve deep and assume the role of those who are fighting back against a political corruption that lies in the corrupt leaders and rulers of kingdoms. Combining the notion of finding lost magic becomes the key towards gaining infinite power and you as the player must do battle against armies and foes that are intent on gaining this power.

GAMEPLAY

It is linear to say the least because the only battles you can participate and enter are all story-based battles. There are no random battles in the game which means that the essential strengthening and levelling up of your characters depends on how well and how tactically you play during any given battle. A feature that may seem disappointing is the fact that you cannot revive any of your defeated allies but I thought it was clever of Konami to not include the option to revive characters because it forces you the player to plan and consider carefully your best course of action. This means that you cannot be reckless in battle and this is an important ingredient for a strategy game.

The number of enemies in quite a few of the battles severely outnumber your characters. However, this is not a bad point because it creates the challenge needed in this type of game. Think of it this way, the more monsters there are, the more chances you have to gain experience since there are no random battles in this game and you cannot repeat any of the beaten battle scenarios.

A neat feature of Vandal Hearts lies in the class system where you can enable you characters to level up in up to 2 choices of classes within their own style. Do you take your mage along the sorceror path or take him along the monk path? Do you make your archer into an aerial spearman or into a sniper? All of these decisions help shape the way you play the game.

One thing that I loved about the fights in this game is that there are some unique situations in which you must achieve that is not simply to kill all the enemies on the stage. One such situation may involve you having to destroy certain targets within a certain number of turns. Another situation may find you NOT killing certain targets for example. It all adds to the fun and variety that the game lacks in other areas.

GRAPHICS

The graphics are clear and definitely of presentable quality. Nice except for the ugly character portraits but this is simply a little niggle that shouldn't be a reason for you not to buy the game.

LENGTH

Due to the fact that you cannot spend your own time levelling up or playing in random battles, this somewhat limits the length of the game. For the first-time player, Vandal Hearts may take around 16 hours to complete but veterans may complete the game in way less time. The game may be pretty short but the hours you'll spend on it will be most enjoyable.

DIFFICULTY
The difficulty is not really high though but there is some challenge in keeping your characters alive since you cannot revive them.

OVERALL

Playing this now-5-year-old game in 2002 is very refreshing and though it is linear and quite restrictive in terms of game progression, Vandal Hearts is a very fun strategy game with beginner friendly controls and a clear game screen to boot. You'll find a lot of fun in this game, I know I did.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/28/02, Updated 08/28/02