Vandal Hearts

"Suikoden's little brother..."

Vandal Hearts entered the gaming scene with little reaction, along with its partner in crime, Suikoden. the two, developed by Konami were extremely original, and offered the gaming public innovative experiences. The public didn't take it tho, especially while Final Fantasy VII was doing the rounds. Still, Vandal Hearts which follows the same style of game as the likes of Final Fantasy Tactis played well into my heart. Being one of the first RPG's I played on the Playstation it left an everlasting mark on me. The game itself is one of a select few to follow this style of RPG. Allow me to explain.

Graphics: 7

The game takes place on a rotatable 3D playing board. Think of a chess board, but with some of the squares lowered/raised, and obstacles placed on some of them. The rotation takes place through a 90 degree turning system, and you can also tilt the board but when it's tilted at its lowest, you can barely see where a character can go, and when you tilt it to its highest, the characters all look like they're lying down. With the characters being 2D, there's nothing that can be done about such a problem. They look ugly at times, but with the right angle and zoom used, your army of characters can look just right.

The visuals of Vandal Hearts are extremely colourful. There's greens, purples, blue's, all flying round the place. When the spells kick into action you almost need to acquire a pair of sunshades to protect your eyes from the firework extravaganza taking place before you.

The menu's in the game take on the form of simple 2D menu's placed on a drawn background. it all looks rather bland, so the battles which take place inbetween the menu screens at least hold a little relief for this slight boredom.

Overall, the battle graphics do their job, but they could have been better. However, at the time this game was made, 3D characters never looked pleasant themselves, so I guess 2D was the only option for Konami to take. Check out Final Fantasy VII for the best earliest example of 3D rpg characters. Ironically, the 3D FF7 characters are placed for the majoriy of the game on a 2D background.

Gameplay: 8

It's a simple turn based game, where you select your characters actions first, and when you've finished, it's the computer's turn to wreak some of its own chaos. Such actions as physical attacks, magical spells, opening treasure chests, and pushing boulders down slopes can all be used in your battle for victory. It's an insanely much better system than its sequel used.

In the battles, you have to rely on tactics a lot. It's easy to attack enemies from the front, but when you figure out that attacking from behind means a 100% guaranteed hit as well as a stronger attack, you start to unravel all sorts of strategies in your head. You can't hit that stone golem with your soldier because it's a little too far away? Fine, try the archer on top of the castle, see if they can reach the golem from a further distance but higher elevation. Higher = more powerful. You literally have to take into account your height, distance, what direction you're attacking your enemy from, how powerful your characters class is in regard to the enemies, and if it's possible to attack more than one enemy with your spells. It's an incredibly involving game, with battles being different with every new game.

I enjoyed the fact that in buying weapons/armour, you could see if they would increase your character's current attack/defence capabilities, and you could also equip them and sell the older equipment all in the same few clicks of the joypad button. It's horrible in other games to find you just bought a weapon only to find it won't actually increase your characters strength at all. Kudos then to Vandal Hearts.

The real jewel in the crown for Vandal Hearts was its class system. On reaching the experience levels of 10 and 20 for your characters, you could advance them to another class. You could keep an archer on the archery road and transform them into a bowman, or you could infuse some magic into their repertoire and turn them into skymen, who can move further than bowmen, but are then more susceptible to an enemy bowman's attacks. It works extremely well and makes for a slightly different game everytime you start afresh.

The major problem for Vandal Hearts was its linearity. Sure you had a world map to traverse across, but the only places you could go where the locations of your next would-be battles. On your first play through you won't notice this because the story and character development is so gripping, but on subsequent plays, you will find yourself wishing you could have had choices. Maybe choose between two locations with vastly different battle scenarios. It would have made the lifespan much longer.

Sound: 5

It's annoying. Plain and simple. The sound of the weapons striking a blow or being defended, the sound of the blood gushing out of a character on being defeated, they're all top notch. But the music is devestatingly poor. you'll find yourself hating the music when you're plotting your characters movements, only to find when it's the enemies turn, it's an even worse tune. It's aggravating, and the music is not at all original. Sounds like old rehashed tunes from Super Nintendo RPG's. Games from Squaresoft have always brandished fantastic soundtracks. Vandal Hearts, and even its sequel disappoint in both instance. Keep the music off and revel in the sound effects of the fighting and spells.

Lifespan: 6

A tricky one to decide. You can't change the direction your characters take in the plot, so you're left playing an extremely linear game, totally the opposite of Konami's masterpiece, Suikoden. However, the class advances and the hidden quest to find the hidden class all add to give the game a reason for wanting to play it again. However, find the hidden class, all the items, play so you've tried every characters different class advancements, and you'll probably find yourself not wanting to play it again. Ever.

Overall:

An extremely fun game to play on your first play through, and one which re-establishes your faith in the oldschool RPG's. However, the linearity of the game mars the experience of playing Vandal Hearts, which could have been more like Tactics Ogre on the Gameboy Advance today.

Rent or Buy:

Doubt you'd be able to find this to rent anymore, but even so i'd still recommend buying it. It's an under-rated classic for the playstation which goes for immensely over-priced sales on ebay. try buying it cheap on ebay, play it thru once or twice, then sell it for twice the price you bought it for on ebay again. Trust me, you could do it! i'm keeping my copy though, as a reminder of elements that an RPG needs to be successful. Vandal Hearts was an extremely successful RPG in terms of quality.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/02/03, Updated 06/02/03