Vandal Hearts

"A flawed but highly enjoyable journey."

Don't get me wrong- I love Vandal Hearts. I enjoy playing it and it really turned me on to the turn-based strategy genre that was nearly perfected with Final Fantasy Tactics. However, I am also not blind, and I realize that Vandal Hearts is a very good (not perfect) game that has tons of enjoyable features. The game revolves around Ash, the son of a traitor to his country, and his two friends, Diego the archer and Clint the swordsman. One day, while rounding up thieves on the outskirts of the towns and trading routes, Ash and his companions begin to unravel a tangled thread of espionage, betrayal, assassination, and deception. The game's many plot twists cover a few worlds' worth of locales and battles in turn-based strategy action.

Vandal Hearts has graphics that I can only refer to as functional. The battle screens are detailed, but pixilated. There are areas with marshes that even have pixilated shorelines for crying out loud! There are plenty of fountains of blood that also gush out during the game, but they are similarly fuzzy- it reminds me of Mortal Kombat for the Genesis. However, Ash and his many friends are pretty well-drawn and they undergo several nice costume changes throughout the game. The spell and attack effects of the heroes and enemies are at times decent (the screen-twisting Phase Shift, for instance) and other times sub-par (Venom...are they serious?). This mixed bag is a bit of a let-down, considering that Konami is one of the premier developers/publishers out there- they have even shown us the great things that they can do with the system with Suikoden and Castlevania. The whole package here seems like it was rushed.

True to form, however Konami produced Vandal Hearts with the same care as Suikoden. The game sports some nice music, with the contrast between the stern ''Player Turn'' tunes and the malevolently raging ''Enemy Turn'' themes are excellent. There are four or five different types of music that share the duties of marking your turns, and none of these tracks are bad, making for minimal annoyance and no real need to turn up the stereo. The individual sound effects, such as sword thrusts and my personal favorite, the attack of an enemy called the Bugaboo, are crisp and atmospheric. The sounds do a nice job of making up for the graphics, although a more complete product replete with lush visuals certainly would have edged this game up to an 8.

The game controls easily, with the usual RPG-style confirm and cancel buttons and a few easy-to-navigate menus. Nothing really special about Vandal Hearts in this department; it works on a grid system, kind of like an interactive chess game. Well, sort of.

Vandal Hearts plays similarly to games like Tactics Ogre. It involves you moving all of your units on a gridded board according to their moving limitations, and you may attack enemies if they are within your range (the range for archers is obviously the best available). You may also use items or cast magical spells if these options should be available to your characters. Each battle is almost like a stage in itself, and in order to complete each ''stage'' and advance the story line, you must achieve a certain objective. Konami does a nice job of varying these objectives beyond the usual ''destroy all the enemies'' theme. Sometimes you must protect an item for a certain number of turns or you must a destroy a machine before it wreaks havoc. This at least gives you a few surprises in a game that otherwise would have been boring. There are no random encounters like in FFT or even Vandal Hearts 2; instead, your characters gain experience amounts depending on their levels. In other words, if you have a character who is several levels behind the rest of the party, they will gain sometimes up to 10 times what your leveled-up members will receive for beating the enemy. This is a nice way of catching the slackers up, and it keeps the game moving at a nice steady clip. The towns in the game aren't very interactive; if you can believe it, they too are navigated by menus. However, this is all in the name of streamlining the game. It MOVES. Another nice part of the game is that most of your characters have two different paths they may take while advancing in job classes, leading to two very different maxed out individuals. This isn't nearly as deep as other systems like FFT's, but it is fun and easier to manage. If you are just breaking into the strategy-based RPG genre, this system will give you a nice look at all the basics which can otherwise be daunting in monstrous games like Kartia and FFT.

The story is pretty deep. It has to be, since you are basically just fighting on a battle screen and then watching the plot develop. The game is well-scripted and there are nice FMVs in between the chapters (the game is split into six logical parts). The voice acting in these FMVs in superb, making you wonder how Konami did the voices so crappily in Castlevania: SOTN.

This game is EXTREMELY straightforward. However, there are a few secrets to be found for the truly intrepid RPG/strategy gamer. These secrets can affect the ending, so you may want to play through a couple of times. Besides, Konami has so streamlined the system that it is a pleasure to breeze through the second or third time. As for replaying the story, some will want to and some will not- it is a toss up in the replay aspect. Vandal Hearts is neither an addictive action/puzzle game nor a tedious RPG, so by placing itself more in the middle it may actually turn more people off as a result.

Vandal Hearts is a classic in my book. It is one of the most enjoyable games I have played, and it appeals to me immensely even still. However, it is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination- this is merely my personal opinion. It's a worthy purchase for RPG and strategy fans, and worth a look for action gamers.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/22/01, Updated 01/22/01