Vandal Hearts

"Square might have bigger sales, but Konami have the best SRPG."

Vandal Hearts is the first SRPG for the PSone.

The debate of 3D to 2D graphics being more suited to RPG's ruled the genre's reign on the Playstation. Perhaps it was Vandal Hearts - one of the first 32 bit RPG's for the console - that ignited this. While not being formidable in the visual stakes as it's counterparts Final Fantasy, travelling back almost ten years on it was considered quite the looker and a prime example of Konami's primal development that continued to shine in fellow early RPG Suikoden. Vandal Hearts is also the definitive benchmark for SRPG's and remains to be outdone in looking averagely great and matching the skill in the gameplay department.

It won't matter what spectrum Vandal Hearts melds into, the game becomes an inspiration for even the likes of the highly respected Final Fantasy Tactics. It combines a variety of worthwhile elements of a gamer's approval of the RPG genre - a handful of different characters put into a heated plot with fair graphics and storming gameplay. And it's reasonably appropriate to say that only Final Fantasy Tactics has been able to match the groundbreaking title.

The poor are getting poorer, the rich are getting richer.

Sharing an inspiration from Suikoden, Vandal Hearts bases it's plot around political issues such as poverty and corruption. War is possibly on the horizon and nobody expected the son of a traitor, Ash Lambert to step up and revolt against the Crimson army. With his reputation mocked by the democrats and impowered people, Ash basically finds himself down and out with his two friends Clint and Diego. Working as jack of all trades, they notice a disruption among the suffering people and decide to act on their impulse to the arising public outcry. Climbing the political ladder, earning points for their tarnishing reputations with the people, Ash Lambert soon becomes an icon among his hearty companions.

The story of Vandal Hearts unravels before and after each battle, making the plot linear but suitable also. Most will find the decent range of characters' motives for the journey a good perk that some RPG's often miss out. Their personalities are also different, and the chemistry between some of them (i.e Huxley and Darius' inane squabbles) are quite interesting. You'll find that most of them have one on one relationships and the ending marks changes for all of them, not neccessarily the main protaginist. From the charmful and sarcastic driven Diego to the deceptive Kira to the old fashioned Huxley to his old rival the conman and slightly swash talking Darius. However, a personal favourite would be the hearty Grog, whose aptly drunk when you meet him. Basically there are characters there for everybody to like and dislike.

So how does it handle?.

Battle set up is reliant on the basic rules of the SRPG. The characters are either warriors, archers, mages and healers. Placed on a map to battle your enemies and it's here where you plan your strategy. So to speak, you can find a similiar bearing in the title Shining Force. There is always a threat in each level, and plot is covered before and after each battle. And in between, the player is always prepared for the next loop of story they jump into. Whatever the preference, the story is treated more as a tale this way, and it's a favourable reward for basic rules. Though Vandal Hearts cleverly has some tricks up it's sleeve when concerning innovative gameplay.

The route the characters can take in their journey is totally your choice when concerning how they fledge in battle. Once a character reaches a certain level, they hit the quota of choosing another class. Mages can choose to be stronger mages or monks, archers can choose to be stronger archers or change to wingsman. Obviously, it does take some considering as some classes come in handy for certain battles but that's a craft of upping the game for experienced players. This comes with a setting of class rules that should be remembered if you want an easier venture.

It goes like this: Warriors have advantages over archers. Archers have advantages over wingsmen. And wingsmen have advantages over warriors. This is a unique aspect of the SRPG which involves logic as to who you attack. But also very clever is considering the boulders and other items that the battle map offers. Not a vital neccessity but an interesting one nevertheless. But what is even more fun - and sometimes challenging - is the various stipulations of levels. This is where the game injects itself with adrenaline and is in it's element.

Meeting level requirements such as 'Get the characters across the bridge in 8 turns before the enemy get too close to block you' or 'Kill the werewolves in 12 turns' is demanding but outright exciting. Even the consistent normal levels are terrific escapades such as saving a comrade from being lowered into flames, escaping a guard swarming prison to the glorious level of facing the enemy in a chess style formation on a bridge with the characters having to advance quickly before the bridge demolishes and crossing a dam before the flood wipes your characters out. Whilst the levels are strictly chess or rock-paper-scissors formation, the levels are never once dull and in turn, the player is granted with the feeling of wanting to succeed.

Not many SRPG's do this because of the usual complexity of the strategy genre. But if the story doesn't commend this, the gameplay makes up for any lost charm. Most critics neglect the fact that Vandal Hearts was made before Final Fantasy VII and even the formidable Final Fantasy Tactics but Vandal Hearts is conceived of so many worthwhile ideas and the gameplay reflects the potential that it was hyped to have.

Now, remember, Final Fantasy VII was made after Vandal Hearts. 1996.

Like Wild Arms, Vandal Hearts was trapped in the net and piked for it's graphics as soon as Final Fantasy VII hit the headlines. Comprising of the simple sprites and polygons, Vandal Hearts rather look bold and adventurous in it's day with the 3D polygon battle maps and the 2D sprite characters. Many criticise the game for not testing the PSone's RAM and understandably so. The battle maps in general are quite lacking in the polygon detail and seem to be chunky. The objects, such as houses and the interior furniture are in desperate need of furnishing with their blocky 'squared-off' look. But to be honest, that's the only thing wrong with the graphical department and that the basic spells are very dull. On the plus side the textures present a nice colourful range that Suikoden only dipped into. While no Crash Bandicoot, the game's colours are vibrantly reminiscent of the run of the mill platform games fodder. Also is the visuals of the progressive spell casting that shines here as well. The short FMV may be cardboard and compressed but also very detailed in it's drawing. Vandal Hearts' doesn't relish on the fact they had a fresh console to test new graphics, but even with the downtrodden visuals here make a nice - if paltry - little offering.

Second rate soundtrack that just fails to deliver.

The music is an endless playlist of dramatic melodies with piercing tones that set the battles alight. It is mostly an orchestra backing throughout and wind music for the more morose attempts. Technically, the game's soundtrack is good but just doesn't fit the criteria and because of the music not exactly fitting in with the battles, aside from the battle theme, the music leads itself to be quite repetitive and in an hour or so, exhaustingly boring. It is more of an external flaw because the compositions mistake is that they were composed for the wrong game. That's all. The sound affects aren't a major key role outside of battles, where sword clashes and bow strings and the other sound affects of the weapons sound realistic at best. Other than that, the sound in Vandal Hearts remains a warm department.

And so I say...

..that Vandal Hearts is ultimately a love or hate game that will only appeal to a certain fanbase, narrow or large. The linear progressive story may contribute to this and the lack of difficulty may also disappoint considering previous titles of Tactics Ogre and Shining Force. However, with the exciting levels and interesting to quirky characters, Vandal Hearts is a nice little offering from Konami but sadly may never be taken seriously. This is almost indefinetly because it's fatal flaw that is the game loaning fragments and traditions from other classic SPRG'S and fails to whip up an extremely explosive title as Final Fantasy Tactics did (borrowing from Vandal Hearts). It will only reach it's potential in the eyes of few gamers, including myself. My last sentence is definetly a thumbs up for Vandal Hearts, flaws and all.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/21/04