Shadow hearts?

[Chylde Roland]

Hey Bruenor, I noticed in your sig that you're playing Shadow Hearts. Is it any good? I've seen it around, but just never got to picking it up. Sicne it's so cheap these days, I'm thinking of adding it to my collection.

[Bruenor]

Yeah, I took a chance on it for the same reason, it was cheap and it was an RPG.

So here's what you should know:

1) It's developed by a studio made up of former Square employees, and plays very much like a Square made game.

2) It is a very traditional Japanese console rpg, meaning that it is linear with a somewhat weird, complex plot. Ultimately, you can tell these guys are former Square developers, the story would fit in the FF universe very well. I like the story actually, so far it has kept me coming back to see what happens next. Like any good RPG, you know it's a good game if you start to "care" about the characters. That's where I am with the game, I feel like I am starting to relate to the characters.

3) The game takes place on early 20th century Earth. Not much to that really, because magic, demons, items, etc. are all there still, but it's still nice to play in locations that you know of like Prague, London and Shanghai instead of Planet ABC in Universe XYZ.

4) The combat is turn based, but is a little different. You have a "judgement ring" which determines the success of your attacks. You have shaded areas on the ring and a spinner. Time your button presses to land in the shaded areas and your attack will be successful, miss and your pooched. Trust me, don't ever miss on a large boss fight when you have a judgement ring abnormality, you die... quickly.

5) There are a wide variety of characters that join your party (I'm still getting more to join, I think I'm at 7 now) and their classes are both varied and useful. I could use any combination of characters and whatever I choose I will find those characters useful. That's a big plus to me.

6) The graphics are... well, clean. This game was made in 2001, and was only a 2nd generation PS2 game. This doesn't the game is ugly at all, it just means you'll see some (very little BTW) jaginess, as well as very vanilla textures.

All in all, I am really enjoying this game. I am still playing this one more right now than I am Doom III, that's saying a lot, and that will likely continue until I finish it (I'm at 20+ hours and the game is about 40). I believe the average score on gamerankings is around 7.5 to 8.0 and I would pretty much agree with that score.

I know you like FF, so I think this game would be a very safe bet for you, especially at the reduced price.

Than you can get pumped like me when Shadow Hearts: Covenant comes out in September (unlike most FF games, this is a true sequel).

Edit: To put it another way, I enjoyed this game enough to already have pre-ordered and paid for Shadow Hearts: Covenant. And when I get it in September, I'll likely drop everything else and jump right in on the sequel.

I guess you could say I'm enjoying it. :wink:

Revenge of the Edit: Gamerankings average score is 76.1% with your favorite review site giving it an 86% (Gamespy) and my favorite review site give it a 4/5 (Avault).

[Chylde Roland]

yep, that sounds like my kind of game. Thanks for the info, Bruenor, I'll be picking it up next time I see it.

:thumbup:

[kyleh]

I really enjoyed Shadow Hearts. There were a lot of really funny moments in that game.