Very very very average JRPG. Outdated graphics & special effects(if you care about that), average big bad and battle system & less horror aspect than its predecessor. Still a cool little game but I like Koudelka better
This is a game and a series that a close friend of mine has been telling me is great for years. I’ve actually even owned the first two Shadow Hearts games for years as well, but I’ve always been a little too intimidated by the mechanics to properly give them a try. But over this summer break, I resolved to finally play through the Shadow Hearts series, and that’s just what I did~. It took me about 38 hours to play through enough to get the good ending on the Japanese version of the game on real hardware.
Shadow Hearts follows the story of Yuri, a young, foul-mouthed young man with the power to fuse with the souls of monsters he destroys. The year is 1913. At the directions of a mysterious voice in his head, he saves a young woman named Alice on a trian in Japanese occupied Manchuria. The powerful and dark sorcerer that he saves her from seems to let them get away purely out of whimsy, and so begins our tale. A tale that is often as dark as it is camp, and it really begins as it means to carry on in that regard x3
Coming out barely a month before Final Fantasy X, Shadow Hearts was then and is now very much a game living in the shadow (excuse the pun) of other great games on the system, but that isn’t to say that it doesn’t have excellent writing itself as well. It has an approach to myth, legend, and history that blends the three together in such a way that gives its places a delightfully uncanny presentation, and the game is delightfully creepy as often as it is just silly with how oddball its, at times incredibly joyfully anachronistic, characters can be. Given the time and location of the setting, there is a LOT that could’ve gone wrong in this game’s depictions of the places and people that appear in it, but by and large it very deftly handles its respective subject matters. The main writer of Shadow Hearts has said that a major inspiration was the original Devil Man manga, and it really shows with how painstakingly he goes out of his ways to paint villains and heroes alike in shades of grey, never settling comfortably into flatly evil archetypes. The major theme of depression and overcoming it with the help of those around you (or not doing that) is handled really well, and this is easily one of my new favorite written games on the console as a result.
The only real negative I can give about the writing is a really awful homophobic stereotype found in one of the merchant NPCs. Given the skill that the rest of the game’s subject matters are handled, it was a really uncomfortable and unfortunate pitfall of the game’s writing, and while it is just a minor character, it’s hard to overlook it when the stereotype is quite as bad as it is. It wasn’t a deal-breaker for me (and I tend to be pretty strict about that kind of stuff), but I absolutely understand it being too uncomfortable a depiction for others, as it’s really no better in the English version, by all accounts.
The mechanics of Shadow Hearts really show the nature of a company composed largely of ex-SquareSoft developers. It’s a pretty standard turn-based game RPG with two rows for your party of 3 to occupy, but with a few important and ever present gimmicks here and there. First and foremost among these is the Judgment Ring system, which is something all of the Shadow Hearts games have but none more than this. Upon selecting an attack, a quick time event of a spinning ring pops up, and you need to press the command button when the spinning dial is over the colored sections. For normal attacks, each successive press gets you another hit in your little combo, and for spells, you need to hit more and more successes for successively more powerful spells (meaning the QTE’s get tougher as the game goes on). Later Shadow Hearts games have the ability to turn off the Judgment Ring system, but that is not the case in the first game . It’s not super difficult to get a hold of (and the whole reason I thought it was so hard at first was because I’d been doing it wrong ^^; ), but it’s something that’s ever present enough for both combat and out of combat mini-games that, if you don’t like it, it’ll likely drive you crazy.
The other major mechanical gimmick is the sanity point (SP) system, which other Shadow Hearts games would also continue to use. For every turn you take, your sanity ticks down by one until it hits zero. Once it hits zero, you go berserk and you can’t control that character anymore. This means you need to keep on top of keeping people’s sanity up with healing items (whose use also requires use of the Judgement Ring), especially during longer fights and boss battles. This is especially true for Yuri, who takes far more sanity points per turn when he’s fused into a more powerful demon form. While a lot of Yuri’s fusion forms really don’t matter much (the balancing of the game means that more often than not, less than half of them end up being really necessary or useful), you basically always want him in his fusion form if you can help it because it makes him just SO much more powerful, and he also doesn’t get spells to use outside of fusion forms. This ultimately just adds more balls into the air to juggle in boss fights, and it’s one more thing to keep track of in addition to health and mana and such. It’s not a great mechanic, but it’s not an outright bad one either.
All in all, the difficulty balancing is done really well, and it keeps a very persistent air of being just hard enough to be challenging while very infrequently being something you’d feel you’d need to grind to get past. The only real “well that sucks” aspect of boss fight design is usually getting to one and realizing that it has some status effect that it’ll inflict that will make your life miserable, so you’ll need to load your save and go grab some status immunity accessories at a vendor to take care of that. Thankfully, HP, MP, and even SP replenishing items are at shops as well as these immunity items, meaning you’re only ever a little bit of money away from making a fight or particular bit of grinding eminently survivable. It’s another aspect where I certainly wish the game were balanced in such a way that you didn’t need to rely on having stuff like a bunch of SP healing items or status effect immunity accessories to progress, but the game being that way isn’t inherently a bad thing. It’s just a little annoying.
The presentation of Shadow Hearts is absolutely excellent in a way you’d really expect from a dev team made of ex-SquareSoft developers. From the way the 3D models look to the pre-rendered environments they move around on, this almost has the vibe of a super PS1 game in certain respects. The music is also excellent, and the creature and character design is awesome too. The game has a lot of really gross and creepy monster and boss design, and I don’t blame them for apparently implementing Yuri’s fusion system entirely to use more of the sick-ass monster designs they’d made. They’re great! X3
Verdict: Highly Recommended. From the writing to the presentation to the fun & engaging gameplay, Shadow Hearts is an incredibly strong RPG on a system with no shortage of them. The fact that it’s such an early RPG on the console makes that fact all the more impressive. If you’re a fan of creepy, myth-filled (think SMT-vibes) settings and turn-based RPG gameplay, Shadow Hearts is absolutely not a game to miss out on.
Shadow Hearts follows the story of Yuri, a young, foul-mouthed young man with the power to fuse with the souls of monsters he destroys. The year is 1913. At the directions of a mysterious voice in his head, he saves a young woman named Alice on a trian in Japanese occupied Manchuria. The powerful and dark sorcerer that he saves her from seems to let them get away purely out of whimsy, and so begins our tale. A tale that is often as dark as it is camp, and it really begins as it means to carry on in that regard x3
Coming out barely a month before Final Fantasy X, Shadow Hearts was then and is now very much a game living in the shadow (excuse the pun) of other great games on the system, but that isn’t to say that it doesn’t have excellent writing itself as well. It has an approach to myth, legend, and history that blends the three together in such a way that gives its places a delightfully uncanny presentation, and the game is delightfully creepy as often as it is just silly with how oddball its, at times incredibly joyfully anachronistic, characters can be. Given the time and location of the setting, there is a LOT that could’ve gone wrong in this game’s depictions of the places and people that appear in it, but by and large it very deftly handles its respective subject matters. The main writer of Shadow Hearts has said that a major inspiration was the original Devil Man manga, and it really shows with how painstakingly he goes out of his ways to paint villains and heroes alike in shades of grey, never settling comfortably into flatly evil archetypes. The major theme of depression and overcoming it with the help of those around you (or not doing that) is handled really well, and this is easily one of my new favorite written games on the console as a result.
The only real negative I can give about the writing is a really awful homophobic stereotype found in one of the merchant NPCs. Given the skill that the rest of the game’s subject matters are handled, it was a really uncomfortable and unfortunate pitfall of the game’s writing, and while it is just a minor character, it’s hard to overlook it when the stereotype is quite as bad as it is. It wasn’t a deal-breaker for me (and I tend to be pretty strict about that kind of stuff), but I absolutely understand it being too uncomfortable a depiction for others, as it’s really no better in the English version, by all accounts.
The mechanics of Shadow Hearts really show the nature of a company composed largely of ex-SquareSoft developers. It’s a pretty standard turn-based game RPG with two rows for your party of 3 to occupy, but with a few important and ever present gimmicks here and there. First and foremost among these is the Judgment Ring system, which is something all of the Shadow Hearts games have but none more than this. Upon selecting an attack, a quick time event of a spinning ring pops up, and you need to press the command button when the spinning dial is over the colored sections. For normal attacks, each successive press gets you another hit in your little combo, and for spells, you need to hit more and more successes for successively more powerful spells (meaning the QTE’s get tougher as the game goes on). Later Shadow Hearts games have the ability to turn off the Judgment Ring system, but that is not the case in the first game . It’s not super difficult to get a hold of (and the whole reason I thought it was so hard at first was because I’d been doing it wrong ^^; ), but it’s something that’s ever present enough for both combat and out of combat mini-games that, if you don’t like it, it’ll likely drive you crazy.
The other major mechanical gimmick is the sanity point (SP) system, which other Shadow Hearts games would also continue to use. For every turn you take, your sanity ticks down by one until it hits zero. Once it hits zero, you go berserk and you can’t control that character anymore. This means you need to keep on top of keeping people’s sanity up with healing items (whose use also requires use of the Judgement Ring), especially during longer fights and boss battles. This is especially true for Yuri, who takes far more sanity points per turn when he’s fused into a more powerful demon form. While a lot of Yuri’s fusion forms really don’t matter much (the balancing of the game means that more often than not, less than half of them end up being really necessary or useful), you basically always want him in his fusion form if you can help it because it makes him just SO much more powerful, and he also doesn’t get spells to use outside of fusion forms. This ultimately just adds more balls into the air to juggle in boss fights, and it’s one more thing to keep track of in addition to health and mana and such. It’s not a great mechanic, but it’s not an outright bad one either.
All in all, the difficulty balancing is done really well, and it keeps a very persistent air of being just hard enough to be challenging while very infrequently being something you’d feel you’d need to grind to get past. The only real “well that sucks” aspect of boss fight design is usually getting to one and realizing that it has some status effect that it’ll inflict that will make your life miserable, so you’ll need to load your save and go grab some status immunity accessories at a vendor to take care of that. Thankfully, HP, MP, and even SP replenishing items are at shops as well as these immunity items, meaning you’re only ever a little bit of money away from making a fight or particular bit of grinding eminently survivable. It’s another aspect where I certainly wish the game were balanced in such a way that you didn’t need to rely on having stuff like a bunch of SP healing items or status effect immunity accessories to progress, but the game being that way isn’t inherently a bad thing. It’s just a little annoying.
The presentation of Shadow Hearts is absolutely excellent in a way you’d really expect from a dev team made of ex-SquareSoft developers. From the way the 3D models look to the pre-rendered environments they move around on, this almost has the vibe of a super PS1 game in certain respects. The music is also excellent, and the creature and character design is awesome too. The game has a lot of really gross and creepy monster and boss design, and I don’t blame them for apparently implementing Yuri’s fusion system entirely to use more of the sick-ass monster designs they’d made. They’re great! X3
Verdict: Highly Recommended. From the writing to the presentation to the fun & engaging gameplay, Shadow Hearts is an incredibly strong RPG on a system with no shortage of them. The fact that it’s such an early RPG on the console makes that fact all the more impressive. If you’re a fan of creepy, myth-filled (think SMT-vibes) settings and turn-based RPG gameplay, Shadow Hearts is absolutely not a game to miss out on.
I was so hyped about this game! Was... because the moment I started playing it I fell asleep.
What the hell is going on in this game? Not only everything sounds very cliché but the playing is also BAD! You know Japanese games, they always like to give us trouble with all of those unnecessary fights and weird looking monsters. Not to talk about the dialogue...
The battling system is ridiculous and if you don't know anything about it just go check it out. That must be the most ridiculous battling system I've ever seen! You can't deal some attacks if you don't press on the right seal (and there's time). I can't really explain how it works here, it's only credible if people see it with their own eyes, anyway.
PS: I like to be exaggerated so don't take this one so seriously. I think it's incredible how people like this game but hey, I don't like chocolate... Isn't that incredible too?
What the hell is going on in this game? Not only everything sounds very cliché but the playing is also BAD! You know Japanese games, they always like to give us trouble with all of those unnecessary fights and weird looking monsters. Not to talk about the dialogue...
The battling system is ridiculous and if you don't know anything about it just go check it out. That must be the most ridiculous battling system I've ever seen! You can't deal some attacks if you don't press on the right seal (and there's time). I can't really explain how it works here, it's only credible if people see it with their own eyes, anyway.
PS: I like to be exaggerated so don't take this one so seriously. I think it's incredible how people like this game but hey, I don't like chocolate... Isn't that incredible too?
Continues the unique setting by blending horror and the supernatural with the often less explored real world setting of the early 20th century. The moody soundtrack and off-putting monster designs help it to stand out next to other JRPGs. Biggest disappointment is that the voice acting has gone down in both quality and quantity. Party management is confounding. Fusion and judgement ring mechanics are neat ideas but could be fleshed out more.
This review contains spoilers
An absolute overlooked classic. Cannon ending is a total gut punch. New ps2 era fave right here.
This game is stellar. Just played it first time this month and couldn’t put it down until I beat it. I love the judgement ring. Attempting to hit perfects brings a satisfaction to every battle.
Music, atmosphere, art direction, and storyline + character writing all go hard.
One good critique is a lot of the best stuff is in the European back half of the game. The first couple hours are good, But the story is sparse as your party goes from village to village avoiding capture and performing exorcism. I would also say this game is mostly easy and you’re often using the same kinda strategy of healing, item support, and relying on 1 or two moves. The final boss fucked me up around the level mid-40s tho. And it was great! I loved having to prepare my team to get stronger.
Best part is how much meaningful side quests and missable content there is. We’re talking several optional boss fights, entirely fleshed out bonus levels, many charming npc convo, all kinds of items and equipment, plus some of the best cutscenes in the game if u take certain party members to certain places. Crazy. Plus there’s new game plus. It DEMANDS a great second playthrough. And I already want to play it’s more popular sequel.
Music, atmosphere, art direction, and storyline + character writing all go hard.
One good critique is a lot of the best stuff is in the European back half of the game. The first couple hours are good, But the story is sparse as your party goes from village to village avoiding capture and performing exorcism. I would also say this game is mostly easy and you’re often using the same kinda strategy of healing, item support, and relying on 1 or two moves. The final boss fucked me up around the level mid-40s tho. And it was great! I loved having to prepare my team to get stronger.
Best part is how much meaningful side quests and missable content there is. We’re talking several optional boss fights, entirely fleshed out bonus levels, many charming npc convo, all kinds of items and equipment, plus some of the best cutscenes in the game if u take certain party members to certain places. Crazy. Plus there’s new game plus. It DEMANDS a great second playthrough. And I already want to play it’s more popular sequel.
I would give my left nut for a remaster of this game and the sequel. The ring system is so fun.
Phew, I'm a bit late for my Halloween gaming entry, huh?
Honestly, I love the Shadow Hearts franchise for it's historical settings, it's horror aesthetic and it's themes of trauma. It's good shit, but sadly this one might be the roughest of them all.
Yeah, its story is better than From the New World (of course it is), but damn the first iteration of the Judgement Ring gets a bit stale in battle after a while. The other games sure improved on that. This doesn't make the gameplay bad, but it's rarely better then serviceable, despite the great ideas.
People always say that this one is the most horror (except for maybe Koudelka), but I think it's the most tonally inconsistent. I honestly don't mind the anime humor and even the horny stuff is totally alright with me, but maybe don't go for a cheap gag, when the entirety of Shangai is destroyed by an evil god and our protagonist seems to be dead/ lost forever. (Talking about the part where villain makes his evil speech, takes his leave and in the middle of the whirlwind around him he gets hit by a small stone). And stuff like this just happens so often, always undercutting the tension instead of maybe alleviating it after an especially tense section.
Some of the dialogue especially surrounding Yuri seems immature and really comes off as corny, when the theme is living ones best live despite trauma and despite horrible shit going on in the world.
That said, the vibes are just awesome here. The areas, be they haunted villages (and there are lot of those here), ancient temples full of alien monsters, decrepit caves or creepy mansions or Geiger-esque half technological half mystical places. It's all some really good shit and often feels like a best-of from all kind of genres of horror.
The history stuff is a bit more of a backdrop and it doesn't really seem like the game really knows what to do with it, apart from talking a bit about Japanese colonialism, but not really coming out with any meaningful critique or analysis or anything. Just a character that is kind of a minor antagonist turned ally that really struggles with it as she is a commander of the Japanese army, her story also ends only in side content, so you might even miss that. And also there is a minor antagonist, that fights against Japanese colonialism and...yikes. However, the setting really helps to establish things like vampire castles in Transylvania or evil Taoist magic in China, effectively helping to build the fantasy and magic inside the world.
I still resonate with the flawed characters and how they try to live their lives. I resonate with them or rather especially Yuri and how he doesn't really have a reason to live at first, but then later he and the rest of the party become a found family. He also gets more vulnerable the further the game gets on, and that's honestly pretty great. Also the game kinda combines a lot of my special interests: colonial history, horror and JRPGs. And that will always make Shadow Hearts in general really special to me, no matter how flawed it is.
Honestly, I love the Shadow Hearts franchise for it's historical settings, it's horror aesthetic and it's themes of trauma. It's good shit, but sadly this one might be the roughest of them all.
Yeah, its story is better than From the New World (of course it is), but damn the first iteration of the Judgement Ring gets a bit stale in battle after a while. The other games sure improved on that. This doesn't make the gameplay bad, but it's rarely better then serviceable, despite the great ideas.
People always say that this one is the most horror (except for maybe Koudelka), but I think it's the most tonally inconsistent. I honestly don't mind the anime humor and even the horny stuff is totally alright with me, but maybe don't go for a cheap gag, when the entirety of Shangai is destroyed by an evil god and our protagonist seems to be dead/ lost forever. (Talking about the part where villain makes his evil speech, takes his leave and in the middle of the whirlwind around him he gets hit by a small stone). And stuff like this just happens so often, always undercutting the tension instead of maybe alleviating it after an especially tense section.
Some of the dialogue especially surrounding Yuri seems immature and really comes off as corny, when the theme is living ones best live despite trauma and despite horrible shit going on in the world.
That said, the vibes are just awesome here. The areas, be they haunted villages (and there are lot of those here), ancient temples full of alien monsters, decrepit caves or creepy mansions or Geiger-esque half technological half mystical places. It's all some really good shit and often feels like a best-of from all kind of genres of horror.
The history stuff is a bit more of a backdrop and it doesn't really seem like the game really knows what to do with it, apart from talking a bit about Japanese colonialism, but not really coming out with any meaningful critique or analysis or anything. Just a character that is kind of a minor antagonist turned ally that really struggles with it as she is a commander of the Japanese army, her story also ends only in side content, so you might even miss that. And also there is a minor antagonist, that fights against Japanese colonialism and...yikes. However, the setting really helps to establish things like vampire castles in Transylvania or evil Taoist magic in China, effectively helping to build the fantasy and magic inside the world.
I still resonate with the flawed characters and how they try to live their lives. I resonate with them or rather especially Yuri and how he doesn't really have a reason to live at first, but then later he and the rest of the party become a found family. He also gets more vulnerable the further the game gets on, and that's honestly pretty great. Also the game kinda combines a lot of my special interests: colonial history, horror and JRPGs. And that will always make Shadow Hearts in general really special to me, no matter how flawed it is.
Great JRPG. Rough arround the edges, but very fun. Not grindy at all and the encounter rate is adequate
Shadow Hearts is special for me in many ways.
Well what can i say, even for nowadays where we have all kinds of RPGs and the genre is always presenting something new, Shadow Hearts manages to stay very unique, almost as it was in it's time. All the weirdness this games brings to the table really connected to me in some way, the atmosphere is pretty unique and even though it's predecessor, Koudelka was way darker, this game still presents some really creep stuff most of the time and that was what really got me.
Shadow Hearts has a really enjoyable gameplay using the Judgement Ring not only for battles but for puzzles and other minigames, it really makes full use of this system which is nice. All the characters have different ways to use the judgement ring which makes it refreshing even though you'll be battling a lot though the game. Aside from that, the atmosphere is top notch, really, the 2D backgrounds in this game areone of the best i saw in a RPG ever, some of them have lots of animations all the time which reminds me of old PC adventure games. I already said this game can be quite creepy, it may seem a lot goofy at first glance, (and it really is which is awesome) but have you ever read the monsters library? There are some hilarious descriptions. like "a mailman who ate all the dogs on the neighborhood", or "an evolved kappa who only feeds on obese men" and some really creepy ones like "a malicious ghost who take over kids bodies and devour then slowly" and "An incubbus who takes over a angel's name, it devours the souls of girls while they're dreaming". This game doesn't really take it's horror elements seriously most of the time and yet they're all over the place creating something really unique. Shadow hearts really shows it's identity through little things like these scatered over the main adventure.
But not everything is perfect, Shadow Hearts is really ambicious but it's clear as day that the developers didn't had enough time to make the story more fleshed out. Some characters are just really plain overall or are left aside halfway through the game. The humour can be.. really cringy at times, mostly in the beggining. The protagonist is kind of a loser, he even admits it later, yet he strives to become better because of the person he loves, but even this could be done in a better way, this game clearly lacks what Koudelka had regarding writting. (also have in mind that the poor translation may have caused some scenes to get worse than they're supposed to be, which is another problem on it's own.)
But don't be discouraged by this, Shadow Hearts is still pretty fun overall and probably one of my favourite games of all time, if you like turn based combat give it a try it's worth your time. I'm really glad i got to play it. :)
Well what can i say, even for nowadays where we have all kinds of RPGs and the genre is always presenting something new, Shadow Hearts manages to stay very unique, almost as it was in it's time. All the weirdness this games brings to the table really connected to me in some way, the atmosphere is pretty unique and even though it's predecessor, Koudelka was way darker, this game still presents some really creep stuff most of the time and that was what really got me.
Shadow Hearts has a really enjoyable gameplay using the Judgement Ring not only for battles but for puzzles and other minigames, it really makes full use of this system which is nice. All the characters have different ways to use the judgement ring which makes it refreshing even though you'll be battling a lot though the game. Aside from that, the atmosphere is top notch, really, the 2D backgrounds in this game areone of the best i saw in a RPG ever, some of them have lots of animations all the time which reminds me of old PC adventure games. I already said this game can be quite creepy, it may seem a lot goofy at first glance, (and it really is which is awesome) but have you ever read the monsters library? There are some hilarious descriptions. like "a mailman who ate all the dogs on the neighborhood", or "an evolved kappa who only feeds on obese men" and some really creepy ones like "a malicious ghost who take over kids bodies and devour then slowly" and "An incubbus who takes over a angel's name, it devours the souls of girls while they're dreaming". This game doesn't really take it's horror elements seriously most of the time and yet they're all over the place creating something really unique. Shadow hearts really shows it's identity through little things like these scatered over the main adventure.
But not everything is perfect, Shadow Hearts is really ambicious but it's clear as day that the developers didn't had enough time to make the story more fleshed out. Some characters are just really plain overall or are left aside halfway through the game. The humour can be.. really cringy at times, mostly in the beggining. The protagonist is kind of a loser, he even admits it later, yet he strives to become better because of the person he loves, but even this could be done in a better way, this game clearly lacks what Koudelka had regarding writting. (also have in mind that the poor translation may have caused some scenes to get worse than they're supposed to be, which is another problem on it's own.)
But don't be discouraged by this, Shadow Hearts is still pretty fun overall and probably one of my favourite games of all time, if you like turn based combat give it a try it's worth your time. I'm really glad i got to play it. :)
A gothic horror RPG that's also a sequel to Koudelka. It has an interesting combat system, using the Judgment Ring for accuracy and extra damage. Definitely deserves to be ported.
I really enjoyed replaying this game 20+ years later. Didn’t realise how much of an influence HP Lovecraft was as I wasn’t aware of any of that back in the day lol. Loved the atmosphere and vibes and story. Holds up today in a genre that’s a bit stagnant with anime.
A horror jrpg is very unheard of and it just works.
Cool battle system and soundtrack and pretty challenging at times. The last boss is cheap and no pushover.
A horror jrpg is very unheard of and it just works.
Cool battle system and soundtrack and pretty challenging at times. The last boss is cheap and no pushover.
An okay rpg
I like the coat of paint, but it's still just a JRPG (derogatory)
idk why i bought this being a kid but i like it
Pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this, especially after seeing people say Covenant was way better (now im way more excited to play that one).
I'll get the gripes out of the way first. It's an early ps2 game and it's very obvious. While the in game models and environments are solid enough, the CG cutscenes are definitely not. Yuri especially does not resemble himself at all in these cutscenes. Luckily there's not a whole lot of them. Yuri's early characterization was not my favorite thing. They could've made him have the same vibe without being super pervy/creepy. Honestly, the only other thing I didn't enjoy much about the game was some of the dialogue sequences went on a little long.
Now with the plethora of good. Can't talk about this game without first mentioning the judgement ring. Taking combat inspiration from something like Super Mario RPG and Legend of Dragoon and turning it into this beautiful little circle. Items, equipment, and attacks were all created with the ring in mind and it all works flawlessly. Speaking of attacks, combat is a bit more than just pick an attack and don't miserably fail at using the judgement ring. Being able to pick a favorite demon for Yuri to transform into and go dummy mode on a bunch of creepy dogs is a lot of fun. I went with his fire fusions and buffed attack and popped off when I found the item that made my ring invisible but dealt double damage. Managing sanity points in the later boss fights when it's actually a danger is a lot of fun.
Going to wrap it up by saying the soundtrack is amazing, Brain Hopper whips. OST is equally eerie and beautiful and the fact that there's two composers working together in tandem like this is amazing. Characters are all fun and lovable and their interactions with each other actually get to be pretty wholesome. Game isn't really difficult but a lot of the late bosses hit the right level of difficulty. Story is serviceable and the way it connects to Koudelka is great. Play this game!
I'll get the gripes out of the way first. It's an early ps2 game and it's very obvious. While the in game models and environments are solid enough, the CG cutscenes are definitely not. Yuri especially does not resemble himself at all in these cutscenes. Luckily there's not a whole lot of them. Yuri's early characterization was not my favorite thing. They could've made him have the same vibe without being super pervy/creepy. Honestly, the only other thing I didn't enjoy much about the game was some of the dialogue sequences went on a little long.
Now with the plethora of good. Can't talk about this game without first mentioning the judgement ring. Taking combat inspiration from something like Super Mario RPG and Legend of Dragoon and turning it into this beautiful little circle. Items, equipment, and attacks were all created with the ring in mind and it all works flawlessly. Speaking of attacks, combat is a bit more than just pick an attack and don't miserably fail at using the judgement ring. Being able to pick a favorite demon for Yuri to transform into and go dummy mode on a bunch of creepy dogs is a lot of fun. I went with his fire fusions and buffed attack and popped off when I found the item that made my ring invisible but dealt double damage. Managing sanity points in the later boss fights when it's actually a danger is a lot of fun.
Going to wrap it up by saying the soundtrack is amazing, Brain Hopper whips. OST is equally eerie and beautiful and the fact that there's two composers working together in tandem like this is amazing. Characters are all fun and lovable and their interactions with each other actually get to be pretty wholesome. Game isn't really difficult but a lot of the late bosses hit the right level of difficulty. Story is serviceable and the way it connects to Koudelka is great. Play this game!
Interesting JRPG/horror mix. The voice acting sometimes had rather poor quality but the game had an overall good atmosphere, nice story and characters. The ending really made me a bit emotional. Judgement ring is a great idea.
This is the 2nd Shadow Hearts that I've played. Since the internet has nothing but praise to this hidden gem on the PS2, I had high hopes for it. In the end, what I found was a game with nothing but unique mediocre experiences.
At first, I was really enjoying Shadow Hearts. It is a traditional JRPG that wears its inspirations on its sleeves and I appreciate it for this. The battle system is quite unique and keeps you on your toes. It's not perfect and it can get old pretty quick, but it kept me interested for the most part. The presentation is quite simple, but somewhat familiar, which kinda made me feel at home. There's also a nice amount of challenging and fair fights which, despite some weird unbalanced difficulty spikes during boss duels, made me constantly strategize my next moves.
The atmosphere is probably one of the best things in the game. The whole tone and story can get very dark and, at times, even creepy. Whether you're in dungeons, cities or doing sidequests, the music is unsettling and the feeling is moody. There's even a place called Dollhouse that made it feel a lot like I was playing an RPG version of the first Resident Evil. Sidequests felt a litte short (which is not exactly bad), but they were nice, expanding a bit more on characters like Keith and Margarette, while also establishing some world-building.
It's just sad that this feeling of joy didn't last very long. The battle system got dull. The enemy variety is nothing but the same 10 monsters with their color palette swapped, the music became repetitive and not at all memorable, characters just never developed and the writing is bad!
I know that the battle system is cool and all, but did EVERYTHING in the game have to revolve around the ring mechanic? Puzzles, item usage, getting discounts on shops and even reviving a fallen character. And did it have to be this punishing? That definitely did not help when it comes to variety.
Some other mechanics in the system felt unnecessary. Did we really need to keep quieting Malice? Did we really need sanity points? Did we need acunpuncture or the graveyard at all? The feeling I got from all of it was that the game's mechanics were there just to fuck with you, not to create a decent gameplay experience.
And what's up with the story? The writing starts off ok, but it get super tiresome, with some rather uninteresting plot points and "turns". I couldn't care less about half of the things that happened after we left Asia and I couldn't care about ANY character in the game.
I just cannot recommend this game. It's not bad, but it screams mediocrity and boredom.
It's nice that it brought a different type of element to a traditional genre, and it's also good that it was the beginning of a fine trilogy, but it's certainly not special.
At first, I was really enjoying Shadow Hearts. It is a traditional JRPG that wears its inspirations on its sleeves and I appreciate it for this. The battle system is quite unique and keeps you on your toes. It's not perfect and it can get old pretty quick, but it kept me interested for the most part. The presentation is quite simple, but somewhat familiar, which kinda made me feel at home. There's also a nice amount of challenging and fair fights which, despite some weird unbalanced difficulty spikes during boss duels, made me constantly strategize my next moves.
The atmosphere is probably one of the best things in the game. The whole tone and story can get very dark and, at times, even creepy. Whether you're in dungeons, cities or doing sidequests, the music is unsettling and the feeling is moody. There's even a place called Dollhouse that made it feel a lot like I was playing an RPG version of the first Resident Evil. Sidequests felt a litte short (which is not exactly bad), but they were nice, expanding a bit more on characters like Keith and Margarette, while also establishing some world-building.
It's just sad that this feeling of joy didn't last very long. The battle system got dull. The enemy variety is nothing but the same 10 monsters with their color palette swapped, the music became repetitive and not at all memorable, characters just never developed and the writing is bad!
I know that the battle system is cool and all, but did EVERYTHING in the game have to revolve around the ring mechanic? Puzzles, item usage, getting discounts on shops and even reviving a fallen character. And did it have to be this punishing? That definitely did not help when it comes to variety.
Some other mechanics in the system felt unnecessary. Did we really need to keep quieting Malice? Did we really need sanity points? Did we need acunpuncture or the graveyard at all? The feeling I got from all of it was that the game's mechanics were there just to fuck with you, not to create a decent gameplay experience.
And what's up with the story? The writing starts off ok, but it get super tiresome, with some rather uninteresting plot points and "turns". I couldn't care less about half of the things that happened after we left Asia and I couldn't care about ANY character in the game.
I just cannot recommend this game. It's not bad, but it screams mediocrity and boredom.
It's nice that it brought a different type of element to a traditional genre, and it's also good that it was the beginning of a fine trilogy, but it's certainly not special.
Por ser el primero no esta mal pero dudo que vuelva a jugarlo estando los demás.
amazing game and great sequel to koudelka. i dig the aesthetic and ost, but the gameplay and story are actually really great as well. only downside is that this game is a bit on the easy side, and maybe a bit short being just under 30 hours with sidequests, but still 100% recommended, and must play if you like it's horror style.
I don’t know why there is a Judgment Ring, It disrupts the pacing of combat due to its QTE and many dungeons are annoying due to their frustrating puzzles but there is no need to grind and random encounter rate might be the best among PS2-era JPRGs
This was a really fun, charming, and interesting little PS1 styled JRPG, I liked all of the characters and the story took some unique turns I thought were cool, definitely glad to have hopped on this!
This game has yuri, instant 10/10
Sinceramente creo que tiene uno de los mejores Finales que eh experimentado en un videojuego, tiene un sistema de combate que me agrada mucho pidiéndole al jugador poner atención y desafiar sus propios reflejos con un sistema algo de riesgo recompensa, también con sistema de bufeos y debilidades que me enamoraron.
Los personajes me parecieron simplemente bien, no malos ni meh solamente que esperaba mas, yuri a veces me caía bien y otras del orto pero nada grave, los demás personajes tenían sus momentos que me hacían tenerle mas simpatía.
Pero creo que lo mejor de toda la obra es aquel final donde el villano tal vez solo tal vez no estaba tan equivocado y puede quizás sacarte una lagrima de la cara.
Los personajes me parecieron simplemente bien, no malos ni meh solamente que esperaba mas, yuri a veces me caía bien y otras del orto pero nada grave, los demás personajes tenían sus momentos que me hacían tenerle mas simpatía.
Pero creo que lo mejor de toda la obra es aquel final donde el villano tal vez solo tal vez no estaba tan equivocado y puede quizás sacarte una lagrima de la cara.
The writing is a little picky, but even so the story connected with me in a special way that honestly, I am thankful for it. Looking forward to Penny Blood when it releases!
I cant believe Yuri and Alice invented romance
I was so close to beating this and stopped playing for some reason. I'm not sure why... FFX perhaps?
Still from what I remember, it was enjoyable, and a relatively unique horror JRPG. I would like to get back to it and play its sequels as well.
Still from what I remember, it was enjoyable, and a relatively unique horror JRPG. I would like to get back to it and play its sequels as well.
king of some mixed feelings, Shadow Hearts has a unique identity but flounders in some jrpg mediocrity. the art direction and music are often commendable (special mention goes to Yasunori Mitsuda's work on the soundtrack), and the premise is definitely unique, sporting an alternate history story continued from its predecessor, Koudelka.
i think it's a pretty enjoyable romp, with a unique mix of horror, drama, and comedy, that knows it's ridiculous but wants you to try taking it seriously nonetheless.
however, it's a bit bogged down by certain elements. some monster designs are great, but others are uninspired or lackluster. a lot of the music is good, but the songs that aren't can kind of grate. a lot of the humor can be downright hysterical, but some jokes really didn't age well.
along with this, while the conceit of the story is interesting, the game itself is less and less concerned with carrying its unique edge the longer it goes on. a multifaceted international political conflict gives way to a pretty standard end-of-the-world plot, and some of the characters don't feel particularly well-defined (poor Zhuzhen and Keith). along with this, even the English localization seems to peter out, starting out decent and becoming somewhat uncharacteristic and incoherent by the end.
like many rpgs, the combat in Shadow Hearts is a means to an end. while it tries to spice up the formula a bit with the Judgment Ring system, which asks you to perform timed presses of varying difficulty depending on the move you use, it's still a slow, substandard turn-based system. the Judgment Ring system ends up going overboard as well, worming its way into overworld exploration actions and even shop interfaces. it's all a bit too much and even as an rpg with a shorter length, it becomes very tiresome by the end.
despite its flaws, i do recommend Shadow Hearts to anyone who's a fan of traditional roleplaying games, especially if they're somewhat weird. it's a novel curiosity and has a small, but dedicated following for a reason.
i think it's a pretty enjoyable romp, with a unique mix of horror, drama, and comedy, that knows it's ridiculous but wants you to try taking it seriously nonetheless.
however, it's a bit bogged down by certain elements. some monster designs are great, but others are uninspired or lackluster. a lot of the music is good, but the songs that aren't can kind of grate. a lot of the humor can be downright hysterical, but some jokes really didn't age well.
along with this, while the conceit of the story is interesting, the game itself is less and less concerned with carrying its unique edge the longer it goes on. a multifaceted international political conflict gives way to a pretty standard end-of-the-world plot, and some of the characters don't feel particularly well-defined (poor Zhuzhen and Keith). along with this, even the English localization seems to peter out, starting out decent and becoming somewhat uncharacteristic and incoherent by the end.
like many rpgs, the combat in Shadow Hearts is a means to an end. while it tries to spice up the formula a bit with the Judgment Ring system, which asks you to perform timed presses of varying difficulty depending on the move you use, it's still a slow, substandard turn-based system. the Judgment Ring system ends up going overboard as well, worming its way into overworld exploration actions and even shop interfaces. it's all a bit too much and even as an rpg with a shorter length, it becomes very tiresome by the end.
despite its flaws, i do recommend Shadow Hearts to anyone who's a fan of traditional roleplaying games, especially if they're somewhat weird. it's a novel curiosity and has a small, but dedicated following for a reason.
I can't do button-mashing segments, sorry.
very awesome and ambitious early ps2 jrpg, held back by some misplaced humor and a spotty localization. i'm personally a big fan of the judgement ring system