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REVIEW: Shadow Hearts

Once upon a time, a group of talented game designers worked for a company called Square and created a dark RPG called Parasite Eve. While the game was a successful title, many of the team struck out on their own in order to continue working on their favorite style of storytelling, rather than return to high fantasy offerings.

Creating a development team called Sacnoth, this group dedicated itself to create a fresh type of RPG. Eschewing the typical high fantasy realm of RPGs, they decided to break new ground, taking the conventions of turn-based content into new storytelling settings; specifically, the realm of dark fantasy and horror. Stephen King, Clive Barker, you name it … that’s the type of game Sacnoth wanted to create.

Their first attempt, Koudelka, was dark fun; a survival horror title with an RPG-style combat system rather than an action-game combat system. Critical reaction was mostly favorable but the game’s brief length drew ire from some gamers.

Now, thanks to Midway, a company looking to diversify its image after decades as an “arcade style” publisher, Sacnoth’s second effort comes to the North American market. And thank goodness it has.

While many gamers were worried they’d have to wait for Square to wise up and create Parasite Eve 3 before they’d see a horror RPG on PS2, Midway brings us Sacnoth’s masterpiece, Shadow Hearts, just in time for … Christmas? Oh well, no accounting for timing…

The game opens in the 18th century as a man with supernatural powers, Roger Bacon, attempts to kidnap a virginal, Christian girl, Alice Elliot, from a train. Short interactive portions break up the cinema so you don’t feel like you’re watching a movie for the first 20 minutes. The graphics are sharp, the voice acting is serviceable and the hook is effective in drawing you into the game.

The kidnapping attempt is broken up by Yuri Hyuga, the “hero” of our piece. That’s where the fun begins because unlike the “bad boy heroes” of most high fantasy RPGs who are bad attitude mercenaries who are purified by love for a beautiful woman, it quickly becomes clear Alice is not necessarily a whole lot better off with Yuri.

Sure, Yuri isn’t planning to sacrifice her to any dark gods as Roger Bacon may have in mind, but every time she is unconscious or taking a nap, Yuri is leering over her and thinking about taking advantage of the poor girl.

That dark edginess is part of what makes Shadow Hearts such a refreshing change of pace. The story and characters are well developed and deep enough to rank with the best Square has to offer. Considering some recent PS2 RPGs don’t even attempt a plot or well-drawn characters (sorry, Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance), it’s nice to see someone other than Square getting it right.

The graphics are also pretty sharp. The high level of detail is amazing and ranks as one of the first PS2 RPGs that doesn’t look like something Dreamcast could have pulled off. The designs maintain an amazing level of intricacy both within the cinemas and the in-game engine.

The sound is well done, both musically and on the voice acting side of things. The mix of text dialog and voice acting should be enough to satisfy anyone who hasn’t picked up Final Fantasy X yet.

The depth of the game is better than Koudelka but doesn’t quite rank up there with Square’s epics. It falls somewhere in between. In terms of linearity, the world map is a point-to-point affair that recalls Final Fantasy Tactics, but doesn’t allow backtracking. Some gamers might find that a bit claustrophobic, but it does make for a coherent narrative.

The battle system is a bit generic, however, with only a very limited number of options while in active combat. A turn-based affair, you often only have Attack, Defend and Item from which to choose.

The only thing that makes it stand out is the “Judgment Ring,” which expects you to hit success areas in a circle that an arm rotates around, in order to do things successfully in battle, such as attack but also even on something like popping a healing herb. Miss the success zone and that much-needed healing herb won’t activate and you could buy the farm instead of revving your HP back up.

Another nice bit is that as you kill enemies, there’s a “malice” buildup you must take care of in a graveyard, and you have to be careful of your sanity points, otherwise a character can go berserk. Complicating matters is that as you fight your way through the game, you’re actually inexorably powering up the ultimate boss you will face, lending a pleasantly bleak “doomsday” feel to your “heroic” efforts.

Things get a bit spicier as you gain the ability to morph into monsters with special attacks, calling to mind Sony’s Legend of Dragoon, but it’s nothing overly special.

The biggest disappointment is probably the leveling up part of the game, which sticks to the standard “automatically add hit points and bump some stats” method. There’s nothing wrong with that, but given the customization of leveling up present in other currently available PS2 RPGs such as Legend of Alon D’ar and Final Fantasy X, leveling up in Shadow Hearts ends up feeling, a bit unfortunately, like an afterthought.

Nevertheless, Shadow Hearts is a highly satisfying experience in spite of some minor flaws. It’s like going through Silent Hill as an RPG or playing through a Clive Barker or Ann Rice novel.

Any gamer bored with high fantasy settings and itching for a change of pace RPG that’s well done can find what they’re looking for in Shadow Hearts. Considering Square hasn’t even announced plans for Parasite Eve 3 on PS2 yet, better pick this one-of-a-kind RPG up now.

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Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Aug 3rd, 2003 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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