This Video Game Video Games item from Midway Entertainment was reviewed on 11-Dec-2008.
Shadow Hearts Reference Video Games. Classifications : All Games PlayStation 2 Categories Video Games Action Fantasy Fighting Horror Military & Espionage Sci-Fi Shooter PlayStation 2 Categories Video Games Role-Playing PlayStation 2 Categories Video Games . Click the following link to view the cover of Shadow Hearts. Related topics: Dark, unique story and good character development.. Excellent dialog breathes life into the characters.. Compatible with Playstation 2. Get ready for game filled fun. All Games. PlayStation 2. Categories. Video Games. Action. Fantasy. Fighting. Horror. Sci-Fi. Shooter. requestid: 224f3595-9b26-4f3d-b78c-82edf5f19f66
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1) Video Game Video Games Shadow Hearts by Midway Entertainment. I feel like the game is only 50% complete, as if only half the game was finished...
And yet, it is the best RPG I´ve played in a long time. The game is quirky, dark, stylish... It´s not as good as I hoped, but the 40 - 50 hours I spent on it, was well worth the ride I recieved.
First off, the music is unique. Not all RPG music is created equal, and this is one of those interesting soundtracks [Same person who did Xenogears contributed]. Unlike a radiant Final Fantasy soundtrack, this one is dark, but brilliant at times.
Second, the artwork in the game is wonderful. Yes, it is.
However, it is low resolution and suffers from that, making the 2d background art pixelated/blurry. Thus the comments about the graphics being poor or something...
But no, the art itself is really interesting and memorable. The attention to unnecessary details in this game made it very enjoyable for me. Areas that are just for transition had some incredible artwork for backgrounds...
Character designs are great. Although it bothers me that all the characters look the same from beginning to end. No costume changes ;(
Character development is good. Sidequests are a must! Do those and you´ll get some scenes that´ll make you appreciate the characters that much more. The game doesn´t feel as complete without them...
How many games make you dislike a character/want to get rid of him, and before you realize it you´ve suddenly become attached saying don´t go!
Battles and the judgement ring stuff are pretty straight forward. It keeps you interested from beginning to end, but it´s not revolutionary.
Like I said in the beginning, the game feels like it´s only 50% complete. If it had been fleshed out however, you´d walk away from this game saying it should be a Final Fantasy or maybe better in terms of quality...
But even if it isn´t complete, I loved the adventure, and those moments of brilliance. Downside is I´m left craving more... [gimme an expansion! arghhhhh!]¤ 2) Video Game Video Games Shadow Hearts by Midway Entertainment. Shadow Hearts - The best RPG you´ve never played. That´s right. This largely unplayed (and possibly unheard of) game is extremely good.
The characters are really likable, each one has depth, and it´s easy to feel like you know them all.
The story is extremely compelling and deep. Full of twists and turns, always keeps you on your toes and not knowing what to expect.
The gameplay itself, while short on hours, is nonetheless great. The Judgement Ring system seems kind of rough at first, but easily becomes second nature within an hour or so in. There´s everything you´d expect in a good RPG, towns with shops and vendors, hidden items everywhere, weapon/armor upgrades, random battles, turn based combat, etc. There is however no summoning, instead the main character Yuri can actually fuse with demons he´s killed and become them. It works well, and it´s pretty cool.
The graphics are where the game falls short, having been made for the PS1 originally, looks very much like FF7, at least to me. The cut-scenes and CGI however are still fairly good, and the spell animations are bright, and colorful.
The music is nothing short of awesome, and really helps to set the mood of the dark story.
I highly recommend this game to any lover of old-school type RPG´s, namely the FF7/Dragon Quest series - but remember, Shadow Hearts is unique at the same time, and it doesn´t try to be a FF clone.
With that said - Enjoy!¤ 3) Video Game Video Games Shadow Hearts by Midway Entertainment. This is a fairly good game. It is not a great game, nor a terrible game, but simply a decent game. It fails where so many do, in the gameplay. The story is interesting enough, the characters fairly deep, but the combat is, as is all turn-based combat, a crime against gaming. If you like Final Fantasy games, and are looking for something a bit darker, then you will love this game. If you liked Morrowind, Oblivion, or Kingdom Hearts, you may find this game acceptable, as I did. Worth a try, but don´t expect a life-changing experience.¤ 4) Video Game Video Games Shadow Hearts by Midway Entertainment. Don´t be deceived by the 4-star rating this game inexplicably has on Amazon. Granted, it´s not the worst game ever, but it just doesn´t compare favorably to most of the other recent games that I´ve played for the PS2. Once the spectacular (albeit gory) opening cutscene is done, it´s all downhill.
First of all, it´s clear that this was intended to be a PS1 title originally, so it´s not really fair to compare it to what´s currently available for the PS2. Therefore, I have to cut them some slack on the choice to go with painted backdrops instead of a 3D rendered environment. Still, they clearly didn´t have the talent to make the environments interesting and/or beautiful. It´s not so much that I prefer 3D environments; it´s just that if you´re going to go with backdrops, please, make them well drawn. Shadow Hearts´ backdrops don´t even compare favorably to most of Square´s RPG games for the PS1, let alone stuff that´s available for the PS2.
The dialogue is, more often than not, skin-crawlingly bad. They were apparently trying to be campy and anachronistic; however, they didn´t take it far enough to make it seem deliberate. You could write it off as bad translation, but the frequent use of modern American idioms makes me think otherwise. Someone at Sacnoth just had really bad taste with language. The main character Yuri goes from man-child timid to tough-guy bravado far too quickly; it´s not clever or funny, it´s just inconsistent writing. Alice, the pretty young thing and object of everyone´s desire (those programmers really, really need to get out more - I mean, just look at her skirt), is drawn paper-thin in terms of character, and everyone else is just there as props. The writers also seem to take great glee in presenting you with as much blood and gore as possible. I´m not sure what the point is. Is it supposed to make the game more "adult" or edgy? It´s just icky. There´s one section of the game when you´re pretty much just walking around on blood-soaked earth (and probably entrails), and the accompanying sound effects are enough to turn your stomach. Yuck!!
The bad guy´s name is Roger Bacon. I´m sorry, that´s the most ridiculous name for a villain I´ve ever heard. Yes, I understand there´s a historical reason for this, but come on; you´re up against a breakfast side-dish. I mean, how threatening is that. "I went to the store today and I picked up some Roger Bacon."
The sub-plots are mostly lame (you have to go through TRIALS to get to the temple - how original), the cut-scenes are long and boring (ask anyone who has played this game about "Shloop... shloop... splat! Skreeeee!"), and most of your time is spent just hoping you can get to somewhere more interesting than where you are. Occasionally there was a well-thought-out plot point that I enjoyed (particularly the parallels between Yuri and his father), but for the most part it´s just one dull environment after another.
The plot itself suffers from serious lack of development. It looks like the programmers and writers simply ran out of time, so they wrapped it up as quickly as possible; in fact, they specifically threw in a not-so-subtle self-conscious joke about the fact that they couldn´t finish writing the game in time, so they had to cut stuff. Really sad. The end battle and resulting aftermath is so anti-climactic and boring that I ended up feeling like the whole game was a complete waste of my time. That´s 40+ hours of my life that I will never get back.
The music is one of the game´s few strong suits, with a pretty good number of catchy tunes. But once again, it´s wildly inconsistent. It´s 1913 and you´ve got heavy metal blaring in the opening cutscene. Wha huh? The music tends to be fairly inappropriate for a lot of the game, but at least it´s entertaining.
Most games that feature turn-based combat (since Final Fantasy VII at least) tend to involve selecting an action, and then you sit there for a good long time while the animation plays out. Not so with Shadow Hearts; you have to do a little thumb-dancing with the Judgment Ring(tm). Overall, I find this to be a plus because it adds a little risk/reward element. You can elect to just go with the safe route, or you can take a risk and go with a more difficult (and more damaging) option. I like it.
The monster and player animation is adequate. Not great. Every once in a while a character does something clever or amusing and I have to chuckle at the animator´s sense of humor, but meh. I´ve seen better. For some reason, something like 75% of the monsters are essentially humans hanging upside down, or with mis-placed limbs or joints. I´m betting that they found it easier to simply move a few limbs around on a standard humanoid 3d-model to create a new monster instead of coming up with something truly original.
For some reason, inventory items are limited in the number of characters for the name, so you get really stupid and meaningless item names like "V-blade-Blodauth." Wha?
The use of emoticons is reasonably clever, but it seems to me that it was mainly implemented for the purpose of cutting down the number of animations or movements that they needed to code. It doesn´t really add much, and sometimes it´s a little puzzling; like, just what is that icon that looks like a teardrop?
To sum up, if you do get this game, you´ll probably have a good time, but you´ll have to laugh at some of the ridiculous cliches and other absurdities. Overall, I give this game 2 stars as it isn´t ENTIRELY horrible, but it´s just not quite developed enough to be what I would call "average." I would only recommend playing through this game if you intend to also play the sequels, which are markedly better in production quality and more deliberate with their use of camp and anachronism.¤ 5) Video Game Video Games Shadow Hearts by Midway Entertainment. As recommended(by some-one else) I played Shadow Hearts 2 first. Shadow hearts would have been a lot tougher without knowledge obtained from the second game. Using the rings for battle was a little tough at first, but i caught on and had a lot of fun with the game. I liked the story line and the characters are bekievanle. Some of the puzzels are tough. Over-all, idin´t want to put the game down. Its like a good book, that you just couldn´t put down.( at the young age of 69, I find most good RPG´S are like that). I would reccomend The Shadow Hearts series to anyone who plays RPG´s. RPG GRAMPS. I´m just starting Shadow Hearts 3.¤ 6) Video Game Video Games Shadow Hearts by Midway Entertainment. A young girl holding the key to world domination. A villain who will stop at nothing to unlock the path to unlimited power. Prepare to experience an RPG unlike any other. Dark, unique story and good character development. Excellent dialog breathes life into the characters.¤ 7) Video Game Video Games Shadow Hearts by Midway Entertainment. A hero with a mysterious past. A young girl holding the key to world domination. A villain who will stop at nothing to unlock the path to unlimited power. Prepare to experience an RPG unlike any other. Welcome to the world of Shadow Hearts.¤ Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 8-Jan-2009, 031719268719, PXB-ZNB-QYB-U6B-R6B-NYB-VMB-JEB-H6B-I6B-8 
Shadow Hearts, Video Games, Image © Midway Entertainment
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