CLASSIC GAMING
Shadow Hearts
Developer:  Sacnoth
Publisher:  Aruze/Midway Games
Year:  2001
Genre:  RPG
System:  Playstation 2


Most RPGs, while deeper than most other videogames, generally seem to remain within the lower age bracket of "everyone" to get the sales going up or because the creators want to.  Only a few RPGs, sadly most of them underrated, have dared to become more adult.  One particular game to focus on is Shadow Hearts, not to be confused with the more lighter Kingdom Hearts.

Plot - Shadow Hearts begins in this world in 1912.  A Japanese army are escorting an English exorcist, Alice Elliot, across Siberia back to HQ, when an English gentlemanly sorcerer called Roger Bacon executes them to kidnap the girl.  But he is stopped by a Japanese/Russian youth of somewhat demonic powers, called Yuri Hyuga, who rescues Alice and is alone with her in wilderness of northeast Asia, traversing throughout Asia and Europe to uncover various plots like Yuri's own demons, Alice's past, and the mysterious Roger Bacon who seems intent on conquering the world, all within a story of violence, folklore and a bit of comedy.


Gameplay - The game is rather basic in the field.  There is a map to go to places based on actual world geography, you can equip weapons to higher strengths and armour with varying forms of protection as well as three accessories per ally for extra protection.  But the main focus of the gameplay is its unusual battle system.  In battle, you choose to attack, defend, use a special move or an item, and for almost all of these, you must use the Judgement Ring.
The Judgement Ring is basically a reflex test, a circle where you must hit the highlighted areas in order for the move to be successful.  Attacks can be up to three attacks per move if you hit all of the areas, with extra damage done if you hit the tinier red areas.  Special moves require, mostly, to hit ALL of the areas in a sequence, missing one of them cancels the move unlike with Attack when you only end up with 1 or 2 hits instead of the full three.


Another addition to this system is certain items and status ailments besides the classic poison, sleep and so forth.  Some of them affect the Judgement Ring, making it either go slower, faster, tinier and harder to see or even make the areas completely invisible thereby forcing you to remember where they were.  This intriguing list of afflictions makes for battles turning more frantic, as well as another innovative factor.
The Sanity Points.  Like most RPGs, Shadow Hearts has HP and MP, but it also has SP, Sanity Points.
A battle can be quite stressful on people and every turn of each character costs them one sanity point.  If it runs out, the character turns berserk.  Sanity points can be restored mid-battle like MP and HP however.


While they have their various abilities such as Alice being the main healer, Yuri's particular ability is important to note.  He is a Harmonixer, a being who can manifest demon souls within his body to become a demon himself for whatever purpose.  However unlike the other character's special abilities, transforming into one of these forms (each one which has three levels of power to upgrade to and of differing elemental alignments) requires Sanity Points, so a little strategy is required also to weigh the battle against the Sanity Points and how long the battle may run for before going berserk.

Outside of battle there are various sub quests in the parallel world of Shadow Hearts from collecting monster data to measuring steps on a pedometer to the all-time classic quest of finding rare optional bosses and obtaining the most powerful weapons/armour for the characters, as well as the opportunity of the New Game Plus where after finishing the game you can keep all your Harmonixer forms you already obtained for the next new game.

Graphics - While the in-game graphics are noticeably blocky with characters looking rather stiff in their movements, (but then so were the PS1 Final Fantasies) the scenery is fitting for the game of dark backgrounds ranging from cryptic European castles with shining full moon to Chinese fishing villages glazed over in sunset.  While it all looks like paintings in the sense of being quite distant feeling, it does match the mood well.  Battle scenes are more clearer looking with some of them looking rather detailed, the battles set in interior scenes anyway.  There is also a wide range of enemies, with only 4 or 5 ones that are just recolourings of older weaker enemies.


Music/Sound - The music of Shadow Hearts is rather unique in its delivery.  Europe and Asia of course have different feels of music right down to the battle sequences.  In Asia, it's all stringed Chinese instruments and tribal drums with whimsical flutes.  In Europe it's deep strumming cellos and pounding drums with the occasional harpsichord.  The game reflects itself well by its music despite the fact only a few places have music that is truly unique to that one place, not that it takes anything away from the feel of it.  One piece of music will only occur in Chinese villages for example, as well as the battle music rarely ever changing from continent to continent, with boss battles all sounding very quirky and maddening.

There are not enough RPGs that can be able to take darker tones in the world, which is rather a shame, as such games like Shadow Hearts show that it can work splendidly so and even bring in those who dislike RPGs at first due to most of them being rather colourful.  While this game is not well known, it only makes it a cult classic underrated for its macabre story, intriguing soundtrack and innovative battle system.


Fun and Innovation - 4
Replayability - 3
Gameplay - 4
Presentation - 3