Title: Shadow Hearts: From the New World
System: PS2
Genre: RPG
Overall Score: 9/10
Something refreshing for hardcore rpg fans.
Story: 10/10
Shadow Hearts: FTNW is a fictional story that takes place in the
Americas circa the 1940's. You begin the game as Johnny Garland, a
sixteen-year-old boy who has just inherited his father’s detective
agency. Most of his early customers request small tasks such as finding
lost cats (a running joke in the game), but the action takes off when
Johnny receives his first real case. A peculiar-looking man by the name
of Gilbert (who bears a striking resemblance to The Penguin) comes to
Johnny and asks him to locate a homicidal cultist for him. Strangely,
the request asks that he not turn the suspect into the police. Johnny
only needs to locate him. It feels unethical, but Johnny is so excited
to have a real case that he accepts.
When you are finally able to track down the homicidal cultist, the true
plot of the game unfolds. Johnny runs into two traveling Native
Americans named Shania and Natan who are on an important quest
and—wouldn’t you know it—Johnny has now made himself involved.
To make a long story short: the plot revolves around the idea that there
are two opposing forces in the universe. The former of these being
“Malice” and the latter being “Will”. These two forces must remain in
balance or else—you guessed it—the world would come to a chaotic end.
Shania and Natan drag you into their manhunt, dragging you all over
North America, South America, Mexico, and various Carribean Islands in
order to settle a vendetta against a mysterious woman who has tapped
into the universe’s malice and is spreading it like an epidemic.
Through the wild chase, there are a variety of strange characters, many
of them comical and entertaining to watch (Frank the American Ninja
never gets old), and there are numerous unexpected twists in the story,
ultimately unveiling a sinister conspiracy.
There is a lot I want to say about the story that I can’t go into since
I hate giving spoilers, but the story and the characters is one
department in which you will not be disappointed. Also note that the
game will seem to end abruptly if you turn it off at the credits. You
have to wait until after to watch the full ending. The ending after the
credits is another thing I would love to comment on, but all I’m going
to say is when can we expect Shadow Hearts 4?
Gameplay: 10/10
Innovative! There is a lot of meat here and I’m going to touch on it
all. So prepare your eyes.
First, I think it’s important to give a warning. If you do not play
RPG’s frequently, there is a good chance you will struggle with this
game. The battle system is so complex (in a good way) that even regular
rpg player’s will have to learn the rules. Here is what you’ll be
looking at:
Battles only take place in dungeons and enemies are randomly
encountered. The battles are turn-based. But the designers came up with
some awesome tweaks to the turn-based style.
The biggest innovation is that all actions are carried out via a
“judgment ring”. So whenever you select an action in battle, a circle
will appear with pie-shaped highlighted areas and a dial will spin
around the circle only once. You must tap the X button to stop the
rotating dial in all of the highlighted areas in order to complete the
action. Higher level actions require you to stop the dial more times or
more accurately. Every action in the game has a judgment ring that is
completely different than all other actions, so you will need good eyes
and a quick thumb. There are several types of highlighted areas that can
appear in the judgment ring:
1. Hit Area (orange) - stop the dial here for a successful attack.
2. Strike Area (red) - appears directly after the hit area and is very
small. If you stop the dial in the strike area, you get a small damage
bonus on that hit.
3. Step Area (green) - the dial must be stopped here for the action to
be complete. If you miss any step areas, the action completely fails and
no damage is done. These appear in high level magic.
4. Modulate Area (blue) - Used for magic abilities. The blue becomes
more concentrated toward the Strike Area at the end. The closer you are
to the strike area, the more effective your cast.
Players can also level up their characters’ rings by adding hit areas
which allow the characters to deliver more hits in battle. For example,
one character might have three hit areas and so they would strike the
enemy three times while another character might have up to five. More
hit areas does not increase damage (it divides evenly between hit
areas), but greatly reduces your probability of missing since you will
take multiple swings. It all depends on if the player wants to gamble on
a single heavy blow or if they are skilled enough at the ring to land
several quick blows. There are also other special attributes you can
give to the rings including status-affecting attributes and “gambling”
attributes that have a probability of significantly increasing damage.
The battle system also introduces a device called the “stock gauge”
which is reminiscent of the overdrive gauge in FFX but functions quite
differently. Like the overdrive gauge, the stock gauge fills up as you
inflict or receive damage. However, every time the stock gauge fills, it
chalks up one “stock point” for your character and begins to fill again.
So each character can have up to 300% stock in a battle. These allow the
character to perform special combo attacks. Using the shoulder buttons,
you can select between a normal attack (one character, single turn, no
stock used) or a double attack (one character takes two turns, stock
consumed). Then there is the combo attack which allows every character
in the party to attack in a chain (requires 100% judgment ring success
and for you to successfully enter rapidly flashed button commands). You
may even perform a double combo where every character gets to take two
actions! The perk of this combination system is that the more
consecutive hits you rack up, you receive bonus damage, so performing
successful combos is an efficient way of defeating enemies. A final perk
is that successfully completing the combo to the last person unlocks
“combo magic” which allows the last party member in the chain to unleash
a devastating spell that is otherwise inaccessible to them. Sweet! But
there’s more...
Remember what I said about racking up extra damage for delivering more
consecutive hits? Well you can boost your hits by customizing your
judgment rings, allowing your characters to deliver more blows and more
bonus damage. Also, every character except for one (explanation coming)
has access to “stellar magic” which are basically just spells. But
different spells have different hit attributes, including different
numbers of consecutive hits. You can check the spells’ attributes as you
choose them. Some will have just 1 hit, some 2, some 3, some up to 11,
etc. Spells also have elemental traits and deal bonus damage against the
opposing elements.
Every character has equal access to magic. You acquire magic by finding
“stellars” which are placed on “stellar charts”. Stellar charts are
basically lists of magic. You can add so many spells to the chart and
whoever you equip that chart to will be able to use all of the spells
you have added to it. You can customize the charts or reassign them to
different characters at any time, so everyone has equal access. Only
Shania cannot use the stellar magic since she is a shape-shifter and the
various shapes she learns come equipped with their own magic abilities
which are just as good or better. Also, there are shops for improving
and expanding your stellar charts to make them better and more
effective. A very good system.
And there’s more! Attacks can also bat the enemies around the battle map
in different ways! The game actually recognizes whether an enemy is on
the ground, in the air, or somewhere in between. As the characters
attack each other, they move around the battle map and settle in
different places. Different spells attack low, mid, or high range
enemies. You can select spells or change your basic attack to knock high
enemies downward, launch low enemies upward, knock enemies away from
you, etc. This becomes important when dealing combos since high enemies
take more damage when you lower them and low enemies take more damage
when you raise them. Knocking enemies back lowers their stock gauge
(enemies have them too) and reduces their ability to use special attacks
on you. There are some spells which attack only a single enemy, some
that attack an entire area, or some that attack in a line. Some rare
spells even attack in a line and then conclude with an area attack. The
techs and combos are endless.
And there’s more! Every character also has unique abilities and unique
ways of leveling up. One character has to steal certain items from
enemies to level up his personal magic. One character has to set traps
and hunt monsters to power himself up. One character has to win solo
battles with powerful creatures. One has to solve perplexing riddles.
One character’s personality and abilities change depending on her
current diet! Crazy! And all of their personal abilities become so
useful, you will have a hard time choosing which will be more helpful to
you in battles.
I could go on and on about the battle system, but those are the main
points. On a smaller note, there are plenty of mini-objectives and
sidequests to complete, so this is a game you will definitely invest
many hours into. I think I put in somewhere around 70, but I didn’t
complete all of the sidequests. There are some hard battles and some
serious hard-to-finds. Maybe one day.
Graphics: 10/10
The game is complete with impressive CG movies on the same level as the
Final Fantasy games. The in-game quality is no different. I actually
looked forward to the cut scenes so that I could get a closer look at
the characters. No worries here.
Replay Value: 8/10
This may be the only area where the game suffers. As much fun as the
judgment ring is to play with in the beginning, you sort of lose
interest once you’re 70 hours in. Also, a lot of dungeons and
side-quests are centered around puzzles, riddles, or mind games. Once
you solve them, it just wouldn’t be the same the second time around. I’m
glad that I own this game, but I probably won’t come back to it for a
good long while. But I definitely will eventually.
---Review by GenoForPrez
 |