Shadow Hearts
Nov. 10th, 2009 10:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroThe original Shadow Hearts definitely has a more connected story than From the New World, being more linear and sticking to the "dark horror" mood throughout. It's significantly less effective as a game, though, having made compromises on the wrong things.
First and foremost, you won't know this was a PS2 game, from the PS1-era graphics and general feel. The judgement ring battle system is a clever change from standard "press Attack and wait" rpg combat, but it was significantly improved in the sequel by the ability to modify your characters' judgement rings. The weapon-modding system in this game is very limited and, because you modify the weapon instead of the character, you have to pay more for more upgrades as soon as you pick up a new weapon.
The plot is very linear, and there's very little opportunity to go back to earlier areas (particularly in the first half of the game), but the designers saw fit to include a lot of secrets which can easily be "lost forever". Particularly, the kind that you can miss and not realize at all that you've missed something. If you don't pick up a hidden item in the first-half final dungeon, you can't access a bonus dungeon right before the end of the game. If you don't take Margrete back to Rouen before going to the Neamaton Monestary, you lose her ultimate weapon forever. There is no indication in the game that doing either of these things would be useful or beneficial. At least in the sequel, returning to previous locations constantly throughout the game unlocks all manner of sidequests, and they're much harder to permanently miss.
The linear manner of the game, coupled with the limited party size (3 members) means that most of the cast gets marginalized. Most dungeons give you a required party, which almost always includes Yuri and Alice. Especially in the last quarter of the game, where you gain levels like crazy, this can mean the non-required characters get left so far behind they have no hope of catching up. So why have them at all? It's not like they do much for the plot, either, they just keep making excuses to not come with you. There's no reason for Margrete to ever rejoin the party in the second half of the game; no reason for Keith to come with you after you leave Blue Castle, and no reason for Zhuzhen to remain with the party once you get Halley. (Really, Zhuzhen only has a handful of lines after the halfway point, but you couldn't make it through the Bistriz section with only Alice.) You can only use three characters in the final dungeon anyway, and Yuri, Alice and Halley are going to be ten levels ahead of everyone else because you've had to use them for the last three dungeons, so why not just make them the only characters you have?
And finally, there's the translation issue. It's okay for the most part, but a critical scene at the halfway point was ruined for me by a newspeak-style translation: The twist at that point is that the evil wizard Douhai isn't doing the "Demon's Gate Invocation", as expected, he's doing..."The Reverse Demon's Gate Invocation!" Now, the name probably makes perfect sense in Japanese, as instead of a ritual to open a gate to hell and summon a demon, it's a ritual to open a gate to heaven and summon an angel (which is much, much worse). They couldn't come up with a better name, though? The gravity of the scene was totally lost for me when I read that.
All in all, I give them a lot of credit for a good plot and sticking well to their chosen genre, but the gameplay is B- at best and the whole thing feels like it needs editing to clean it up. I'll probably pick up a copy of Shadow Hearts: Covenant (the second game in the series) at some point, if I can get it cheaply, but I won't bother looking for Koudelka (arguably a prequel, the first game by this designer).
First and foremost, you won't know this was a PS2 game, from the PS1-era graphics and general feel. The judgement ring battle system is a clever change from standard "press Attack and wait" rpg combat, but it was significantly improved in the sequel by the ability to modify your characters' judgement rings. The weapon-modding system in this game is very limited and, because you modify the weapon instead of the character, you have to pay more for more upgrades as soon as you pick up a new weapon.
The plot is very linear, and there's very little opportunity to go back to earlier areas (particularly in the first half of the game), but the designers saw fit to include a lot of secrets which can easily be "lost forever". Particularly, the kind that you can miss and not realize at all that you've missed something. If you don't pick up a hidden item in the first-half final dungeon, you can't access a bonus dungeon right before the end of the game. If you don't take Margrete back to Rouen before going to the Neamaton Monestary, you lose her ultimate weapon forever. There is no indication in the game that doing either of these things would be useful or beneficial. At least in the sequel, returning to previous locations constantly throughout the game unlocks all manner of sidequests, and they're much harder to permanently miss.
The linear manner of the game, coupled with the limited party size (3 members) means that most of the cast gets marginalized. Most dungeons give you a required party, which almost always includes Yuri and Alice. Especially in the last quarter of the game, where you gain levels like crazy, this can mean the non-required characters get left so far behind they have no hope of catching up. So why have them at all? It's not like they do much for the plot, either, they just keep making excuses to not come with you. There's no reason for Margrete to ever rejoin the party in the second half of the game; no reason for Keith to come with you after you leave Blue Castle, and no reason for Zhuzhen to remain with the party once you get Halley. (Really, Zhuzhen only has a handful of lines after the halfway point, but you couldn't make it through the Bistriz section with only Alice.) You can only use three characters in the final dungeon anyway, and Yuri, Alice and Halley are going to be ten levels ahead of everyone else because you've had to use them for the last three dungeons, so why not just make them the only characters you have?
And finally, there's the translation issue. It's okay for the most part, but a critical scene at the halfway point was ruined for me by a newspeak-style translation: The twist at that point is that the evil wizard Douhai isn't doing the "Demon's Gate Invocation", as expected, he's doing..."The Reverse Demon's Gate Invocation!" Now, the name probably makes perfect sense in Japanese, as instead of a ritual to open a gate to hell and summon a demon, it's a ritual to open a gate to heaven and summon an angel (which is much, much worse). They couldn't come up with a better name, though? The gravity of the scene was totally lost for me when I read that.
All in all, I give them a lot of credit for a good plot and sticking well to their chosen genre, but the gameplay is B- at best and the whole thing feels like it needs editing to clean it up. I'll probably pick up a copy of Shadow Hearts: Covenant (the second game in the series) at some point, if I can get it cheaply, but I won't bother looking for Koudelka (arguably a prequel, the first game by this designer).
