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| POSTED BY: Bantra on 10/14/2006 02:17:58 |
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Basically this review for the game "Shadow Hearts: From the New World" will cover each major aspect of the game, Story, Gameplay, Characters, Graphics, and Sound. Know that this review is completely unbiased and will not be compared to any other RPGs and will be judged solely for what it is, not what it should be.
Story: The story for "Shadow Hearts: From the New World" may at the beginning seem very cliché and dull; you'll probably have to force yourself to play it until it gets good, but if you do give it a chance you won't regret it. As you start the game you assume the role of Johnny a seemingly normal 16 year old boy in the late 1920s, running a detective agency with his partner Lenny. However, Johnny's new assignment will change everything about his life, throwing him into a world of magnificent demons, crazy characters and familiar surroundings, such as 1920s Chicago, and Las Vegas.
Story Rating: 8/10. Starts out sort of dull and cliché, but picks up near the middle for an above average RPG experience.
Gameplay: This is by far my favorite aspect of "Shadow Hearts: From the New World." As you enter a random battle/boss battle you're presented with a normal turn based menu. With commands such as Attack, Magic based attacks, and Item, but it's really much deeper than that. I suppose I'll start with the Attacking system. When you hover over the attack selection you have 4 options. If you press over you're presented with 4 different methods of attack. The normal attack, Hard Hit, (Which removes 100% of stock gauge, I'll get into stock in a little bit.) High Angle (Knocks the enemy into the air.) and Knock Down (Knocks the enemy down to the ground.) As you select one of these options you're presented with the "Judgment Ring." This is used to attack. A small line will circle the ring and as the line moves over the orange and red areas you must press X. If you miss or fail to press X you will only attack the amount of times you successfully hit the mark. The object is obviously to hit all the marks. You can give your characters more hit areas by finding ring fragments and giving them to the Ring Spirit who will, in return give you an Attack Boost which raises the amount of times you can attack. Each character can have up to 2 Attack boosts on them. For example, Frank starts with 3 hit areas; he can have a max of 5 hit areas.
Now I'll go into the more complex areas of the gameplay, starting with stock. Stock, I suppose would be described as your characters energy. When they run out of this energy you're no longer able to do certain things, such as combos, double attacks, and hard hits. Each character (Including enemies) has the potential for 2 full stock gauges. When the stock gauges are completely full you're able to use every method of attacking. There are ways to remove stock from the enemy. For example, Hard Hit removes up to 100% stock which is one full bar. Johnny's Vacuum ability is another great method for removing stock. Keep in mind that the enemy can also remove your stock. You may actually be wondering what the point of knocking the enemy into the air or knocking them down is; well it's really not that hard to understand. All of the attack Stellars (Magic attacks, basically), which are acquired by finding them in chests and equipping them to stellar charts (Not going to go into much detail there) have a specific area of attack. Such as Evil Shade, it can only hit when the enemy is mid level and on the ground. So, If the enemy is too high (You can tell by the green bars next to the enemy name) simply use the Knock Down attack ability accompanied by Evil Shade using a Double attack or Combo and that flying enemy can then be damaged by this stellar.
Hopefully I'm not confusing you TOO much thus far, it's really quite complicated. I'll finish by explaining Combos and Doubles. A double is a single character's ability to attack twice in one turn. Double is selected by pressing r1 once, and requires one full stock gauge to use. A combo is self explanatory; it's used to string a bunch of attacks together in order to deal large amounts of damage to a single enemy or a group of enemies. To select a normal combo press r1 twice. It requires 1 full stock gauge to use. There's also a very useful technique called a Double Combo. It's a combination of both a Double and a Combo, which means you can select 2 actions for one character and string it together with up to 3 more doubles with the rest of your characters. This method will probably be your main method of attacking when you're up against a boss, because the boss battles are VERY tough in this game and take careful planning and cautiousness to finish.
Gameplay Rating: 10/10. The gameplay for this game is as innovative and in depth as it ges. This is the main reason that will keep you playing until the major plot twists.
Characters: Most of the characters range pretty greatly, from a normal human boy to a vampire and an insane ninja who wields large blunt objects instead of swords. All the characters have their own side quests such as a large doll house, and a grueling dungeon called purgatory which is very long and offers you no save points or healing areas at all. All of these character related side quests add a lot of extra gameplay and fun. The characters are also probably the weakest area of the game. There's hardly any character development until about ¾ through the game. As I said before you'll need a lot of patience to get through and enjoy this game to its fullest.
Character Rating: 6/10. While some of the characters are loveable, there's just not enough character development until late in the game.
Graphics/Sound: The graphics for "Shadow Hearts: From the New World" are actually very pretty. The character models are detailed and the environments are pretty rich with eye candy. The only beef I have with this is the lack of a world map. Navigation is presented similarly to Final Fantasy X-2. You pick your destination and you're there automatically. The sound is one of my favorite parts of this gaming experience. A lot of it is made up of creepy scores that fit the mood and atmosphere of the game perfectly. The battle themes instantly catch your attention with their strange melodies and vocalizations. The town themes are usually upbeat, giving you a break from all of the interesting and creepy music littered about through the game.
Graphics/Sound Rating: 8/10, the graphics are above average, but the lack of a World Map leaves you wanting to see more. While the music fits the game perfectly, balancing creepy and upbeat very well.
Overall/Average Score: 8/10. Overall, Shadow Hearts is a solid RPG experience with a story that starts out slow, but picks up. Gameplay that will have you looking forward to boss fights just to see how much you can dish out in one turn, and characters that, while loveable don't seem to develop much until about ¾ through the game or you finish their side quest. The Graphics are above average, and the music fits this game perfectly. I strongly recommend you give this game a chance. It's rather short, about 30 hours without side quests, but it's worth AT LEAST a rent. Just to see how you like it.
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I was NOT kissing her... I was whispering into her mouth.
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