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Shadow Hearts: From the New World Previewed on 12/12/05 Shadow Hearts seems to be all about having an RPG in a modern setting with a few sci-fi elements. While the world it portrays isn't exactly like real-life, the environments are real places in perhaps what could be called an alternate reality. The game begins in New York, and while it has many similarities to the actual New York, anyone will see that they're not really going for realism here. I'd describe the style as perhaps if we still lived in the 50's today.
Our story begins with a bit of a monologue by our hero telling us about how he's an orphan, lost his memory, and all that obligatory cliché stuff. Then we cut to his detective agency (yes indeed, a 16 year-old with his own detective agency) and a conversation with a creepy looking old professor who wants Johnny (our hero) to find someone for him. Our plucky hero must then embark on a quest to find this man in New York somewhere. After searching around a variety of places and meeting some not-quite-ambiguously gay bikers, we find out he's holed up in a run-down theatre that is conveniently filled with thugs who want to beat on poor Johnny for no apparent reason. When we finally find the poor guy a giant, nasty-looking monster appears from nowhere and eats him. Then some random winged chick shows up and we use her to beat the snot out of the monster. Shania, as she is called, will later explain to us that she hunts down these monsters that are called into the world by "Malice" or the sum total of human hate. And so, thouroughly confused, the player continues through the story. While I obviously haven't gotten to very much of the story yet, it looks to be interesting once it starts going.
One of the first things that will strike you about Shadow Hearts is how pretty it is. During cutscenes I sometimes felt, though, that the technical qualities of the animation weren't exactly the greatest I'd seen. This sort of things is mostly noticeable in the face. The characters seem a little wooden in their reactions and emotions. That being said, the environments and cutscenes are aesthetically beautiful to behold. Another hang-up some might have is with the game's fixed camera. At times I had trouble seeing things and they seemed to use weird angles that really didn't help the situation. This is also a minor nitpick, but I find it strange that they insist on using chests all over the place to contain items. In this kind of environment it seems distracting and rather removed me from the world. In a modern-ish world it was just too weird to see wooden treasure chests lying around.
The battles in this game were great for the most part. It's your standard turn-based RPG system with a few twists. First of all is the Judgement Rings, which fans of the series have come to know and love. This adds a timed element to the battles as you must stop the ring in order to make the attack succeed, and if your timing is really good you can even increase your damage. There are also different kinds of attacks you can do with stock, which gets built up in battle by storing and being attacked. This guage doesn't deplete when you end a battle, so it tends to be more handy than similar systems in other games. There is also a situation where if your character's health gets low they go into a berserk status and you lose control of them. This can be dangerous when there's only one character since you can't make them heal themselves, but it does add a lot to their damage.
In the earlier going, there are no random battles. For the entire first dungeon, enemies appear on the screen in set places in a very Chrono Trigger fashion. Random fights happen later. Magic is equipped to grids which can affect the way they work and come in a variety of flavors. These things, called Stellar Charts, bear a distinct resemblence to the Garment Grids in Final Fantasy X-2 (only in form and not in function) and are based around various constellations. All the characters can equip a weapon, a piece of armor, and three accessories. They also all have a special ability that is unique to them. For example: Johnny has "Handy Tools," Shania has "Fusion," and Natan has the intriguingly titled "GUN-FU." Throw in a standard EXP/Level Up system and away we go.
Shadow Hearts: From the New World looks to be a pleasing experience for series fans and just RPG players in general. The complex but intuitive battle system, the environment, and just the atmosphere of the game are definite pluses. Look for it from XSEED games during March 2006.
SCREENS
MOVIES LINKS -Orie House |
