Shadow Hearts

Take a splash of FFVII, a splash of FFVIII and a dollop of Koudelka (I know most won't know what that is anyway) and you have Shadow Hearts. Its an RPG with a dark story, leaning more towards Horror and the Supernatural than anything else. Theres plenty of blood and evil goings on, in this steam-punk alternate world. You take the role of a rather brassy stereotypical japanese wise guy - who has an ability (named fusion) to shapeshift into a number of elemental monsters. He hears voices in his head, he is plagued by an ever increasing malice, that builds up to dangerous levels as he fights. If his Malice is allowed to reach critical (red) then the spirit of his fusion-capable father complete with scary fox-face mask comes down to taunt and battle him and generally kill him off. To quell the malice he has to enter a spiritual graveyard to do battle with monsters conjured by the four face mask keepers. If he wins his malice disipates for now. As he does battle in the 'real world' he also gathers soul points from his opponents depending on their elemental type - and as these level up - when they gain a level, he can battle an elemental monster at the graveyard and upon winning captures its soul allowing him to shapeshift into that beast, and adopt its special powers and attacks.

Our hero can only equip 3 monsters souls at any one time, so selection of souls is key to winning some battles. While all this is going on, you are following a quite complex story, and interesting characters roll in and roll out from time to time. The dialogue tends to be a bit camp at times, and there is an overtly teenage obsession with being fruity with the lead scantily clad japanese schoolgirl. It's amusing at times in that it just says things like 'You were staring at my breasts!' Over the top mostly, but expected.

The characters tend to have quite strong personalities and a good history behind them, some of the battling animations are downright slapstick - and that warms me to the game. One of my favourite characters is Margarete, a lovely lass in mini skirt, fishnet stockings and Dr Martin boots. She calls on her mobile for her special equipment, and from the sky it drops, maybe a grenade, a sniper rifle, a large pair of Elton John comedy spectacles or a toilet chain to flush. Shes a mean shot with a luger pistol also.

The battle system is turn based, like Final Fantasy, however they've added an arcade twist. In order to perform anything you have press the button in time with spinning arc on the Judgement Ring. In essence its like hitting the strike zones on any golf game. For different actions there are different numbers of zones, some are narrower and some (mainly the attack ones) have a red sub-zone which indicates a harder hit. Striking with a weapon, you can pull off a perfect if you land marker in the three red zones - and this is very satisfying. But taking the risk of a landing a perfect leaves you open to actually failing to make the attack at all. Even healing is judged by the ring, and also bargaining discounts on some equipment purchase. Some people have said that this distracts away from the basic fight, and labors every action you perform, however, I found it livened up the battles - keeping you focused - and giving you an amount of participation in the battle that previous turn based RPG games haven't had.

The graphics are ok, well done, but are not of PS2 quality. This game could easily have sat on a PSX - having said that, the characters and monsters are pleasingly large and some of the monsters are the oddest ones I've seen in a long time. Frogs with faces in their eyes and a hand for a tongue - backward facing ghouls whose heads rotate whilst attacking you with their what can only be described as very long penis! The shapeshifting beasts our hero can turn into are also lovingly crafted and are suitably different from each other. Spell and attack effects can be a little dull and simplistic but they are swiftly executed and keep the pace of the battle up.

The musical score is excellent!

Overall, I like Shadow Hearts. It gives a Final Fantasy style game with some interesting twists and a darker more horror based setting. There are not many FMV scenes, although there is a lovely ghost story told part way in the game that amused me no end. Schlop! Scholp! Schloop! It doesn't take itself too seriously, but it does give you a good story to participate in and some nice shapeshifting paranormal battles. Worth it, while you wait for FFX.