Shadow Hearts Convenant - Vicious 1915 Indeed...

[Olvelsper]

Continuing off from my last review, now I'll cover Shadow Hearts: Convenant for all you fine people. In this installment of the series, Sacnoth has once again decided to restructure their company for reasons unknown, and thusly got a new name: Nautilus. Regardless, we the consumer get the long end of the stick from this arrangement as I'll go on to describe.

Picking up from the cliffhanger ending of the first Shadow Hearts, Yuri once again sets off on another globe trotting adventure into pseudo World War I history when he gets involved with the dark machinations of the Powers That Be ™ that wish him and the frankly uber amounts of power he picked up on his first adventure gone. Amusingly, the latter half of their plan works brilliantly, and gives the player a reason as to why our much beleaguered hero has to suffer through the Megaman Syndrome of losing all his levels and start from scratch. Regardless, Yuri is justifiably pissed over this state of affairs, so he decides to go out and kick their asses.

Mind you, the game gives you a bit of slack in that it doesn't thrust all this down your throat, so the intro stage of the game is seen through the eyes of one of Yuri's new companions. In her scenario, you go on a little side quest with a priest so you can collect the item to strike him down. Most importantly, this little slice of exposition also serves to introduce you to the new and improved battle system that Shadow Hearts: Convenant has to offer the discerning gamer.  While the Judgement Ring System returns from the first game, with all its timed button press goodness, it comes with new tweaks that the gamer can apply. For instance, if you don't like having to press the confirmation button whenever the indicator spins within the colored wedges, you can set the Judgement Rings of the characters to automatic so you don't have to bother. However, if you do this, you take a serious hit to your damage output, so beware.

Additionally, if you want to go through timing your strikes within the colored wedges, you can always change the style of Ring your characters deal with from the base Normal Ring you can use. For example, there's the Gamble Ring, which gives you only one wedge to deal with, as opposed to the multiple ones you'll wind up having with your PCs as you progress through the game. If you succeed at hitting it, it counts as having succeeded at all your strikes. This style of Ring comes at a faster speed, though. Another is the Technical Ring, which slims down the colored wedges of your strikes considerably, but the speed is the same as normal *and* it boosts the damage output of your attacks. Finally we come to the Practice Ring, which helps you get used to the whole affair if you're a newbie at this game. It continues to spin no matter if you miss or not until you succeed, but it's drawback is that it completely removes the Strike Areas of the wedges, which lower the strength of your attacks, but not by too much.

You can further customize to your leisure by gathering Attack Boosts and Hit/Strike Expanders throughout the game from a friendly character called the Ring Soul for the former, and from chests/lotteries/battles/a store for the latter. Additionally, they brought back the Coral Pendants and Lariat accessories from Shadow Hearts 1, so as long as they're equipped, they slow down the indicator speed down by 25/50%.

Speaking of attacks, attacks and spells now have 'directions'. You can hit enemies up into the air, slam them down into the ground, hit them hard so they fly away, and just go with a standard attack which just pushes them back a bit. Normal attack directions can be chosen from the Attack option in battle, while spells come with their directions hardwired into them. These play into yet another tweak to the system, which comes in the form of combination attacks. As you get into battles, you have the option to 'Combo' with other player characters, so that you can tag team enemies for more hits, and be rewarded with more damage the higher the hit count goes. It also goes further, in that each time you choose to Combo with another player character, their affinities to each other rise, and their teamwork (and damage dealing potential) rises when they go back to back. If you Combo all your player characters back to back you can even unlock massively powerful spells called Combo Magic. Depending on who you have in your group, and what their natural elemental affinity is, you can unlock the corresponding spell in it for 64 mp. Expensive for early game, but they do pack a punch.

On magic, the new system here revolves around Crests you pick up throughout the game. All but Yuri and one other party member can equip them to use the spells locked within them, depending on whether or not they have enough DCP or Dominance Capacity Points. Let's say a character with a DCP of 15 wanted to equip Crests. They'd have to equip ones that have levels that do not exceed 15. Additionally, if you have Crests that have the same spell in them, you can cast it at a lower cost.

Even with this system in place, you needn't to worry, because all the characters still have their unique strengths to bring to the fold. One would say too unique, as each and every one of your characters except for Yuri and one other have to run around the world doing rather bizarre things to acquire their power, for example you have a puppeteer that has to collect beefcake pictures to trade to a homosexual tailor for dresses, the swordswoman has to collect opera scripts for her sword techniques, a girl has to take pictures of monsters to learn their spells Blue Mage style, etc. etc. It usually isn't deterrent to the flow of the game to grab these things, but damn if it doesn't limit your other characters sometimes as it takes some characters longer than other to get more powerful due to this. It's a bit annoying, since Yuri gets his special fusion forms handed to him on a silver platter since he can exchange them in the Graveyard of his Soul for the souls you almost always get after battle. Or the plot gives it to him.

Graphically, this is on par with Final Fantasy X as the developer finally got to make the game and release it for the platform indeed. It's a bit tongue in cheek in regards to character models though, because everyone not critically important to the plot is pretty drab and normal looking. This is the complete opposite for everyone else, which makes it feel a bit jarring. If I lived in the 1915s, I'd be siccing the town police on these colorful people, that's for sure! :p

Regardless, that's part of the game's true appeal, and it's very deeply rooted into the game. From character descriptions (they just *have* to note that the main character is an anti-hero in his early profile...) to situations where you have to be rescued by your group's animal party member, who pulls off a remarkably good Solid Snake impersonation. This game's tone is much more mainstream, offering up the last game's grittiness/horror tone and liberally mixing in over the top comedy elements in such a way that you aren't sure what the game is going to pull next. However, I do note that the over the top comedy is more heavy in the first disc, while things settle down substantially by the second disc.

The FMVs for this game are mostly done with the in game's graphics engine, but fully voiced and subtitled for your viewing pleasure. I'm pleased to note that the localization team went the extra mile for us when they dubbed it, letting the voice actors throw their own spin onto the base translation for the sake of flavor and so the character model's lips and voice track match up. This further adds to the enjoyment the story brings, setting it apart from the majority of the game where characterization and interaction with the plot takes a hit in the face of making sure that we get the same freeze dried dramatics and plot we come to expect from the RPG genre.

In the end, I personally feel that Shadow Hearts: Convenant really is a compliment to the original Shadow Hearts, and that they shouldn't be directly compared to one another in a competitive light. Especially in the way of how the plot was executed, since while the first pretty much railroaded you down the plot, this one was a bit more interested in more open ended character development early on, causing the plot to kind of waver about until you hit Russia.

In this way, I feel that the two really made a definitive and deeply impacting experience for me. I just hope that Nautilus (or whatever they may change their name to next) succeed in their bid to make a name for themselves with this series, and that they hopefully have the good fortune of really breaking out into their own if they ever decide to continue with the Shadow Hearts franchise in someway.

Quick note: There's this one side quest that you can really mess up in the latter point of the game called the Straw Trading quest. I recommend you check a FAQ for that, or you'll have to pay 500k for one of your PC's ultimate weapons at the end of the game.

[kpjam]

I loved this games.

I will note, that the wrestler is the arguable the funniest characters I've ever encountered in a rpg.  Getting his mask at the end.... priceless, and worth the annoyance of the curry.

I did note a few quirky moments when graphics weren't completely alligned with movements.  I had trouble around some corners and could only go through 1/2 of an open door.

Good review, and I hope these guys can break out of the somewhat crowded genre and make a name for themselves as well.

[Olvelsper]

Huh. I never noticed any problems like those, but yeah I'll heartily agree with  you about the wrestler. That guy and the wolf are my favorite characters throughout the game. ^^

[Olvelsper]

As an aside, the game is remarkably well balanced in comparison to the prequel. Unlike the first game, you don't even have to keep the main character in your battle party as soon as you get the ability to swap in and out party members. Normally this would lead the game to whapping you upside the head and making it ten times harder for you, right? Well, not neccessarily in this game. Everyone is remarkably well balanced, so you can beat the game with just about everyone without having to worry about dying because you don't want to keep Yuri in the main squad.

In fact, I just beat the game without using Yuri. Felt it'd be unfair to the final boss if I creamed him in a single round. :p

[Brian]

I hate you, Olg.  With the white hot passion of a thousand--

Well.  No.

Of a dozen suns!

I had made a sacred vow -- a PACT, if you will -- to avoid purchasing more than six games from July until January.  I have three left, two of which are assigned (HL2, WoW), and one of which I have not yet decided.

Now I'm torn between Katamari Damaci, and Shadow Hearts: Covenant.  I blame you.

;_;

[Dracos]

Pretend they are one game and buy both.

Katamari is the most beautiful piece of surealistic art I've seen in ages.  The fact it has a fun game with it is only icing on the cake.

Shadow hearts is, well, Shadow Hearts. =D  Olguin said it all earlier. =)

Dracos

[Olvelsper]

*laughs* Well, Katamari Damancy is going for twenty bucks, afterall. Maybe you can count is as a third of a game because of that? :p

And damn you back Brian, now you've made me want to write a Katamari Damancy review! :o

[Brian]

You are both making my smuggling of the third Rachet and Clank game very difficult.  I hope you realize this.

[Anastasia]

*Spoilers*

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That should be enough.

Whoo, I finally finished it. I must say...that barring the plot, there is tons to look up to here. The battle system is rock solid, the music generally fits well, and the basic character designs are generally good. Well, barring Yuri's new outfit, which is just rotten. But hey, I'll give them a pass on that for Anastasia's and Joachim's design work. Anyway, pretty much everything outside of the plot hits home runs. It's a true traged that they so badly ruin the plot in my eyes that it soured the entire game.

Let's begin with the root of the problem, Yuri Volte Hyuga. He's changed quiet a bit since his Shadow Heart 1 days, and understandably so. The bad ending of SH1 was what occured in the canon, and this follows the dread path of it. Having lost Alice to stop his Malice, a change in character is reasonable. Yet, Yuri never feels like Yuri. That's the important part, any changes be damned. He tries to walk the walk, and talk the talk, but it never synchs with how Yuri is, was and should be. I certainly understand that he's mourning, but it feels like a similar stranger underneath the black outfit he now wears.

If you are going to go and bring back the main from SH1 for SH2, you need to make sure it doesn't miss the mark like that. It's the best way I can think of to alienate the crowd whom played the first game.

Speaking of returning characters, Albert Simon is the next great problem. His rewriting and retconning comes off extremely weak - the coda of SH1 and the line 'World War 1 started weeks later' felt like the perfect closing chapter to Simon's tale. Bringing him back and trying to justify his actions with things completely external to the original game reeks of bad, bad, baaaaaad revisionist history. Trying to paint him as a tragic, misunderstood hero working to stop Rasputin simply doesn't compute. I need only to remember Kowloon Fortress or the ending arc of SH1 to reject that out of hand. While they did make an effort to integrate Amon, Albert Simon, Asmodeus and Astaroth into the story, the Albert Simon bit should have been dropped.

Thirdly, Alice. For most of the game, they kept her dead and it was fine. I respect them for sticking to their guns, yet they just couldn't resist near endgame. This pisses me off - Alice and her death is a major driving force for Yuri in the story, yet they cheapen it by bringing her back in their own special way. Way to completely make me feel like this greatly tramatic event didn't really matter as much as it did, guys.

Finally, what really annoyed me was the ending(s). Assuming the good ending for Yuri(For the sake of ease here, as I feel it brings more to the table to discuss), it just makes a headache. It's either an alternate history now, or a time loop. For various reasons I won't digress into here, the former is likely out of the question. After all of this, I wanted at least resolution for Yuri, not....that.

Secondly, we get Karin's ending. So, let me get this straight: Karin=Yuri's mother? Oh, come on. This just pushed me too far, and shattered my already battered suspension of disbelief. Cop. Out. Not only does it smack of revisionist history again, it raises the question - Karin knows how Yuri's mother dies. Considering the above, how the hell does that make sense?

Bleh.

Just...so much here that pisses me off. For all they did good(I'll take this chance to give Kato a nod, as his continuation was excellent all around), they muddied it so badly that I can't give the game anything above a 3/10. It's probably the best, highest quality game that I've totally hated, and it's a shame.

[Olvelsper]

Seems that most of the people that dislike the game really don't like the ending and Albert bits. I pretty much winced and moved on with Albert since there was so much going on during his part of the plot that I just let it slide off my back (albeit letting it take off some of my skin too), so I'll agree with you on that part.

Yuri, well...I at least felt that he was justified in being how he was. *shrugs* This is a case where I'll agree to disagree with you. Something bad went down in his life, and he changed for the worst while still trying to keep a perverted grin on his face.

Alice's part of the plot really was well done, in my eyes. It fits the mythos of the older games in that good things will never happen with that cursed book, and this just brings that back home again. If Yuri had actually learned from it and moved on (or the story writers didn't want to insult people who've suffered tragedies like this and lived on) I'd be much happier with his decision in either ending. Although, I'll disagree with you on the ending, I don't think he was actually going through either fate in the good ending.

Besides, the bad ending is actually more better in actually offering Yuri another chance at getting his act together and moving on.

Although, one thing I will agree with you wholeheartedly is how horribly they dropped the ball with Karin. Retcons abound with that poor gal, as if she didn't get the short end of the stick plotwise as is.

[Anastasia]

Bleh, sorry. This is why I don't put off replying by even a day.

As far as the bad ending goes? I'd rather not use it or consider it good. I can handle Yuri going through SH2 as he did, but a reset on him strikes me as just annoying and overkillish. What, we'll see him in SH3? I'd really, really rather not.

Poor Karin. She was likable and not annoying in the least, yet the plot kept on shitting on her over and over. Her ending was just....ugh to a degree that annoys me, not to mention that it opens up more headaches than I care to think about.