Platform: PlayStation 2
Genre: RPG
Publisher: Midway
Developer: Sacnoth
Try to remember at least one JRPG, action that would occur on Earth. Developers rarely use even pseudo-motivations, preferring to allude and refer to the real world, but does not use its elements in their games directly. Is that a product KOEI always stood out in this respect from the crowd, and now more people from Sacnoth demonstrated whether originality, or lack of their own ideas. But, we still face it.
So, are transported to Asia early 20 th century. The Japanese army is preparing to occupy China, but it - only the background to the events of the game, which revolves around a mysterious girl (Alice) so her bodyguard (Yuri). Behind this pair of witch hunts Roger Bacon, that Alice needed to conduct a magical ceremony, with tragic consequences for the world.
Of course, JRPG can not do without a good party, that is, collection of heroes. In this sense, Shadow Hearts is clearly at a height - have stolen up the original personality, and a change of command in the course of the story is always justified logically and does not cause problems for passing, which has been observed repeatedly in Final Fantasy. And finally, as you all know, the protagonist of the canons of JRPG just assumed to have a terrible secret ... well, or at least should sometimes think about his difficult childhood and slippery windowsill. It turns out that our Yuri is not an ignoramus in the supernatural, and it is ... the ability to merge with the souls of monsters. That's it, nothing more, nothing less. The idea is that as the beating of a certain kind of creatures accumulate special glasses. Once the number you want, you can win in my subconscious spirit of the monster, after which it becomes available for a merger at any time. In general, the subconscious mind is necessary not only for this purpose. Throughout the game soul slain monsters will tear the hero, increasing the level of "Inner Malice". As soon as the conscience will reach the red zone, it materializes and smite you. This can be prevented in time became strong destroying the ghosts of his inner world. Broken metaphysics, you know, and taken literally.
The problem is that most innovations Shadow Hearts or worsen gameplay, or just not too clear to be positives. For example, The Ring of Judgment, local analog of the strip from the recent Hoshigami (PSX), of course, can be called an interesting substitute for the random number generator. The bottom line is that an ellipse is running the strip, you want to stop at one of the shaded sectors.The result would be either something positive (joint strike of heroes, the discount when you buy armor, etc.), or negative. It seems that sounds interesting, yes? But the fact is that this stuff is used wherever possible, including in combat. Much nicer it would make the possibility of more, which would apply in particular cases. But since ... for the thousandth time to monitor this stupid strip of you will already be too nice.
But perhaps you want to know about the main thing - the quality of the plot, because the content of detail would be sadistic. Translated into English performed well, although, of course, this is not the localization level of Working Designs. This is clearly confirmed by the quality of voice acting, which just took pity on the money (ie do not hire professionals) rather than to destroy the key scenes, which can be viewed only with a mixture of laughter and disgust. Or at least to turn off the sound. But if you do, you are depriving yourself ... one of the best soundtracks RPG, which only appeared recently. Perhaps the fact that the music had a hand in, including the incomparable Yasinori Mitsuda (Chrono Cross). Asian motifs in the story and design perfectly highlights the local as the music, which successfully used the elements and vocals.
It's a pity that in the field of graphics Shadow Hearts nothing special stands out in comparison with the latest RPG for the PS one. Is that the texture smoothed, slightly more polygons and special effects richer. In this case, the ideas and design is much better than a specific technical implementation. It is possible that the authors simply did not have time for a complete engine, because they wanted to release the game as soon as possible. That is why in spite of an interesting concept to get something which is in the same stage of development as the first RPG for Dreamcast - Evolution and Time Stalkers. There is also lack of original ideas, that in no way influenced the attitude to games by gamers. I think that in this case, the verdict would be: "they just took pity on the time and money." The only problem is that by releasing these games, Sacnoth never make enough money to superproject. Luckily, play Shadow Hearts can be, so the barrier of 100,000 copies sold in Japan is still ongoing. But just six months ... and SH absolutely no one will need.
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