In the previous decade of the time the sixth generation console JRPG genre had gained considerable strength, as well as in Japan and in America and Europe. Series like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Shin Megami Tensei, Suikoden was released almost every year.. They were the kings of RPG style games. During that generation a rare gem was born. highly underrated , but appreciated by its fans - Shadow Hearts. I will write about the second game in the series Shadow Hearts 2: Covenant, because remains one of the most unique and different games of this style. This is an RPG, which has everything - good and memorable story with strong atmosphere, a colorful cast of characters, memorable soundtrack, beautiful artstyle which aged quite good and a unique combat system.
The modern games are plagued with stereotypical characters and the designer freedom is restricted - the uproar about the Japanese characters from Tekken 7 in US ( I still don’t understand the problem), or ,, castrated '' male characters (thank god that we have Renegade Shepard), or many characters with same classes, abilities and personalities . Because of that the one thing that I cherish the most is the Covenant’s cast of characters. The main character Yuri Hyuga is a total badass which can transform in different demons (in the game this type of persons are called Harmonixers)Yuri can be a support, damage dealer and spell caster. He is cool headed guy who can’t afford to make a mistake and the heart of the group. In critical moments he even afford to slap his girlfriend Alice ( SH1 character ) and another female character Karin , without the fear of the modern feminist enthusiasts .The second one is Joachim a 400 years old vampire wrestler, with childish nature and good sense of justice, who randomly transform in bat or mask his self and became The Grand Papillon – his super heroic alterego. Gepetto is the third - a kind oldman who where showman in the past. He use puppets to cast his spells. Next one is Princess Anastasia (based on real life loyalty), a naughty kid with a scan ability (in the game Snapshot) and different array of spells. Another one is Blanca - a badass white wolf with balanced set of abilities. He is involved in a stealth fragment of gameplay in the game. We even have a second Harmonixer named Kurando. His demon fusions differs from Yuri’s . The next one is Karin - a master swordswoman , which had a crush on Yuri during a big chuck of the game main story line , but after involving some time travel marries his ( what a twist). And the last one is Lucia - a beautiful fortune teller with good supportive abilities. cast of characters. (The photo bellow have two extra characters - in the left one of the main antagonists in the game Nicolai and on the left the main heroine from Shadow Hearts Alice, which have a large part in Covenant's story).It rivals or maybe ever exceed some of the better known character cast – The band from FF VII ; the crew of ME series and etc.
One of my problems with modern RPG Games are the unequal distribution of the game size and story. Most of the modern RPGs exceed at one of this aspects. Some have huge worlds, full of secrets , but lack the memorable story ( I am pointing at you Fallout 3 and Skyrim ).Others have great story line ( FF XII love me hate me it was good one) , but lack the diversity. Or another like Souls series that the story is almost lore based and 99% is fighting. The reason that Shadow Hearts 2 is better with age is equality. It’s a long games , but no long enough to became repetitive and bore some. It have great game world full of very unique and atmospheric dungeons. Even the cities in the game shows the different culture of the European and Japanese people. It have good number of side quests – not too small , not enormous. My favorites ones are the character based that revolves at specific emotions like sorrow – Gepetto , regret – Karin, humor – Joachim. And the other favorite one is the Pedometer quest ( its not pedophilic). It add a twist - instead of buying certain items, the player can use the Pedometer to measure the amount of steps made in the game in exchange for prizes, but the step counts only in dungeons, so exploring became even more rewarding.
The aspect that has become increasingly better with time is the game soundtrack made by the composers Yoshitaka Hirota, Yasunori Mitsuda and Kenji Ito . In that time it was common for a game to have one battle theme. Every FF X player can still remember the loop of one and the same battle music for hours. In Covenant the composers create different ones not only for the bosses , but for the standart battles. It’s a touch that is not much common in the past and even these days. I can still call some of the tracks of the game by the name - The fate - Cluster amaryllis, 3 Karma - Decisive Battle, Rising Sun and my favorite - Map of Europe - Old Smudged map
And at last - the battle system. The system is standard turn based type which have an added twist - the ,, Judgement Ring ''. At the time it was really game changer. The difference is that here you are not sit and watching idle when you execute a command. After a command had been chosen a ring appear with different areas for each character and different colors for each command – as example if you miss the blue or red one when you cast spell the command is interrupted and the turn is lost. It require some dexterity and precision and higher accuracy is rewarded with higher damage for the damaging commands. Even after that a quick time button pop up appear for executing a combos, and if you miss it the combo breaks. This system was a little ahead of it time and aged quite good considering that SH Covenant is eleven years old game. I still doesn’t encounter even one game with similar idea.
So that's that my first blog.Its really late , because i didnt have the time and the courage but it is finally finished. Did you ever play the games? What are your memories about it?Do you think that this type of JRPG are extinct?
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