A quirky and unique RPG worth checking out.
I won't spoil the story but it is interesting with you traveling to many exotic locales in the Americas. The characters are bizzare, each with his own unique personality and even more unique character design.
Character development is shallow though.
Graphics are mediocre, but the character/monster models are well done. The music is a love/hate affair, you love its quirkiness but it can be jarring at times.
The thing that drives this RPG is the amazing gameplay. The judgement wheel is really fun yet challenging. Battles are surprisingly complex with the ability to set up combos and hit an enemy into the air or slam him to the ground.
You can customise the judgement ring, allowing a character to attack multiple times or simply enlarging the hit area allowing you to perform easier critical hits.
Each character has his/her own unique set of special abilities. In fact the shear number and difference of abilities of the characters set it apart from any other RPG.
To build up each characters abilities you have to perform sidequests. Given the large number of abilities, you have lots of questing to do which can be a bad or good thing depending on your taste. Thankfully some of the sidequests can be performed in conjunction with the main plot.
Another thing that sets this RPG apart is the difficulty of the battles. Mainstream RPGs nowadays are simply too easy to complete. Well Shadow Hearts is quite difficult and forces you to really strategize during the battle and to use certain special abilities of a character to defeat a boss. which is a good thing.
Even normal monster battles cannot be taken lightly as you will face monsters that perform combos on you! Besides you will be outnumbered most of the time.
I must also commend the one who designed the bestiary. The monsters are very unique and the bosses even more so.
All in all this is a crazy ,weird RPG with incredible customization and gameplay. Go play this cult classic now!