Watch a battle against a vicious demon in Shadow Hearts: Covenant. Double-click on the video window for a full-screen view.

The original Shadow Hearts was something of a sleeper, released in North America just before the mammoth Final Fantasy X reared its well-known head. Brought to life by Sacnoth, a development team comprised of former employees of what was then Squaresoft, the title showcased a unique battle system and an alternate history version of the early 1900s, replete with demons and magic. Shadow Hearts: Covenant is a direct sequel set half a year after the events of the previous game, and this time it is being developed by Aruze, a subsidiary of Nautilus (with some ex-Sacnoth talent). The game continues following the adventures of one of the protagonists of the original title, Yuri Hyuga, a young man who has the ability to take demon form. Shadow Hearts: Covenant appears to excel in the same areas as its predecessor, providing an entertaining mix of interesting characters and some oddball humor bound up with an engaging battle system that has gone through some evolution of its own.

The game is set in an alternate version of early Europe, just as World War I is starting to churn things up. You're introduced first to Karin Koenig, a young lady lieutenant of the Imperial German army who has been sent with a squad to seize the small French village of Domremy. Their advance is rebuffed by a large shadow-dark demon (which happens to be one of Yuri's many forms), who wipes out the patrol and effectively tosses Karin out on her rear. The Germans, being a tenacious lot, will not admit defeat and so they send Karin back to the village with a new companion--Cardinal Nicholai, called up from the Vatican to perform some exorcistic duties. After some heated dialogue and a plot twist, Yuri ends up cursed (by a holy sprig of mistletoe, of all things) and all of his special summon forms are sealed away. This all amounts to a really bad day for our antihero, who must now set out to regain his powers (against a backdrop of a world war) and learn more about the secret society that seems to be plotting his downfall.

Demons, talking wolves, and vampire pro wrestlers. What more do you want out of a Japanese RPG?

The characters themselves are an intriguing lot. Besides the headstrong Yuri and the buxom Karin, you soon meet two more characters to join your fight against the unknown. Gepetto is an elderly gentleman who used to be a well-known puppeteer in Paris; his treasured companion and battle partner is a doll named Cornelia, with whom he will coordinate bizarre-looking attacks. In comparison, Blanca seems rather mundane--he's simply a highly intelligent white wolf, pitching in to help his friends with tooth and claw. As you progress, you'll meet a variety of other characters, from royalty to the religious, from fortune-tellers to vampire pro wrestlers. The eclectic cast is unique, and dialogue between the characters often slants to the humorous. Shadow Hearts: Covenant persists in not taking itself too seriously; for every dark moment we encountered, there was just as much levity.

You'll meet a wide array of enemies in the game as well, both human and demonic, and you'll battle countless scores of them in the random encounters that dot the game. Shadow Hearts: Covenant provides its own twist on the usual turn-based battle system, bringing a mechanic called the judgment ring in from the previous game. Any time you select an action in battle, from melee attacks and magic to using special abilities or items, the judgment ring appears on the screen. Within the ring are colored sections, and there is an arm that performs a radar sweep around the ring. The key is to press the X button while the sweep is in one of the colored areas, and if you hit all the appropriate zones, your action will be successful. In addition, there's often a red sliver right at the end of an action zone that will give you a bonus if you hit it--attacks will become critical hits, special moves will do greater damage, and even items will see a potency boost. However, if you miss hitting one of the colored zones, your attack will be over, so it's possible for you to forfeit that character's turn (and any items you tried to use) if you miss entirely. The judgment ring requires precision, concentration, and timing to master, but it's easy to pick up the basics quickly. Hitting the red zones becomes an addictive pastime, as you work to squeeze the most out of every attack, every spell, and every item.

The judgment ring keeps you on your toes and helps keep encounters from becoming rote.

However, you don't even have to do this if you'd rather not, as the game enables you to manage ring settings for individual characters. Setting a character to auto ring means that your attacks will always hit, though you'll sacrifice power by doing that. Technical ring makes hit areas smaller and it will completely negate your move if you mess up once, but it will boost your attacks. You can also use various items to do things like make the hit sections wider, make the bonus sections wider, slow the sweep of the ring, or add an extra attack.