Shadow Hearts: Covenant has a fast paced story with memorable characters and plot. You owe it to yourself to buy it now!
User Rating: 9.4 | Shadow Hearts II PS2
Shadow Hearts: Covenant is set in WWI, during a time when Germany was fighting against most of the world. The story begins with Karin, a German Officer, getting sent to a small village called Domremy to investigate a series of mysterious deaths, and reports of a demon. Accompanying her is Nicholai, a cardinal who is determined to take the demon down. When they go to Domremy, Karin and Nicholai face off against the demon, who kills much of the guards present, and saves Karin from death. She later finds out that this demon is Yuri, a Harmonixer (someone who is able to fuse with demon spirits). She finds out that Nicholai has lain a curse on Yuri, and that he works for a mysterious network called Sapientes Gladio. This is when the story takes off, and with the hilarious one-liners and somewhat sexual undertones in the interactions between characters (particularly Yuri and Karin). As they travel throughout Europe trying to find out more about Sapientes Gladio and get rid of the curse Yuri carries they are joined by various intriguing characters, such as Gepetto, and old man who is a puppeteer and uses a puppet to attack his foes, and Anastacia, the Princess of the Russian Empire and who also has the ability to take photos of foes and learn special attacks from them. ~GRAPHICS~
The graphics to me are not as detailed as they could have been, although the cutscenes do have a nice quality, I find the character movement and looks as you play the game are very average. However I believe the surroundings more than make up for this, as do the different attacks.
~SOUND~
The score for the game is very well written, allowing the different locations and emotions to be portrayed in such a way that you actually feel for the characters, and you feel as if you are really in these European countries.
~GAMEPLAY~
The battle system is very different to that of many other RPG's. It is turn based, but you use the Judgement Ring to hit the enemies, and you are able to line up combos with other party members, which allows you to cause more damage to the enemy. You again use magic, which varies from supporting your friends, to utterly destroying your enemies. The judgement ring is also used for discounts in shops, as well as for the lottery that is run all over Europe, allowing you to gain special prizes if you hit it at the right time.
Overall, the game is thoroughly enjoyable, and lasts at least 40 hours, which is good if you really want ot experience the game in all its glory.
