Shadow Hearts: Covenant is an RPG that any fan of the genre should buy, due to solid gameplay and humerous dialogue.
One thing that definitely sets Shadow Hearts apart from other RPGs is that it takes place in our world. There are no ficticious lands and fantasy settings here, it takes place on planet Earth which allows the player to connect to the environments more. In Covenant, the story takes place in Europe after the outbreak of World War I. You start off playing as Karin, a liutenant in the German Imperial Army, and you are sent to investigate the small village of Domremy after word spread of a monster attacking German troops reaches Headquarters. A priest from the Vatican named Nicolai is ordered to go along with her to provide support, and he brings along with him an ancient artifact told to have a sealing affect on demons. Long story shortened, they go there see the demon change into a man named Yuri and Nicolai, who turns out to be a bad guy, stabs Yuri with the artifact. I won't spoil the story any more, but that all happens within the first 10 minutes and this grabbed my attention right away. That is another strong point to this game, the story is something that is constantly evolving and always has your attention.
The cast of characters in SHC are an interesting bunch to say the least. Yuri, the main character and the main character from the first SH, can fuse with the souls of monsters and take on their forms in battle. He is also one of the most 'down-to-earth' main characters I've played as. He approaches some situations like an average guy would do, he isn't always the goodie goodie most heroes play out to be. Gepetto(yes Gepetto, but not like the one from Pinnochio) acts like a perverted old man at times and is the 'wise old man' of the group. Karin watches over Yuri mostly and is a strong woman, not the stereotyped weak woman who the main has to save. Joachim(aka Grand Papillon).......he is a tad odd. He is a vampire, but not your typical vampire. He is tall and muscular and talks in a deep and heroic voice. But he adds a lot of humor to the story and makes the cast of characters even more unique. The other woman of the group is Lucia, a beautiful fortune teller who acts kind of ditsy at times. Her and Joachim seem to be added in for comical relief at times, which is ok, some RPGs act far too serious. Then there is the cute, adorable, and devious Princess Anastasia. She plays a big part in the story and takes pictures, and those pictures are important!! And finally there is the loyal white wolf Blanca, whom gets the group out of binds throughout the course of the game. Blanca can stand on his hind legs and walk on them......that is one smart wolf. Each of these characters abilities plays a part in combat and makes each one of them useful.
The combat in Shadow Hearts is one thing that sets it apart from other RPGs as well. Instead of standard press X and attack, you must hit certain points on a Judgement Ring which determines how many times you attack and for how much damage. On the circular grid there are a number of areas that are Hit Areas and Strike Areas that show where you need to time your presses for the most attacks and damage. This adds a bit more strategy to your battles since casting spells and using items are done in the same manner. As for attacks you can execute, you can do a Standard, High Angle(knock enemy in air), Knock Down, and Hard Hit(knock enemy back farther). As well as these, you can initiate a Combo move with fellow members of your team to deal even more damage. When you initiate a Combo you do the whole Judgement Ring deal and then you must press a certain button on the controller to initiate the Combo. To add on to this, each character has their own unique abilites that they use in battle. Yuri for example can 'Fuse' with souls of monsters and change into them for that battle. Karin has Sword Skills learned from sheets of music that you gather throughout the course of the game. You can also tell who's turn is coming next so that adds more strategy to chaos of battle. Summed up, the combat in Shadow Hearts is different from most RPGs, which is a good thing.
The graphics for a game that is now a few years old, are very good. The character models are very well rendered and the environments really give you that feel that you're walking around WW1 Europe. The small village, old cars, the people's outfits, and the uniforms of the soldiers are all very authentic. The CG cinematics rival the abilities of the Square Enix crew, they are all extremely well done and give the scenes a movie feel and draw you into the moment. The sound design is okay, not great but okay. The voice actors did a great job on bringing the characters to life. I don't know if I have heard better voice acting than I have heard in this game. The battle game music was not the best I have ever heard but it was still good. I couldn't stand the boss battle music that played when you face Veronica for the last time though or when you face Amon, it was earsplitting annoying.
The amount of extras in this game are also numerous and add plenty of play time. You can, get every ability for every character, get prizes for winning the lottery, get prizes for how many steps you've taken, fill in Solomon's Key, and the list goes on and on and on.........all the side quests can kind of deter you from whatever objective you were doing, but that is why they are optinonal.
Overall, Shadow Hearts deserves more credit than it gets. If Covenant is any indication as to how the other 2 are, I will have to get my hands on them. Put down the Final Fantasy and play some Shadow Hearts for a change.