A worthy sequel that expands on Shadow Hearts quirkiness with a bigger budget that definately shows
*The Story*
If you haven't played the first Shadow Hearts you will learn everything you need to know for this game just from playing, so don't be put off already. You play as a half Japanese, half Russian anti-hero with attitude named Yuri, a martial artist as well as a 'harmonixer', he can fuse with demon souls and become them in battle.
However the most interesting aspect of this story is the setting, a very gothic world war 1 Europe, Russia and the far East, although the war isn't too much detail of the game though it gets mentioned and is part of the plot. And don't worry it is actually an RPG as you'd expect still, complete with all the magic and superhuman characters with plenty of monstrous bad guys along the way to throw lightning at.
The basic outline of the story is after the first game where Yuri's love Alice died, he now lives in a small village in France protecting it with his harmonixer powers from German soldiers trying to occupy it, though soon you end up powerless thanks to a curse that is slowly killing you and destroying your soul. Soon enough you're caught up in an adventure traveling the world with new friends (not to mention appearances from the previous games' cast) trying to stop bad guys from destroying it, though saving the world is the standard of almost all RPGs.
The new characters in your roster all have great personality though some may be lacking in depth, they do all have a place in your party and have great relationships between each other which leads to a lot of genuinely funny moments as well as making you care more for the characters and their cause. It is interesting and funny to see how Yuri gets on with Alice's uncle and wolf friend Blanca, as well as the female lead Karin who falls for Yuri though he can't seem to get over the death of Alice.
This story is above the average standards of the last several years and provided you enjoy the gameplay and battles then this is a game that's difficult to put down.
*Gameplay & Graphics*
As I mentioned earlier, a fancy new engine and an expanded battle system, this game looks good and is easy to get into as well as satisfying to play. The settings and characters look great courtesy of some awesome new designs and the graphics make it a pleasing game to look at, they may not be the best ps2 is capable of but yet again the characters do look and move a lot better than most, something you may notice in some of the games long and well directed cutscene sequences.
The battle system uses the judgment ring, a circle with a dial that spins clockwise that you must stop at certain parts to attack and define the strength of your attack, it's something you have to play to appreciate, but the stuff that's new to the battle system this time around is the combo system, linking up with others in your team to do more damage. Also characters are more customizable thanks to the new 'crest' system, allowing you to choose which characters have which magic rather than having characters just naturally develop through leveling up and gaining new skills.
*Sound & Dialogue*
Far, far, far above average, thanks to good voice acting emphasized by great, well written dialogue and a fitting and emotive soundtrack by composer genius Yasunori Mitsuda (among some other well known composers), Mitsuda is the man behind soundtracks to games like Xenogears, Xenosaga, Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross and you may even notice some similarities between some of the town and battle music in this game and some of Chrono Cross' soundtrack.
The voice acting in this game is fitting for each character, at times it may not be perfect but it is a good fit, except for one character: Joachim, the wrestler-vampire-superhero, his voice is hilarious and delivered perfectly with every line, it's the quirky little things like this in the game that make it so worth playing.
*Everything Else*
There's a lot to do in this game if you want to have all the demo fuses with Yuri and get all the best equipment/skills not to mention getting both endings, though I only spent just under 40 hours playing it you could easily spend 60+ if you like games to last.
This game has some great scenes, I enjoyed a lot of the character's, settings, dialogue and random humour, though this game is also deep and meaningful in all the right places.
My only real gripe with Shadow Hearts Covenant was that like a lot of sequels it had a different feeling to the original that was more dark and had more angst, though I liked the first game more it was for many different reasons.
I won't spoil anything but as a fan of the original I did feel that neither endings for this game really satisfied me, though I don't regret the experience for a moment - this is a must for RPG fans and it is a shame it didn't get the exposure it deserved thanks to other big releases and though getting positive reviews not getting the front pages like the more mainstream games at the time.
If you like RPGs it's more than likely you will enjoy Shadow Hearts Covenant.