Yes, Virginia, there is a Shadow Hearts, and it's a standard but stand-out RPG. Go figure.

User Rating: 7.9 | Shadow Hearts (PlayStation2 the Best) PS2
Lots of people remember the twilight of 2001 as the period in which one of the highest profile RPGs, namely Final Fantasy X, was released for the PS2. I personally don't, since I was on a gaming hiatus at that time. That being said, I also don't remember the release of a much lesser known RPG by some folks who'd left Squaresoft to form the little company called Sacnoth. I do remember seeing it on rental shelves when I got back into gaming later, though, and always wondering if it'd be worth playing. Well, let me tell you - if you missed it when it came out, now is a great time to Shadow Hearts, since it has spawned a sequel, and this relatively unknown and underappreciated game lets you in on where it all began (more or less - see Koudelka for accuracy). At it's core, Shadow Hearts is an old-school, run-of-the-mill RPG. There's the dark, mysterious man with dark, mysterious powers, and the virtuous heroine, also with mysterious powers. There's the stable of quirky supporting characters, the crazy weapons and magic, the turn based battles, and the plot to save the world. Somewhere along the way, though Shadow Hearts sets itself apart. One of the main things that contributes to it's originality is the setting - the game takes place shortly before the First Great War, and the locales your party will journey to are (or are located near) real places. You'll see Shanghai, France, Prague, and London. Each setting has a genuinely REAL feel to it, and seems (though I'm no expert) historically accurate. It's nice to see an RPG set in the "real world", as opposed to the fantasy realms that typify the genre. The main character, Yuri, is a man of mystery, as I mentioned. He's inherited the power to transform into strange and powerful creatures, a power called Harmonixing. He also hears voices, or rather A voice in his head, which tells him what to do, where to go, and such. It's by this medium that he happens upon Alice, the heroine, upon a train one night. Alice is under some duress, seeing as she's in the middle of being kidnapped by one Roger Bacon, a powerful warlock. When Yuri miraculously saves Alice from Bacon's clutches, you can be sure it's just the start of an epic tale that culminates in the threatened destruction of the world. Sounds by the book, I know, but the different setting and the way the story progresses breed originality. Gameplay in Shadow Hearts is also fairly standard RPG fare - you journey from place to place, fighting turn-based random battles, gaining money and experience, upgrading your character and equipment. The system that dominates play, however, is called the Judgment Ring - basically a circle on the screen, with a moving meter. Within this ring are various sections, and as the meter moves around the ring, pressing the X button as it's over a highlighted section results in a "hit" on the ring. The judgment ring governs many areas of gameplay - from battle, to shopping, and even mini-games. There are also special areas within the normal hit areas during battle, and hitting those will allow for more powerful effects or more damage. It's an interesting system, and for the most part, keeps you interested and involved in the battles. It can get annoying occasionally, especially if the ring areas for a certain character are small, but it's fairly easy to get used to, and becomes a timing thing that's pretty easily mastered - the difficulty was tuned quite well for the ring. Graphically, Shadow Hearts is obviously dated, but even comparing it fairly to FFX, it's not the most beautiful game. There's nothing ugly about it, and some of the environments evoke the appopriate sense of awe or suspense. That being said, the main characters are fairly standard looking and animate rather blandly, thought their actual attacks are pretty cool looking. The NPCs are even more run-of-the-mill, and many of the enemies are recycled with different color sprites, and look rather ordinary. The special ability effects and animations aren't too bad, though - some are rather pretty, some just standard fare. The cutscenes are better, though still not on par with games like FFX. Overall, graphics might be Shadow Hearts' weakest aspect, though there's nothing here that's going to detract from the experience, unless you're a real stickler for the eye-candy. Musically, Shadow Hearts strikes the appropriate chords, and manages to provide some originality and a good background track for the game. The tunes and ambient noises in towns, dungeons, battles, and cutscenes never offend, and often worth humming along to. Additionally, this game features one of the more beautiful musical arrangements I've heard in some time - there's a cutscene early in the game where a grainy-filtered Asian woman plays a stringed instrument that sounds like a violin, but is reminiscent of an actual Japanese-produced movie. If anyone can tell me exactly what the instrument is, I'd be appreciative - it looks kind of like a Shamisen, but she plays it with a bow. In any case, it's a haunting and beautiful sound, and combined with the grain-filter effect and the storytelling, it's a terrific scene, one of my favorites this year. Voice acting is, as per usual in the RPG genre, hit-or-miss. It runs the usual gamet of well-done to bloody awful. There's not a lot of voice in the game, which is fine, and overall I'd say most of the voices add to rather than detract from the game's atmosphere and story. Battle voices and sounds are convincing if not spectacular, and serve the purpose well. The game itself is fairly short for an RPG - I can't see most people taking more than 35 hours, and even then, you'd be doing about all you can. While this may disappoint some, it's a plus in that it doesn't feel drawn out by useless or boring sidequests. Shadow Hearts manages to avoid most of the unnecessary time-sink traps that plague the genre - dungeons and towns are typically small and not pointlessly confusing, and there's no stupid rewards for a sidequest - it's stuff you'll use, like better weapons, armor, items and skills. Perhaps some mini-games would add something, but overall, the game really didn't feel like it was lacking anything, as it kept it's pace well. The phrase "It's quality, not quantity" feels very applicable here. The game does offer the option of starting over once you've finished, but allowing you to keep all of the fusion souls (Yuri's special power) you acquired during your previous quest. There are a few extras to do, like ultimate weapons/armor and the gratuitous arena-type fighting, and there are a couple endings that depend on completion of a certain event. Since it's not a particularly long game, I can see people playing it through more than once, though there's not a lot of reason to do so, unless you missed a lot the first time through. I really enjoyed finally getting the chance to play through Shadow Hearts. Kudos to Midway for packaging it with it's sequel, as it gave people the chance to really experience the whole story of the Harmonixer named Yuri. I'm an RPG fan, so I naturally gravitated to the gameplay, but little things like the Judgment Ring, the real world setting, the off-beat humor and the solid storytelling helped set it apart as something more than a generic RPG experience. I'm now looking forward to starting Shadow Hearts: Covenant. To completely intend a pun, this game found itself caught in the shadow of an RPG behemoth - FFX came out just a week after, and Shadow Hearts was lost in the mix of holiday craziness. The people who knew, though, kept talking it up, and they were right - it's worth experiencing. If you haven't tried it before, start the series out right with this first adventure - I'm fairly certain Shadow Hearts be one of the better RPG franchises out there if Midway keeps giving it room to shine.