Shadow Hearts is in every sense an essential JRPG purchase.
I've been meaning to tackle Shadow Hearts as a franchise for some time now and while my previous brief brushes with playing the series were marred by being useless at the judgement ring I decided recently it was high time to play it properly and get better at the games unique combat system. I was aware the game (and indeed the franchise as a whole) had good story, but what awaits you should you part with the cash to get hold of this old gem of JRPG's surpasses a great many modern titles in depth, story and Gameplay.
Story
The story of Shadow Hearts takes place at the turn of the 20th century, beginning in Asia and ending in Europe. Our lead characters Yuri and Alice are thrown into a world of ancient spells, demons, undead and apocalyptic magic. The story will take you chiefly through many shorter mini-stories focussing on different town's cities around the continents with cut scenes linking the plot together as you gradually realise the greater scheme of things lying behind the smaller and what originally appear to be stand alone adventures. The plot is epic, dark and steeped in a level of maturity and complexity often absent for games where an obviously younger market was in mind.
Characters
To accompany the strong story we have a very strong cast here. Yuri and Alice themselves both being strong leads who develop well. Yuri goes from being quite frankly a very unpleasant lead to gradually softening and becoming the best anti-hero I've seen in a title for a long time. Other cast members such as Zhu-Zhen the exorcist, Margurite the spy and Keith the friendly vampire add well to the mix with great little stories surrounding them and fantastic interaction and dialogue. While the secondary cast members don't develop as well as Yuri their general strong presence and positions in the overall narrative render this of little concern. The fact the game doesn't scrape on the mature dialogue and has the characters act like real people might do is testament to it's brilliance. Oh and the acupuncture guy is GENIUS.
Gameplay
The judgement ring system is quite simply the best battle system in any RPG ever, it keeps you on your toes throughout combat, it tests your reflexes and you get much better as the game progresses. I had real issue with hitting the cursors as the dial spun round to begin with but towards the end I found getting "perfects" a cinch. Why more other games haven't incorporated such a strong combat system is beyond me but this needs to be replicated to some degree in next-gen console games. The rest of the games Gameplay mechanics are fairly standard, run around, get XP, level up, gain new powers but the judgement rings keep it all fresh and exciting.
The only feature I disliked was malice. As you fight enemies you gain malice, if it gets too high it's essentially game over unless your super powered, so you have to regularly reach the bizarre graveyard world in Yuri's mind to destroy the malice and reset the counter as it were. It's annoying, time consuming and until a point in the game when it stops makes grinding a tedious exercise.
The fusions are another nice feature, fun to use (especially Amon) and add a little extra twist to the game, my only complaint is only three actually seemed worth bothering with in the game and many were left rendered useless.
Graphics & Sound
I'll group these together as there really is nothing to say other than the game was released in 2001, it doesn't look great at all. Its serviceable but not great and the music and voice acting in general are pretty questionable and unintentionally hilarious at times. One scene where an old woman narrates a horror story complete with sound effects was one of the funniest things I have ever heard in a game.
Length
A reasonable length 20 hours for the main plot probably 30 with extras. This is the first game I've bothered to do all the extras I could in for a long time, a testament to its greatness.
Overall
Shadow Hearts is a fantastic JRPG with a brooding, dark story that unwinds before the player via a narrative worthy of the finest author. The combat system is great, and while it's a little on the short side and hasn't aged as well as some other titles its quirky humour, mature take on dialogue and addictive Gameplay will mean it has fans for years to come.