Malik
(10/18/04)
Shadow Hearts:
Covenant (PS2)
Azure Group/Midway
This is probably
about the best in RPGs to come from this weird season of too many
releases of big name and too little time and money to enjoy them
all. However, it's also going to, for these reasons and more, be one
of the most under appreciated titles of the season. This game, much
like the one that original Shadow Hearts that came before it, is
coming out in a time when it's the hardest to be noticed.
Basically, for
those who haven't tried the SH series before (which also includes
Koudelka on the PS1), this game breaks many of the conventions of
standard console RPGs. First, and foremost, is the matter of the
plot...
Plot
Played Koudelka? I
doubted it. For the most part, Koudelka has no bearing on SH2.
Played SH? I doubted that too. While many people would argue that
you can play SH2 with no knowledge of SH, and they are partially
correct, you will definitely not get the full experience. This is
especially true since SH2 is a direct (plot-wise) sequel of SH. So,
before I get into SH2, I should give a quick recap of SH.
In SH, you played
as a young man named Yuri, who's father is Japanese and mother is
Russian, who had the unusual ability to fuse his body with the
bodies of deamons. This ability gave him the name of a harmonixer,
and also such names as deamon and devil. However, the important
matter is that he has this unusual ability that is relatively
unexplained in origin.
The general world
of SH, which is continued only a year later in SH2, is one of early
20th century Earth. The Japanese-Russian war has just ended (important
since Yuri is...well, you read it above), and WWI has not yet begun,
but tensions are building around the globe. For the most part, many
historical events are treated his a good dose of realism, however
there is enough fantasy to make it unique. For example, there are,
obviously, deamons, magic, and other supernatural elements
(including vampires...that's important since a vampire joins the
party, and it's good if they can exist in this world if one does
exist). Also, gender roles have been treated with a modern feeling
to them. Technology is, for the most part, what you should see in
the 1910's, and political alliances are as one should find them in
this era of history.
One day, as a
young woman named Alice (who is the daughter of a rather influential
and intelligent holy man...who recently died) is traveling across
Eurasia in a train, she is attacked by a mysterious man who calls
himself Roger Bacon. At this point Yuri saves her from certain doom
by this mysterious man who has the ability to summon and control
powerful forces of evil. After this, the two of them travel on a
journey to find out how to stop Mr. Bacon and to discover some
truths behind the both of them. This is also where I'll sto the
general SH recap and delve into some spoilers about SH (so, if you
haven't played that game and plan to, you might want to skip ahead a
bit...you'll know how far to skip ahead to).
Spoilers
Suring this
journey, Yuri has to confront his nature, including some inner
deamons and his vision of his father, and also they have to find a
way to save Yuri from his own destiny/fate. During this journey,
they discover that the man they called Roger Bacon is actually Roger
Bacon's apprentice, Albert Simon. Also, they learn that Roger is
really a crazy and brilliant 1000 year old man (Albert would be
about 700 years old) who knows many of the mysteries of the
universe. By working with Roger, the heros learn how to take down
Albert, who is interested, in the long run, to summon a god from
space to supposedly lay waste to the planet and remake the world in
Albert's unique style.
Most importantly,
to the general story of SH2, Alice lays her life down in order to
stop a curse from destroying Yuri's soul. This, in the game, can be
stopped through certain story events, if one chooses to pursue them.
However, SH2 seems to assume that you achieved the sad ending of SH
(in which Alice has to die). Also, of great importance is the
obvious; you stop Albert Simon from destroying the Earth and you
slay this god that he summoned.
End Spoilers
So, as SH2 begins,
Karen, a German lieutenant, is getting ready to lead a small force
of soldiers to capture the French town of Domremy. As she arrives
there, a rather impressive demon is found protecting the town. After
her unit is destroyed, and Karen lays on the ground in a daze, she
catches a glimpse of this deamon turning into a human...which would
be Yuri. So, she returns to her commanders in Germany, who introduce
her to a young priest named Nicholai, who is an expert in the
occult.
Nicholai leads
Karen to a tower in the Vatican that contains an artifact of great power
that can seal the demon away. Long story short, they get this item
and return to Domremy. Once there, Karen's troops are sacrificed (by
who? Play the game), Yuri's deamon forms are sealed, and Nicholai
prepares to destroy Yuri. At this point, Karen can sense something
is wrong, and she helps to save Yuri. At which point, she is deemed
an enemy of her former colleague, Nicholai...who reveals that he is
not a priest (which is amusing that they reveal this at this point
in the game since when Karen and Nicholai were in the Vatican, you
could check Nicholai's background info and see that he isn't a
priest...a small oversight by Azure), and is actually a member of a
secret organization called Sapientes Gladio, which is upset with
Yuri, since Yuri had destroyed their enemy...Albert Simon. Nicholai,
without much in terms of an explanation, tells Yuri of how he was
out to destroy him since Simon Albert was his target...thus, for
some unexplained reason, Yuri has now taken Albert's place in
Nicholai's group.
At this point,
Yuri teams up with Alice's uncle (a puppeteer named Gepetto), and
Gepetto's grand-daughter's friend (a wolf named Blanca, who also
helped to protect the people of Domremy) as they are hunted by
Nicholai...while Karen tags along in the background. It's about this
time that Domremy is laid to waste, but Yuri is too caught up in
being hunted down as his powers are diminished to do much to help
out. It is this point in which the game fully takes off, as you deal
with the issues of your curse (that prevents you from becoming a
deamon again...and it grows worse from there), being hunted by
Nicholai, and the growing issues of war as WWI has recently broken
out.
Overall, the plot
is one that is hard to simply explain on it's own. The depth to the
plot and the character development is astounding. While this game
tends to take a sillier approach to plot than SH did, it's a
brilliant work of historical fiction that is unlike anything else
seen in games. Not only is the world a perfect blending of fantasy
and reality, but it is given it's own life beyond what other RPGs
tend to show. Each town and location changes, even if in only minor
details, as the game progresses. For example, after about 6 months
of game has played out, Domremy is rebuilt with townspeople who
still remember the fate of the original village. Also, after a
dungeon is cleared, the state of the place may undergo some
important changes (but you're rarely required to visit again, so
these changes will go unnoticed to those players who are more
interested in just finishing the game than those who want to
experience the epic world and plot). Also, almost all NPS evolve and
change as the game progresses.
On top of that,
there is the fact that the characters in SH2 are all unique and show
more than just one singular emotion or characteristic. While Yuri is
the leader of the party who knows the most about adventuring (he did
the whole adventuring thing in the last game, so he should know
something about this line of work), he is also the most childish of
the group with his sexist behavior, being bitchy and aloof (all done
with a good deal of humor...the type that's rare in a game by
actually being humorous). However, this is only the beginning to
understanding who Yuri is, since there's also his vengeful nature,
his deep sense of regret about what happened to Alice, his side
that's concerned with how the curse will destroy him...there are far
too many aspects to his character to explain here. This type of
diverse and deep character applies to every player character and
many of the important NPCs. This is no FFX, with the one dimensional
Tidus and Yuna.
So, in a
nut-shell; the plot of SH2 is deep and unique despite being in the
real world. The world is not simply handed to the players with an
attitude of "read about it in a history book", but rather
is deep and fully explained down to some elements that don't even
tie into the overall plot (like how many other secret groups were
founded when Sapientes Gladio was founded, yet they are not even
important to the plot). Also, the characters are all unique and
diverse. So, to summarize, a perfect plot-sequel to a great
game.
Game Play
Ever play Shadow
Hearts? I doubted that one...I know I already asked, but...anyway,
this game continues many of the same elements that were found in the
game play of SH. I seriously believe that one needs to play an RPG
for the plot, and since SH2 cannot be fully appreciated (in terms of
plot) without having played SH, I'll just graze the basics of SH.
First off is the Judgment
Ring (let's just call it the Ring). Basically, in a battle situation
(this is only really seen in battles...it's not a puzzle solving
device like it was in the original SH), when you want to do almost
anything short of defending, setting up a combo, performing a
fusion, or running, you will have to successfully accomplish a turn
of the Ring. A circle will appear on the screen with some colored
areas (in pie wedge shapes) and a small bar (like the hand of a
clock) will swing around the Ring, starting at the top position
(think 12 on a clock), clockwise, until it gets back to the starting
position. Your objective is to hit all of the colored areas (press
the X button when the arm is over a colored area) and to not hit a
blank section (don't press anything at these times). Some
spells/special abilities require you to hit a few set locations on
the Ring before you get to a final section, which will be blue and
will become more blue as the section progresses. If you hit, in
these cases, the darkest areas (which will be a tiny red strip after
the deepest blue section), then the spell will be it's most
powerful. As for standard attacks; there will be one orange area for
each attack you have access to (fighter types can get up to 5
attacks per round), with a small red strip at the end of it. If you
hit orange, then your attack will succeed, and if you hit red your
attack will succeed with some extra power to it. However, if you
miss, your turn will end, but depending on your settings, you will
probably still get off some attacks (in other words, if you have 5
attacks and you hit successfully for the first 3, and then miss the
fourth, your turn will end, but your character will dish out three
attacks). Even items require you to use the Ring, but they are
usually more friendly of rings, depending on how bad-ass the item is
(awesome items have difficult rings). Using the ring for an item can
also (for some items) yield a red strip in the Ring. Hitting the red
for an item will increase it's ability (like squeezing extra juice
out of a healing item, or using a life restoring item to give back a
little more HP to the fallen character).
The Ring can also
be adjusted as you play. These adjustments come by finding
special upgrades. The upgrades can increase the number of attacks
you get with each round (increasing the number of hit regions on the
ring...limited to two additional hits per character), increasing the
size of a hit region, increasing the strike region (that red area
that has a better damage per hit), or adding a status effect to your
hits (including lowering defense, adding status problems like
poison, or causing an enemy to have it's turn delayed). Also, the
nature of the ring can be changed to one of five setups. The setups
include allowing you to miss a hit zone but still continue your
assault (for lowered damage), the standard ring (miss one hit zone
and your attack ends there), a technical ring that will only work if
all hit zones are activated (miss one and all the prior ones fail),
or there's a gamble ring that gives on small hit zone that will
count as hitting all of them if you can hit it (but the speed of the
ring will also be different each time). Also, there is an auto-ring,
but this will give you a weak and limited attack, even for your
fighter types. You can even equip some special accessories
that will slow down the ring to make it easier to hit (but you can
only equip 3 accessories, so you must decide if it's really worth
it).
Lastly, a word on
the Ring. While this may sound like an annoying addition to the
standard RPG battle system, it is actually not nearly as bad as it
sounds. In the end, the Ring adds to the involvement of the player.
Instead of pulling an FF7 in which you just keep pounding the X
button, you have to actually time your button presses, and thus you
have to be involved in the battles. It also makes you feel like you
have a little more control on how well your attacks are received (if
you can keep hitting the red zones, then you feel like you're
actually being rewarded for your patience, and if not...then you
don't).
Speaking of
equipment, SH2 uses the more modern idea of equipment with having
one piece of armor, one weapon, and three accessories per player.
The weapons are all character specific, the armors are usually split
by class type (mages vs. fighters) or gender, and the accessories
are usually usable by all except for a few character specific items
and a few gender specific items (guys can wear a loin guard while
women get an apron). Also, all equipment can be purchased or found
as you play through a dungeon...there is, thankfully, no item
creation bullshit.
The dungeons and
towns are all played in a similar method to a modern 3D RPG, in
which you have a static RE style camera and you simply walk around.
However, the world map is exactly like it was in SH; you have a big
map of either Europe or Japan, and you simply select where you want
to go, from the available selections. This is more limited in
exploration than a game like Tales of Symphonia or other classic
style RPGs (world map full of random encounters that you must walk
around on to find new dungeons or towns), but more enjoyable than
the FFX/Star Ocean 3 method of having a really linear map that looks
like a chunk of a dungeon or town in which you can only go from
point A to point B (with a really rare point C).
Lastly there are
the special abilities and magic. As you play, you will come across
magic crests (crests that represent a deamon's power), that you can
equip on any character that is not able to fuse with a deamon (you
only get one source of deamon power per character). Each crest has
one or two spells associated with it. You are limited to a certain
point value that each character can equip and each crest is valued
at a certain point value (strong crests will cost more points). This
way you must decide carefully which powers are better uses of these
limited points. These point limits go up as you level up. Also,
there is a small mini-game involving the crests that allows you to
upgrade their powers (new spells are added to the old crests), if
you can solve a few thinking puzzles. The spell selection is pretty
standard to an RPG. They include the standard selection of healing,
offensive spells, status altering spells, etc.
Also, each
character has a unique set of special abilities. These are usually
related to the character type. For example, Karin, who is the master
of the rapier, learns special skills to use with her sword, while
Joachim, the vampire wrestler, learns wrestling moves. Yuri,
meanwhile, can gain new fusion deamons as he progresses, and then
upgrade these fusions to have new skills. Each character will have
to undergo a certain trial, find a special item, or use SP (soul
points; you get them after each battle along with your money and
experience) to learn and upgrade their powers. These powers, for the
most part, can do about the same thing as the spells can (heal,
offensive magic, etc), but are usually a little more refined; they
could be more powerful versions of spells, or they may just cost a
lower MP cost to use.
Overall the game
play of SH2 continues the theme of SH flawlessly. So, if you've
enjoyed the game play of SH, then you will find exactly what you
loved from the first game. However, if you never played SH, then,
with the plot being a direct sequel, I'd suggest you try out SH
first (also, it's cheaper, so you can see if you'd like SH2 for a
lower initial cost). Basically, SH2 is the perfect example of why
innovation in RPG should be controlled. There is nothing new, and
not a damned thing to complain about.
Visuals
Everyone says this
is a FFX rip-off...well, if you liked the visual style (not the
setting, but the style of realism) of FFX, then you'd enjoy the
visual style of SH2. However, as I like to say, SH had this same
visual style (and wasn't called a FFX rip off...probably because it
came out before FFX...thus SH2 is not a FFX rip off...think about
it), so if you liked the original, you'd like this.
The visuals use a
good blend of CG styles to make a realistic looking world with a
good level of detail. The people look like they should with some
nice level of detail in the more minute areas, such as hair and
facial expressions. Unfortunately, some facial expressions do look a
bit on the bad side (when you see Yuri start to get weepy-eyed, the
quality of the visuals will go out the window), however the majority
of them are brilliantly done.
Since the basic
theme of this game is a WWI game that involves a good deal of the
occult, the visuals are nicely dark and spooky. The best way to
think about it is what would happen if RE had better visuals (like
how RE4 is looking) and was set in the 1910's. However, when the
setting needs to change, like when you visit an area that hasn't
been damaged by the supernatural or by the war, like the city of
Cannes, the area looks like it should; calm and tranquil, but
obviously touched by civilization.
When you reach certain
areas of the game, higher quality cut-scenes will begin. They
continue the overall visual theme of the game, but with a more
refined level of detail (like how FF7 introduced us to, so many
years ago). The only real issue with these moments that I can find,
and that's only if I want to sound cranky and bitter, is how the
scenes were obviously designed for the Japanese version of the game
(the voiceovers do not match the mouth movements...at all). However,
considering how many games have this same "feature", it is
nothing worth complaining about.
Lastly, the
special effects seen in the battles (via spells or special
abilities) are awe inspiring. The effects are all crisp and clean
looking and match the mood of the ability flawlessly. Especially
this applies to the fusion deamons. Each deamon looks creepy and
terrifying (with the exception of all of the light and the lowest
level dark aligned fusions...who look a little out of place). Just
the look of the fusion being initiated is enough to explain how well
the visuals match the game (to watch as Yuri grabs at his head and
screams in pain as his body is engulfed in an eerie glow and then is
replaced by a hulking deamon...damn!).
So, overall,
unless you want to pointlessly bitch about the poor lip-synch and
the one or two poorly animated facial emotions, the visuals are
top-notch in SH2. The images are highly detailed and refined in
appearance, the effects are wonderful, and the visuals (unlike with
FFX) match the mood of the game. It's WWI and occult, so the visuals
better show that, and they do.
Audio
Ok. I'll start
with the good. The music is great. It's a great blend of different
music styles that relies heavily on techno, but also brings about
some Aribic vocal styles and some interesting chanting sounds.
Unfortunately, it doesn't match the environment too well, in terms
of the setting. However, the music always seems to play out nicely
with the emotions currently being evoked by the game play. It's a
lot like the audio styles of SH, but with some nice evolution in
quality.
The sound effects
are also nicely done. There isn't much to say beyond the fact that
they sound as realistic as you'd ever expect to hear from a PS2
game. Doors creak, the wind blows and whistles, wolves howl, blah,
blah. It's not that this is bad, it's just it's nothing that hasn't
been done before...in other words, it's good and it can't be
described with simple words.
However, there is
one important part that the sounds of SH2 fall apart. That would be
the voice acting. While some of the voice actors are quite skilled
at their trade (like the actor who plays Yuri has some talent, and
Kato is voiced with skill), there are none who really stand out as
Oscar worthy or anything like that. However, while a few voices are
well done, there are about 10 times as many that are horrible. The
voice actors of any character that's old or extremely young is just
bad. The voice actor for Roger Bacon makes me want to gouge my ears
out, the acting for Anastasia is annoying, and the voice acting for
Lucia is some of the worst I had ever heard...until the voice of (as
the party calls him...I can't recall the name of this minor
character) Babyhead was heard...worst voice acting I've heard in a
video game. Luckily the voice acting is not frequent enough to drive
one completely insane, but it makes you wonder how so bad of actors
could have been chosen. Did the casting crew decide that they would
try to make Yuri, Karin, and Kato sound better by surrounding their
voices with the worst voice actors in the industry? That's the only
theory that I can think of for this massive oversight.
So, in the end,
the audio portion of SH2 is great...90% of the time. Once you hit a
cut-scene, you can't help but think, "I hope it's only Yuri,
Karin, and Kato...please...my ears can't take the others
anymore!". The music is great, and the audio effects are also
well done. If only game producers and developers would get the idea
down that there is more to voice acting in a game than finding the
cheapest solution...at the very least, they could also call on
people who voice cartoons and at least get an average performance
(like Tales of Symphonia did), or they could try to hit up Atlus for
some advice (since they've shown plenty of quality can be found with
voice acting in Disgaea).
Conclusion
With some rather
nice visuals and some great audio (even with the many bad voice
actors, the audio is quite refreshing and of high quality, overall),
this game has plenty for the eye-candy loving fanboys. Then, with
the classic style of game play with practically no innovations, SH2
has something for the RPG purists. Plus, with a good number of side
quests and unlockables that are not, in any way, needed to finish
the game, this is great for the collecting loving whores. Plus, with
how easy it is to get into the game, and with how simple and
non-obsessive the game play is for everything from the main quest to
the bonus quests, this game is great for the non-obsessive as well.
When you throw in a great plot that is so unlike anything we see on
a regular basis (and unlike anything that's not Shadow Hearts
related), this is a great RPG for almost all people concerned, as
long as turn based combat and random battles don't turn your
stomach...and if they do, have a ball with Star Ocean 3 and leave us
real RPG geeks alone. So, I'll give this game nothing short of the
wonderful score it deserves; Shadow
Hearts: Covenant deserves nothing less than a 9.25 out of 10
(if the story was a little more focused on the serious elements and
not the humorous parts, and with good voice acting, this would be a
10 all the way). I just suggest you finish SH before starting this
game to get the full experience (plus Shadow Hearts was a brilliant
game on it's own), but it's still a great game even without the
knowledge you'd get from the original.
Malik
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