Heart of Darkness

I’d gotten into the habit of checking under ‘S’ in the PS2 section in CEX on an almost religious basis for one particular game, which I fully believe to be the greatest RPG ever made. Sure I could have got it on eBay — but where’s the fun in that? So imagine my excitement when I did my routine check and there between Shadow of the Colossus and Shadow the Hedgehog, staring right back at me was a mint copy of Shadow Hearts.

Shadow Hearts is a work of staggering genius. Don’t get me wrong it’s essentially a traditional turn based Japanese RPG, but its subtle gameplay embellishments like the ‘judgement wheel’ really make it shine. Each attack, in fact almost every action you have to perform, is tested by this wheel that pops up challenging you to hit various segments. The more difficult the action the smaller the segments and the faster the wheel spins, which adds a welcome level of interaction and chance to battles. Equally most of the power ups in the game effect the wheel in some way. One makes the wheel invisible but triples the power of the attack, another turns the entire wheel a hit-able segment, and yet another makes the wheel spin three times around allowing nine attacks (the really cool thing is that these power ups can stack, leading to a super-epic powerful attack that’s oh so satisfying to pull off). While so many RPGs just give you a stat bonus when you use special items, Shadow Hearts actually plays with the central mechanic in a really simple yet engaging way. Incidentally many of the former members of developer Sacnoth/Nautilus later formed Feelplus, which co-developed the amazing Lost Odyssey on Xbox 360, which is my favourite next gen RPG, and implemented a similar touch to its battles in the form of the game’s ‘battle wheel’.

But gameplay aside, what’s especially wonderful about Shadow Hearts is its incredible story and darkly foreboding, Lovecraftian atmosphere. Set in 1913 before the outbreak of WWI, Japanese troops are transporting Alice, the kidnapped daughter of a priest murdered in Rouen, on the trans-Siberian express through occupied Manchuria. She is being sought out not only by the Japanese government but by Roger Bacon, an English gentleman warlock, and an insane Chinese sorcerer who plots to destroy Japan by luring God down to the Earth. Protagonist Yuri, whose tormented inner demons make Cloud Strife seem positively happy-go-lucky, is joined by a host of memorable characters including Margarete Gertude Zelle, an elite spy tasked with sabotaging the Japanese occupation of Fengtian; Master Liu Zhuzhen, a Chinese mystic who helps you to end the curse in the village of Zhaoyang (like most aspects of the game based on actual Chinese folk lore); and a bored vampire named Keith Valentine, who wants to see the world.

As this very brief synopsis suggests the liberties this game takes with history are utterly staggering and no less so in its excellent sequel, Shadow Hearts: Covenent, which sees you take on the role of a beautiful Nazi officer who unleashes a great evil into the world by opening a sealed room in the Vatican! With so many RPGs taking place in a complete fantasy world it’s both refreshing and captivating to see one muck around with real historical events with such brilliantly creative flare. If you like RPGs and innovative storytelling and this has passed you by (it was unfortunate enough to be released a week before the massively popular and superb Final Fantasy X), then I urge you to seek out a copy of Shadow Hearts. You won’t be disappointed.