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Fun, Creative, and Just A Little Bit Wacky

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 20 / 22
Date: March 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

First off: this is a new game in the series. New locations and characters. You can jump right on in without playing any previous titles (although, Shadow Hearts is a fabulous series, I highly recommend all of them).

For veteran players, the game feels so much like Covenant that there is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to the new battle mechanics. All the old features are there: combos, collecting magical items (to cast battle spells), the judgement ring, SP, MP, and HP. However, you now need to collect "stock" by either giving or taking damage. You must have stock in order to do combos, or the new feature of "doubles." With a double, you can do any two actions in one turn - just as long as they are not the same.

The story line revolves around malice and some evil/shady characters trying to release it into the world. Your job is to stop them. Along the way, you'll visit North and South America, and learn revelations about your playable characters. The characters in this title are a trip. A boy detective, Native American Princess, Native American Warrior (using two pistols and "GUN-FU," A perky little drama club vampire, Brazilian trained ninja with collects odd weapons, a mariachi, and last, but not least, a giant drunken cat.

If you're in the mood for a quirky, highly imaginitive, and fun turn-based RPG, look no further (but notice the other titles in the series) than this one.

great game and fresh

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: March 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

8.5/10 Overall a great great fresh RPG

Story-6
Don't get me wrong the game has a good story. It's just that the fact that the first half of the game is practaclly all "o we have to go there and o what a surpise a big demon." and is filled with too many comedy moments. Tho later on the story acully picks up and you finally can't stop playing cause you wanna know what will happen next. Only thing i'd like to see is a much darker more involed story like shadow heart 1 or 2

Gameplay-10
Well this game is done really well, so well i think it is the best battle system. It's a kinda Cross between Chrono Cross and Legend of dragoon and then some. Plus has tutorail which tell you tons about how to usa the system so newcomers can play. The final thing i'd like to add about the battle system is the customabilty of it e.g. you can alter the Jugment Rings target area makeing it harder to get perfect but the DMG will increase rather than explain the jugment ring you should visit the offcail Shadow heart website and it's all explained there.

Also each demon filled lair you have to go to is a perfect size and puzzle arn't too big or too small.

On a final note the diffculty of this game is average which is a relief as Shadow hearts 2 was as far too easy.

Charaters-8
Tho i'm not too keen on the comedy charaters some pple are and this game has 3/4 of them but at least there origanal and have a lot of background to them. As for the serious charaters there done really well and it's also nice to see that the main charater isn't given the cool guy look like other main stream RPGs.

Summary-8
Tho not as good as Shadow heart 1 or 2 the game is at least different and the battle system i'd say saves it as evertime you battle you don't just go attack X 10 o i got a fire ring. you have to plan ahead organize a combo and prepare for the monsters next move. If this game had Shadow hearts 1 grade of charaters and Shadow hearts 1/2 grade of story this game would esstailly be perfect.

Kept it real

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 13
Date: March 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Theres no need for a long review of this game. I loved Convenant, but considerin money's tight I was gonna pass this one up. In the end I gave in to my temptation. Thank God. This game reminded me why I love the SH series so much. Theres some small changes, but I assure you if you liked the rest, you'll love this one too.

Al Capone doesn't belong in a video game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 20
Date: March 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'm docking off two stars for this game because for all the long speel that is given to us in the begining about,"these are
all fictional characters and bare no resemblance to actual people",we are teamed up with Al Capone.But that's not all,he is portrayed to be a good guy!lol

For a game that features a giant stupid talking cat,I'm not sure why the need for realisim by adding Al Capone was done. Especially in such an incorrect light.His profile reads"He is popular with civilians because he leaves them alone."That's a load of bull.If you interviewed anyone who lived in Chicago during that era,they would all tell you that they were not happy under Capone's rule.Also many innocent civilians were killed by his gangs.So what exactly is this game company trying to pull?

The gameplay was fun,and I enjoy this series.But helping Al Capone break out of jail just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Game developers,please stick to fiction.But if you ARE going to involve real characters,then portray them correctly.

Missed Potential

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: April 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Actually a more accurate score would be three and a half stars. While not by any means a bad game, I can't help but mourn over the potential that was wasted in Shadow Hearts: From the New World. Set in 1929 on the cusp of the great depression and in the midst of mafia turf wars, From the New World showed glimpses of what it wanted to be but sadly never quite made it. The game play is excellent with a revamped and customizable judgment ring and the ability to once again perform combos with your teammates. The scenery and locations are beautiful and well done and the character models are impressive. But beneath all of the glossy pictures is a story that while not mediocre somehow doesn't make it to great.

Approaching it from a stand alone point of view I was interested to see more of the Shadow Hearts world and its various inhabitants and what better way to do that than with an eclectic party with members ranging form a Brazilian ninja to a teenage vampire? Unfortunately between poor pacing and even poorer characterization I never got too attached to any of my party members. I really wanted to like them, I especially wanted to like Johnny, but none of them exhibited a strong enough personality to allow me to care for them.

The story with the recurrent Shadow Heart themes of malice and human ambition had the potential to be phenomenal, instead it lags at some parts and feels rushed at others. Characters randomly meet and join up for no good reason and interesting plot points are brought up and then never mentioned again. I can't help but to think of how much better the story would have been if just a little more time was taken to fill in some of the holes. Don't get me wrong. In spite of my complaints I still feel that it's a very solid game, however it had the potential to be something great and instead settled for something less.

Not as good as Covenant

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 15 / 18
Date: April 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Covenant set a breakthrough for the Shadow Hearts series with solid gameplay, interesting characters, improved battle system and interesting sidequests with an extended and interesting story from the first game. In Shadow Hearts 3, none of these were back and it just turned the series into a blend and sometimes annoying game.

The main characters are not likable right from the beginning. Johnny, a sixteen year old private detective who happens to be for God's sake amnesia. The character design is exacltly the same as the character in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Final Fantasy XII. Shania just lack the death of Kirin in Covenant and not to mention all the other characters who joined the team randomly. The story is scattered all over the place to fit into the world of randomness of the characters. Seriously the most interesting characters in the game are Lady and Killer. The giant cat Mao is annoying, the Ninja is easily the most hateable character competing with Hilda the vampire. The seriously lack of depth for the characters already killed half of the game, not to mention the lack of substance in the story. In Covenant, the side quests naturally blends into the story as they were mentioned here and there even before they were opened up for you to tackle them. In 3, they were just there for the sake of being there. Nothing interesting and nothing exciting, and Johnny's sidequest is just damn annoying, comparable to Kurando's sidequest in Covenant.

The battle system is greatly improved in a way that you need to be more strategic than just go all out and whack. But when your enemies also took advantage of the system, it could leave you breaking the controller into two with tears, and prepare for that in Johnny's sidequest. The battle system is very interesting and strategic with customisable rings, double-attack, combos etc. There are more gauges and stats you need to pay attention to during the battle. It could definitely satisfy players who want to have more interactive and intuitively strategic battle system. However, Shania has less fusion forms compared to Yuri and her fusion for most of the time look like porns - from tatoos on various parts of her body, including all the private parts. These tatoos light up and there will be a close up on them. It is very disappointing that From the New World needs to use that kind of tactic to attract players. For all other characters, most of their moves are mediocre though Hilda the vampire's certain moves could be lifesaving in important and difficult battles.

In all Shadow Hearts 3 is a game that you can play if you are free and once finished, there is nothing interesting to revisit it in the future. Unlike Covenant, it is not a game that you can get yourself addicted to and replay it again and again.

To Short to be a Shadow Hearts

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: May 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Okay, I heard about this game a while ago and finally it came out. Poor me I had to wait I thought. I loved the previous two shadow hearts. The first is my favorite because it was a slightly more conventional RPG. I like the darker feeling of it. This one however was very short. It had a ridiculas number of side quests for how short it was. The story was a tad bit choppy at time. Though the battle system has been enhanced a little more. The combo system is nicer now because all the charaters can pull of two moves at once. The charaters on their own can now pull a duble which can get one out jams. Though the enemy cna also pull the same stunts. Though over all it would have been much better if they had taken longer to creat it and put more time into developing a better story that would develop a little more through out. Though it is deffinitly worth a play through.

A different spin on the wonderful series

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: May 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Everyone seems to have problems with this game, comparing to the other sequal and all. Well first it's not really a continuetion of the story, it's a like a whole new one so of course it's not going to be as dark as the other one was. I thought this game was an excellent roleplaying game and I loved it because it had everything a video game needed. Yeah, some of it was a little dragged out but hey, what video game doesn't drag their plot out? This game follows a whole new character very different from Yuri, though to make up for that they put a hot female into the mix who is barely dressed and who is able to transform into spirits. And yes a couple of old characters make their apperance, like Roger Bacon the deformed creature thingie and the very gay motorcycle dudes. And I personally love the talking cat because Meo is very sassy. The basic storyline is follow is that your this 15 year old kid name johnny garlic, who is also a detective. Then suddenly everything changes when you meet up with Shania, a beautiful girl who is able to transform much like Yuri did. They team up and try to stop Killer and Lady from releasing on malice, which is evil spirits. And along the way Johnny's power grows stronger and there is something very mysterious about this boy that everyone sees. The game made me wanting to never shut off my ps2. And yes, at first I was disappointed to find it out it didn't have all the same characters in it but all you got to do is enjoy this game for what it is, accept it flaws and don't compare it with it's other sequals. If you enjoy a roleplaying game that takes you on a great adventure, at least rent this one. People give it bad reviews but really, I love it for it's wackyness. And buy the gaming guide! Or it will take you forever to figure out the puzzles.

Not a good start for a sort of new company

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 18
Date: June 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The game lost me at the leather biker couple who hit on your sixteen year old hero. Some of the absolute worst sterotyping and poor judgement by a game studio EVER.

Thats ten minutes into the game.

The first release by the former Squarenix USA had utterly failed me in less time than it took to get comfy on the couch. Thats a record, folks. Now, to be fair, I figured; 'the last Shawdohearts game was good, and the combat system is interesting... Lets give it another shot'. It DOES get better, but ultimately never rises above its inauspicious beginning.

The 'wheel of destiny' combat system is still fun, and makes the now-older-than-dirt random encounters experience more than boring, but ultimately fails to deliver what I like to call the 'didnt waste forty eight bucks goods'. This game is sort of 'meh' from beginning to near the end, where I sort of gave up on the whole mess and took it in for trade.

A seriously abused and overworked storyline and characters that seem like they were added just for the weird factor dont help.

If you're gonna spend fifty bucks on a PS2 roleplaying game, check out Dragon Quest 8 or Final Fantasy 12. If you've already gotten through those, check out Radiata Stories or Magna Carta. Or check out 'The Shadowhearts Covenant', the last installment in the Shadowheart series. Its far superior to this trainwreck.

"Don't Mess With New Yorkers!"

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 21 / 24
Date: June 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Normally, I would consider any year that promised a squel to Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy a banner year. But for some reason, 2006 has seen enough new fantasy games that I'm actually behind on playing them, something that hasn't happened since I first acquired my PS2. This may be the year of the new high-powered game consoles, but Sony developers certainly haven't forgotten their old reliable platform, this new Shadow Hearts sequel is exceptional, and it looks like there's more to come.

Xseed games has decided to start a new story on the Shadow Hearts model, set a few years after the great release of malice in Shadow Hearts 2. The main character is Johnny Garland an orphaned 16-year-old who has set up a detective agency in New York City. His big cases are still finding lost cats, but weird Professor Gilbert from Arkham University asks Johnny to help find a missing criminal and, in short order, Johnny finds himself plunged into a fight with evil monsters. The beautiful shapeshifter Shania comes to his rescue and soon he has assembled a team of unusual characters, including a martial arts cat and a musician with a loaded guitar.

As in earlier games, character relationships are an important part of the quality of the game. Johnny's attraction to Shania is kept low key, and is balanced against that of the mysterious Lady and the psychotic Killer. In Shadow Hearts, heroes don't beat their chests. Instead they struggle with internal conflicts every bit as important as their battles in the game world.

Play is still turn based using the Judgment Ring and various player strike combinations. I have mixed feeling about this scheme. It works well, but it's complexities introduce a level of thumb dancing that is sometimes a bit beyond my limited reflexes. You have the opportunity to mix magic, medicine and muscle in complex and devastating attacks. My real criticism is that there aren't enough monster (or human) types, so the longer missions can get on your nerves. Dungeons characteristically only have three to four different monsters plus the boss. A dozen more varieties would have made the end game a bit more interesting.

From the New World has more sidequests than most games have game. Everything from quizzes to the attack of the sushi warriors. There are lots of ways to get neat accessories and level up. To the point that you can over level up and sail through the ending a little two quickly for my tastes. In fact, the endings (there are two) are the weakest part of the story. Suddenly things are over and it's time to save a cleared game and start all over again. But you've had 80 hours of fun on the way, and that's nothing to complain about.

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