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"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.

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.

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.

Beautiful...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game, though it starts a little slow, gets better and better by the minute. The interactive battle system, using rings that spin around and around, is a fun addition to this RPG. It draws you slowly into the new Battle System so that it is not hard to get used to. There are also ways to slow the rings and create more opportunities to attack. Enjoyable game with beautiful graphics (mostly the movie modes but still good during gameplay) and even better music with a blend of a Native American style and old western with a modern rock influence. All in all, a great installment of the Shadow Hearts series and a great addition to any RPG collection.

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.

Lmao just about the whole way through.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: August 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Right from the beginning this game is filled with wacky, crazy, just complete out of this world humor. As for that are like omg the gay biker merchant just hit on my 16 your old (who isn't really 16 btw.. but you'll find that out later if you actually play it long enough :P ) isn't funny then maybe you need to lighten up and go out and get a sense of humor. This game has everything from crazy super hero ninjas, talking drunken master cats, sushi gone wild, transforming vampire that has to watch her diet, native American gunslinger and spirit summoner (basically) team that fights off evil demons. Who all get throw together to fight a evil being and her serial killer boyfriend followed by a evil scientist to stop them from destroy the world. Sure some of the stuff is retarded, but hey how often do you get to play a RPG full of wacky humor? The story is actually really good and at the end I was really happy I played this game. I would say it's one of the best RPGs lately to come out for the PS2. The combat system is pretty cool Judgment ring that you can use to link combos and special attacks through. Example is I really like to do Double combos and it's where I'll build so much (TP basically) that I'll link every character together with double attacks. It's really in-depth how you have to use the attacks to watch where they land (ground, middle, or in the air) to match the next attack. I really liked this battle system and the fusion abilities to change into powerful beings were really amazing too. Best combo to date was a 132 hit combo for 5000 ish damage. Did that on a special boss fight ;) not saying any names. It has tons of side quests in this game not as many as say FFX, but a lot. In all beating this game and collecting everything it's about 50 hours of play. A lot of RPGs in the past I've been disappointed with one way or another, but truly this was a wonderful game and only reason I'm even giving it 4 stars is just because this is the 3rd part of a series and part was actually the best one. Though I think this one comes in second.

Key points
1) Very nice battle system
2) Really really funny storyline that has a seriousness to it when it needs to be
3) Nice slightly better then average graphics
4) Has a wonderful soundtrack and voice acting was really good
5) Lots of side quests
6) Game play never seemed to get boring actually played this pretty much none stop since the first day and very few RPGs keep me that in grossed.

Check it out a RPG that won't disappoint.

Quirky and interesting

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: July 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Shadow Hearts: From the New World continues a rather interesting series. While not quite living up to expectations formed by the previous installation in the series, Covenant, which I thoroughly enjoyed, FtNW was an entertaining romp. Gameplay mechanics were fine, and I found the judgment ring mechanics to be acceptable, even though I don't in general enjoy games which require an inordinate amount of twitching.

The Good: As usual, fascinating environments, side quests which flesh out the characters, quirky humor (canon does not include too many, or any, obese vampires). Although the main story is not directly continuous with SH 1 & 2, many trademarks of the series persist such as the shopkeepers, Roger Bacon and the Valentine family lending a pleasurable sense of familiarity.

The Not So Good: For some reason, I didn't seem to care as much for Johnny and his clique as I did for Yuri. The lead characters' personalities were relatively flat compared to their predecessors'. This installation also lacks the depth which the other two had primarily because it didn't appear to track momentous historical events the same way. In some way, it didn't feel as if it was as firmly embedded in its reality. Finally, the additional characters lacked, well, character. Frank and Mao were comic relief and Ricardo's personality seemed pretty cliched. This was somewhat true of the previous games, for example Lucia from Shadow Hearts Covenant seemed to be little more than a pretty picture stretched over a skeleton of a plot device.

Conclusion: All in all, an enjoyable romp. It lacks, however, the draw which made Covenant, in my view, a hit.

good game overall and something I think for everyone

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: November 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Shadow Hearts 3 from the new world is a good game. The battle system is unique, it you have played the other 2 shadow hearts games then you would know of the judgment ring system, if you don't then you will just have to take my word that it adds a fresh spin on turn based battle systems and keeps you on your toes. The music is beautiful and addictive; the graphics are so so for a game coming out this late in the evolution of the PS2. Maybe 1-3 hours of learning curve to get the play down. Characters are original and very unique and entertaining. Not as good as final fantasy of course but a good solid RPG I think anyone would enjoy so long as you are open to the battle system.

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.

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