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THE BEST GAME EVER PLAYED

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game was amazing, the minute I saw the begining movie I was hooked. I have to admit for awhile this was a hard game, I don't think I've ever had to beat so many bosses. But just when I was way into the game it was the last boss battle and the ending. If there was ever a game that I wanted a sequal to it would so be this game but the problem is, from what? Considering there are two endings, which one would they start from? Well let's hope they decide to do that cuz I'm all ready! Buy this game if you haven't already! You will not be sorry if you do!

Great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Shadow Hearts is an interesting game. Rather than taking place in a fantasy setting, like most RPGs, it takes place in a more supernatural version of our own world.
Virtually everything about this game is great. The hero, Yuri, is one my favorite videogame protagonists- interesting, well fleshed-out, and engaging. A lot of the dialogue is hilarious. The plot is interesting and VERY unpredictable, and some of the scnearios create a genuine sense of fear and unease.
The battles are a lot of fun, with the use of the "Judgement Ring" ring system, so that the fights are a test of reflexes as well as strategy.
The only fly in the ointment is the graphics. They're not as bad as some reviews here suggest, by any means, but they are somewhat lackluster. But don't let that stop you from overlooking this great game.

Awesome

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

*Grins* This game is incredibly awesome. I would place this game up there along with FF games. The graphics are as good andthe storyline are just as great. The only different about this game is the fact that the main character is a horny fella, named Yuri. Yes, you heard me. Horny! LOL! There are ocassional testerone drive dialogues in this game so I don't really recommend kids to play this game. Girls are the weaker characters in the games, and yes in some levels you have to play her.

The story goes mostly like, girl in trouble, guy save girl, guy turn demony evil, guy turn back good, and so on. Yuri, the main character has these weird flashbacks that gives him bad migraines.

The only problem I have with this game is the bad, is the clock dial thing. You have to click in the right moment with your controller to get a good power attack. It's tough at first but it gets easier each time.

The Best Game Ever?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: September 21, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Most people haven't heard about this game, but I'm trying to tell as many people as I can. It's good enough to be a rival to Final Fantasy is all I can say. I discovered Shadow Hearts before FFX and, well, I can say that Shadow Haerts is definatly better, in most ways. I like FF too, but who can walk by this great RPG game just to play a popular craze?

WAY BETTER THAN THAT FFX (....)!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: April 30, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is without a doubt one of the best,if not THE best RPG on the PS2.Sadly though it is extremely underrated due to the fact that there are alot of {uninformed} gamers who will buy any peice of ... with "final fantasy" and a roman numeral stamped on it!This game has a great,dark storyline that takes place in an interesting timeline of the 1920's during imperial Japan(bonus for original timeline setting!)The soundtrack is perfect with great music in both old oriental styles and new wave occult(I would personally buy a soundtrack to ShadowHearts rather than the humdrum background "music" to FFX)

As far as the control and gameplay,it is unique but easy to get the hold of with the timeing mastery of the Judgement Ring as opposed to just tapping the same button over and over till the battle is over(for those who are somewhat intimidated by new elements,don't worry!Judgment Ring is easy and there are even items in the game that you can buy to help you if you are really overwhelmed,which of course you won't be!)All of the new elements that have been added to the ff series have bombed plain and simple(refrence 8 and 10)There are also side quests available,but they are much more interesting and nowhere near as tedious as ffX(what was the deal with that blitzball {stuff}?)The side quests of ShadowHearts aren't as necesary as they are in the ff series( quick refrence to ff7 where you HAD to complete a certain side quest to kill one of Sephroith's final forms in one hit!!)

All and all,BUY THIS GAME!You'll have LOTS of fun with it and enjoy something unique as opposed to yet another run of the mill churned out "sequels".Plus,I say ShadowHeart's spy character Margarete is much more of a heroine babe than that naive,dumb as dirt,"oh please save me,I'm so helpless!" twip Yuna from ffX!

Grossly overlooked.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: May 30, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Shadow Hearts is a kind of horror RPG. The storyline is extremely well-written and strange. From it spawns many bloody times and exceptionally odd happenings. If you consider a doll house haunted by a possessed doll who wrote, in blood, on the wall "help me" and "play with me" many times strange, this title certainly fits your definition of the term.

The graphics are nothing spactacular, though when was this ever a major concern of the the hardcore? Battles tend to be a little on the boring side, but the unique judgement ring approach (a spinning stick in a ring that requires timing to execute attacks, magic, and items) keeps things interesting.

This game should be given a chance for at least 7 hours. I found it quite boring in the first 5 but it heated up considerably after this amount of time. So much that I couldn't put the controller down, I was hooked. That right there speaks volumes about a game; any game that has the hooking quality is a winner in my book.

A large part of this hooking was definitely the music. This game has some of the best music that I've ever heard. I actually imported the soundtrack (my only time) because I liked it so much. The second half of the game has the better music, so this also explains my latter enjoyment.

If you want an offbeat storyline complemented by a strange system of battle and off-the-wall monster design, Shadow Hearts is an excellent choice.

Only worth playing for the sequels

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: January 08, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Don't be deceived by the 4-star rating this game inexplicably has on Amazon. Granted, it's not the worst game ever, but it just doesn't compare favorably to most of the other recent games that I've played for the PS2. Once the spectacular (albeit gory) opening cutscene is done, it's all downhill.

First of all, it's clear that this was intended to be a PS1 title originally, so it's not really fair to compare it to what's currently available for the PS2. Therefore, I have to cut them some slack on the choice to go with painted backdrops instead of a 3D rendered environment. Still, they clearly didn't have the talent to make the environments interesting and/or beautiful. It's not so much that I prefer 3D environments; it's just that if you're going to go with backdrops, please, make them well drawn. Shadow Hearts' backdrops don't even compare favorably to most of Square's RPG games for the PS1, let alone stuff that's available for the PS2.

The dialogue is, more often than not, skin-crawlingly bad. They were apparently trying to be campy and anachronistic; however, they didn't take it far enough to make it seem deliberate. You could write it off as bad translation, but the frequent use of modern American idioms makes me think otherwise. Someone at Sacnoth just had really bad taste with language. The main character Yuri goes from man-child timid to tough-guy bravado far too quickly; it's not clever or funny, it's just inconsistent writing. Alice, the pretty young thing and object of everyone's desire (those programmers really, really need to get out more - I mean, just look at her skirt), is drawn paper-thin in terms of character, and everyone else is just there as props. The writers also seem to take great glee in presenting you with as much blood and gore as possible. I'm not sure what the point is. Is it supposed to make the game more "adult" or edgy? It's just icky. There's one section of the game when you're pretty much just walking around on blood-soaked earth (and probably entrails), and the accompanying sound effects are enough to turn your stomach. Yuck!!

The bad guy's name is Roger Bacon. I'm sorry, that's the most ridiculous name for a villain I've ever heard. Yes, I understand there's a historical reason for this, but come on; you're up against a breakfast side-dish. I mean, how threatening is that. "I went to the store today and I picked up some Roger Bacon."

The sub-plots are mostly lame (you have to go through TRIALS to get to the temple - how original), the cut-scenes are long and boring (ask anyone who has played this game about "Shloop... shloop... splat! Skreeeee!"), and most of your time is spent just hoping you can get to somewhere more interesting than where you are. Occasionally there was a well-thought-out plot point that I enjoyed (particularly the parallels between Yuri and his father), but for the most part it's just one dull environment after another.

The plot itself suffers from serious lack of development. It looks like the programmers and writers simply ran out of time, so they wrapped it up as quickly as possible; in fact, they specifically threw in a not-so-subtle self-conscious joke about the fact that they couldn't finish writing the game in time, so they had to cut stuff. Really sad. The end battle and resulting aftermath is so anti-climactic and boring that I ended up feeling like the whole game was a complete waste of my time. That's 40+ hours of my life that I will never get back.

The music is one of the game's few strong suits, with a pretty good number of catchy tunes. But once again, it's wildly inconsistent. It's 1913 and you've got heavy metal blaring in the opening cutscene. Wha huh? The music tends to be fairly inappropriate for a lot of the game, but at least it's entertaining.

Most games that feature turn-based combat (since Final Fantasy VII at least) tend to involve selecting an action, and then you sit there for a good long time while the animation plays out. Not so with Shadow Hearts; you have to do a little thumb-dancing with the Judgment Ring(tm). Overall, I find this to be a plus because it adds a little risk/reward element. You can elect to just go with the safe route, or you can take a risk and go with a more difficult (and more damaging) option. I like it.

The monster and player animation is adequate. Not great. Every once in a while a character does something clever or amusing and I have to chuckle at the animator's sense of humor, but meh. I've seen better. For some reason, something like 75% of the monsters are essentially humans hanging upside down, or with mis-placed limbs or joints. I'm betting that they found it easier to simply move a few limbs around on a standard humanoid 3d-model to create a new monster instead of coming up with something truly original.

For some reason, inventory items are limited in the number of characters for the name, so you get really stupid and meaningless item names like "V-blade-Blodauth." Wha?

The use of emoticons is reasonably clever, but it seems to me that it was mainly implemented for the purpose of cutting down the number of animations or movements that they needed to code. It doesn't really add much, and sometimes it's a little puzzling; like, just what is that icon that looks like a teardrop?

To sum up, if you do get this game, you'll probably have a good time, but you'll have to laugh at some of the ridiculous cliches and other absurdities. Overall, I give this game 2 stars as it isn't ENTIRELY horrible, but it's just not quite developed enough to be what I would call "average." I would only recommend playing through this game if you intend to also play the sequels, which are markedly better in production quality and more deliberate with their use of camp and anachronism.

Excellent RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: June 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Wonderful game - addictive and immersive. Lots of twists and turns, great characters, fun all around. Turn-based combat with a twist. The story is excellent; if you liked a great dark fantasy tale, this is the game for you!

A Cool Game.........;-)

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: August 27, 2002
Author: Amazon User

If your a gamer or a RPGamer, your going to like it. The frist time I played it, I never put it down until it was finished . I just couldn't seem to stop. All I can say is "try it you'll like it". I am a Final Fantasy fan.......it was a change. But very good

ONE OF THE BEST RPG GAMES EVER!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: September 30, 2002
Author: Amazon User

In my own opinion, I think Shadow Hearts is one of the best RPG games there is. I love the battle system and the storyline. The FMVs will take your breath away. Shadow Hearts is definately my favorite PS2 game. I suggest that you give it a whirl. It's worth the money. I have never seen a better game like this, and if there is I would like to try out that game. It's better than FFX even though FFX's graphics are better. So uh... buy this game and you won't regret that you did!

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