Shadow Hearts
| Shadow Hearts | |
|---|---|
| Original title | シ ャ ド ウ ハ ー ツ |
| transcription | Shadō Hātsu |
| developer | Sacnoth |
| Publisher |
Aruze (Japan) Midway Games , Xseed Games (North America) Midway Games, Ghostlight (Europe) |
| First title | Koudelka (1999) |
| Last title | Shadow Hearts: From the New World (2005) |
| Platform (s) | PlayStation , PlayStation 2 |
| Genre (s) | Computer role playing game |
In Shadow Hearts ( Japanese シャドウハーツ , Shado Hatsu ) is a series of computer games . The series was developed by Sacnoth and distributed by Aruze in Japan and Midway Games in North America and Europe.
Only Shadow Hearts: From the New World was distributed by Xseed Games in North America and Ghostlight in Europe.
Game elements
The three Shadow Hearts games are all turn-based RPGs that come with two special elements:
Judgment ring
In almost every fight and smaller game, the player is confronted with the "ring of judgment". This ring appears in combat when the player has selected an action to take. Similar to a radar monitor , a line travels clockwise over several surfaces. The areas represent the following number of beats; four areas = four hits, the player adds four hits to the opponent. Each area has a red and a yellow part, the rule here is that if you hit the red area, this is rated as "perfect", but you are not allowed to hit the following yellow part, as the combat action then breaks off and you just do can take the first shot. It is important to hit the surfaces once; if you haven't hit the red part, you can hit the larger yellow part. Depending on the setting, the areas are separated by gaps that are not allowed to be met. For example, if you didn't hit the first surface at all, you land on an empty surface in the transition and the attack was unsuccessful. Opponents can assign negative status effects (ring abnormalities) to you, so that the ring also starts counterclockwise or the surfaces are invisible. The ring areas can also be enlarged in the course of the game so that red parts could be hit with certainty. For smaller games, however, the rings are always preset and cannot be changed.
Some players complained after the initial Shadow Hearts that the judgment ring made the game too difficult. One responded to this with an optional exhibition of the judgment ring for the following two parts, although critical blows and other special effects are dispensed with in order to compensate for the degree of difficulty.
Points of reason
Reason points or "Sanity Points" ( SP for short ) are added to the life and mana display. With each fight, the VP points decrease as a representation of the intimidation of the gruesome-looking creatures. When the SP bar drops to zero, the playable character goes crazy and is no longer playable in this state because he randomly hits around; group members can also be met.
Valentine family
The Valentine family appears with at least one family member as a playable character in each part. The family members are vampires, but not stereotypical, as they have blonde hair and blue eyes and also have light skin, and have no problems with enduring typical vampire weaknesses such as sunlight.
Games of the series
Koudelka
Koudelka was released for PlayStation in Japan in 1999, and finally for North America and the PAL region in 2000 . Koudelka is considered to be the technical predecessor of Shadow Hearts , although the connection is not as strong as in the following games that have Shadow Hearts as their title.
Shadow Hearts
The plot of the game Shadow Hearts , for PlayStation 2 , takes place in the same game universe 15 years after the events of Koudelka , in 1913. On the Trans-Siberian Railway in Manchuria , the protagonist of the game Yuri Volte Hyuga hears a voice telling him he should rescue the young Alice Elliot , who had lost her father, who was a priest, brutally murdered in Rouen , France . After an English philosopher by the name of Roger Bacon tries to kidnap Alice from the Imperial Japanese Army himself on the train, Yuri saves her and the game begins in China and continues the story to Europe ; in search of Alice's destiny, Bacon's intent, the identity of the mysterious voice and Yuri's relevance in the game.
Shadow Hearts: Covenant
With Shadow Hearts: Covenant (also sometimes referred to as Shadow Hearts II ) the story continues based on the bad ending of the predecessor. This game has two DVD-ROMs and a playing time of 40 hours, according to the distributor.
The village of Domremy resisted during World War I due to a demon in the German army . Lieutenant Karin König (also Karin Koenig ) of the German army , was sent to the village with another person Nicolai Conrad , an inquisitor of the Vatican City who is supposed to exorcise the demon. The demon turns out to be Yuri from Shadow Hearts . In the course of the game you immerse yourself in secret conspiracy theories, meet Nicholas II and his family, the Japanese foreign minister, find the mystical tome from Koudelka and more.
This part is based on the predecessor and is a revised version of it. From the judgment ring to the graphics there is orientation, but above all technical improvements.
Shadow Hearts: From the New World
The game begins in North America in 1929 and has two new main characters: Johnny Garland (16, from New York City ) and the Indian Shania . Shania can transform, similar to Yuri from the previous parts, but she cannot suck in souls. To get new transformations, she makes pacts with spirits.
The game is often viewed as an offshoot as it tells a new story but has some connections to the parts already released. So you meet characters such as Roger Bacon , Lenny Curtis, Joachim Valentine and Keith Valentine (as silver bat [and Silver Bat ] known) and important events of Shadow Hearts: Covenant , such as the release of malice by Nicolai (Nicholas) Conrad, are mentioned.