Collection essentials #493-#495: Shadow Hearts trilogy (PS2)

Here’s a series of PS2 JRPGs by little-known, long-defunct company Sacnoth, which had been formed from former Square employees. Their first game was a PS1 RPG called Koudelka, one that I used to own, but I didn’t care for it too much. Shadow Hearts was a follow-up to Koudelka, very different and not requiring players to have experienced it beforehand, but with plenty of connections to please fans of it. These games are based in a fictionalized version of the real world from the early 20th century, with supernatural elements like real magic and fantasy creatures. 

Shadow Hearts games for the most part play like a normal JRPG, but as you’d probably hope, there are things that help it stand out. The biggest and most obvious is the “Judgement Ring” that you’ll constantly be using to execute actions. When performing an attack in battle, as well as certain actions outside of battle, a disc-like object appears on the screen. A sweeping line appears across half the disc starting in the center, and moves across the entire thing, and the player must hit the X button with proper timing as it passes one or more cone-shaped zones highlighted in the circle. Sometimes there is a small section on the edge of these cones that is difficult and risky to hit, but actions will be more effective if the player manages to hit them. Another thing to deal with is “sanity points” which must be managed in battle. A character’s sanity will drain over the course of the fight, and if you don’t do something to make it increase and they lose all of it, they will go berserk and perform random actions.

The first Shadow Hearts game puts you in control of Yuri Hyuga, a rude and self-interested individual who is thrust into protecting a mysterious girl named Alice by a voice that gives him headaches. The game takes place in Europe and Asia, and I’m not sure it’d be right to call it a horror game, but it has a rather dark and grim vibe expressed through the music, graphics, themes and characters. 

The second game was originally called Shadow Hearts II, but for some reason they decided to change the name to Shadow Hearts: Covenant for the English release but left the title screen with the original title. This game also features Yuri and is a direct sequel to the “bad ending” of the first game. Despite being a direct sequel and featuring many gameplay elements from the previous game, Covenant feels very different. The dark and grim vibe is gone, as everything about the game’s style is a little more colorful and upbeat. Not only that, but nearly all the characters from the previous game are absent, and Yuri finds an entirely new group of friends to accompany him. The game’s cutscenes often feature voice acting this time around, which was not the case before. The story this time involves an evil group called Sapientes Gladio which places a curse on Yuri early in the game, prompting him to seek out a way to lift the curse and to take down Sapientes Gladio. 

In terms of gameplay, Covenant has a lot of welcome additions and refinement to that of the original. For example, it makes positioning in battle important for aiming your spells, and there are ways to customize and improve your judgement rings. 

The third game, Shadow Hearts: From the New World, takes place in the Americas, and it only maintains small connections to the previous games. None of the previous playable characters are featured in the main cast this time, as you now play as a teenage boy named Johnny Garland who runs a detective agency in New York City. The cast is a bit whacky, with characters such as an anthropomorphic cat who fights with Drunken Fist techniques and a vampire girl who has various forms featuring different personalities. 

The story this time starts with Johnny being given a job that has him run into a huge monster that he is saved from by a Native American woman with special powers. The two of them set out to pursue the man who set up Johnny for that encounter. They also discover an extremely powerful and evil woman named Lady whom they must stop.

From the New World enhances gameplay further by introducing the “stock gauge”. This is a meter that fills up automatically as your characters fight. There are a few ways you can spend your stock gauge, such as attacking twice in succession or starting a combo so that a different character can take an action immediately. The really cool thing about the stock gauge system, in my opinion, is that your enemies have a stock gauge too! And they will totally use it to their advantage to dish out strong strings of attacks on you if left unchecked. There are ways you can reduce the enemy’s stock gauge. This system adds a lot of strategy to even regular battles, which I love. This also fixes the main problem I had with the first two games, which was that they were too darn easy. The stock gauge gives enemies the tools they need to actually pose a threat and engage the player.

These games are fairly linear like most JRPGs, but all three of them feature a lot of optional stuff to find and plenty of sidequests for those who like to be thorough. They also feature two endings each. They are technically short-to-average in terms of relative JRPG length, but you can sink your teeth into them and get a good amount of play time if you’re interested enough to see everything they have to offer.

As for my own history with these games, the first I heard of them was actually from advertising. I remember seeing banner ads for Shadow Hearts: Covenant on Gamefaqs regularly back in the day. The ads didn’t do a very good job, though, explaining what the game even was, not saying or suggesting that it was a JRPG (and the back of the box doesn’t either), so I didn’t really pay it much mind. I can’t remember what exactly turned my attention to the series a few years later, but I did eventually catch wind that these games were in fact cool and unique JRPGs, and so I made the effort to track them down at local GameStop stores. I played through all three of these games in the year 2010…gosh that was quite a while ago now.

I think most people would pick Covenant as their favorite of these three games. However, I personally like From the New World the most. Each game has its own strengths. I’d say Covenant has the best story, FtNW has the best gameplay, while the first game has its own vibe that helps it stand out. These games are a nice example of what I’d consider the “golden age of JRPGs” where mainstream consoles were pumping them out with regularity and offering a very nice variety. You don’t see very many games like the Shadow Hearts trilogy anymore, which is a shame. Sadly, these games have not been properly rereleased, so you’ll need to play the original PS2 versions in modern times. If you like JRPGs and are willing to go through the trouble, I’m sure you’ll find these games are worth it. I feel like I’m leaving out an awful lot that can be said about them and I worry I’m not really doing them justice, but it’s been ages since I’ve played these games for myself and I’m trying to keep these posts relatively brief anyway. These three games are great PS2 exclusives and worthy essentials in my collection.