#107: Shadow Hearts Covenant

Shadow Hearts Covenant

Nautilus
Initial release: February 19, 2004 (Japan)
Platform: Playstation 2
Alternate title: Shadow Hearts II (Japan)

images c/o Mobygames

Usually, when a game development studio, especially a smaller one like Sacnoth, gets bought up by a larger entity, it doesn't spell good news for their IPs. But sometimes companies — and players — get lucky. Sacnoth originally got funding from one-time arcade giant SNK; by the turn of the millennium, however, SNK wasn't doing so hot, and Aruze bought them up. Between 2000, the year of the SNK acquisition, and 2002, when Aruze bought Sacnoth, Sacnoth had put out Shadow Hearts, which had done pretty well. Someone at Aruze saw potential in Sacnoth, and despite Sacnoth undergoing a name change into Nautilus, they got the greenlight for a Shadow Hearts follow-up. And thank goodness.

Make no mistake: Shadow Hearts II, known as Shadow Hearts Covenant in the United States (an improvement in my opinion) is an enormous step forward for the franchise. Everything has been improved, overhauled, and spit-shined. Gone are the PlayStation-1-esque CG backgrounds and relative lack of voice acting; the presentation has finally come into its own. The first thing you'll notice is how much better the FMVs are — what a difference three years make! The environments are appropriately lush for a mid-00s PlayStation 2 game, and while the camera can't really be controlled, it does move about cleverly as you traverse the game world. And while the original Shadow Hearts soundtrack was great, the sequel's music is even better; what's more is that there is a lot more voice acting, with good use of in-engine cutscenes to convey major story moments. The battle scenes, long something of an afterthought in the genre, are just as good looking.

Speaking of battle, combat has been overhauled significantly. The Judgment Ring is still here, but now units move about the playing field as they rush to attack, and attacks can be chosen based on what direction they knock back an enemy, adding a strategic element that feels like an iteration on the ould Koudelka combat model. For example, which spell you want to use may differ depending on whether enemies are lined up relative to the caster, or they may be bunched up making a circular spell more viable. It's fairly chaotic, and there's no real control over who goes where, unlike Koudelka's more predictable grid system, making for a more dynamic combat flow. The Judgment Ring has been so refined that it's almost completely different from the original. You now can customize your Ring to your liking with several options to choose from, and equippable items allow you to increase the size of the hit and strike zones. It's also much more forgiving in terms of timing.

Also new is that parties now include a fourthth character slot, and swapping characters is now doable on the go. For the most part, you don't even need to use the main characters — you can fill the party with the secondary cast if you prefer, which is a bit of a novelty after years of being unable to ditch the main character in jRPGs. Speaking of which, Yuri returns, alongside a young female German officer originally sent to kill him, an elderly puppeteer with a living doll, a white wolf that Yuri can communicate with, a fortune-telling dancer, a body-building pro wrestler vampire who uses whatever he can get his hands on as a weapon, and a samurai with powers similar to Yuri. And Princess Anastasia. If you're looking for historical accuracy, this ain't it chief. Despite being set in early 1915, World War One is largely in the background as the plot focuses mostly on a secret society led by Rasputin looking to finish what Albert Simon, the villain of the first game, started.

In a curious twist, though not that unusual given that Koudelka did something similar, the canon ending of the first Shadow Hearts is actually the bad one, where Alice (the cute mage girl) dies. Much of Yuri's character development is him coming to terms with his grief. But in spite of such a somber theme, this game is goofy as shit. Much of the original creepy, cosmic horror vibe of the original game is gone; while it still has its creepy moments, the game is much more campy and fun, and that extends to the much more forgiving gameplay. And let's be real here: when you're playing a 50-hour RPG, it really helps to throw in a lot of clever humor to keep the player engaged. I like grimdark shit as much as the next edgy weirdo, but I like to laugh too, you know?

There's a reason Shadow Hearts is a cult classic franchise, and it's this game. While Sacnoth was founded on principles of bringing fresh ideas to the jRPG genre, Shadow Hearts Covenant really goes above and beyond in upending a lot of the thinking on what jRPGs should be like. It's the kind of title that we'd call “disruptive” now, and a lot of its ideas can be seen in later titles. While it could never compete with the likes of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, this franchise is still a cult classic that really deserves the remaster treatment.

-june❤