Shadow Hearts - PS2 Game (Retro Fam)

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.Plot: The plot of this story in interesting, expressing an original point of view in the process of its' awesomeness. Also, you can have two endings, determined on how you played the game. One: Very VERY bad, while the other is :) good.Characters (in general): I loved the characters of this game. The main character, Yuri Hyuga, was fun and could make me laugh easily. Margerete was even better, with her wit and brute charm. Alice was an extremely likable character. Like a less-perfect Aeris. Anyway, each character contained at leasta bit of deph in their personalites, only deepening the plot further.Characters (interaction): I'm actually a fan of the main pairing of this game, which is surprising, considering I'm a yaoi fan. Yuri and Alice don't just speak to eachother, which is a nice change. They interract with other characters. Big plus. It was nice to watch the characters grow, too. Alice warming up to Yuri, Yuri and his father's relationship becoming more clear, another big plus.Battle system: I don't know why so many people are upset about this. I liked it; it added a bit of action to the original Final Fantasy BS.Music: Wonderful. Even worth buying the soundtrack.Overall, I loved this game. Anyone mature enough to handle the character deph and bllod&gore should buy it.The third one is coming out soon!

Never beat it but it's awesome

I was fortunate enough to buy a copy of Shadow Hearts when it was first released in 2002 and I was glad that I did. If it wasn't for the release of Final Fantasy X that same holiday season, Shadow Hearts would easily have taken best RPG of 2004. Midway's Shadow Hearts is a nice blend of irreverent, wry humor wrapped around the usual apocalyptic storyline prevalent in most RPGS, but the new twist this time is the heavy dose of horror and occultic themes. The PS1 rpg series Persona tried this horror-theme rpg before, but Shadow Hearts succeeds where Persona almost does it.The storyline and especially the dialogue is funny, but there's always a sense of horror just beneath it all. The horror is best shown in the art direction of city and dungeon levels. Some of the scenes in Shadow Hearts practically oozes gore and splatter. The design of the creatures and bosses are pretty original and seem similar in form to the monster from the Silent Hill games. Bodies of animals and people are put together as if by random. Some monsters are nothing but a collection of legs put together. Now that doesn't sound scary, but the way its designed sure gives it an eerie and disturbing appearance. One stage pretty much details the after-effects and potential continuation of mass child-murders. With the leftover eaten remains and gnawed on bones littering the boss fight's lair. Shadow Hearts really isn't Final Fantasy.The Justice Ring is a nice change of pace to the usual turn-based battle system us.

*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.

EXCELLENT GAME. This game is amazing..... and its full of dark humor and easter eggs.It has angels, demons, and monsters and you basically go around beating up all of them. Its from that era when role playing games were creative and had a ton of artwork and original music behind them, along with an entertaining story line. Its by far one of my favorite games. Its sequel - Shadow Hearts Covenant was not quite as good - but still fun. And the last one in the series, Shadow Hearts New World was just aweful. Now the PREQUEL on the other hand, Koudelka for PS 1, was AMAZING.