Vandal Hearts - PS1 Game (Retro Fam)

Although you may not come back to this game for a while after beating it, anyone who loves the game for the action and the fight will instantly like this game. There is no nonsense, time-wasting, 30-minute Xbutton-clicking dialouge-intro. The first thing you do is fight, the last thing you do is fight, and in between you fight.Basically you assume control of characters on a square-based map. As your characters fight they become tougher and you choose what class they evolve into. The battles in the last few hours of the game are HUGE. It's exactly what a good game should be 90% action 10% enrichment.People have been comparing it to FF Tactics which is really unfair to this game as it's very different. I played this game 5 years ago and beat it. Now I'm looking for a copy to buy b/c I miss it.

Great game. Great shop

Vandal Hearts is definitely one of the sleeper hits of the year. No one expected it to be a great game, as it wasn't hyped up before its release. But Konami put something into the game that usually helps: fun and addictive gameplay. Vandal Hearts claims to be an RPG, but it really isn't. Actually, it's a strategy game with RPG elements and a story intertwined. Unlike Command and Conquer, where you can have hundreds of "units" at a time, in Vandal Hearts you usually have around 7. But rather than having units with identical abilities, each of your characters have different skills, spells, and strengths that set them apart. They advance in levels, again making Vandal Hearts look like an RPG, but all it really does is add more spells and raise endurance.For every ten levels you advance, you can choose a path of study for your character. For example, when your archer reaches level 10, you can either have him become a Bowman (a more skilled archer) or a Hawknight (a flying, spear-wielding character). Since your characters can be different every time you play, Vandal Hearts has some unprecedented replay value.During the actual strategic part of the game, you navigate bitmapped characters throughout a polygon map. The maps range anywhere from really small to quite big - it can take up to 20 minutes to get from one side to another. The landscapes are varied with mountains and valleys. The textures that are slathered on the polygons look great, and the bitmapped characters and enemies.

Vandal Hearts is a good game. Graphics is ok for it's time, though the character images are really sad. It's hard to take seriously a bunch of characters that look like rats or constipated monkeys. I recommend this game for the story-line, which is actually pretty decent. But it's a really easy game and can be beat relatively quickly.

Glad I made this purchase. I really enjoyed this game as a kid and as I replay through the game, it does not disappoint. You can't go wrong with a copy of this game.