I can't begin to tell you how many times I've walked by this game and saw it's mysterious glow upon my shelve. It was as if it was constantly calling out to me, "play me, I swear I'll be worth every bit of your time." I could recall life as a teenager, standing at the local Electronics Boutique, browsing through all the current games. Shadow Hearts was always there, always over shadowed by games like Final Fantasy X, Kingdom Hearts and Suikoden III. Regrettably, I over looked SH over and over and over, despite knowing that it could potentially offer a good time.
Sure enough however, after 15 years, I gave Shadow Hearts a bit of TLC and to my surprise, I found a game which surpassed so many others.
Right from the get go, Shadow Hearts introduces you to the experience with quite a gruesome cut scene. You find a man wearing a suit and top hat slaughtering his way through a moving train using his little demon guardian which floats around him like a ghost. To get right to the point, this old man seems intent on kidnapping an adult sized Barbie doll wearing a very suggestive ball room dress until from out of nowhere, the hero appears. Very original right? Not exactly by my calculation but honestly when you play on, the story becomes oddly engrossing.
Very soon in Shadow Hearts, you'll notice that your main playable character, Yuri has a few inner demons that he himself is battling. Sound cliché? Well, with the approach that this game takes on "inner darkness," you'll be left very pleased. With a suspension of the generic anime like RPG ideas, no childish tones are brought to light, Yuri has serious issues and discovering them is a real trip.
Yoshitaka Hirota perfectly set the musical tone for Shadow Hearts and undoubtedly made it an unforgettable classic in my eyes. Everyone within ear shot of this game instantly took note of the beautiful yet ominous tones that circled the experience. One of the strongest points in this games is it's soundtrack.
The turn-based battle system offers a new and fun way to execute an attack. The Judgment ring offers an original way to let the player have more involvement in how powerful the attack can potentially be. You see a solid line passes clockwise along a ring where small vibrantly colored spots are placed about the circle. If you press the X button when the line intersects these said spots, your attack will grow in strength. Most spells and attacks utilize this function. Because of this, there are very little dull moments in battle.
Shadow Hearts offers an experience that doesn't feel long or short. In fact, it took me around 33 hours to complete.
With the amount of games that pile up like towers around me on my back log list, I still found time to complete Shadow Hearts. Indeed I am a restless gamer at times, but this classic PS2 title kept me interested, enthralled and regular...
Get lost in the soundtrack, the memorably characters and more importantly, find yourself a copy for under fifty bucks. I suppose I was just lucky enough to own one.