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The Lowdown
Pros: Incredibly colorful cast, hilarious story, an excellent battle
system and a thoroughly unique setting
Cons: Story drops off halfway through, battles are occasionally annoying
 Purchase
at Play-Asia
 Purchase
at Lik-Sang
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Frank Goldfinger is a ninja. Not a regular ninja, you see, but a
middle-aged American who learned the ways of ninjitsu from a village
hidden in the jungles of Brazil. He wears a gigantic, unwieldy oni mask
on his chest and ridiculous fishnet sleeves. He talks in a goofy gaijin
accent, substituting English words like "me" and "you" for the normal "watashi"
and "anata".
He obtains new weapons by finding random objects (cacti, signposts,
gigantic fish) and sticking a hilt in them, wielding his unfound blade
with oblivious, childlike abandon.
He also has a partner named Britney. She's blonde, and is also a ninja.
Shadow Hearts: From the New World is weird. Really weird. But if you're
one of those folks who are tired of the boring clichés that tend to
permeate the RPG genre, it's also one of the most refreshing games
released in a long, long time.
The previous Shadow Hearts games took place in Europe amidst World War
I. As the title suggest, Shadow
Hearts: From the New World takes place in the Americas, about fifteen
years after its predecessors.
The hero this time is Johhny Garland, a 16-year old orphan who has
recently set up a detective agency in New York City. As the story
begins, he's on a job when he gets attacked by a strange monster that
appears from an otherworldly portal. Before being unceremoniously
devoured, he is rescued by Shania, an Indian princess who has been
hunting down these demons with her stately partner, Natan. The group
joins forces to uncover the mystery of these monstrosities, all of which
seem to be related to the mysterious appearance of a blue haired girl
named Lady. During the course of their adventure, they'll rescue Al
Capone from Alcatraz, visit a jazz bar in Chicago, get kidnapped by The
Pirates of the Caribbean, rescue some "aliens" from Roswell and explore
many, many South American ruins. Along the way, you'll also meet several
traveling companions - other than Frank the Ninja, there's Mao, a
gigantic cat who's a mob boss by day and movie star by night; Hilda, a
gothic lolita vampire with a weight complex; and Ricardo, a guitar
wielding marachi player who appears to have stepped out of a Robert
Rodriguez flick. The writers clearly threw all sanity to the dogs,
because anyone remotely familiar with American history will be able to
point out fallacies and anachronisms, but that's really part of the
zany, madcap fun.
If all of this sounds like a great departure from the previous Shadow
Hearts games - well, it kind of is. While this is the third in the series, you'll notice that there's no
"three" in the title, which almost suggests that the developers meant
this to be a side-story. The previous games had a goofy sense of humor
that teetered between "serious" and "absurd" at a moment's notice
(anyone who's played Shadow Hearts Covenant will relate the many subquests regarding the collection of gay porn), but From the New World
crosses the "ridiculous" line with even more regularity. Indeed, many of
the horror aspects have also been toned down - while its predecessors
were both rated "CERO 15" in Japan (and given M ratings by the ESRB in
America), this is one is rated "CERO 12", so the game is definitely less
visceral. However, the game doesn't keep up the goofy pace forever -
once the main characters are assembled, the jaunt across the United
States turns into a belabored excavation of puzzle-filled South American
and Pacific ruins. While the plot turns significantly darker here, it
also loses much of the imagination that makes the first part of the
journey so memorable - what's more interesting, exploring a Las Vegas
casino full of 20s era mobsters or hitting switches in a dank cave?
Still, as boring as the dungeon crawls are later in the game, at least
some of them look gorgeous. While the graphics engine is the same as
Shadow Hearts Covenant (plus an optional jaggy filter), the designs of
some of these places are amazing. From a replication of Times Square to
the Grand Canyon to the green fields of Machu Pichu, there are some
tremendously gorgeous landscapes. The characters models all look
excellent too, especially the battle animations. Despite the goofy
nature of some of the characters, the enemies still maintain much the
hideous, Lovecraftian influence of the other titles.
Which brings us to the true crux of any great RPG - the battle system.
The hallmark of the Shadow Hearts game has been the Judgment Ring, a
timing based system to determines how powerful your attacks will be, if
you hit at all. While initially off-putting to conservative RPG purists
who prefer their fights to be strictly menu-based, it does make combat
far more involving. The combo system from Covenant has returned,
allowing party members to juggle foes for massive damage, although you
can now also perform Double attacks with a single character. Amidst all
of this are customizable magic spells for each character (using little
maps called "Stellar Charts") and a whole slew unique special moves for
each character.
Since the game looks and plays much like Covenant, you can except some
recurring archetypes - Hilda can turn into a bat, much like Joachim, and
Shania can shapeshift into various demons with her Fusion ability, much
like Yuri, although this time the transformations are accompanied by a
clothes-shedding magical girl/striptease transformation. The numerous
subquests to find all of the abilities and weapons for each of the
characters fleshes out what is otherwise a relatively short game.
While the battle system is not only engrossing but allows for quite a
bit of strategy, but there are times where it doesn't feel particularly
fair. You see, the enemies can use the same Double and Combo attacks as
you can - so if you end up getting surrounded by a group of foes at the
beginning of battle, be prepared to take major damage before you can
even act. The other downside to having an in-depth is battle system is
the fact that they tend to be relatively long affairs, as the average
fight lasts around two minutes. These random battles are perhaps the
only tired RPG staple that Shadow Hearts hasn't outgrown, but they
aren't overwhelmingly numerous, and can usually be escaped with ease.
Your characters level up quickly too, so overall the game feels very
balanced without getting too irritating.
The music is a little disappointing, ranging from a few mediocre light
jazz pieces to some boring tribal elevator music. The exceptions are the
excellent intro theme and the first battle song, which actually uses the
Shadow Hearts trademark wailing voices to excellent effect.
Unfortunately, about when the plot starts to lose steam is also when the
battle music changes to something far more banal.
While the game is (mostly) straightforward, the heavy amount of text
requires some working knowledge of Japanese. Which is especially useful
is picking out the one object that protects you from "petrify"
status. I figured that out the hard way. Still, much of the humor comes
across without having advanced knowledge.
US Bound?
Nothing definite has been said. As of this current writing, the
rumors point to an unknown publisher bringing the title in America. No
word on who, although it won't be Midway, the American publisher of the
previous games.
Update:
A new company formed with a bunch of Square-Enix excutives, XSeed Games
is going to localize Shadow Hearts: From the New World. Expect it to
come in 2006.
Overall
If there's any group that may potentially be disappointed by From
the New World, it's Shadow Hearts fans. While there are some connections
and references to the previous games, players may end up not liking the
new direction of the series. It's also lacking the presence of Yuri, who
was one of the coolest RPG protagonists in recent memory. But if you let
yourself free of any previous conceptions - and can forgive some uneven
storytelling - you'll find From the New World to be one of the most
unique, engrossing, and well designed RPGs of this generation.-Kurt Kalata
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