PlayStation 2

Shadow Hearts: From the New World

As soon as I saw Johnny Garland, I was sure I knew what was coming. I thought that a 16-year old Sora/Tidus knock-off would undoubtedly take the tried-and-true approach to world-saving: you know, rescuing the girl and collecting shiny crystals on an idyllic crusade for justice or something. I was wrong. I’m not sure when exactly I realized that Shadow Hearts: From The New World is anything but ordinary, but it was probably when I was busting Al Capone out of Alcatraz prison with the assistance of a talking cat who knows Drunken Master Kung-fu.

I’m going to drop the above-it-all reviewer tone and level with you—I haven’t played a Shadow Hearts game since 1999’s Koudelka, and I thought that game thoroughly sucked. I meant to do some research and play through Shadow Hearts: Covenant before I wrote this review, but I ran out of time and frankly, I figured I could just BS it. Shadow Hearts is just one of those mediocre, B-list RPG series that no one really cares about, right? I don’t know that I’ve ever been more wrong. At some point the Shadow Hearts series became legitimately good and no one bothered to tell me.

Parlons peu, parlons bien. Shadow Hearts : From The New World est tout simplement le meilleur épisode de la série. Même si l’on ne tient pas là le jeu de rôles le plus génial de ces dernières années, il a le mérite de sortir des sentiers battus, et est au moins l’un des RPG les plus originaux du moment. Le jeu n’a pas à rougir face aux grosses productions, et reste un très bon jeu de rôles. Profitez-en, il s’agit du dernier volet sur PlayStation 2.

Shadow Hearts: From the New World is definitely one of the more unusual RPGs we've played in a while. The game mechanics all work well and are certainly interesting and are quite different from those you'd find in most other RPGs. The look and feel of the game as a whole is certainly different from other RPGs that I've played. The storyline and character models are a little wacky at times but this is part of what gives the game its appeal and it's nice to have a storyline that doesn't feel like one you've experienced many times before. The game offers around 50 hours of play time and to add replay value there are a number of different endings for you to experience. Some may be put off by the inclusion of random battles but they aren't as irritating here as they are in some RPGs we've played. In short, Shadow Hearts: From the New World is an essential purchase for those who like original and well made RPGs.

Developer Nautilus definitely tried to keep the series from growing stale by taking it in a new direction, and even with the new cast of characters and Western setting, FTNW is able to execute nearly perfectly. While it may not be neck and neck with the big boys yet, the series has however now become a legit contender in the RPG genre.

This is now the third Shadow Hearts game. The first one left much to be desired, it was a good concept and a unique approach to combat and interaction in a Role Playing Game (RPG), but lacked the refinement to make it a fun game. The second one was one of the few game sequels out there that took everything good from the first title and improved upon it, while learning from their mistakes and tweaking the game to make it a heck of a lot of fun. So the question arises, did the developers learn more from the second game and make the third even better, or did they rest on their laurels and wind up with a game closer to the original?

Expect a more 'Indian/Spanish' flavor to much of the music, especially the themes of dungeons and battles when you visit South America, as opposed to North America which has more jazzy tunes, especially in the big cities. However some of the tunes wind up being really repetitive and thus annoying to hear after a while since there's not a whole lot of variety. It seems like there's only about 2 or 3 dungeon pieces, and since you're going to be spending a lot of time in dungeons...you get the idea.

The Shadow Hearts series has been steadily gathering notice in the realm of console role-playing games, due in large part to its great gameplay, bizarre occult-laced narrative set in the world of the early 1900s, and consistently crazy characters and humor. Shadow Hearts: From the New World brings all those series staples to the Depression-era Americas, with some new twists. While some of the changes seem to pile on unnecessary complexity, the basic Shadow Hearts formula still provides a great time for RPG aficionados.

"Shadow Hearts: From the New World" é um RPG para quem já conhece bem o gênero e está à procura de elementos diferentes do tradicional. Os fãs de série deverão continuar gostando, já que estende o mundo de "Shadow Hearts", e os que estão em busca de referências históricas e ao mundo dos filmes e jogos, com ocultismo, bizarrice e humor, poderão encontrar fartura no título.

If you've finished the big-name games like Dragon Quest VIII and Kingdome Hearts II and you've got some time on your hands before Final Fantasy XII takes it's deathgrip upon your mind, you could do a lot worse than play Shadow Hearts: From the New World. For instance, you could drive your car into a tree that then collapses onto your house. Or you could get a colonoscopy by a distracted physician. That would totally be worse.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant fue sin duda alguna una de las mayores sorpresas en el género de los RPGs hace algunos años. Su planteamiento, humor y calidad gráfica consiguieron notas muy elevadas por parte de la prensa especializada. Ahora le toca el turno a la tercera entrega, desentendida de los lazos argumentales de las anteriores pero igual de divertida e interesante.

Shadow Hearts: From the New World heeft met dusdanig weten te verassen dat ik zin krijg om de voorgaande delen eens terug uit de kast te plukken om deze te herspelen. Net zoals voorheen is het vechtsysteem ook deze keer weer van een erg hoog niveau en weet het meer diepgang te bieden dan de doorsnee hedendaagse RPG. Daarnaast bevat het spel ook een leuke verhaallijn en zijn er genoeg randactiviteiten aanwezig om de gemiddelde speler zo’n 50 uurtjes bezig te houden. Enkele kleine minpunten verhinderen het dat we Shadow Hearts: From the New World met een negen de wereld insturen, maar iedereen die een voorliefde heeft voor RPG’s zou eigenlijk naar de winkel moeten hollen om deze titel uit de rekken te plukken, je zal het je niet beklagen!

Shadow Hearts: From the New World is a good game that represents a break from business as usual for the genre, but not one so great that it's a can't miss title. It flounders with its winning premise for most of the late goings, but the fact that it took the chances it did in the early going is a huge advantage for the game. Backed up with strong visuals and an deep and intricate battle system that rewards practice and thought as much as long hours of level grinding, the game is well above mediocrity, and if you're a genre fan and don't mind getting a little bit of revisionist lunatic history into your RPG, you'll probably like this quite a bit. Even if you're not, it's worth a try. Just don't use it to say, study for a history class.

Shadow Hearts: From the New World is a very well rounded, excellently produced role-playing game. It suffers from trying to do too much at once, enticing you with a new character and an interesting new story direction, but then as soon as you're prepared to delve into them, it's time to move on, almost like you'd need to treat the writers for attention deficit disorder. While I enjoyed the game very much, it's best suited for role-playing game enthusiasts who have a sense of humor and don't mind a bit of a mish-mash when it comes to their epic world-saving storylines.

If you don't have any expectations, then Shadow Hearts: From the New World will probably surprise you with its trademark weirdness and entertaining battle system. There really are some great "Wow" moments that happen over the course of its story too, and the high-end CG cutscenes and musical score are easy to fall in love with. The problem is, the story itself suffers from horribly uneven pacing, the dungeons can be a little boring, and the ultimate payoff isn't really worth the effort (all important aspects of any RPG). These shortcomings have a lot more impact when you're a fan of the previous game as well, because in a lot of ways, From the New World feels more like an imitation than a sequel.

Absurd humor does a lot for the game, but it's still a traditional console RPG, one that's not perfect. Unfortunate music choices and awkward slips on the comedy/drama tightrope annoy, and you probably have to kill a few dozen foes per single line of clever dialogue, but it's arguably worth it.

C'est dans les vieux pots qu'on fait les meilleures soupes ! difficile d'imaginer cela en regard d'une licence si récente, et pourtant c'est le cas. Extrêmement proche de Shadow Hearts 2, meilleur système mais univers moins maîtrisé, ce RPG un peu trop court reste une expérience à découvrir. A signaler que dorénavant les trois Shadow Hearts sont disponibles en Europe, raison de plus pour céder à l'anneau du jugement.

Speaking of side quests, the main storyline often simply feels like a series of these. There are some segments involving pirates in the Caribbean and busting the notorious Al Capone out of Alcatraz that do little to improve the overall plot. It isn’t even until after 20 hours that one of the sub-plots mentioned in the opening introduction is even seen. At this point, there are only a couple hours left in the game, unless the optional quests sound appealing. The events really pick up steam here, but it’s too little, too late. No matter how engaging the last several hours are, there’s still a ridiculous giant cat and a host of other obnoxious characters that ruin it.