Shadow Hearts

[Whisky]

Karin's outfit change is good only for the boobs.

 

[yes plz]

Her third outfit is good for boobies, her second one is kinda... weird looking. I'm really not sure what kinda style they were going for there.

 

[abnaxus]

I never liked Lucia enough to bother really using her. You could probably completely cut her from the game and only have to do a few edits to cover it up. Karin I sorta like, though never found her to be anything special (both in and out of battle) and it's always bothered me that once she changes costumes the game seems to mostly forget about the fact that she was a soldier.

I only used her because her special attacks looked cool.

Yuri's final fusion can easily kill everything on his own, anyway.

 

[Arkeus]

Karin is pretty damn good when you want to do long combos- she is probably the best there (beside Yuri), and her skills also have access to some kickass AoEs. Lucia is the best buffer/debuffer of the game, which can make some pretty incredible abilities with her.

I think my last team was Yuri/Joachim/Karin/Lucia.... Yeah, Overpowered as heck, but it's fun.

 

[yes plz]

I think From the New World is the only one with any real difficulty and even then you can pretty much use whoever you want without worry.

- The retarded retcons aside, the main reason why I think this game's writing is kinda crap is because it actually has a lot of potential. You have the Great War as a setting, Rasputin as an antagonist, the Romanov family, and secret societies. Yet instead of focusing on any of those to any great extent the plot instead revolves too much around Yuri trying to break his curse and later on Kato. World War 1 should've been a great setting for a Shadow Hearts game -- pissed off spirits of dead soldiers, malice filling the world due to all the hatred, countries attempting weird experiments and using black magic to gain an edge, monsters using the chaos to come out to feast, and probably other stuff I'm forgetting.

- I think the game gives the player a few too many advantages. You have Yuri with his fusions that have a shit ton of abilities and boosts his stats, all the other character's special abilities, a wide selection of magic to use via all those crests you can equip, and the ability to have every character inflict some sort of deliberating status effect on the enemy with each successful normal attack. I just recently fought Lenny in his Godhand form at the end of the prison dungeon where you break out Roger and on Joachim I had equipped the 'Slow' status effect onto his ring. Within two of Joachim's turns Lenny's speed was down by like 75%, allowing all of my party members to get in three turns before he got in one. I think he got in like three turns before he died.

 

[abnaxus]

SH3 final boss fight was boring, though.

You needed to grind a lot to get Shania's final fusion that turns out to be utterly useless in the final battle.

 

[CryptRat]

Last time I played through it my final party was Yuri, Blanca, Joachim, and Kurando. I'll probably use mostly the same characters, though I'm thinking of switching out Joachim for Anastasia.

I am almost sure I used Yuri, Blanca and Joachim too. I can't remember of the last one, probably Lucia or Anastasia.

 

[Arkeus]

I think From the New World is the only one with any real difficulty and even then you can pretty much use whoever you want without worry.

My experience is that you had some difficulty at first but that doesn't last... unsure now, though, it's been a while. From the new world is usually my least liked Shadow Hearts game.

- The retarded retcons aside, the main reason why I think this game's writing is kinda crap is because it actually has a lot of potential. You have the Great War as a setting, Rasputin as an antagonist, the Romanov family, and secret societies. Yet instead of focusing on any of those to any great extent the plot instead revolves too much around Yuri trying to break his curse and later on Kato. World War 1 should've been a great setting for a Shadow Hearts game -- pissed off spirits of dead soldiers, malice filling the world due to all the hatred, countries attempting weird experiments and using black magic to gain an edge, monsters using the chaos to come out to feast, and probably other stuff I'm forgetting.

I do think it lives up to a lot of its potential though. I mean, yeah, the main plot should have been more about the war... But a lot of the sidequest and the lore are about the war and how to advance the world and all that.

Beside, the while Yuri/Karin/Alice storyline was a gutpunch to me.

- I think the game gives the player a few too many advantages. You have Yuri with his fusions that have a shit ton of abilities and boosts his stats, all the other character's special abilities, a wide selection of magic to use via all those crests you can equip, and the ability to have every character inflict some sort of deliberating status effect on the enemy with each successful normal attack. I just recently fought Lenny in his Godhand form at the end of the prison dungeon where you break out Roger and on Joachim I had equipped the 'Slow' status effect onto his ring. Within two of Joachim's turns Lenny's speed was down by like 75%, allowing all of my party members to get in three turns before he got in one. I think he got in like three turns before he died.

Yeah, a bit issue is how overpowered you get really, really quickly. And it doesn't let off, as there is a ton of sidequests, and all the sidequests only make you more overpowered.

I mean, Lucia's best buff (Or at least the one I prefer) is just utterly ridiculous. Third Ring for everyone for 1 turn? Ouch.

 

[yes plz]

My experience is that you had some difficulty at first but that doesn't last... unsure now, though, it's been a while. From the new world is usually my least liked Shadow Hearts game.

FtNW is the one I remember least of. I had actually planned on skipping right to that one but ended up replaying the entire series. I only recall some of the random encounters actually being difficult, can't remember too much about the end game.

I do think it lives up to a lot of its potential though. I mean, yeah, the main plot should have been more about the war... But a lot of the sidequest and the lore are about the war and how to advance the world and all that.

Which sidequests? I'm mostly drawing a blank on a lot of SH2's optional stuff. I only really remember the character specific stuff -- the man bouts for Joachim, street fights for Blanca, getting Yuri's best fusions, finding the revealing costumes for Lucia and Karin. I don't really recall any that make much use of the WW1 setting. When I think of using the WW1 setting in a good way I think of stuff like having to cross a recent battlefield littered with corpses and monsters eating them, coming across an AWOL battalion that's turned to cannibalism to survive, stuff like that.

Beside, the while Yuri/Karin/Alice storyline was a gutpunch to me.

The few Yuri and Alice scenes are good but really I imagine it'd be hard to fuck them up. They had an entire game to build up their relationship and then tore it away. You'd have to be a really shit writer to screw up their handful of tender scenes together in SH2.

Karin I never much cared for. She seems to serve little purpose beyond the ultra retarded twist. Speaking of that, their relationship is hilarious considering that ending. I bet the writer that came up with that crap has a few gigabytes of incest fan fiction on his computer about those two.

Yeah, a bit issue is how overpowered you get really, really quickly. And it doesn't let off, as there is a ton of sidequests, and all the sidequests only make you more overpowered.

I mean, Lucia's best buff (Or at least the one I prefer) is just utterly ridiculous. Third Ring for everyone for 1 turn? Ouch.

I wonder how they managed to mess up game balance as badly as they did. SH2 struck me as an attempt to make the series more 'commercial', so I wonder if the ridiculously easy difficulty level was intentional.

 

[yes plz]

Took a break from SH2 and instead of going back to it I skipped ahead to SH3. Just completed the Grand Canyon part and got Shania's second fusion.

- Though SH2's opening might be 'cooler' with Amon and all that junk I think From the New World sets up a lot more interesting plot hooks in the beginning.
- Graphics seem a bit better. Backgrounds aren't as sterile, at least, including more clutter and detail.
- They could've done a lot more with Johnny being a detective. I mean, it's important to get the story kicked off but after that it's sorta pointless. They could've at least made Johnny act more, er... detective-like. As it is he's not shown to be particularly intelligent or perceptive. They also could've had him be the one to find the leads that point them to the next plot point/destination.
- The depiction of Native American culture is... hilarious. Everything is just over-the-top stereotypical, to the way Natan and Shania dress, to the way Natan talks, to the description of some of the items like Shania's starting tomahawk which reads:

An orthodox tomahawk, made from steel and oak. Superbly distributed balance makes it easy to use, even for beginners. Essential item in every Native American home.

- Battles are definitely harder in this one. Johnny can easily run out of SP and so can Shania when you fuse into one of her spirit forms. Enemies regularly use combo and double attacks and thus quickly kill off a character. Enemies in general just seem tougher, too -- they can take more hits, dodge more frequently, and hit harder as well.
- Tying into the above, magic feels toned down. It doesn't seem quite as effective as it did the last game and characters (especially at the start) can only equip a very limited number of spells.

 

[yes plz]

 

[spekkio]

^
LOL, wrong aspect ratio...

 

[yes plz]

I don't know why my snaps come out like that. I have the game itself set to wide screen while using a wide screen patch for it, so the game itself looks fine but for some reason PCSX2 fucks up my snapshots.

 

[abnaxus]

Wait til you reach the Sushi Tower.

 

[yes plz]

- Much like Yuri in SH1, I usually only ever transform Shania during boss battles. Not only is it not really needed but her normal character model is... enjoyable to watch.
- Speaking of battles, I'm torn between Ricardo and Mao for my last party member. My other party members are Johnny, Shania, and (slim) Hilida. Ricardo's serenades are useful but Mao seems to have the better stats as a red-mage sort of character.
- I've always wondered if Anne (the pirate girl) was meant to be a party member at some point during development. She has a unique character model, a fairly in-depth backstory, and sorta a reason to join. It just seems like too much effort was put into her.
- While the voice acting is surprisingly good for the most part, Roger Bacon's new VA is horrible. He sounds like a nerdy kid from a poorly dubbed English anime. I don't think they've ever really gotten his voice right but the one in SH2 wasn't this bad at least.
- I really like all the party members this time around and wish they were more talkative during cutscenes and stuff. The odd mixture of personalities and relationships could've made for some great 'Tales of' style banter or Star Ocean style 'private actions'.

- One of the things that's always bothered me about this series is that there tends to be a lack of (at least smooth) transition between events and locations. A lot JRPGs make you physically get there yourself, either by walking on a world map or by going through wilderness/caves/dungeons maps that connect the various important locations to each other. With Shadow Hearts, though, once they decide they need to go somewhere they usually just sorta... teleport there. The first half of SH1 tried to handle this by making the characters have to steal a plane or find a boat to take them where they wanted but after that it seems like they gave up trying.

- If it were better handled I think the Al Capone gang war stuff could've easily been Shadow Heart's best mini-arc. Hell, without much competition it probably still is. My main problem is with the pacing -- you take odd breaks during the middle of it to go visit Roswell and the Pirate Island/sunken ship stuff. It also feels a bit thin. Another dungeon/quest or two to better flesh out Al Capone, Edna, Ricardo, Mao, and McManus would have greatly improved it.

 

[abnaxus]

Anne, the loli pirate? Wouldn't have wanted her in my party. I'd sooner have used Natan.

 

[yes plz]

Yeah, that's her. I didn't mind using Natan for a while, his guns and fighting style are pretty sweet (although his Gun-Fu abilities are surprisingly dull looking). He quickly becomes outclassed, though -- I think he was meant to be some sort of fighter-mage who leaned more towards the fighter part but you then get Frank who is a lot more physically stronger, Hilda who is much more magically stronger, and Mao who is far more balanced.

You know who also sucks in battle? Johnny. He has horrible stats. Given that his Ring maxes out at three attacks I'm guessing he was meant to be a mage but his special attack stat is awful. Near the end of the game he gets his Awakened ability that allows him to transform into a killing machine but until then he might actually be the worst character in battle, which is pretty rare for the main character of a JRPG.

 

[abnaxus]

His abilities are useful and he's very fast so good for healing/buffing I suppose.

 

[Raghar]

I don't know why my snaps come out like that. I have the game itself set to wide screen while using a wide screen patch for it, so the game itself looks fine but for some reason PCSX2 fucks up my snapshots.

You need to have proper setting in GFX setting, namely correct resolution, otherwise it saves in resolution it draws textures (and then stretches them on screen when necessary). Of course non power of two resolution might also cause some problems in some games. You might also try n * native and save screenshots.

 

[yes plz]

His abilities are useful and he's very fast so good for healing/buffing I suppose.

He's only a little bit faster than most of the other characters. Johnny usually gets his turn first, so I guess that's good for buffing but it isn't like he's so fast he gets two turns or something. I dunno, it just doesn't seem like a good trade off for his other mediocre stats.

You need to have proper setting in GFX setting, namely correct resolution, otherwise it saves in resolution it draws textures (and then stretches them on screen when necessary). Of course non power of two resolution might also cause some problems in some games. You might also try n * native and save screenshots.

I'm using 6x native resolution. I'm guessing it's either tied to the set window size (which I just leave as default since I just maximize the screen when playing) or t he wide screen patch.

EDIT: Speaking of PCSX2 screwing up the game, there seems to be some sort of effect that really fucks up some textures. They're shown to be incredibly bright to the point of looking pure white sometimes. It seems to mostly happen to 'shiny' textures, like the two gay merchants' motorcycle and Shania's weapons. I'll try to post a screen shot to show what I mean later. I'm guessing it's some sort of bloom effect getting screwed up.

 

[Arkeus]

- One of the things that's always bothered me about this series is that there tends to be a lack of (at least smooth) transition between events and locations. A lot JRPGs make you physically get there yourself, either by walking on a world map or by going through wilderness/caves/dungeons maps that connect the various important locations to each other. With Shadow Hearts, though, once they decide they need to go somewhere they usually just sorta... teleport there. The first half of SH1 tried to handle this by making the characters have to steal a plane or find a boat to take them where they wanted but after that it seems like they gave up trying.

As far as I can recall SH2 has you going everywhere in a logical fashion (E.G, the areas you go through are needed to go to your real destinations, you use boats/planes that you need to get to, etc).

Yeah, that's her. I didn't mind using Natan for a while, his guns and fighting style are pretty sweet (although his Gun-Fu abilities are surprisingly dull looking). He quickly becomes outclassed, though -- I think he was meant to be some sort of fighter-mage who leaned more towards the fighter part but you then get Frank who is a lot more physically stronger, Hilda who is much more magically stronger, and Mao who is far more balanced.

The vampires in SH are always so damn overpowered.

You know who also sucks in battle? Johnny. He has horrible stats. Given that his Ring maxes out at three attacks I'm guessing he was meant to be a mage but his special attack stat is awful. Near the end of the game he gets his Awakened ability that allows him to transform into a killing machine but until then he might actually be the worst character in battle, which is pretty rare for the main character of a JRPG.

Yeah... the reason to take Johnny is to snapshot every single enemies. He is kinda boring to use.

And, yeah, magic is seemingly much more boring in this one.