History Lessons, Demons, and Porn-Collecting NPCs: A Shadow Hearts Overview

You. Hey, you. I’ll bet you’ve never played these!

It was the summer of 2000. My PlayStation 2 was still brand-spanking new and I’d finally saved up enough money to buy another game for it. I walked into my local retailer and started browsing around for RPGs, because I honestly wouldn’t even consider anything else back in those days. The problem was, I had most of the Square RPGs I wanted, and was looking for something new.

I stumbled across a game I’d never heard of before, and thus began my journey into a series of games that I love, but have rarely met people who have played them.

I said, if the soup weren’t poisoned, then I might have had some.

Koudelka is an odd little game. Released for the original PlayStation, developed by relative newcomers Sacnoth and published by SNK, Koudelka is a combination of role playing and survival horror gaming, something not often seen (in fact, Sweet Home and Parasite Eve are the only other games that come to mind).

Koudelka tells the story of the eponymous character, Koudelka Iasant – a young gypsy girl, with magical powers, in 1898 Wales. Plagued by troubling visions, Koudelka finally makes her way to the local monastery — where apparently something is going on, as she’s met by a gunslinger (Edward Plunkett) and a bishop (James O’Flaherty), who are also investigating the property — albeit for their own secret reasons.

I say that Koudelka is an odd little game, mostly because of its development formula. More specifically, it was designed by Hiroki Kikuta, founder of Sacnoth and famous for heading up Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 3 during his time at Square. The game utilizes a tactics-based battle system on an isometric field, much like Final Fantasy Tactics, which had been released two years earlier. With the developer pedigree and relatively new (and popular) battle system behind it, not to mention a mature and intriguing story and strong sense of its crossover genre, Koudelka was a game that should have worked.

It didn’t. Koudelka garnered average reviews from critics, who almost universally praised the FMV sequences, but generally panned the game’s (admittedly lengthy and clunky) combat. The soundtrack (also composed by Kikuta) received mixed reviews.

However, Koudelka is, nevertheless, an important game. As Sacnoth’s first major offering, it was at the very least a modest success; enough for the team to start working on another game set in the same universe.

Thanks to that voice, I’m changing from your ordinary bad-boy type into a real psycho.

Jump forward to December of 2001, with me back at my local retailer, reading the back of the box of a new game called Shadow Hearts. I have, at this point, forgotten much about Koudelka, though I still owned it. I was a total closed-minded snob when it came to a game’s battle system, and would rarely stray from the Squaresoft model I’ve gotten used to. Despite my hesitation to buy the game, I did anyway, mostly at the recommendation of the store manager who had known me long enough to have some sort of accuracy with his recommendations.

If I remembered his name, I would call him up and thank him all over again.

Shadow Hearts takes place in 1913, in the same alternate reality set forth in Koudelka. The game follows Yuri Hyuga, an anti-hero plagued by memories of his dead father. Yuri is known as a Harmonixer – a person able to fuse with demons to heighten battle powers. Urged by a mysterious voie, Yuri saves young exorcist Alice Elliot (I always named her “Fuckin’ Useless”, because she seriously is), who for some reason is being kept prisoner by the Japanese Imperial Army. Yuri and Alice must ultimately quest through China and Europe to save themselves — and quite possibly the world.

As I mentioned before, Shadow Hearts takes place in the Koudelka universe, though the events of the previous game are never mentioned. Koudelka is present, albeit as a non-playable character, and James O’Flaherty has a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo by means of a text reference. Unlike Koudelka, however, Shadow Hearts’ design choice was an interesting — and successful — one, utilizing 3D characters in a beautifully-drawn 2D environment throughout the entirety of the game.

Furthermore, Shadow Hearts provided a kind of turning point in the series in terms of alternate realities. Koudelka was merely stated as being an alternate reality – there were no real historical figures to back up that claim. Shadow Hearts, however, had actual historical figures as either in-party allies (Mata Hari) or big bads (Roger Bacon).

Shadow Hearts’ stand-out battle system was fairly unique. Old hands at turn-based JRPGs easily recognized the HP and MP mechanics, and the Sanity Point system was rather easy to pick up, but it was the introduction of the Judgment Ring which kept things interesting. Simply selecting “attack” or “magic” doesn’t cut it. Once an action is selected, a hit ring appears — I hesitate to call these QTEs, but I suppose it’s a precursor — in order to both lock the command in and give the player the option to strengthen the attack.

Oh. And the soundtrack was co-composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, the composer responsible for the majority of the music in Chrono Trigger. Wicked.

I’d like to point out that Shadow Hearts actually has two endings, which at the time, I hadn’t seen much of, especially in a JRPG that requires hours and hours of replay just to see both. Of particular interest is the fact that Shadow Hearts’ BAD ending is actually the one considered canon, the result of which plays out in the sequel.

Champion of truth and justice, Grand Papillon! Ready to fight all evil-doers!

Shadow Hearts: Covenant. This was the one that was actually a sequel. This was the one with the marketing budget. This is the one the critics actually liked. Developed by Nautilus (the newly-renamed Sacnoth) and released in 2004, Covenant once again follows Yuri the Harmonixer during World War I, as well as a German officer, Karen Koenig, as they quest across Europe in hopes of defeating a magic-wielding dynasty known as Sapientes Gladio, to stop them from trying to rule the world with dark magic.

In a departure from Shadow Hearts, Yuri and Karen are joined not only by historical figures (notably the Princess Anastasia Romanov), but also by prominent fictional characters (Gepetto, complete with battle doll, natch). Oh, and there’s also a wolf. Not to be outdone, the game’s big bad is also a historical figure; namely, Razputin, real-life murderer of the Romanov family.

When compared to its predecessor, Covenant is certainly an improvement. While nothing has been changed in terms of core gameplay – the Judgment Ring still exists, albeit in a slightly expanded manner – the graphics received an overhaul, moving into full 3D territory. Yoshitaka Hirota and Yasunori Mitsuda returned to score the game, along with Kenji Ito, composer of the Mana series of RPGs.

Covenant definitely had more of an impact in terms of non-playable characters. Many NPCs were actually also historical figures (The Great Gama and Thomas Edward Lawrence, for example), which actually makes Covenant the most involved alternate history of the entire series. But for all that Covenant incorporated historical characters, their original NPCs were…interesting. While Shadow Hearts had its moments of stupid humor, Covenant took that idea and ran with it, even setting up a side-quest in which you can look for gay porn leaflets known as Stud Cards (I am dead serious) to give to two tailors who will, in exchange, give Gepetto costumes for his battle doll. The series has come a long way from Koudelka’s all-serious, all-the-time mentality.

It was a trend that would continue into the third (and so far final) installment, developed once again by Nautilus, and released by XSEED in 2006.

Wait… is it me? Am I a weirdo?

This one’s kind of the red-headed stepchild. You don’t want to beat it (actually, I never did; please applaud my clever turn of phrase), but you will often conveniently forget that it’s still a part of the Shadow Hearts family, a role I had often thought would be delegated to Koudelka. Up until From the New World, all of the Shadow Hearts games have had a loosely-related story connecting the games, and a general Gothic atmosphere. From the New World…not so much.

Set in North America in 1929, From the New World is technically set in the same alternate universe as the rest of the games in the series, but at the same time likes to pretend that those games never actually happened. There is no mention of Yuri, Alice, Koudelka, Karen, or any of the other characters we’ve spent so much time with throughout the games (to be fair, there is a reference to one or two common items, and two playable characters, but nothing about the stories spanning over three games, so what’s the point?).

Rather, the entire thing is focused on a little jerkoff named Johnny Garland, and his stacked Native American sidekick, Shania. Johnny runs a detective agency, and is hired by a mysterious man named Gilbert who (spoiler!) turns out to be evil. They must travel with Shania and their growing band of misfits to save the world, or at the very least his detective agency, from the threat of Gilbert, the silent woman known only as Lady, and her pet serial killer named (what else?) Killer.

The Judgment Ring is still the core gameplay battle mechanic, but has expanded into the Stock system which can be compared to Final Fantasy VII’s Limit Break system only with more options. The Fusion system previously wielded by Yuri is back, albeit in a different capacity, by means of Shania’s ability to barter with spirits. The concept of blending historical figures into the game is toned down, with a few mentions of Al Capone and little else.

While I probably need to go back and give the game another chance, the reason I never beat From the New World is that I just didn’t like it. It’s like my beef with Castlevania: Lord of Shadows: on its own, it’s a pretty good game, but it’s not a damn Castlevania game, and I feel the same way about From the New World. More specifically, while the irreverent humor presented in the series’ previous entries provided a nice relief from the dark storyline, From the New World seems to be all about guessing how much wacky shit can go into one game.

There is no example more perfect than your party members. In the previous games, the most “out there” party members consisted of regal vampires, white wolves, and an old man who used a doll to attack things. In From the New World, your party can at any time consist of an alien vampire fresh out of Roswell, a ninja with an affinity for bowling, an an alcoholic, giant talking cat with aspirations of becoming a movie star. I am not making this up.

I’ll never forget taking this journey with you and meeting you. Being with you.

The Shadow Hearts series – as well as its predecessor, Koudelka are interesting games. The first two are always on my list of favorite games, and to be fair, I can’t call From the New World or even Koudelka BAD games, just…flawed. However, they didn’t really change anything for me, didn’t shape the way I game now. I went into the games enjoying RPGs and involved stories, so they certainly didn’t introduce me to either of those aspects of gaming.

Perhaps, in retrospect, they helped inspire within me a love of alternate histories and conspiracies – perhaps these games, then, are why I enjoy the Assassin’s Creed series so much. However it worked, they’re still damn good games (that no one really played) that I haven’t played in many years, so if you’ll excuse me, I have some old friends to catch up with.