Games: Shadow Hearts: Covenant

Shadow Hearts: Covenant
Developer: Nautilus
Platform: Playstation 2
Genre: RPG

If you've played the first Shadow Hearts, Covenant is a game you definitely should not miss. If you haven't... then it is where you should start. Having background knowledge the its prequel will help, for there are quite a lot of references to the old characters and events in this game. It doesn't matter that much though... I haven't played the first one, and played the second one in Japanese, and still found it to be a very enjoyable gaming experience.

Story
You have the traditional save-the-world. The antihero protagonist is protecting his village from invasion (it is the 1915 pre-WWI setting, but the storyline doesn't have too much to do with it, and you won't be using high tech. stuff) with his abilities to turn into different creatures. When I say creatures, I mean powerful demons. However, the Germans send a man to seals his abilities with a holy artifact. He later found out that the stranger is from a secret organization with a evil plot, and he begins his journey to regain his power and to intervent with their plans.

Gameplay
It's turn-based, and you have a judgement ring. To me, it keeps the battles fun and fresh, not to mention the bonus Exp, items, and gold you may get if you win under certain conditions. Also, it is possible to link one character to another (and to another and to another) in order to achieve a combo - which will result in extra damage to the enemies. There are also very powerful spells which can only be unleased by using a full 4-characters combo. The vendor system also uses this judgement ring. You can lower or raise the prices of the items for buying or selling (up to 50%), respectively. It doesn't lack sidequests, either. Near endgame, almost every character has a sidequest to himself which give great rewards.

Character
The character design for this game is unique. An anti-hero protagonist who has the ability to transform into demon, a golden bat (vampire?) who trains himself to be a pro-wrestler, an old puppeteer who uses his doll as a weapon... There are quite a lot of character interactions throughout the game, as well as humourous conversations and cutscenes.

Sound
Great voiceacting. You can tell who's talking just by listening to them (which some of the games cannot achieve). The music is very suiting and goes well with the game.

Graphics
I don't have much to say about graphics... good FMVs, very well-done camera angles, and just wonderful graphics overall.

Special
A movie threater option will be unlocked after you've beaten the game, and it allows you to view the movies.

Overall
Overall, SH: C is an awesome RPG. If you are into RPG, you should definitely give this one a try. Especially if you've lost your faith in PS2 RPG after playing FFX-2.

Score: 9.6

Awesome. I was looking at this game in EB the other day when I purchased Fable and was thinking about playing it sometime. It appears as though I must now, after GTA:SA and HALO 2 of course.