#105: Shadow Hearts
Rare horror jRPG proves it can be done
This review was originally posted to Twitter on May 20th, 2019.
Initial release: June 28, 2001
Platform: Playstation 2
Developer: Sacnoth
Just because your first game wasn’t the success you were hoping for doesn’t mean you can’t try again. Sacnoth’s Koudelka may have gone under the radar, but semi-sequel Shadow Hearts survived competing with the similarly-named (but wildly, wildly different) Kingdom Hearts to become a cult classic of the Playstation 2 era.
When Hiroki Kikuta left Sacnoth, Koudelka’s art director and fellow Squaresoft alum Matsuzo Itakura took over for Sacnoth’s first Playstation 2 title. While Shadow Hearts is a more traditional game than its prequel, it’s still guided by the principles behind Koudelka’s development. The basic thinking behind these games boils down to two things: jRPGs as a genre has stagnated over the years, and also they’re fucking boring. You might say these two statements are the same thing, but it’s more that they feed into each other: how many jRPGs are out there with some generic fantasy (or sci-fantasy) setting, menu-based combat, and the same endless tropes over and over again (frequently lifted from Star Wars?) The same character archetypes, the same design aesthetics; it’s to the point where many are indistinguishable at first glance.
Shadow Hearts aims to shake up both of these things. The setting: Eurasia, 1913. The characters: a ragtag bunch that features a drifter shapeshifter, a religious girl with powers, an elderly Taoist master, a super-spy, a London street urchin, and a vampire. (The street urchin, and his storyline, is where the Koudelka connection comes in, as it’s revealed that his mother is in fact the titular Koudelka. You will also later revisit the monastary, and meet its sole resident, Roger Bacon, still kickin’ it after all these centuries.)
The pre-Great War setting is definitely played up, and indeed the oncoming war is a major motivation for the main villain. Everyone has a feeling of dread, like they know what’s coming; Imperial Japan is trying to shore up its holdings in Asia, and the fear is palpable in Europe. Given this sense of impending doom, it’s ripe pickings for what would turn out to be a cosmic horror story the likes of which would please even Lovecraft, and it most certainly delivers on that front. Monsters range from weird to horrifying; bosses are a whole new level of fucked up.
While it’s not the ambitious, but somewhat incoherent mess that was Koudelka, Shadow Hearts does strive to bring new ideas to a tired genre. Aside from the fairly original setting (it’s not often the real world is used as a backdrop in jRPGs, certainly not back then) Shadow Hearts presents a new spin on combat. And I do mean spin, by the way. Every action in combat, be it physical attacks, magic, or using an item, relies on a mechanic called the Judgment Ring — essentially a sort of dial where you try to hit a button on the designated areas before the dial makes a full sweep. It’s an obvious attempt to subvert the usual jRPG mechanic of mindless menu selections that the player can just sleepwalk through, forcing you to stay on your toes. And on that point it does rather well, even if it annoyingly pops up outside combat as well.
Speaking of annoying, this game has two mechanics that can be kind of irritating. The first is the SP system. Every character has an SP bar that drains at a rate of one per turn; when it reaches zero, they go berserk and become uncontrollable. This attempt to implement a sort of sanity meter into turn-based combat basically shakes out to being a timer on combat — get things done before it runs out, or be forced to use SP-restoring items. Importantly, berserk characters don’t gain experience, either.
Also annoying is the malice system. This is heavily tied in with Yuri, the protagonist, and his personal demons, who turn out to be very literal demons. Malice is basically a measurement of all the evil and desire for revenge in the world, and every monster you kill raises it.
The only way to reduce malice is to occasionally enter a sort of mental graveyard, only accessible at save points, and do battle with a physical representation of it. Ignore this and let malice max out, and a twisted version of Yuri’s father — who may or may not be real — comes and kills you.
This graveyard is also where you access the powerful monsters that Yuri can fusion with/transform into. Every enemy has one of six elements, and when you kill them, you get points towards those elements. Level an element up, and you can go fight and acquire a new monster form.
Most of the characters have their unique quirks. Each one approaches magic differently, with Margarete the super-spy (apparently based on the far less buxom or blonde Mata Hari) not even using magic, but ordinary conventional weapons… anachronistic ones at that. (Margarete in general is just a huge walking anachronism; given the game’s sense of humor, you’re basically just going to have to roll with it.)
There’s a real strong Playstation 1-era vibe to this game; like Koudelka before it, and indeed like a lot of PSX jRPGs, environments are all pre-rendered, and a bit stiffly animated at that. Battles still whisk the party off to a 3D arena for everyone to take turns walloping each other.
The real highlight of the game, other than the overall creepy vibe, is the soundtrack. It has quite an old-school feel to it, and runs the gamut from cheery village themes to the seriously creepy European boss music.
If there’s a flaw to the game, it’s how unforgiving it can be. Like many jRPGs of the era you’re basically forced to follow a guide so you know what to bring with you into a boss fight; and this game loves boss fights, sometimes multiple in a row. The worst one though is the final boss, which is Super Bullshit 64. Boasting double the health of all but a few of the other bosses, it takes a turn for every two party members, making it difficult to get into a good rhythm, and it frequently abuses a powerful MP-draining attack.
I won’t lie: I ragequit after several attempts, and watched the (canonical, bad) ending on YouTube. To be fair, I could have gone and leveled up a little more, or gotten one of the top-tier fusion beasts. But I’m lazy and I’m old and I don’t have that kind of time.
In spite of that, though, if you like jRPGs, and even if you don’t, this is honestly a clever, funny and creepy jaunt that won’t take you a million years, with a cool setting and themes. There are probably better jRPGs out there, but I dare you, find one as interesting as this one.
