caraig | Shadow hearts: Covenant

'Tis a day of game reviews, it seems! This particular title I rented and am gioving it a whirl, and I found that there were some things I felt like sharing with whomever stumbles accross this journal.

So. Shadow Hearts: Covenant is a sequel to a PS2 game that came out a couple years ago called, unsurprisingly, Shadow Hearts. In fact, on the title screen and in the attract mode cutscene the title of the game is given as Shadow Hearts II. In general, the game is a typical console RPG with a few things to make it different enough for recognition.

I'll start with the mechanicals. Visually, the game is typical of current-generation PS2 games, which is to say, quite pretty. The environments are not rotoscoped, and are in fact modeled much like FFX. You still can't control the camera however, just like in FFX. Your party can have any number of people though only four can go into battle at any time. (Quite like FFX, either.) Combat is not, however, real time (UNlike FFX and just about every other current console RPG on the market.)

Penny Arcade already bemoaned the amount of real-time combat in RPGs, and fortunately SH:C sort of breaks from that. However, they do have a mechanic for the "twitch" gamer crowd, which is the Judgment Ring. Basically, it's a circle marked off with areas for hits and (much smaller) areas for critical hits, with a spinner that travels around the ring, and you try to stop the spinner in the critical hit areas. Something similar to this is done for magic spells, item use in combat, and special abilities. On the one hand, it's annoying because it smacks of twitch gaming which I'm not usually in the mood for when I'm playing an RPG. On the other hand, it's not too intrusive even if the way it's integrated into the storyline is a bit cheesy. And on the gripping hand, it's probably better than just having the game make up random numbers of if you hit or not.

So, mechanically it's not all bad and it's reasonably good. Lets move on to storyline which is where this game really gets my attention. I'm no occult scholar, but there's enough name-dropping, symbols, and concepts from Western magic traditions to make anyone with a passing interest in that subject sit up. The main symbol seen throughout the game (and used on the Judgment Ring) is an Edwardian alchemical crest. It has mention of the Key of Solomon. The crests used for magic read like the roster from the Goetia. Roger Bacon is an NPC. I don't know about you, but I thought that was pretty cool right there. =) They even have a reference to the 'R'yleh Manuscript' for the Lovecraft fans amongst us. Mind you, the story isn't exactly accurate in a LOT of historical things besides, but if you view this as more of an alternate history you might be able to still enjoy it.

There is also another mechanic that made me very intrigued. For one of the characters, Yuri, he must do various things within his own psyche in order to unlock his full potential. This is a mechanic introduced towards the beginning of the game, so it's a recurring theme. The idea of a character undertaking an internal quest or exploring their own psyche to become better at various abilities is an intriguing one, and one that could be made a much bigger part of a game, especially one with the involvement of magic and 'mental sciences.'

The story is set in 1917, with the first world war raging. Imperial Germany is advancing into France and the town of Domremy is to be occupied. But the occupation is foiled when some sort of demon-like creature defies the German soldiers and their commander, Lt. Karin Koenig. And from there, it goes all over Eastern and Western Europe, all the way to Russia where Rasputin (despite having been killed in 1916 by Prins Yussupov (or repeatedly by the council of ministers, if you choose to believe the legends)) is evilly influencing the royal Romanov family. And behind it all is the shadow of a far-reaching secret society.

So while it's no historical/occult/conspiracy tour de force it really is pretty engaging for the storyline alone. And now to quibble on details.

The writing is fun in a lot of places. Most of the characters are interesting. Joachin/Grand Papillion is wonderfully over-the-top as the strongman of the party and a would-be super hero. He has the square-jawed tone of voice down pat, and even at his most ridiculous ("I really like this mailbox....") he comes off as the genuine four-color hero type. Blanca, the wolf, has his own, sometimes internal dialogue that fits him very well ("Awoo!" ("What am I getting put into the middle of now?")) though unfortunately it seems like he could have been done much better later in the game.

Unfortunately, the other characters fall a bit short of "perfect," at least for me. Karin Koenig, as an Imperial German officer, fortunately does not "trip and scream" as too many 'heroines' do, and she comes off as mostly capable and confident. It's a shame she seems to loose some of that strength of character as the story moves on. I think what makes it quite so dissonant is that she falls for the "main character," Yuri. Yuri is, well... he's an jerk. Filled with self-loathing, subscriptions rather than mere issues, and a bizarre mix of self-effacing and self-importance, it utterly boggles me what Karin sees in him and how she could be attracted to him outside of shared experiences and battles. This has made me resolve to never pair a strong female lead with any sort of sub-par angsty loner male; defying all concepts of common sense, she will fall for him.

Not that the character isn't played well. Yuri, for all his angst and lack of romantic charm, has quite a few moments, usually when he's caught flatfooted by some incident. His "Huh?" moments can be quite priceless. And he isn't totally without faults, he's just too much a loner to be terribly appealing; Vampire Hunter D is a more sympathetic character, but probably because D isn't given a chance to work much with others who aren't one step away from skewering him. So the writers have injected a good amount of humor into the game and Yuri, as with most of the characters, is well-written.

Anastasia Romanov and Leana come so late to the party that it's hard to really make any judgments about their characters.

This leaves the last of the three main characters, Gepetto, a puppeteer and magician. And yes, the name is taken apparently from the Pinocchio legend. But Eisner would not want to let this man come within ten miles of Disney. Now, he's well-written, thoughtful and caring and with flaws that still make him approachable. Considering the oddball schools of magic that have developed, and of course the fact that this is an RPG and a work of fiction, that he uses a marionette to cast his spells is not only acceptable to suspend disbelief for, it's actually an interesting mechanic since it's a magical marionette and more akin to a little golem than anything. No, what irks me about this character is the marionette itself. It's in the shape of a young girl. While he never, ever, ever does anything that makes me scream 'ICK!' the whole image alone is enough for me to vow never to have the twisty old goat in any frontline combat team of mine. The wolf makes at least as good an addition, as does the aromatherapy-dispensing, tarot-card-lobbing, fan-flapping, sadly empty-headed dancer. (Yes, the one who tries to kill off the party with a giant pink cat and instead gets mauled by said pink kitten.)

The villains are in general interesting. Nicolai (it's clear fairly quickly that he's a bad guy so this isn't giving anything away) is intriguing and fascinating so far. Rasputin (and who could doubt that he's NOT a villain?) comes off as the classic mustache-twirling arch-villain. Rasputin certainly appeals to the part of me that wants a clearly evil villain to go after, while Nicolai is appealing from the point of view of a villain whom you want to understand. As for the henchmen, Lenny is surprisingly sympathetic as a flunky; it's just hard to hate him. And, of course, there is the typical vampy female domme. (Not sure how many different ways they can do this theme, but i wish they would find something.) Fortunately, she gets her just desserts.

And overall the other NPCs are well done, too. Roger Bacon perhaps comes off as too modern in his knowledge and mannerisms but he's very much a secondary character anyway. (The first meeting with him also has the most hilarious console RPG in-joke I've ever seen; anyone who's played ANY console RPG as recently as FFIX will get it.) Kato so far has been a very intriguing character and he'll be showing up more as the game progresses. The recurring item merchant and his brother the tailor are as flamey as bonfires and so over the top it's unbelievable but they are entertaining at least. I really really really do not want to think of why the tailor gets inspirations for making Gepetto's manniquin's dresses from cards you look for and hand in to him, cards which depict total beefcake. No, I will not elaborate, I'm still trying to not think about it.

Bear in mind though, that while the story starts out relatively light in tone, it plunges into some dark and moderately disturbing (even for me) bits every so often. Nothing utterly unappealing (except for anything having to do with that marionette of Gepetto's; AUGH don't even get me started on the tailor again!) but a couple times made me glance at the packaging to check if there was an ESRB MA rating on it. (There isn't, by the way; it's T. I've played about halfway through and I'd say it makes me wish for a rating somewhere in between T and MA.)

As far as gameplay goes, it's really rather forgiving. Your goals are usually pretty well laid-out, the areas are not gignormous, and the optional quests are not FF 'hidden quest' impossible. I get the feeling that if I did not have GameFAQs bookmarked I would not be despairing of getting anywhere in this game. There are, as usual, some unobvious things, but not a huge amount, and not enough to totally remove enjoyment of the game. It has the added benefit of allowing you to go back to areas you have already gone through and do things that you haven't finished yet, so leaving an area does not lock you off from going back to it.

My final word on it: forgiving gameplay, involved and (for me) appealing storyline, intriguing subject matter (magic models and historical conspiracies are right up my alley!) and interesting plot; against some rather dark moments and one (for me) disturbing character (damn you, Gepetto!) who isn't really all that disturbing unless you think too much about him. If I had the cash reserves I would probably buy it to play it through to the end.