Post by Bytor on Oct 17, 2009 0:26:58 GMT -5
-Visuals- 8.1/10
It's seldom that a sequel doesn't live up to the original in presentation but I swear I think Shadow Hearts: Covenant simply looked much better. It is, however, very, very similar but the character renditions simply don't seem to have as much texture and detail. Once again I'll give it an A for effort and the cut scenes themselves are awesome. The backgrounds are done nicely as well but it is not up to the standard that the previous version of Shadow Hearts produced nor what might be expected for a game released in 2006, even though it is PS2.
-Sound- 7.8/10
The voice acting certainly did not live up to the previous incarnation, but, I found the voices to strangely fit, Mao was hilarious, I really liked Frank's silliness and I even liked Nathan and Shania's seriousness. The background music fit well as well, but I did find it to be a tad repetitive.
-Gameplay- 8.8/10
OK...this is pretty much the exact same battle system that is used in Shadow Hearts: Covenant. It worked then, it still works now, however there are a couple of small changes which add greatly, although they can be a tad tough to manage until you get the general gist. The combat system now uses a double attack mode, a combo mode and even double combos, which can be very lethal but can also reduce your ability to attack with stronger attacks until your "stock gauge" is recharged. This can provide for some great battles and lots of fun using all of the extra tools which are available through collecting bonus items. Now for my major complaint...the boss battles, especially towards the end are interminable and at times simply ridiculous. I understand, and want my boss battles to progress in difficulty but it is somewhat silly to dungeon crawl to build a level and have the bosses attack you with similarly increased levels (one battle no matter how high I was the attacks took off 1/2 my hit points regardless)...in other words no matter what level you are, the last couple of bosses are at much, much higher levels, I certainly don't want an easy battle but I also don't want to have to fight a battle which lasts an hour and have to have two of my four members do nothing but heal constantly, it simply seemed to me to seriously slow down the "flow" of the game.
-Story- 8.2/10
Amnesiac hero, mysterious shape shifting Indian princess, weird ninja, drunken cat...evil? dead? sister? evil serial killer...all fighting to stop (or start) the world from being taken over my malice laden demons....honestly the story here is nowhere as good as the previous version at all
-Overall- 8.4/10
If you like Shadow Hearts: Covenant you'll like this....but I doubt you'll love it. Issues with graphics and gameplay take away from what could have been a truly great sequel.