Welcome to Gaia! ::

Since Shadow Hearts and Shadow Hearts: Covenant are two of my all-time favorite video games, I was wondering who else has played and enjoyed the games.

In case you have no idea which games are included in the series I'm talking about I'll list them.

Koudelka (Playstation)
Shadow Hearts (PS2)
Shadow Hearts: Covenant (PS2)
Shadow Hearts: From the New World (PS2) -You can thank the Captain (Demonic Persona) for setting me straight on this one.


Koudelka
I'll admit that Koudelka was too challenging for me. The battle system was odd and battles took too long for my short attention span. Also, I played for a good four hours and could only find one save spot. So, props to anyone who made it through this game. Do not base your expectations of the later games on you opinion of this one.

Shadow Hearts
Fell in love with the cover and was not dissappointed by the game in any way. It is turn based, but don't let that turn you away. It's not your basic turn-based system. It employs something called the Judgement Ring to control most chance aspects of the game. The storyline's great--make sure you get all the little hidden scenes for the full effect and aim yourself at the Good ending. The playable characters are diverse:

Yuri: A Russian/Japanese hero who suffers from voices in his head and the ability to morph into the demons he's defeated.

Alice: The daughter of a murdered priest with massive magical power.

Margarete: A superspy from the ol' US of A.

Zhuzhen: A Chinese exorcist.

Keith: A recently awakened vampire who's bored out of his mind.

Haley: A street-urchin with the power to make the earth shake.

The villians are just as fun. Nothing like facing off against a series of psychotics bent on destroying the world.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant
Even more fun than the first SH! It's longer, with a bunch more options and it's quite a bit creepier. Some dungeons give you that survival horror shiver down your spine.

The only playable character that carries over is Yuri, though some of the others from SH show up.
The new characters include:

Karin: A German officer sent to put down a tiny French town that's defying the will of Germany. She ends up encountering a demon.

Gepetto: A retired puppeteer, tagging along with his "Nephew-in-Law" to make sure Yuri doesn't get into too much trouble.

Blanca: An entirely too-intelligent wolf that also sticks with Yuri.

Joachim: A vampiric wrestler with a super-hero complex.

Lucia: An Italian dancing fortune-teller.

Anastasia: Princess of Imperial Russia--Yes, that Anastasia.

Kurondo: A Japanese swordsman who also seems to have some shape-shifting abilities.

The villians in this one are even more fun (and constantly changing so you never know what to expect) and they've tweaked the Judgement Ring to make it much easier.

Shadow Hearts: From the New World
I know it exists, I want it, I want it bad, but I can't find it anywhere. I have managed to learn that Yuri isn't the main character, but that's pretty much it, so if you know something, tell me please... I have cookies.

EDIT: Got this one for Christmas! mrgreen

It was MUCH shorter than Covenant, the gameplay didn't divert from SH:C by all that much and the final dungeon was laughably short. The new combo system is tons more useful, though. None of the previous playable characters cross over, but many of the characters from SH and SH:C show up; some of them quite a bit (Lenny, Roger, Keith [as the golden bat] & Joachim).

The Characters:

Johnny Garland: A 16-year old detective based in New York. He's the son of a rich man, but he lost his father and sister in a tragic car accident. When he finally receives a case that isn't to find a missing cat, he gets pulled into the strange world of Malice, monsters and windows.

Shania: A 20 year old Native American girl from a tribe out west--though she looks NOTHING like a Native American--with the power to morph into the gods she makes pacts with. She is traveling to exterminate monsters and to seek revenge.

Natan: Shania's personal bodyguard. He's also a Native American--much more believable in his case--from a tribe that live in the Grand Canyon.

Frank: A real American Ninja, trained in Brasil--don't know where he got that odd accent though. Frank is Joachim's replacement in this game. He even gets the goofy cut scenes and the twangy background music every time you stumble upon an odd object that he'll use as his new SABER.

Mao: Frank's master. She's a giant cat that works in Chicago for Al Capone and an aspiring starlet.

Hilda: Magical Girl Vampire Hilda. Yup, if you've played SH and SH:C you'll know who's family she belongs to.

Ricardo: A mariachi formerly working in Capone's speakeasy. With his muse items, he's kinda Lucia's replacement in the game except he's strong enough to be really useful. I kept him and Johnny in my party at all times. (Though I'll admit that I snubbed Shania 'cause I didn't like her character. She is really useful though. I just hold grudges against characters I don't like.)


The villians in this one were actually pretty cool, if you don't count the Penguin-er, I meant Gilbert. Lady and Killer were two of my favorite characters.

Thanks for the info. -->COOKIE<-- -->COOKIE<-- -->COOKIE<-- -->COOKIE<-- -->COOKIE<-- You're the best! heart

As far as Koudelka goes you won't miss out on anything really by not playing it. Most people who've played both Koudelka and Shadow Hearts don't even realize there's a connection. The character from the PSone game, Koudelka, and Nemeton Abbey (the setting in Koudelka) both make an appearance in SH, but the storyline from the first game doesn't make any impact on SH.

I started playing Shadow Hearts, and I gotta say, Great Game! I'm not that far, In Shanghai, but Yuri is lvl 17 along with Alice, and Margarette. I cant get my lvl 2 fusion souls! I have 4 that are at lvl 2 but The tombstones don't glow. I have all the lvl 1 souls though.

thx. I have like 12 hours on it already, lol. On RPG games I always waste loads of time searching every corner and over lvling.

you know that sewer area right after you see Margarette? After i got out of that area, when i was done over leveling, I had 4000 steps on the pedometer. I'm saving for 8000, I understand it is a belt of some sort? also some places say there's Margarette's ultimate armor at 10,000 steps. is that true?

From the New World has now been received for Christmas and has been played through once. See post one for details.