Midway`s "Shadow Hearts 2" is a sequel to the original game, released in 2001, and takes place several months after the original one ended.
Set in a fantasy world parallel to ours during the First World War, our hero, Yuri, is weakened by an evil curse that threatens his very soul. What is needed is a journey to find a cure and defeat the fiendish cult that threatens the world.
Almost sounds like a solid game doesn`t it? Well, don`t be fooled.
First of all, if you never played the first game, it will get progressively confusing - with characters, locations, objects and key plot points - as the original Shadow Hearts becomes crucial to the game`s story, and these are never really explained in any great detail.
The game has an annoying number of pointless random battles that keep popping up. And once the battle is done and you`ve managed to stay awake through the two-hour cut scene, you will have completely forgotten what you were looking for in the first place.
The camera angle, or rather lack thereof, is extremely frustrating when casting "area of effect" spells. I had to try countless spells and target combinations before finding the one that actually worked.
Childish and pointless
Mastering the judgement ring is a key component to succeed in this game. The ring resembles a disk with a spinning arm and the aim is to stop the arm in the highlighted areas in order to make a successful move.
The ring has two key areas: the hit area, which delivers a normal attack; and the strike area. Hitting all of the strike areas will deliver a perfect attack and add some needed extra damage.
The judgment ring can also be customised during the game by picking up special items affecting speed, hit-zone size, and added status effects such as slow and paralysis. And for those people who are too lazy to bother, there is also a weakened auto-mode.
The game has some enormous dungeons, but only a small portion of each dungeon is shown on the useless map, leading to some unnecessary load screens as you wander about. It`s quite easy to get lost, as most dungeons look exactly the same.
Translations into English completely fail to match up with the words on the screen. The voice acting is thin and childish, with some characters being far worse than others.
Dramatic speech is never successfully pulled off and it ruins all crucial moments in the plot.
One dialogue specifically comes to mind when Yuri is walking with Blanka (the wolf) and a stranger says: "I see you have a wolf."
To which Yuri replies, "Yes, it`s better than yours."
"Well let`s see whose fangs are sharper," comes the reply before another pointless battle begins.
At times graphics are pretty good, but most enemies are blocky and pixelated, giving the impression of early PS1 games.
The soundtrack is also cheesy and the most annoying thing is that you can never turn it down unless you turn the volume off on your Television set.
Although the game comes as a double disk, it hardly seems worth wasting your money.
Take my advice: skip this one and rather get something that hasn`t been thrown together to make a quick buck.
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