Shadow Hearts

This game, along with the whole series, is a fave of mine. It is funny, was going to buy it when it was still new and then decided against it due to a negative review. Finally saw it in Gamestop for cheap and got it and loved it! Suffice to say, I do not bother reading reviews for games much anymore or decide whether to purchase a game due to a positive review. If I did, all I would own are call of duty games out the butt! Seriously, does anyone have any doubts that most game reviewers seem like they are paid off or something? Well, this game is an RPG that is turn based, but due to the awesome judgement wheel and Gothic, yet real world setting, this game is a step above most mainstream games in my book.

The story has a young woman whose father was recently killed on board a train when a strange gentlemanly man calling himself Roger Bacon begins killing the guards on the train with ease. A young man appears though and gets the girl away from him and thus his and the young woman's story begins as first the young woman is targeted by a strange sorcerer in Asia and then they most stop Roger Bacon from capturing Koudelka and unleashing evil upon the Earth!

The game play is very fun as you go to locations and fight monsters, shop and talk to people. The game is a bit on the short side, but it is a nice change a pace when all the games these days seem to go on forever. The combat is turn based, which I enjoy; however, it also keeps you involved with the judgement wheel. Hit the target or your character misses and hit the red zone and you do more damage! It makes for some really engaging combat!

So this game is great and the second part of a four game series and is more of a spin off of the first game, Koudelka on the first Playstation. It is way different than the trilogy on PS2, but Koudelka is in this one and it has the location of that game in this one so that is pretty cool. This is the most Gothic and horror driven of the trilogy as more humor would seep in the next installment and it becomes an outright comedy by the third. I rank this second of the three as the second game is so epic; unfortunately, the third would take a step or two back. This one is great fun, though it saddens me that the series ended on the PS2 because with the consoles they have now and how much can fit on a disc this series could have produced a game that spanned the whole globe!