First Shadow Hearts game was solid, but this was a fucking masterpiece.
The first game was mediocre at best.
>>3559640New World doesn't get enough props, it's really not a bad game.
>>3559783"it was a good game, just not a good *insert any game-series here*"
>>3559640Yeah, this game deserved to sell A LOT better. It's not even those niche game where you have to go in with a certain mentality to actually enjoy (like, idk, king's field) otherwise it may seem to be shit. This game is genuinely a 9/10 jrpg in every aspect. It has interesting characters, fun gameplay and in the technical aspect is PS2 at is peak. Comfy soundtrack too.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QwZ7W9XZnQThe ending makes me kinda sad tho... I really wanted for Yuri to just let it go and join together with Karin. The her being his mother shit is really weird and also sad because we know how that ends
>>3559806It was a good Shadow Hearts game. Humour and horror and fusions. I think people were just stuck on Yuri and didn't want to play as a brat.
>>3559711First game was the best in the series. It had the best soundtrack too.>>3559783Yea new world was still pretty good, even if it wasn't as good as the first two.
>>3559819How covenant loops back into the good ending of 1 makes it one of the better time travel plot devices in any media. Love it.
>>3559819>spoilerFuck that, Alice for life.
>>3559897Same. The red hair girl is cool and all but if you played the first one first it's hard not to root for Yuri to get together with Alice again somehow. She's the world's best gf.Unfortunately most people skip to covenent first cause that's the installment that always gets shilled.
>>3559711You mean Koudelka, right? Agreed, it's extremely overrated.
>>3559909It's sad koudelka gets such a bad end in sh1 what with being locked up and shit. Realistic though I guess given the circumstances.I never used her kid in my party. Usually when with Yuri, Alice, and the vampire dude. And use the Chinese guy till I get the vampire
>>3559783Gameplay wise it is fucking fantastic, best of the three. The problem is just that the story isn't nearly as good as the first two.OST is great though. >>3559806It is the best game of the series mechanically and doesn't remove any elements from prior titles. The big difference between Covenent/FTNW is that Covenant uses proximity based combos/doubles while FTNW uses a gauge, a change that is massively in the enemy's favor and makes the gameplay much more enjoyable and balanced, as you can and will get fucked hard if you're not smart.
>>3559819>Yeah, this game deserved to sell A LOT better.I think it's time to have a dose of reality shot into your veins because I like a good hyperbolic statement but this was the highlight of the PS2 era and yeah, it had some competition. I was gonna go through the list of games released in '04 & '05 that crowded the shelves surrounding it in stores but nah. Too depressing, too many good games outside the RPG and loose fitting ARPG genre. You go for a 9 month release window either way and there's big hitters in the genre and nearby, some of my favourite underrated 6th gen games are in that window too and even I think they were mugged.late '03, 04 & 05 sure was a great time to be a 6th gen gamer with a GBA.It's a brilliant game, there's other brilliant games that released near it too but it makes sense that it may not have sold too well. Wasn't like this was an RPG in the 7th gen.
>>3559960Sixth Gen just had to many good games quite a few got overlooked as a result.>>3559934It also leaned to far into humor and forgot it was suppossed to be a horror rpg, which is my biggest complaint with 3. Also the party characters just weren't that good. The best characters in the game where the villains, lady and "notyuri"
>>3559960The only reality is that it sold a small margin of what completely trash games like FFX sold despite deserving much more. The same goes for games like Persona 3. Complete dogshit overrated by normalfags and trannies. I've played almost every single ps2 Jrpg and Covenant is no less than top 3.
>>3559897>>3559907Alice is boring as fuck. Can't say I didn't expect a little bit more of personality from an army commander like Karin, but still prefer her in personality and visual design than Alice.Also, not only that, but Karin gets a bad ending regardless, just because she wants to have Yuri inside THAT BAD. The same another anon says about Koudelka. Is sad seeing them end like that
>>3560013Curious what would round out your top 3
>>3559711The first game was absolute kino and arguably better than the second one, at least insofar as tone and plot were concerned. The ring definitely improved in the sequels.
>>3560013P3 and p4 didn't sell that much during their original ps2 release. Like 100k copies. P4 especially struggled initially being a December 2008 release on the ps2 in the west. The games had legs though and the remakes did very well
>>3560015Also this thread got me to read the shadow hearts wiki some and I intiailly forgot but apparently in the credits or whatever it's revealed that koudelka and her son sail off to America and live happily ever after. So I guess in the end she has a good life.Karin seemed like she liked being yuris mom too. It's what she wanted. So a happy end for her too.
>>3560015>Alice is boring as fuck.She's a woman, yes.
>>3559918Margerite’s fun. The fact that she gets the sniper ability which insta-kills is also really good for her.
>>3559640The first game had soul. 2 just feels like a dime a dozen PS2 jarpig with its endless cutscenes
>>3559711when people say something is solid they mean its playable but not good
>>35602112 still has a good soundtrack. Hardcore to the brain is a great boss theme. The shadow hearts trilogy sure could use an HD remaster but that's unlikely to happen
>>3560215I don't think this is true. It usually means 'pretty good'.
>>3559826>didn't want to play as a bratWell, I prefer the original plan of having the third game being about young Ben.
>>3560850I think it was better to distance the third game from the Hyugas, their story was complete. Going to the New World and being able to incorporate some of that mythology was interesting, especially since it's through a tongue-in-cheek Jap lens.
>>3559640This game series suffers from the usual affliction of horror game series where they become less horrifying and a lot more action and/or humor orientated. it is like an unspoken rule that horror gets away with being difficult so all games that were originally horror are used as a boat to make other games.
Also wanna add in the first game Simon wants is doing all the shit he does basically to reset the world and the status quo. Your party are basically the tools of the elite getting rid of him to keep the current powers firmly entrenched and the status quo in tact, which leads to 2 world wars. Kinda fucked up when you think about it.
>>3560958Based Japs killing rabble rousing commies.
>>3560013careful with those edges there fella, wouldn't wanna hurt somebody now would we?
>>3559819https://youtu.be/wgxucfoR-XE?si=K3yDp2eSoOTWB738
anyone here back Pennyblood on Kickstarter? I'm worried that the Hades-like prequel they outsourced bombing is going to kill off the only chance we have at more Shadow Hearts
>>3560013>I've played almost every single ps2 Jrpg and Covenant is no less than top 3.Please give us your top 25 with reasons, learned one.
>>3560013>>3562114Also, please give us your top ten most overrated PS2 RPGs, with reasons, sage.
>>3562115FFXFFX-2FFXIIWild Arms 5Xenosaga I,II,II.hackeryKingdom HeartsPersona 4Rogue GalaxyDevil Summoner 1,2Star Ocean 3Suikoden 3Every Tales of game.
The first Shadow Hearts was a kino2nd, I didn't even finish it. It was nice how it had a lot more budget and polish obviously, but the whole Y2K final fantasy anime thing was tiring, crazy hairstyles and everything. Like Rasputin was literally green and some crazy beard and arabian nights outfit like an anime from 2003. It was like Yugioh to Yugioh GX, just a huge jump from grimdark edgy to silly.There's nothing wrong with comic relief, but its like that Fallout TV show thats all comic relief with some dramatic moments, just feels forced. Like why would I feel drama when something is obviously a joke? That style seems to be popular anyways, because of "millenial writing". Just haha im so chill and dont use punctuation and stuff but let's force a Very Special Episode every 5 minutes.Yeah whatever. I think I dropped it after the cult leader died and Yuri was all "we have to save Russia!" ???? I mean I like garbage, trash cinema that doesn't take itself serious or whatever, but the jump from SH1 took away a lot of what I liked about the first game.
>>3562129The first game has a homosexual chink molesting the main character with acupuncture as a gameplay element. I wouldn't call it lacking in silliness.
>>3562132Wrong. "This herd of 100 cows is all brown cows but it has 1 or 2 black cows so I don't think it's lacking in black cows" is what you are telling me. You think the exception is the rule and it's not, but I doubt you have the mental maturity or even braincells to understand that seeing as how you needed to point out that a chinese man is a "chink" in a game that takes place literally in China.You're a dumbass and I just wanted to roast you, but not atypical of the drooling imbeciles who play JRPGs.
>>3562137Ah, my bad, you are so autistic that you've got a "joke allergy".
>>3562141Wrong. SH1 had plenty of comic relief and jokes, no one is denying that. You just lack the mental faculties for any sort of nuance whatsoever.
>>3562144I'm going to need an exact accounting of the ration of jokes to serious and how that coheres with grim darkitude vs. silly.
>>3562074I've never heard of penny blood till now. Which means their marketing team has totally failed.Honestly id rather shadow hearts stay a trilogy. We could use an HD remaster though.
>>3562121Wild arms 5 was fun but overstayed it's welcome and the visuals where very brown and drab. Game was to long. Still I regret selling my copy of it in college on ebay :(. It's worth a ton of money now. I don't think it's a game I'd every want to replay though to be honest (which is why I sold it). The story is atrocious but some of the characters are good at least. Especially the red head
>>3562179>Especially the red headBruh. Rebecca is the most fucking annoying character I've ever seen.
>>3562183I love how she twirls her guns in combat and denim short shorts.
>>3562074I backed it and the Wild Arms game they were doing and they really shit the bed. They released that shitty game no one wanted and then turned around and said “oh no actually this was just a test to try and interest a studio in supporting development!” Basically lied about their intent and had no means to release their game.
>>3562284Never back anything. Ever.
This is one of those games I wish I played years ago because now I want to play it but I'd rather do it on a CRT on actual hardware and copies are too expensive.
>>3559640Arguably the worst battle soundtrack in jrpg history. The introduction of over the top silly characters in the shadow hearts franchise reducing the quality of its setting and storytelling.First game only one worth playing if you had to play one.
>>3559640It cannot be a masterpiece with that atrocious writing and poorly designed gameplay.
>>3559640Most of Covenant advantages are technical, a refining in the gameplay and graphics, a bigger world with more character variety and stuff like that and while i agree those things are great the is far less unique than the original on account of the horror elements from Koudelka being less prominent than in previous entry. It´s still a pretty good game (unlike New World that went for the absolute joke route) and pretty emotional too. It take guts to compromise to unpleasant endings.
>>3565139Shadow hearts 1 is a 5/52 is a 4/53 is a 3/5They're all worth playing though. 3 is still decent. It's just way to lol so random comedy hour.
