Shadow Hearts: From the New World

Written by Adam Woolcott  on November 16, 2005

New Impressions: It really is coming to America!

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When we last covered Shadow Hearts: From the New World, there was a real possibility that the game would never actually reach the New World, otherwise known as America. Even though the franchise has had a slow and steady rise in popularity since the first game shipped in 2001, the cult following wasn't enough for Midway to spend the money localizing the 3rd game Ц hard to blame them considering how much of an effort they truly did put into promoting Shadow Hearts: Covenant last year, only for it to commercially flop despite critical praise all around, from both the press and gamers alike. So after Midway passed on bringing FTNW here, it looked like the game would remain in Japan permanently like so many other role-playing games that don't say Final Fantasy on them. But that was before XSEED hit the scene. A new publisher with numerous Square Enix luminaries at the helm Ц including the former SE USA president, no less Ц XSEED has taken on Shadow Hearts 3 as one of their first localization projects, much to the delight of Shadow Hearts fans across the country. Shadow Hearts: FTWN is truly coming to the New World, and though a few things are up in the air, chances are we're in for yet another fantastic entry in a series that's earned its fan base the hard way.

For those who haven't been following the progress of FTNW, this 3rd game in the franchise takes a different turn from Covenant's plot. Instead of the familiar main character of Yuri Hyuga, Harmonixer and overall wiseass, you play as young New York detective Johnny Garland in the year 1929 Ц right at the end of the roaring 20's. He's no normal teenager however; his memory is completely wiped thanks to horrible events in his earliest days. After encountering demons and events similar to the first two Shadow Hearts games, he's charged with getting to the bottom of the situation. Johnny isn't a Harmonixer (or in other words, a human who can take demon form), instead opting to use a lightsaber-like sword. However there is a Harmonixer in the group Ц the Native American known as Shania, who becomes the main female lead like Karin and Alice previously. The story of From The New World takes you all across the Americas Ц Chicago, Las Vegas, Alcatraz, even Central America, and the dynamic duo of Johnny and Shania will encounter numerous characters that will join up with them Ц a mariachi band player, a ninja named Frank who has a strange take on the Japanese language, even a cat that uses drunken-fist (seriously now, did the Suikoden development team find their way here?)...in traditional Shadow Hearts fashion, the characters are completely off the wall. It doesn't appear on the surface that the game will touch on events from the last SH plot, but chances are there will be cameos here and there Ц at the least, hopefully they'll resolve the end of Covenant and explain the true ending.

Given that it's been a year since Covenant came out, little has been changed in the overall flow of the battle system. Naturally the Judgment Ring makes a return, and like Covenant, it can be altered to your whimsy, to make things more difficult or easier by changing how the Ring works. I just hope the Ring Soul returns though it won't be much fun without Yuri and Karin around to interact with...it. Though the system will be mostly the same, much has been added. In the same fashion as Xenosaga II used earlier this year, SH3 lets you 'stock' turns which can then be used to sneak in multiple attacks per turn or lead into a devastating combo with other party members via the already-existing combo system from Covenant. For the most part it seems seasoned Shadow Hearts players will be able to leap right in and grasp the enhancements to the already solid system Nautilus has put in place. Naturally, your opponents also have access to these tricks, so it's possible you'll get slaughtered if a character gets singled out by a set of enemies, meaning you'll want to break up their momentum before they can wail on you.

Fusions (aka changing into a demon form) work just like in Covenant Ц as Shania earns new fusion forms, she can power them up using points earned from winning battles, which unlocks newer moves and probably lets you get more powerful fusions as well. Like Yuri, Shania's lone form of magic comes from the class of her fusion, so there's no fun with the Stellar Charts. However, since she's teh gurel!!!!!111111 she has an elaborate fusion FMV that looks like it was taken straight out of the Spherechanges of Final Fantasy X-2. And she gets naked doing it, though you don't really see it. Let's just hope this time around the fusions are actually worth using and not just for show. For the other characters, those Stellar Charts will work like the Crests from Covenant to let characters use whatever magic spells they wish from the ones the party comes across during the journey. Basically a Stellar Chart is a special grid-like doohickey where you place spells, and then you equip that Chart to use the magic in battle. From the descriptions it likely will be similar to how you added Dresspheres to a Garment Grid in FFX-2. Let's just hope there's not an overkill of Charts like there was Garment Grids.

Now that the game is safely in the hands of an American publisher, one thing remains, and that's how the translation will go. Midway did a fantastic job with both Shadow Hearts games they published, especially since they had little, if any experience in the localization side of things. Where many role-players have their humor and/or story lost in translation, Midway captured the humor and drama of the storyline making it very enjoyable to play through. With a new publisher at the reign, XSEED has huge shoes to fill. While we know Atlus, Sega and Ubisoft are usually bang-on with their localization efforts, the new kids on the block are an unknown entity, even with Square Enix experience. For their sake I hope they pull off a top-notch translation with not just great voice acting but text as well, and I really, really hope they can keep the bizarre humor of the game intact like Midway did. However considering the pedigree of XSEED, I do think they can pull it off and perhaps even surpass its predecessors. If only for Frank's sake Ц they just have to pull him off because apparently he's completely hilarious.