Shadow Hearts: From the New World

Written by Adam Woolcott  on March 21, 2006

Review: Al Capone Ц mafia kingpin, Chicago icon... champion of peace?

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Though Shadow Hearts: Covenant could best be called a sleeper hit, the game was great enough that it seems impossible to actually top it. It hit the spot in almost every area, whether it's the battle system, the story, the characters, and a top notch presentation rivaling anything Final Fantasy. So perhaps it's understandable that the 'sequel' is a very modest Shadow Hearts: From the New World. A new cast of characters, a new portion of the world, and a different take on the familiar plot device makes the game less like a sequel and more of an expansion pack or a different world entirely. It doesn't top Covenant, and has many flaws that render the game 'just another' RPG, but thanks to the always solid combat, and a slightly demented take on United States history, From the New World is worth playing for fans of the series, though for newcomers it might make them wonder what all the fuss is about seeing the high praise for its predecessor, even if the fresh location, plot, and characters make it ideal to draw in new fans.

Though the true conclusion to Shadow Hearts: Covenant is still up in the air, From the New World doesn't strive to be a true sequel, but instead a spin-off or side-story in the same universe, but taking place in the 'new world' otherwise known as the Americas instead of the familiar Europe or Japan. The game begins in 1929, 14 years after Covenant ended, where you'll take control of the 16 year old Johnny Garland, who just so happens to have his own detective agency in New York and his own butler in Lenny Curtis, who Covenant fans surely will remember from Sapientes Gladio. He's also lost almost all of his memory after losing his parents, and thus part of his reason for becoming a detective is to figure out his past and possibly avenge their deaths. Unfortunately his detective work has mostly centered around rescuing cats and doing mundane jobs like mowing grass. Not exactly a thrilling day at the office for the kid.

One day an unusual looking man who goes by the name of Professor Gilbert pays Johnny a visit to request his help in finding a wanted criminal. Hungry for real action Garland takes up the offer and eventually finds the guy in an abandoned theater, where he witnesses the summoning of a 'Window' which allows demons to enter our world. Before the stunned Johnny can be killed by the creatures, Shania, a Native American huntress, comes to his aid, and the quest goes into motion, as Johnny tries to understand his unusual power (that is unknown even to the player) and Shania looks for revenge for unknown reasons. Though FTNW is a spin-off game, some old story comes into play, such as Nicolai Conrad's unleashing of the malice locked up in Aponia Tower at the Vatican (it's fun to note that when this is mentioned in Lenny's presence, he turns away and closes his eyes, obviously ashamed he was part of it); however in general anyone who's never played the original or Covenant can rest easy and play through the game without feeling like they're missing something in terms of plot.

Like always, FTNW is seeped in altered takes on historical events (for legal reasons I'm sure), and most likely the average gamer will recognize these people unlike previous Shadow Hearts games, which were based upon Asian and European history. Any American knows who Al Capone is, who Elliot Ness is, what Roswell is all about and of course, know the cities of New York, Las Vegas, Chicago, and the like. But a whole bunch of this is fictionalized Ц not only does Al Capone in Shadow Hearts barely resemble the real deal, he's also somewhat of a hero, as his rival, the Irishman McManus, gets tagged as the evil guy. And that's not even mentioning that one of the top 'executives' in Capone's mafia is a huge, talking, Drunken Fist practicing...cat who ends up joining your party. Only in Shadow Hearts, kids. It's too bad Yuri isn't around because he loves giant pussies. History buffs will almost assuredly scoff at the lack of authenticity. However the game doesn't completely take place in North America, as half of the game takes place in South America, for spoileriffic reasons. After all, both continents make up the New World.

After it was pretty much perfected in Shadow Hearts: Covenant, the interactive turn-based system known as the Judgment Ring has returned with even more tweaking. It functions the exact same way and offers a bunch of customization options, all of which will be familiar to veterans of Covenant, but for newbies, you can change ring types, add hit effects (like poison, instant death, and the like), and alter the hit areas to make it easier to get strikes or more difficult. Even the goofy Ring Soul guy is back, but now you have to fetch Ring Fragments in dungeons to get the special items from him...and hunt the weirdo down in various places that you're only hinted at. The big change deals with stock, which lets you dish out double attacks during a turn. Basically, any time you get attacked or deal damage yourself, a stock meter fills up, and once it's full a double attack can be performed. You can't just do the same attack twice though, as you must do two different attacks, such as a basic attack and a magic move, or use of an item. The benefit is that you can take out an enemy before he can attack, or finish off a boss, but the downside is that it delays the character's next turn. This can be chained with the traditional combo move and can even pull off double combos if there's enough stock. In many ways its a more streamlined and accessible version of the same system in Xenosaga II.

Instead of using a return to crest magic like Covenant, FTNW uses a 'stellar chart' system where you place acquired spells on a grid designed like one of the constellations that reminds me a bit of Garment Grids. It's fairly easy to understand, though a bit more complicated than it should be, as many spells won't be equippable until you do some special work with the charts. Each character has their own chart, except for Shania who, like Yuri before, uses her Fusion powers instead, though she is not a Harmonixer, but instead more like a summoner who makes pacts with spirits. She's got no creepy graveyard with little dead girls running around. However you do earn soul points which then 'charge' the fusion giving it more abilities. Back to the stellars, they can be customized in many ways, such as increasing its level to allow more powerful spells to be affixed to the chart, their alignment can be adjusted (light, dark, neutral, etc), and that sort. The only way to customize them though is to visit the item shop and pay out the nose which could be used for more powerful weapons. Most characters also have unique special abilities too, which we'll discuss in a bit.

All this is vitally important because From the New World will actually challenge you. Yes, both Shadow Hearts and Covenant were in general pushovers that could be beaten without a whole lot of effort, but this one is far from it. Enemy encounters are more frequent, which is admittedly annoying. Enemies are more powerful and trickier to deal with. Boss battles can be intense. And at times the game becomes a battle of status effects. Thus, encounters in this one require real strategy and clever use of the abilities of your characters. You can plow through the game without many spells, but it won't be easy and will probably wipe out your item inventory using them to stay alive. Everything you can do, enemies can do, so expect double attacks, double combos, and the sort, unless you're smart enough to waste stock at the proper time for a 'hard hit' attack which steals opponent stock. Unless you can get lucky & inflict a status effect on a boss (for instance I managed to poison one boss which made things very easy), you can expect many fights to be a knock down, drag out affair and definitely not the sort of wussies that populated Covenant. It's not brutally hard like, say, the Shin Megami Tensei games, but FTNW will definitely keep you on your toes.

From the New World, like its predecessors, has no world map, and you just go from place to place from a list in a linear fashion. To make up for this, the game places far more side quests at your disposal to encourage exploration. Almost every character has their own adventures to go on to acquire special moves. Frank, the goofy but incredibly awesome western ninja gets special letters he has to deliver to other people in his clan which unlock new moves. Hilda Valentine, the latest in the line of Shadow Hearts weird vampire people, gets new movies by finding hidden magazines (and this is not even mentioning her ability to shapeshift like her brother Joachim). Natan, the protector of 'princess' Shania (and dead ringer for SH:C antagonist Kato), hunts monsters which net him abilities. Mao, the huge talking cat, is filming a movie for Purramount Pictures, and the cat coins she finds helps hire more cat actors and acquire her even more skills. I can't even make this stuff up. Even Johnny has his own sidequests, copying Anastasia from Covenant, and taking snapshots of enemies, not just for learning enemy abilities, but trading them to people across the world.

You'll need to spend time on these quests, as otherwise, From the New World becomes something horrible; a straight dungeon crawl. Both previous SH games had plenty of dungeons, but FTNW adds to it by having a seemingly endless stream of them, full of weird puzzles and backtracking, all the while dealing with the aforementioned increased encounter rate. After a while everything starts to drag, and it doesn't help that the sorta blah storyline doesn't even get interesting until the 2nd half of the game, and even then it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Even the trademark humor of the franchise fades away at this point, a far cry from the many moments of hilarity early on. The characters are okay, but when compared to the strong casts of previous titles (especially the sorely missed Yuri, regardless of his Covenant fate), they're a bit boring and don't do a whole lot to separate themselves from typical RPG cliches. Really, the game feels like it was designed by a whole different team within Nautilus and simply designed to tide over fans while development on the real Shadow Hearts 3 began. Don't get me wrong, From the New World is still an entertaining game, but only because the battle system is very engaging. Without it, the game would be just another generic RPG with a substandard plot that doesn't come together until the very end, and by then only the most devoted will be able to tough it out unless you really, really love the battle system.

From the New World's visuals are about on par with Covenant, at least technologically. Artistically, much of the game lacks the elegance and style of either Europe or Asia, instead presenting a rough, undeveloped look at America Ц though granted, this was almost 80 years ago when America was still a budding country compared to the rest of the world. Most of the cities are very small, with just a few areas to show for them, and generally don't show off the traits of those cities. In one case, Las Vegas, all you get is one skimpy area that surrounds the Hotel Las Vegas dungeon. Compare this to the cities of the past that had lively streets, and more unique design. When the game shifts over to South America, we get a couple beautiful ancient cities, but its countered by generic looking ruins with a few moments of inspiration. Like always, there's a wide variety of enemy types, and plenty of bizarre looking NPCs, though the repetitive citygoers reeks of last generation stuff. As always, the CG cutscenes are very, very good and more prevalent than Covenant's. Shania's fusions are far more elaborate, and it's easy to see why Ц she's a girl and thus they can show her getting naked to fuse. Someone's been watching spherechanges in Final Fantasy X-2 a little too much as they are very similar. Thankfully you can shorten them if you get tired of watching her strip.

Like the increased CG scenes, there's an increase in voice acting parts too, with far less text bubbles unless it's a minor event. Though the translation itself is very good, the voices aren't always very good, but they do get the job done in most respects. At least they now have the subtitles actually representing what's being said as opposed to Covenant. The irony of the whole thing is Midway, a company not really known for localization, ended up doing a better job than XSEED did for this one, though that's not so much dissing them as giving credit to Midway who really did good, even if the game tanked. The soundtrack sounds much like Covenant's, as they share the same composer as opposed to Yasunori Mitsuda who scored the original game. Expect a more 'Indian/Spanish' flavor to much of the music, especially the themes of dungeons and battles when you visit South America, as opposed to North America which has more jazzy tunes, especially in the big cities. However some of the tunes wind up being really repetitive and thus annoying to hear after a while since there's not a whole lot of variety. It seems like there's only about 2 or 3 dungeon pieces, and since you're going to be spending a lot of time in dungeons...you get the idea.