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Shadow Hearts: Covenant... best RPG on the PS2?

W

whytemyke

Honorary Canadian.
I just got done playing Shadow Hearts 2, finally. I only played the first one cuz I read in EGM that it was "The best RPG you've never played." But once I played it, while the graphics were VERY dated and such (this was years ago, too, back shortly after it came out) the story was very enjoyable. So then I got to Shadow Hearts 2, and it started off really slow, so it took me two tries to get going. First time I played a couple hours, then didn't bother with it anymore. Second time I actually played until I got the character Joachim, and once you're there, everything just slides along at an amazing pace.

This seriously is the best RPG on the PS2, I think. The graphics still aren't quite as nice as Square graphics, but the intangibles in Shadow Hearts 2 are in all the right places. First off, like I said, the pacing is sweet. There aren't many RPGs where I NEVER want to put the controller down. Second off, the characters are actually all likeable. Even Joachim,
even though he gets brutally raped.
The jokes are actually relatively funny, when Anastasia is meant to be annoying, she does it perfectly, and the script was awesome, too. Plus the ending fits the tone of the game...
bittersweet til the end.

Oh well. What do you all think? Is this the best RPG on the Ps2?

And on a sidenote... does anyone else know if the third one will pick up some of the open ends in the second one?
it seems to me like they've got to put some closure on that whole Karin thing... and it'd be neat to see some references to Anastasia/Kurando, as well. Or, better yet, when Rasputin knew about how the British were to let the Lusitania sink, talk about how the US had a step up and wanted it to happen so they had an excuse to enter the war or something... it'd be some cool stuff.
 
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, yup. I'd say so.

I'm not really into the strategy RPG's like Disgaea (sp?) or La Pucelle or whatever.

So it basically comes down for me Shadow Hearts versus Xenosaga versus Final Fantasy.

And Shadow Hearts takes the cake. :D
 
I'd like to play this after hearing all of the praise that is heaped on it but I'm the sort of person who likes starting from the beginning. Of course at this point, I'll bet the first one is a pain in the ass to come by. Those who have played both, is it worth tracking down? Does having played the first add anything to your enjoyment of the second?
 
Looking from an objective point of view I'd say SH2/FFX/SMT3 are the best rpgs (maybe DDS2 but it's only 70% of a game). Though from my personal point of view I'd throw in XSep1 as well ^^;

Only 1 month, 4 days until Shadow Hearts 3 hits Japan. Yay :)
 
One of the best. FFX, Xenosaga, Shadow Hearts, and Suikoden all do it for me. SMT is good, but I haven't been able to get into it as much as the other titles. For the record, Suikoden IV is shit, don't buy it.
 
Yes and no. I'm still partial to the original for some reason. It really captivated me in a strange way. Perhaps my low expectations and the archaic graphics made the fun I had just that much more surprising (got it beat it new in July 2004). From the opening menu theme (which is quite possibly the greatest song ever to grace a videogame) to the utter coolness of Keith's movement, the game had this underdog, and unrivaled indie appeal to it.

Covenant to me, was an almost perfect sequel. The updates to the battle system were FANTASTIC and the story was even better. While the cast of characters was sometimes too wacky, I've never laughed so much at a game before. The script was wonderful. However, with the game, I never was THAT into it like I was with SH. Maybe it was the sometimes slow pacing, or the music (which is still very solid), but something never really pushed it over the hump for me (compared to the first game). I have no idea why.

Other notable RPGs for me: SMT Nocturne (half-unparalleled greatness, half-retarded game design), Xenosaga (really, really cool.......for the most part), Digital Devil Saga (Nocturne but streamlined <3), Ys (lack of ambition countered with tight mechanics, nice package if a bit short) Nightmare of Druaga (something about this game really....just seduces me)
 
Kevtones said:
Yes and no. I'm still partial to the original for some reason. It really captivated me in a strange way. Perhaps my low expectations and the archaic graphics made the fun I had just that much more surprising (got it beat it new in July 2004). From the opening menu theme (which is quite possibly the greatest song ever to grace a videogame) to the utter coolness of Keith's movement, the game had this underdog, and unrivaled indie appeal to it.

Covenant to me, was an almost perfect sequel. The updates to the battle system were FANTASTIC and the story was even better. While the cast of characters was sometimes too wacky, I've never laughed so much at a game before. The script was wonderful. However, with the game, I never was THAT into it like I was with SH. Maybe it was the sometimes slow pacing, or the music (which is still very solid), but something never really pushed it over the hump for me (compared to the first game). I have no idea why.

Other notable RPGs for me: SMT Nocturne (half-unparalleled greatness, half-retarded game design), Xenosaga (really, really cool.......for the most part), Digital Devil Saga (Nocturne but streamlined <3), Ys (lack of ambition countered with tight mechanics, nice package if a bit short) Nightmare of Druaga (something about this game really....just seduces me)
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The ONLY thing that Covenant didn't do as well as the first one was music, surprisingly enough. I say this because in the first one, song after song just had me floored with how awesome it was. While in the second one, there's a lot of just 'background noise' that you don't notice, until you hear some sweet, SWEET music, like certain boss fights where it sounds like they're speaking backwards, the song playing during the credits, and my favorite song which played
while Yuri confronted Kato in front of the Asuka Platform. When he said "I fight, because of my destiny..." and the weird music kicks in with all that shit, I almost got goosebumps.
Basically, I felt that with the music, the highs were higher but the lows were lower.

I bought the original games soundtrack the first chance I got... I'll probably do the same for this, too, although I also wanna get the FF6 Grand Finale arranged soundtrack. Something about Celes' Aria being done with a full orchestra just seems awesome.
 
Bebpo said:
Looking from an objective point of view I'd say SH2/FFX/SMT3 are the best rpgs (maybe DDS2 but it's only 70% of a game). Though from my personal point of view I'd throw in XSep1 as well ^^;

Only 1 month, 4 days until Shadow Hearts 3 hits Japan. Yay :)
Click to expand...

Give me your brain power so I can understand the Japanese language...

...so, you live in Japan or you just "import" happy :D
 
keeblerdrow said:
No. Dragon Quarter is miles better.
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Oooooooooooh, almost forgot about that one.

Yeah, that game fuckin ruled. Loved it, everyone else might have hated it but I loved the art style, the pacing, the story branches, the challenge....

but SH2 is still better though, but BOF5 is definantly worthy of mention!
 
whytemyke ~ agree for the most part on SHC. The town themes and such kind of all ran together and sounded alike. Occasionally however, the music was just, DAMN.

In terms of music, Forever Kingdom has one of the most interesting ones I've ever heard. Its not possible to really describe it, but it deserves a listen.

Oh and Star Ocean 3 is a terrible game IMO. Well....no, its just the voice acting, story, characters, and pacing ruined the game. I mean seriously, Fayt Leingod?
 
dq5001.jpg


Eh...? EH? Maybe not, but it would be damned close.
 
Not really, Drakan was neat! FFX-2...not so much.

I really need to play Covenent through sometime. The first few hours are SOOOOO BOOORING though.
 
Brandon F said:
Not really, Drakan was neat! FFX-2...not so much.

I really need to play Covenent through sometime. The first few hours are SOOOOO BOOORING though.
Click to expand...

Not just the first few hours!
 
Red Scarlet said:
If 8 didn't exist, that woulda been my vote.
Click to expand...

I dunno, DQVr > DQVIII IMO :P No loading, a faster battle system, recruitable monsters, a better soundtrack, and a more epic story > 3d world with nice graphics to explore.
 
No, not the best PS2 RPG. Characters were nice and all but never really reached higher levels of greatness...they usually felt more quirky, for the sake of being so, than deep and interesting. And I was kind of disappointed with the setting...don't get me wrong, I was really excited to play a game that was actually set in our world...but the game didn't present these locations in a convincing enough way I think...they should've pushed the unique differences between the countries and cities more, given you more freedom to run around, chosen more interesting locations. Maybe tie the game together more with real history as well. And add more people on the streets. But then, maybe cities were like that around 1920.

Story was ok but didn't really grab me the way I thought it would...plodding at times, simply uninteresting at times. But I liked some of the comedy touches though.

Battle system with the ring was interesting, but it got kind of tiresome to use it all over the game. It was cool transforming into demons, but there were too many demons to choose from...would've been better to decrease the number of demons and increase # of abilites for each of the demons instead. It got bothersome and slow to have to switch demon form just to get access to a different ability all the time.

Complaints, complaints...but I did have a good time with the game...just not as good as I thought I would have according to all the hype here.

I would rank games like Final Fantasy X and Dragon Quarter higher. And possibly even Xenosaga ep 1 as well, but that's mostly because I liked Xenogears a lot.
 
This is definitely a series where each sequel gets progressively better, and I really like Covenant.

Koudelka = Atrocity of Gaming
Shadow Hearts = Decent
Covenant = Pretty Damn Good
 
A top contender definitely, though like some others I found the somewhat darker atmosphere/creatures of the first Shadow Hearts better (and whatever else one thinks of the horror-styled Koudelka, it had some of the creepiest enemy designs ever), and not coincidentally could have done without some of the excessive campiness of Covenant. The tremendously entertaining battle system and graphics are both huge steps up from SH1 though, and are really what make SHC so good.

I picked up and recently disappeared to play Star Ocean 3 and have found that to be surprisingly good too. Surprising in that I thought the AI partners would make the game feel loose and unpredictable. But it is actually very well done and you can take control quickly and easily on the fly during the fast-paced battles. Characters, graphics, production values, and sheer size of Star Ocean 3 are also recommendations.

Only problem with SO3 is that for me at least it is one of those RPGs (unlike the SHs or some FFs) with a secondary character I would have prefered focus on over the main. In this case it is the older Cliff. Same thing will likely happen with FFXII, and it has happened in other games such as with Auron in FFX or to a minor degree Ziggy in Xenosaga. Part of it is that Cliff and Auron both tend to be stronger in battle than the main character as well.

Which brings up another rpg that I consider excellent, Xenosaga 1. This one is all about the excellent and fairly deep battle system (except the almost useless mechs), overall appealing characters and graphics. But unlike the also sci-fi themed SO3 in which I enjoy following the story, Xenosaga I just roll my eyes at the silly heavy-handed religious references and simply look forward to the next battle.

FFX also a contender for best rpg on PS2, though despite 100 hours of cumulative gameplay into it, I don't have much to say about it...

Anyway, lots of contenders. But SH:C takes the prize for most overlooked of all these top-notch offerings. In all ways it is fully on par with the heavy-hitters from Square-Enix and the similarly high-profile likes of Xenosaga, yet the population of gamers who buy SH:C is sadly much lower.

Back to Star Ocean 3 then.
 
Xenosaga became a chore to play after a while. FFX was way too easy and I didn't like the characters, but it was still decent (I liked it more than 8 or 9). SMT:N has the coolness factor going for it, but a bit too grounded in oldskool mechanics that it's kinda hard to play nowadays. SO3 had some lovely graphics and music, and I actually liked the story, but it fell short of previous games in the series. So I'm gonna go with SH:C being the best RPG, nay, game on the PS2.
 
The irony, I just got back from EB with SH1 and SH2 :)


I hated Star Ocean. Combat was broken and the pacing was too slow. Same with Xenosaga. This gen's been a pretty big disappointment for RPG's...
 
I thought Shadow Hearts was great and had a different feeling to it for an RPG, but I wasn't a very big fan of that dial thingy they had you use in battles; it got kind of old/annoying to me after awhile.
 
Okay, I'm starting to wonder if this is going to pick up...

I just got the Emigrae Manuscript and am about to head to the place where Roger Bacon is being held...the game is just not grabbing me so far. Is this thing going to pick up? I'm going to finish regardless, but I'd really like to know if I can expect things to get more interesting.
 
Some people may find the game slow to pick up, SH:C isn't really one game with an overdone epic storyline rife with plot twists (such as a typical Square game), the game is more character oriented.
 
<Narrator>Slowly, a gradual awareness blossomed inside demi, like an artesian swell newly pierced in virgin ground: it was, indeed, easier to hate than embrace. Deep below the surface, where the light of GAF's inimitable perkiness never pierced, the shadows danced...
 
Xenogears:

Shitty graphics -- even by PSOne standards, it was pretty damn HIDEOS.
Shitty story -- a bland gumbo of random mythological references and Gnostic/Norse naming conventions does not a plot or characterization make. Stripped of the pompous polysyllabic monikers and tedious acronyms, Xenogears' plot was Evangelion minus Anno's angst-addled humanity.
Shitty battle system -- memorize one deathblow per character, and yer set for the whole game. We won't even get into the Gear battle system, which is now used by EEG meters everywhere as the basic benchmark for brain death.
 
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