Title Shadow Hearts: From the New World Date 05.06.2007 Genre RPG Platform PlayStation 2 Developer Nautilus Publisher XSEED Games

By featuring a cast of individuals that includes a young hero, a comedic, yet, skilled ninja and a powerful girl with the ability to fuse with unworldly creatures, it brings the heart and soul of the series to life. Despite a new cast of characters, there was plenty of charm. The witty one line comments from Frank brings a smirk to my face, along with Johnny's inexperience and daring nature, it brought out the right reactions from the player. And while Johnny isn't quite the stud Yuri is, he is an acceptable replacement. Even though the protagonist isn't quite as strong as the previous game, the overall character lineup melded into a cohesive and interesting team.

Like the previous Shadow Hearts games, it's a blend between fiction and skewed history. The world of Shadow Hearts is a fictional world. But it references real life cities and countries. It even features historical characters. Some of the historical references are probably derived from the truth, but it's taken so far out of context that any truth is hidden behind numerous falsities. Nonetheless, it's still an imaginative story based on real past events. For example, Capone is referenced during your stay in Chicago and eventually makes an appearance. And like the real Capone, he is in control of the mafia in Chicago.

Red light meets Blue light, as heroes and villains collide. Who will prevail?

The march to victory or annihilation is in young Johnny's hand. A mysterious woman and a killer roam across the nation, running rampage and leaving destruction. An evil professor, hell bent on his research. An unlikely hero, a princess and her underling, along with their friends try and stop a devastating situation. Young Johnny Garland is presented with his first real case. But unknowingly, he slowly unravels a far more difficult situation than he could imagine. Joined by friends, Johnny is on a quest to save the world. Set in a time before the U.S became a powerhouse, and where the depression proved crippling, it isn't the safest place around.

Countries destroyed, Secrets revealed, Lovers' heartbreak, Friendships formed…
To make things interesting, FTNW's plot throws several unexpected twist. However, the plot as a whole is not quite as strong as Covenant. For one, Shania and Johnny are simply not up to par with Yuri and Karin, but the skilled ninja makes up for it. Frank throws some of the funniest lines in the game. His well scripted lines, top notch voiceovers, and personality makes him one of the better characters in recent memory. Aside from that though, the back story didn't feel quite as strong. However, the surprising twist unveils and mends a plot that may at first lack coherency, but in the end, it provides a dynamic and connected storyline. There are plenty of open questions in the beginning, but once these plot points are revealed, the story becomes very enjoyable. When all this wraps up, and everything starts to make sense, you get a feeling of relief as the entire plot is revealed.

One particular thing that the third edition improves on is the ring system. With a set number of hit points and critical points, it keeps the player on their toes during battle. It also makes random battles fun. With its third go around, you can see how much the ring system has involved. Of course, fundamentally speaking, it's relatively the same concept with some tweaks. Fusion makes its return, as you can once again transform into different creatures.

The ring system has been improved by making the combos much more fluid and consistent. The ring system also felt more responsive, as it felt easier to get the critical points when necessary. Previous battle attacks, such as hard hits, knock downs, etc. make another appearance. These attacks are important in the context of the battle, as certain attacks provide different results. For example, if you perform hard hits, you can reduce an enemy's stock, which lowers their ability to pull off a combo. Knock downs and the like are effective in combos because hitting an opponent too high can cause a break in the chain.

While the ring system didn't go through an over-haul, minor improvements are noticeable and welcome. The ring system in the first Shadow Hearts felt solid, with Covenant making a drastic improvement. From the New World expands on the formula further. While the leap in improvement isn't as much as Shadow Hearts to Covenant, it made the experience better. On the other side of the spectrum though, the ring system still has a few minor flaws. Although Japanese RPGs have never really had what people consider strong battle systems, but personally I prefer turn base. The Shadow Hearts series makes it more interesting with the ring system, but one problem with the system, is that it's far too easy to get your hits in, with a high chance of critical hits. Albeit a small problem, it still exists.

As a whole, the core game isn't that long, as you'll reach the boss just a tad under 30 hours, but due to the difficult ending fight, lots of leveling up is necessary. Due to that, it was dragged on more than it was necessary to keep things interesting. The last section of constant leveling up knocked it off its pedestal a bit. Although I wished it would have been a little longer in the sense of a longer main quest, I am content with what it has. Although, I wouldn't have minded some longer trips to Los Angeles and other cities, but even then, it wasn't totally necessary because the story was still conveyed with a nice pacing. The game clocked out at about 35 hours, with excessive leveling up towards the end.

SP is once again an important factor during battles, but unlike previous games in the series, it's not as big of an issue. This is because it's easy and battles do not last long enough for you to be in serious trouble with your SP. Even when you do run into some trouble in some boss fights, a few items will do the trick and solve your problem. Before it took consecutive turns to completely take one's team out of the SP danger zone because Covenant provided more of a challenge, but it isn't an issue in the newest one due to enemies being more manageable. Aside from the last boss, the rest of the game was really easy. This brings up the question of the difficult last boss. If the game is so easy, then the last boss should not stray too far from it. Instead, the jump in difficulty is excessive with the last boss, which required upgrades or leveling up.

From a musical perspective, FTNW is as solid as can be. With the final battle featuring a chorus that felt chivalrous, it was apparent that a lot of care went into the track. More importantly, the music was able to help the player capture the tense moments, as well as the lighter moments. Unlike the previous games, this one isn't quite as dark. In fact, your stroll through New York and the Grand Canyon in the early moments of the game felt the opposite. And even with the disparity, the musical soundtrack matched it with great consistence. Voice acting was also topnotch. Frank's quirky accent to Johnny's caring nature all played a hand in its exceptional acting.

Despite being a bit short on flashy cut scenes, the ones that were featured had plenty of action and storytelling. The rest of the cut scenes were narrated with in game characters. Speaking of which, the character models were solid for a PS2 game. The character designs could have used a bit work though. One particular standout of the Shadow Hearts series is the sheer wickedness of Yuri, but Johnny on the other hand looked like a character ripped out of FFX. Although it didn't hurt it much, Yuri's character design brought much more to the table, as his character matched the atmosphere of Shadow Hearts. The battle action scenes were also nicely designed. Each motion and attack felt fluid. While there are certainly better looking games than SH3, there is still plenty of eye candy to go around.

With 3 editions of the series out (I don't count Kouldeka because it's not the same name), SH3 ranks right in between them. It certainly is better than the first Shadow Hearts with the better plot and combat system, but it doesn't quite capture the same magical feeling of Covenant. There are moments where it comes close, but in the end, the characters and overall story wasn't enough of a fair trade for a more polished combat system. Despite that, SH3 on its own merits is a fantastic game that should appeal to everyone. And if you're an RPG fan, it would be an added bonus as SH3 is one of the great ones around. Even with the large selection of J-RPGs on the PS2, From the New World certainly goes above and beyond most of them, and should be in anyone's collection.

Game Score

A-

Reviewed By: Contributed