LogFAQs > #934883635

#26. Shadow Hearts: Covenant


Shadow Hearts: Covenant took the grim and serious atmosphere of the first game and let it take a backseat to something lighter and sillier. It doesnt totally get rid of it, as you still have Yuris struggles with his (still literal) inner demons and battles against (also literal) outer demons, but its a game that has no problem making fun of itself (and the characters often make fun of the bad guys theyre going up against, which is also great) and is a little less depressing as a result. I think its a lot easier to get into Covenant, and it improves upon the original in most areas (except for dungeon design, most notably. This games dungeons can be pretty bad sometimes).

I think one of the aspects I appreciate the most about Covenant is how it follows up on the original Shadow Hearts. Very few games with multiple endings make the bad one canon, but this game does. I thought that was a pretty bold move, and it also enabled them to take the story in a direction that they otherwise couldnt have. I think Covenant has a really good story that gets better as it goes along, just like the original Shadow Hearts. Ive often said that this game should be called The Yuri Hyuga Owns Faces Show because there are so many instances of him literally punching bad guys in the face in an awesome FMV. Yuri is such a great protagonist because hes always brash and confident in his skills, even when the villains try to hinder his special abilities. He manages to be a good guy while continuing to be the Rude Hero we know and love. In the opening cutscene of the game, he saves the lead female of the game from a group of bad guys, and then he proceeds to unceremoniously dump her on the floor before walking out the door without a word. Theres also one cutscene thats always stuck with me where he argues Might vs. Right (which is the literal name of the cutscene in the game) as he mercilessly beats down a basically helpless old man (whos been behind a lot of the evil stuff thats happened in the game up to that point, for the record). Its kind of uncomfortable to watch, but its also part of what makes Yuri unique among JRPG heroes.

Now while Yuri is the main draw of Covenant, I think the overall playable cast is a big improvement over the first Shadow Hearts, which had a small cast, with about half of them having one-dimensional personalities and essentially no real role in the story. Covenant has a much bigger cast, and the characters (other than Lucia) feel like they matter and have a real reason to be there, as well as having optional content dedicated to them (Joachims wrestling tournament is one of my favorite parts of the game). They have some great cast chemistry, and its fun to see them interact with each other. Covenant also really improved on the battle system, almost to the point of making it too easy. You can have your characters team up to do really powerful and flashy combo attacks, which trivializes most boss fights since you can just gang up on the one bad guy and wreck him, but it looks and feels so good. Now Covenant compensates for it by having the last boss be easily the most difficult fight in the game (at least it was for me), which makes it really satisfying when you do beat it. I wish Shadow Hearts was more popular than it is, and I wish user SaveEstelle had finished the first game so he could have gotten to this one because it would have been a lot of fun to watch him experience it!

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