[Multiplatform] Vandal Hearts: Flames of oh god what is that

Shin (if no one else) will probably be pleased to hear they're making a new Vandal Hearts games, released on both PSN and XBLA. Game takes place before the first Vandal Hearts.

Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment Video Game | Reviews, Trailers & Interviews | GameTrailers.com

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Damn, I was going to make a thread about this too. I'm a fan of Vandal Hearts too, and playing this was a real treat. They consistently had the blood splatter down too! And I already had something like 2000 MP to spend so buying this 1200 MP deal was no trouble.

There were several things that paid homage to the old vandal hearts on ps1 and made some of it better by letting you see which enemies' turns are in order (like Grandia II). Don't worry, it won't be like Vandal Hearts II to where you don't have both parties moving at the same time. (Although, that game was a blast for a real serious challenge.)

Another would be adding a menus system so you could check out who's who/locations' history and especially each character's efficiency stats with their weapons (bow to a hammer!) and their magic.

I haven't had the chance to hear the music yet but the graphics are alright and doable. Regarding about the plot, I'm only on the second stage, which I totally restarted so I could get that those chests! As a warning, I should say that whenever you see a chest in a level, GET it. I found out that when I killed all of those wolves in the second stage and noticed there's two chests on the far side of the map, none of us could get there in time without being able to pass the requirement of that level the wounded girl will keep on bleeding, losing health as each turn passes on and you cannot heal her. I figured I could go back since its a level you could free battles on which is confirmed. But ONLY ONE chest was still there! o.o' One of the two that was still in its same spot, but the other was just gone. So beware of this when you're going for chests.

Core (most of) exp is gained from killing/finishing an enemy, and your weapon/magic levels up too from their use. I haven't gotten the chance to witness all sorts of differences in how magic/weapons work, but if they each has a space challenge to it, it'll be interesting. For example, the hammer you can swing in all four sides of you and hit friend or foe! And yes, archers can gain a higher ground bonus to their attack.

There's so much that I already loved it for a prequel to Vandal Hearts. Buy it, play it, love it!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

God Damn Vandal Hearts is awesome. From the very first moment when the main character is introduced as Ash of the Black Wind and the first bad guy is exploded in a shower of red pixels it's just pure brilliant. Sure you can't revisit stages once you've done them and sure getting Ash to Vanalier status is damn near impossible and compared to games like FFT there's hardly any customisation of characters but the story is fucking great and every level is set up to be a challenge, no matter what your party setup.

The sequel suffered a bit from trying to indroduce more customisation and letting you replay levels but was stiall a fun game.

Admittedly I'm bias becuause when the PS launched in the UK the choice of rpgs was essentially only Suikoden and Vandal Hearts so I played them both to death but if this is anything like as good as the first one I'll be all over this.

Fucking love Vandal Hearts.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

The game is introduced in a... far less dramatic fashion. It's not a bad game at all, it's just a very standard Strategy-RPG.

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Well I've finished the first three Acts now and opened what I think are the only three secret maps far, although from the map it looks like one leads off the cave entrance too. I've only actually played one of the maps thus far so maybe finishing them all unlocks something else.

Anyhow, it's a great little game. Sure it lacks the depth of customisation of something like Final Fantasy Tactics but it doesn't really suffer for that. What you get is six characters of fairly obvious specialisations, your main guy who's all round tough, a wizard, a fast, dodging dude, a tank, an archer and a hybrid archer, assault type. One nice innovation is that every character can equip two weapons and swap between them in battle, meaning you can whip out your bow if the enemy are out of range. More importantly, you can choose whether to counter attack ranged hits or close combat ones and can, to some extent determine who'll get attacked by the enemy based on the likely counter attacks.

Skill development follows the Oblivion model of use it to improve it. Every time you use a type of weapon or cast a spell you gain skill points in that specific weapon or spell, as well as general close combat, ranged or magic skills. Also, you have skills that determine blocking, counter attacks and likelihood of team attacks and so forth. To learn new spells, you equip a spellbook in an empty item slot then use it until it goes up a skill level. This means you can make any character a black mage or white mage or just give all the attacking spells to the mage and let everyone else learn all the buffs and healing spells. Every now and then, an increase in skill level will bring with it more hp or mp or both.

Where this again is similar to Oblivion is that you find yourself casting spells for the sake of it just to improve the levels. Even your least magically inclined team member comes with enough mp to cast a spell a turn on even the longest battles and should they run out, there's a spell to transfer mp about anyway so you may well find yourself constantly buffing your characters for the sake of it. Or not, as none of the fights are exactly difficult.

The difficulty comes in collecting all the treasure on the map before you kill all the badguys. As in all the best srpgs, the treasure is tucked away where the fighting isn't and you'll often find yourself trying to stop the last enemy attacking someone who'll counter attack and kill them whilst someone makes a dash for the last treasure chest. Teach the mobility spell (That increases movement speed) to everyone as soon as possible, it'll save a lot of pissing about in the long run.

Technically, the graphics are decent enough although some levels are a touch gloomy. The sound effects are passable but the characters all sound like annoying chipmunks. Loading times are pretty shit, with a good two minute wait before each fight and even between entering and leaving towns but that's hardly a game breaker in an srpg.

It's not a hugely long game. I've finished all the acts with named achievments in a day, suggesting the fourth act is one of the secret achievements and I'm near the end but then, it is only an XBLA title, albeit a 1,200 point one.

Certainly worth the asking price if you're after an unpretentious strategy rpg.

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I really thought the demo was uber boring. Does it get any better? Because man, it did not make me care at all.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Didn't play the demo so I don't know what it covers. To be fair, if it's excitement you're after, strategy rpgs aren't exactly where you should be looking.

The later levels are certainly a lot more tense though. One particular one where you're helping the king escape the throneroom and it's a running battle past swarms of bad dudes is about as exciting as srpgs get and had my party not been quite so buffed might have been pretty challenging. Whilst the game is pretty easy, it's never quite FFT easy and there are times when you genuinely feel like you might lose a level.

If you liked the first Vandal Hearts or, I dunno, Legend of Kartia perhaps you might like this. It's one of the better battle systems I've played in an srpg in that it's well balanced although there are no particularly interesting setups of enemies. If you're after a big, wanky story full of silly Jap attempts at philosophy and religious discussion however, give it a miss. The story's pretty pointless.


i.e. Final Fantasy Tactics it ain't, the battles are actually sometimes challenging, the skills are well balanced but the story is all but non-existant.

FELIPE NO

Eh, if it's an utterly story lacking standard srpg, I'll give it a pass. I'm not going to sink hours into a game if the characters aren't engaging. And you above most should know Kartia had a pretty good story. I've been playing SRPGS since the Genesis, so a generic, albeit well balanced battle system just isn't enough for me anymore. Glad you like it though, Shin.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Ha ha, having reached the end last night, the claims on xboxlive.com of "Multiple endings bringing extensive replay value" or words to that effect are essentially bullshit. There are two endings and although I've not bothered to replay the last three missions again to prove it, I suspect the ending you get depends entirely on one, rather obvious choice.

Still, I've had fun playing this the last few days and for fans of the original, there are quite a few nice little references to that in the names of characters and places, although there is one completely glaring oddity, if I'm remembering the plot of the original properly.

Spoiler:

Wasn't Saint Dumas the saviour of the world in the backstory in the original game, and yet here you kill Dumas to stop him purging the world with the Flames of Judgement?

Anyway, for a little arcade game I've had a good solid three days fun out of this which ain't bad for a tenner.

Jam it back in, in the dark.