History VideoGame / ShadowHearts

* ''VideoGame/{{Koudelka}}'' (UsefulNotes/{{Playstation}}, 1999): Set in Wales in 1898, the game tells the story of Koudelka Iasant, a young Romani girl with supernatural powers who is drawn to the mysterious Nemeton Monastery after experiencing a series of troubling visions. Along with adventurer/thief Edward Plunkett and bishop James O'Flaherty, they must delve into the dark history of the Monastery and stop the [[TheCorruption malevolent force]] that permeates its halls.
* ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts1'' (UsefulNotes/Playstation2, 2001): The game stars [[ButNotTooForeign Yuri Volte Hyuga]], part badass IneffectualLoner and part [[TheFool goofy]] IdiotHero ButtMonkey who just can't get a break. He also happens to be a Harmonixer, which means that he can fuse with the souls of the {{Cosmic Horror}}s that he defeats and turn into various [[SuperpoweredEvilSide superpowered monsters]]. He would rather just coast through life beating up anyone stupid enough to give him lip, except in ''Shadow Hearts'' [[SpiritAdvisor there's a voice in his head that tells him to do stuff]] and isn't too appreciative if Yuri fails to fall in line. This leads him to rescue a young cleric named Alice Elliot, who the BigBad needs to power his DoomsdayDevice, and the plot leads on from there.

** Also, Lucia and Ricardo both have a skill that give all party members save for themselves the Third Key effect (aka allowing three spins of the Attack Judgment Ring). But you only get the skill late in the game, after completing their side quests. You can do it first, but the MP cost is HIGH. How much? 750 MP. According to Ricardo's leveling chart, he needs to be at least Level 65 to pull this off. By that point, the BonusBoss should be a cakewalk! Oh, wait, both him and the FinalBoss have a skill where they remove all buffs and get an extra turn... (There is an item that reduces MP costs, but still not enough to make the skill viable.)

* {{BFS}}: Frank's homemade ninja swords. Kurando's final Demon Morph (the Ogre Spirit Jutendouji) also wields one. ''Koudelka'' has the Sacnoth, a massive sword guarded by [[BonusBoss a ridiculously strong gargoyle]].

* BonusBoss: Every ''Shadow Hearts'' game has quite a few {{Bonus Dungeon}}s, and pretty much every one of those has a boss to kill which usually grants a character their InfinityPlusOneSword, a unique accessory, a final skill, or even access to new quests.

* DuelBoss: Many. Really ramps up the difficulty and frustration when this turns out to be the case with BonusBoss [[spoiler:Col. Hyuga/the Seraphic Radiance]] in the first ''Shadow Hearts''.

** The Valentine vampire family has a duel BonusBoss fight between two of its members in each game in the series. The first one has Keith vs. Joachim, and the other two feature Hilda fighting Joachim.

*** The Score system ranks you by the names of enemies and bosses. That means that if you're doing very well, you'll learn of upcoming bosses well in advance, which will spoil future villains before they're introduced. If you're doing ''exceptionally'' well (Wow, how do you keep getting Ring Perfect Victories like that?), you'll learn the name of the ClimaxBoss, the FinalBoss, and the BonusBoss in that order.

* StatusBuffDispel: The final bosses of ''Covenant'' and ''From the New World'' both have buff-removing spells, taking on the form of Profound Purity and Lost Progress respectively. In the case of Lost Progress, it is cast immediately after the use of any full-party buff.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* KillEmAll: Not many secondary characters from the first ''Shadow Hearts'' survive. Basically, if they have a portrait and they don't join your party, they will probably get offed.

** Also Meiyuan in ''Shadow Hearts''. Not AS flamboyant, but still loud and proud [[spoiler:to the point of making all the men - save Keith - go berserk during Acupuncture. Not to mention abrupt with the ladies]].

* GenreShift: ''Koudelka'' was described as a Survival Horror-RPG mix. ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'' was an RPG with a horror-inspired setting. ''Covenant'' begins like something that wouldn't be out of place in a horror game... but then shifts to a more lighthearted setting. ''From the New World'' still keeps true to its macabre roots, but could probably be officially called a comedy.

** For the final battle in ''Covenant'', [[spoiler:Kato summons Susano'O and the other four relics to aid in the fight.]]

** Torture scenes. In all three ''Shadow Hearts'' games at one point one of your characters is tortured by an antagonist. To gain the most out of it (optional dungeon in ''Shadow Hearts'' or a weapon in bothe sequels) you need to choose defiant responses, and get your character tortured more. Overlaps with ViolationOfCommonSense.

** Unfortunately the developers did not think of everything in this case; [[spoiler:there is no joke if you DO name him Roger Bacon in the naming screen. Boo!]]

* ImprobableWeaponUser: Several characters, notably Gepetto (a puppet; his equips are strings that you don't see), Joachim (anything he can find) and Frank (anything he can find and mount on a hilt).
** Frank takes this to absurd extremes. He uproots the last living cactus in the Grand Canyon and puts a hilt on it. He puts a hilt on a giant marlin. He puts a hilt on a ''firework'', absolving himself of any lingering guilt over his failure to take over his father's fireworks company. Finally he puts a hilt ''on a sword that already has one''.

** Halley also attacks with a Slingshot - not that improbable, especially since it's actually something that a kid his age would have.

*** The Score system ranks you by the names of enemies and bosses. That means that if you're doing very well, you'll learn of upcoming bosses well in advance, which will spoil future villains before they're introduced. If you're doing ''exceptionally'' well (Wow, how do you keep getting Ring Perfect Victories like that?) you'll learn the name of the ClimaxBoss, the FinalBoss, and the BonusBoss in that order.

** [[spoiler:Albert Simon]] in the first ''Shadow Hearts'' has his moments. [[spoiler: "Now is the END OF THE WORLD!"]]

* LetsSplitUpGang: In Covenant, the party has to explore a battleship in order to find a certain girl. The party splits with one group being led by Yuri and the other being led by Kurando and Blanca. Both groups have to work apart to get through the ship together, pushing switches to open doors on the other part of the ship.

** Part of the reason the series has a Fanbase of course is that even the lighter and softer games retain their dark parts - In one scene of ''From the New World'', you see Frank ham it up and attack with some of the most improbable weapons ever, and then in the next, witness malice take over an unwilling woman alive and are forced to fight her.
** To sum things up: in the first ''Shadow Hearts'', the silliest thing around was probably Margarete and her gadgets, unless you poke around. By the third game, one of your party members is a Polish immigrant ninja who learned his ninjutsu in the jungles of South America, works for the CIA and is constantly berated by his master, a giant talking cat movie star who serves as Al Capone's second-in-command, and a mexican singer with firearms inside his guitar.
* LightIsNotGood: The series also loves this trope. One of the worst villains in the series is Light aligned: [[spoiler: Nicolai]]. Also, a hierarchy of three demon lords [[spoiler: Amon, Astaroth, and Asmodeus]] is mentioned in the second game. While they are all powerful, the Darkness aligned Asmodeus is only after mindless destruction, and is seen as inferior to Astaroth, who prefers to let people slaughter each other, and is light aligned.

** Due to the fact that some of your best party members are Dark aligned- Yuri and Shania being the class examples- Light will ''fuck you up'' in battle, since they're weak to it. Since those same characters are strong against Darkness, however, Dark elemental enemies are easier to kill and less of a threat. Thus, a player always regards Light with more fear than Dark, exactly the way the main characters do.

** In ''From the New World'', abilities can get ''ridiculous'' with how powerful they are, though. Especially if you set up a combo with them and rack up the bonus damage - and ''finish it off'' with a Melt Crest.

** The first ''Shadow Hearts'', however, zig-zags it - Alice will possibly ''never'' leave your party unless you want her to. Depending on the situation, Yuri's fusions will possibly make him into an effective spellcaster. Zhuzhen, the game's only pure "mage" character, will probably be tossed the first chance you get.

* LovecraftCountry: Part of ''From the New World'' takes place here. Lovecraft himself shows up as a professor at Arkham University and will allow you to fight monsters for bonus items. Several of the monsters are inspired by Lovecraft - at least in name - but it can be difficult to tell due to the occasional, unfortunate marriage of phonetic translation and sloppy research. (Among others, Shub Niggurath is translated as "Jeb Niglas.")
* LovecraftLite: Sure the world is filled with horrible otherworldy abominations, but at the end of the day said monsters can get their asses handed to them by a luchador vampire and a giant talking cat. And by ''Covenant'', every character is almost required to throw shade at these monsters at least once by the time things are over.

* MaskPower: Joachim becomes The Grand Papillon when he dons his butterfly mask, with an accompanying power boost. He can later upgrade to "The Great Question" as a BraggingRightsReward. In ''From The New World'', if Hilda's calories meter is maxed on either end, she can go into her mask form. [[spoiler:Hilda can inherent the mask and title of Great Question]].

** Whoever got [[CameBackWrong resurrected]] by the Émigré Menuscript is better off killed, except [[spoiler:Johnny]].
** [[spoiler:Lady's final defeat]] in ''From The New World'' counts as well due to her being corrupted by Malice for quite a while and any traces of [[spoiler:her once being Grace Garland, the protagonist Johnny's sister]] had already been obliterated before the game even begins.

* MultipleEndings: ''Koudelka'' has many endings. Every Shadow Hearts has two of them, [[spoiler:each time with one ending involving a main character (Alice in ''Shadow Hearts'', Yuri in ''Covenant'', and Shania in the ''From the New World'') succumbing to some curse, and the other ending involving that character '''not''' succumbing.]]
* MythologyGag: There is a girl named Jeanne in the french town of Domremy...DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything? Hint: [[spoiler: Jeanne d'Arc...aka ''Joan of Arc''. Who also was from Domremy.]]

** The fight against [[spoiler: Albert/Amon]] in the first ''Shadow Hearts'' [[spoiler: ends up generating enough energy to cause Neameeto to rise]], in ''Covenant'' [[spoiler: it is revealed that Albert's defeat allowed Sapientes Gladio to grow stronger]] and in ''From The New World'' [[spoiler: defeating Killer generates enough Malice to finally open The Gate, although it's implied that The Gate would have opened anyway, [[TakeYourTime although it would have taken a while]]]].

** Oh god, so many. The best is probably Joachim, however; He's a Shapeshifting Toku Superhero Vampire Professional Wrestler.

** The Neutral Element. Johnny and Lady are the character to naturally be this, with Yuri, Kurando, and Gepetto getting forms to become neutral.

* NotQuiteDead: ''From the New World'' has [[spoiler:Killer attacking the party in Uyuni Salt Lake. The party gives him a beating, and afterwards the party believes that they killed him. Of course, Killer gets up again and stabs Johnny unconscious.]]
--> [[spoiler:'''Killer''']]: That's what you get for not killing me before, when you still had the chance!

* OrWasItADream: After finishing the side-quest ''Purgatory'', Johnny 'wakes up' at the place from where he entered the dungeon. Nobody else remembers any of the events from it, [[spoiler:but he has gained Awaker's Ether Purge ability.]]

** [[spoiler:Amon]] can be missed if you don't get the certain item before the battle, which locks you out of getting the ultimate fusion.
* PokeThePoodle: Compared to other role-playing games wherein the BigBad tries to [[TakeOverTheWorld conquer]] or [[OmnicidalManiac destroy]] the world, [[spoiler: Masaji Kato's plan to turn back time a mere 100 years]] could seem, to some, very reasonable by comparison.
* PopQuiz: Covenant and From the New World, with two guys on the side doing 'O's for correct answers, and 'X's for wrong answers. Oh, and you're given only 10 seconds to answer a question.
* PowersAsPrograms: Crest Magic in Covenant. However, HilarityEnsues when the party realizes that Yuri is too stupid to recall spells.

** Stellar Magic in From the New World also act like this. But unlike the Crest Magic, there's no real story significance about them, but you can customize your Stellar Charts to your preferences.

-->''"Albert was a hundred time stronger than you!"''

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits
** ''Shadow Hearts'': A man who can fuse his soul with demons, a cute exorcist, a Taoist mage, UsefulNotes/MataHari (yes, that one), a fencing vampire, and an ESPer [[spoiler: who is the son of the prequel's heroine]].

** ''Shadow Hearts'' features Wugui, who can be fought four times; once as a HopelessBossFight with Zhuzhen alone, a second one immediately after the first as a Yuri solo fight, a third one as a regular boss fight [[spoiler:while transformed into Yamaraja: War,]] and the last [[spoiler:being an optional fight after being temporarily resurrected as a cursed puppet by Cardinal Simon.]]
** ''Shadow Hearts: From the New World'' has Killer, who is fought four times. Two of them are fought by himself, a third one gives him a cohort (Daoros) and the final one [[spoiler:has him transformed into a monster by Malice.]]

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Lady and Killer. Killer from what you first know is a psychotic serial killer, but by the end of the game, turns his tendencies towards defending Lady, a HumanoidAbomination resulting from the Émigré Manuscript ritual. Lady herself, by that point of the game, can be seen as putting her out of her misery.]]

* SanityMeter: Each character has a number of Sanity Points (SP) which deplete by one each combat round, and when they run out, the character starts acting erratically, attacking at random or skipping turns. In addition, these characters will not gain any EXP from the battle, due to not remembering what happened. In general, characters who are used to supernatural (like vampires or Harmonixers) will have more SP than everyone else. It comes in handy, because fusions will either consume a lot of SP to begin with (in original ''SH''), or just deplete by three to seven points each turn (starting with ''Covenant'').
* SchizoTech: Scads of it. The nuclear-powered "Bacon Jet," and Margarete's cell phone, robots and computer banks in 1928 Roswell, and much more.

** In Covenant one of the wolfs Blanca faces for his powerup sidequest is called "[[VideoGame/FatalFury the Lonely Wolf]]" and wears a RED BASEBALL CAP. Another wolf battle has Blanca fighting the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Black Dog Stars.]]

* SkippableBoss: Hilariously subverted. When Johnny arrives to the altar in the Aito cave, he founds out what looks like a colossal statue of a winged minotaur/centaur hybrid wielding a blood-stained sledgehammer. He tries to sneak around it...only to get caught in the middle:
-->'''Johnny''': I guess that's typical. *cue boss battle*
* SocialServicesDoesNotExist: Orphans living on the streets of Britain. To be fair, given the state of the orphanage in London (as well as the time the games are set in) this isn't too implausible.

* StableTimeLoop: ''Covenant'' [[spoiler:creates two at the end of the game: After his death, Yuri is sent back to the moment he first met Alice (at the start of ''Shadow Hearts''), turning his life into an ontological paradox. At the same time, Karin is sent back in time to meet Yuri's father, becoming Yuri's mother and creating a predestination paradox.]]
** Depending on how you interpret it, the former could instead be an example of SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. [[spoiler:Since the second game follows on from the bad ending of the first, you could see it as Yuri getting another chance to save Alice and get the good ending]].

* StatusEffects: Aside from the RPG staples of poisoning and other debuffs, the Judgment Ring's presence ensures that there are a ''lot'' of meta-examples which screw with the Ring and its components. Going backwards, speeding up the bar, adding fake Hit Areas, having the Hit Areas vanish...unless you're good at the Judgment Ring, these effects will screw you up.

* SurprisinglyEasyMiniQuest: In ''Shadow Hearts'', you have to constantly go to the Graveyard to clear out your accumulated Malice, which comes in the form of a monster whose strength is proportional to the level of Malice, and only with Yuri. Even at maximum Malice, these battles are surprisingly easy. Not emptying it is another story. [[spoiler: If you want the non-canon good ending, you need to max it out during the second half and kill the bosses that appear.]]

* ThereCanBeOnlyOne: The Wolf Bout and the Cat Pagoda

** There are two others, one that allows the user to channel the power of the demons of hell [[spoiler: or can be inverted, to channel the power of the gods themselves]], and one that [[spoiler: summons a space alien powerful enough to be called a god]] to come and destroy the earth. These two books play a major role in ''Shadow Hearts'' and ''Koudelka'', but never appear again in the series.

** A secret room in Koudelka reveals a monster who is still sane but suicidal. He often laments how sad his situation is while advising the heroes. The game doesn't give them the option to MercyKill him.

** The pre-battle banter for the Wolf Bout fights are the only times Blanca's voice is heard. At all other times only the standard barks and growls are heard, though occasionally the player is shown his thoughts.

** Not to mention the usual case - nobody ever bats an eye at your party members. Obviously one expects people to notice [[LargeHam Joachim]], [[McNinja Frank]], [[{{Stripperiffic}} Lucia, Shania]], or [[MegaNeko M]][[TheAlcoholic a]][[TheLadette o]] to be a tad conspicuous. But this gets a different kind of weird when you have part-Japanese Yuri walking around China not too long after [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Sino-Japanese_War this]], or German Karin and Russian Anastasia prancing right across faction lines in the middle of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.

*** Karin has a few things that make her justified. Firstly, Nicolai's plan to use the Mistletoe would have ended with her dead if Yuri didn't think quick and Jeanne didn't distract Lenny, so she's on the run. Secondly, after the first hour or so of the game, Karin switches out of her German officer clothes for something else, and basically defects from German lines in favor of going after Sapientes Gladio as a greater evil. [[MaleGaze That doesn't excuse the fact that she wears obscenely revealing clothing for the 1910s and 1920s]].

** Downplayed for spells proper. Single-target buff spells usually see little use, but multi-target "Arc" versions are much more useful. "Edge" spells, that imbue physical attacks with their element also won't be used a lot against normal enemies, where it's easier to just wipe them out with the first strike.
** Inverted for Ring items that can be attached to the Judgement Ring in ''Covenant'' and ''FtNW''. They don't waste you MP, may activate on every single melee attack, and have a pretty high chance to inflict a status effect that the enemy usually can't dispell. And you'd be surprised how nice Instant Death is against late-game monsters. You even get to keep them for NewGamePlus.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: The Interrogation scenes - Have your characters choose all the wrong options... and as they get zapped or stabbed, you'll hear them scream in pain. Unlike other examples, you get ''rewarded'' for this.

** To get the canon ending of Koudelka, you have to ''lose'' against the final boss instead of winning.

** And this actually makes a bit of sense, since Anastasia, Alice, and Johnny have the least amount of SP - Alice is quite delicate, Anastasia is a little girl, and Johnny got his start watching a man being eaten. Even Halley, who's younger than Alice, has some SP to spare - and this makes sense when you consider that he's probably been ''quite'' jaded and toughened after what ''he's'' gone through.[[labelnote:Shadow Hearts Spoilers]]Let's see, he's Koudelka's son and inherited her psychic powers - when he was young, he watched his own mother get taken away to a mental "hospital" and left on the streets, with almost ''no'' training of his own psychic powers[[/labelnote]].
* WithMyDyingBreathISummonYou: Halfway through the game Dehuai attempts to do this after his defeat, only to fail as the last bit of his energy isn't quite enough. [[spoiler:Then [[BigBad Roger Bacon]] pops in and finishes the ritual in his stead.]]

** Also, his teacher? The actual Great Gama! [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gama]]

** A fat man in the third game mentions how rich he is... in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_Crash_of_1929 1929]]. Ouch.
* CameBackWrong: A recurring theme in all four games: anyone brought BackFromTheDead by the forbidden Émigré Manuscript returns as a hideous CosmicHorror. [[spoiler:Only one person (Johnny) has ever returned with both mind and body intact, and it took a HeroicSacrifice from his sister to do it -- even then, he still developed a SuperpoweredEvilSide as a result of his resurrection.]]

* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: During the ending of ''Covenant'', [[spoiler:the party is stuck in the Field of Takamagahara, a realm beyond time and space. Just before he dies, Kato tells them that if they want to escape, they must pray fervently to go to the world that their hearts wish for. The only catch is that they cannot return to the immediate present. And so, the party prays together for one last time, and Yuri watches his TrueCompanions fade away. Yuri's fate depends on what he told Jeanne before the last two battles of the game.]]

* CosmicHorrorStory: The world of Shadow Hearts is smack dab ''in'' a cosmic horror universe.

* CulturedBadass / BadassBookworm: According to the manual Edward enjoys reading poetry which includes Lord Byron and Shakespeare. He is also capable of dealing the highest physical damage of the main cast.

* DarkIsNotEvil: The series rather loves this trope. Yuri, the main character of both the first ''Shadow Hearts'' and ''Covenant'', is, at worst, a Type 2 AntiHero with tendencies towards full-blown heroism; at best, he's just TheHero. He's Dark element and happy to be that way. Shania, the main heroine of 3, is a [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race Girl]], MagicalNativeAmerican, and ranges across the same moral spectrum as Yuri, going from Type 2 Antihero to simply TheHero. She's Dark aligned. For side characters, Lucia of ''Covenant'' is a gorgeous, cheerful, and loving Italian woman; a bellydancing fortune teller; and a DumbBlonde without being, well, blonde. She's Dark aligned. Also, while the Dark abilities constantly receive names like "Evil Edge", they are used by both heroes and villains with no comment. You even use a pack of freaking demons as spell sources in ''Covenant'', and they never betray your trust at all!
** The series also averts this trope as well. Many of the villains, like [[spoiler:Rasputin and Gilbert]] are Dark aligned. However, while their powers may be Dark aligned, those powers have ''no role'' on their moralities; they're evil ''and'' Dark, not evil ''because'' they're Dark. So "Dark Is Not Morality Altering" would be the best way to state the use of this trope in ''Covenant''.

** [[spoiler:Johnny and Lady as well. It turns out Johnny CameBackWrong, but Lady gave him her will so that he may live]].

** [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade Not really]]: real life Rasputin was more of a misblamed scapegoat than a devil, although he did look creepy, and he ''was'' working his way into the Tsar's inner circle. (Chances are, though, even ''if'' he wasn't assassinated the rebellions would have still happened.)

** ''Every'' battle track has a "Desperation" theme that plays when a character SP reaches 0 and they go berserk - even the special battle themes that play only a few times in the game. By the time you get to them you won't likely let your SP get anywhere ''near'' zero.
*** Special mention goes to the Spirits battle themes in ''From the New World'' - with the exception of one, all of them is a DuelBoss with Shania, who has the highest SP in the game (meaning it's ''highly'' unlikely she will ''ever'' go berserk). There actually is a theme in the event that this happens.
** In ''Shadow Hearts'' you end up fighting Dehuai twice. In the spoils for the first battle, you end up getting his staff that you can equip on Zhuzhen. In the second battle, Dehuai is depicted without his staff.

* DirtyOldMan: [[spoiler: The real Roger Bacon]], who sends the heroes out to find porn for him in sidequests in ''Covenant'' and ''From The New World''.

** She also tells Karin that Yuri is like her brother Ben "inside and out" - part of her thinly-veiled plot to [[spoiler:hook her up with him]], no doubt.
* DiscOneFinalDungeon: [[spoiler:Kuihuai Tower]] in the first ''Shadow Hearts'', [[spoiler:Idar Flamme]] and [[spoiler:Apoina Tower]] in the second, and either ([[spoiler: Las Vegas]]) or ([[spoiler: Chichen Itza]]) in the third.

* ''VideoGame/ChaosWars'' (Playstation 2, 2006): A MassiveMultiplayerCrossover TacticalRPG, that features several character from the series, primarily from ''Covenant'', despite ''New World'' being released over a year prior.

* ActionGirl: Many of them, but Koudelka beats them all in the manga by [[spoiler:taking control a CosmicHorror by ''[[MemoryGambit hypnotizing herself]]''.]] It Is Awesome.
* AerithAndBob: Meet the Valentine family - Hildegard, Joachim, and... Keith.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Missed Judgement Ring completely? Don't worry, your MP or item will be intact. Makes Gamble Ring so much more useful for using rare items.

** [[spoiler:Johnny's Awaker/Malice form carries over to NewGamePlus, but since his SP pool is extremely low, he won't be able to use it for a long time. Also, both of the Awaker's special moves (one of which is earned only after a LONG sidequest) have high MP costs]].

** The first ''Shadow Hearts'' has two possible endings: [[spoiler:one where Alice lives, and one where Alice dies]]. Unfortunately the sequel ''Covenant'' confirms the second ending as canon. However, it is implied that the "good" ending of ''Covenant'' [[spoiler:(where Yuri dies and is reunited with Alice back at the very start of their adventure) is also canon, which means that Yuri ''can now save Alice''. Put simply: [=SH1=] bad ending > [=SH2=] good ending > [=SH1=] good ending is the canonical order. So Yuri and Alice do finally get their happy ending.]]
** Another for Koudelka and Halley. [[spoiler:Koudelka appears in the first ''Shadow Hearts'' after being committed to an insane asylum. After the events of the game she and her son Halley go to America presumably to find Edward, Halley's implied father and one of the ''Koudelka'' trio.]]

* BittersweetEnding: The canon endings of ''Koudelka'' ([[spoiler:James loses his life purifying Elaine's body.]]), the first ''Shadow Hearts'' ([[spoiler:Yuri saves the world but loses Alice, the woman he's grown to love. There is an apocryphal GoodEnding where she lives, but ''Covenant'' relies on her dying.]]), and ''Covenant'' ([[spoiler:Yuri commits suicide to save his soul from being wiped clean, and creates a time paradox that takes him back to the start of the first ''Shadow Hearts''.]]), plus the [[DownerEnding bad ending]] of ''From The New World'' ([[spoiler:Shania is [[BrainwashedAndCrazy overtaken by the power of Malice]].]]).
** There are some hints, at least, that the first ''Shadow Hearts'' and ''Covenant'' are supposed to canonically add up to a happy ending: [[spoiler:while most believe Yuri died at the end of ''Covenant's'' good ending (and assumed canon due to the poor quality of the bad ending) and the scene following was merely Yuri living out his fond memories in his soul as he promised Alice earlier, some argue he used the Asuka Stone Platform to travel time like the rest of the group for a second shot at his life. This interpretation is further supported by a line from Roger Bacon in ''From The New World'' claiming he has never seen an Émigré ritual.]] While the bittersweet ending is more commonly believed, neither interpretation should be discounted, as there is ample evidence for both.

* BonusBoss: Every ''Shadow Hearts'' game has quite a few {{BonusDungeon}}s, and pretty much every one of those has a boss to kill which usually grants a character their InfinityPlusOneSword, a unique accessory, a final skill, or even access to new quests.

** Happens in battle, as a character run out of Sanity Points. They do random stuff (Blanca evens pees on someone for 1 damage.), and they don't receive EXP at battle's end if the character was still Berserk. SP is fully refilled at the end of the battle, so the SP restoration items (Pure Leaf, Pure Seed, etc.) can only be used in battle. Also, [[spoiler:to learn the third skill of the most powerful fusions in the first ''Shadow Hearts'', Yuri must go Berserk]].

* CallForward: Hands up if you feel slightly uncomfortable when the [[HistoricalHeroUpgrade sugary sweet]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchess_Anastasia_Nikolaevna_of_Russia Princess Anastasia Romanov]] starts talking about how she's worried that if her parents don't improve their lot with the people then a revolution might be on their hands...

* CameBackWrong: A recurring theme in all four games: anyone brought BackFromTheDead by the forbidden Émigré Manuscript returns as a hideous CosmicHorror. [[spoiler:Only one person (Johnny) has ever returned with both mind and body intact, and it took a HeroicSacrifice from his sister to do it -- even then, he still developed a SuperpoweredEvilSide as a result of his resurrection]].

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: When Garan attempts to scare the party in ''Covenant'', they're actually more interested on how he's levitating, rather than what he's saying - or that he's trapped them in ''purgatory'' and ''hell''. Yuri really wanted that pillow of his...

* CrapsackWorld / CrapSaccharineWorld: The first two games definitely make the world out to be like this. It becomes especially crapsaccharine around ''Covenant''.

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The first Shadow Hearts has a giant sewer dungeon in Fengtian.
** A variant: an unused subway system is a major first area in ''Covenant''. There's also a sewer system that's an alternate entrance to the palace in Petrograd, Russia, which has since gained elements of a catacomb due to a bunch of the dead trapped there haunting it.

* AerithAndBob: Meet Hildegard, Joachim, and... Keith.
* AffablyEvil:
** The BigBad of the first ''Shadow Hearts'' is quite a cordial fellow aside from his motives. He harbors no malice toward the heroes, even after they defeat him -- he sees the whole conflict as nothing more than an honest difference of opinion. [[spoiler:He has a meeting with Yuri in ''Covenant'', and even then Yuri is cordial and actually understands the reasoning behind his motives when explained in the larger context. ''And'' the former big bad thinks Yuri stands a better chance than he did in hindsight, both personally and in method.]]
** The final villain of ''Covenant'', [[spoiler:Kato]], is also like this. He and Yuri fight to the death, but even then he considers Yuri his friend.
* TheAlcatraz:
** St. Marguerite Island in ''Covenant'', where the party is captured and Blanca has to rescue them.
** Alcatraz itself appears in the third game. Johnny and co. infiltrate it to free Al Capone.

* AlmostDeadGuy: Jack in the first ''Shadow Hearts'', when dying of his wounds, crawls towards the cauldron that he attempted to resurrect his mother with and mutters off his final words.
--> '''Jack''': (when Mammon appears) Mother?! It's not even complete... Why?! (beat, after Mammon dies) I'm so sorry... Mommy...

%%* AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield

* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: [[spoiler:Karin does one before the last dungeon.]]
* AndThenWhat: Orobas, a sidequest boss in ''Covenant'', declares his intention to TakeOverTheWorld; after hearing it already from someone else, Anastasia asks him this. Awkward pause.
--> '''Orobas''': Then... I'll have to think about that.

* AscendedExtra: Karin Koenig and Joachim Valentine from ''Covenant'' were present in the first ''Shadow Hearts'' under the names of [[spoiler:Anne Hyuga and the Golden Bat, respectively]].

** Every ''Shadow Hearts'' game has a Doll House sidequest. It takes place in a HauntedHouse infested with [[CreepyDoll Creepy Dolls]] and other abominations that are trying to kill you.

* {{Bishonen}}: ''Covenant's'' Kurando a thousandfold. To hammer home the point, his first Demon Morph is Tsukiyomi, a god''dess''.
** Which is even funnier, considering the actual mythological deity is male.
** Also Nicolai, though to a slightly lesser extent.

* BlindIdiotTranslation: Karin's skills in the second game are all named in German, but it appears the original text represented them phonetically. Thus, you end up with "Heuervelk" (Feuerwerk, german for 'fireworks'), "Bullenfogel" (possibly "Bullenvogel", which combines the words for "bull" and "bird") and "Geuschbenst" (Gespenst, german for "ghost"). Only "Sonnestark" remains unscathed.

* BullyingTheDragon: She may look broken and semi-comatose, but the woman whose spirit Viscount Rausan is trying to break actually has the power of a god. As [[spoiler:Albert]] points out, she is actually just messing with him by giving him the silent treatment. The second her [[MamaBear son shows up]] and is put in danger, we see [[IAmNotLeftHanded exactly]] what he was talking about.

* TheDollEpisode: Each ''Shadow Hearts'' game has a Doll House sidequest.

* UselessUsefulSpell: Inverted, as you don't have to waste MP or turns on them. And you'd be surprised how nice Instant Death is against late-game monsters. You even get to keep them for NewGamePlus.

** Getting the Good Ending requires exploring every millimeter of each area. And even then, knowing just ''what'' the requirements are for some sidequests is still GuideDangIt.
*** In ''Koudelka'', unless you remember to fish a key item out of a fountain ''three discs'' after it fell in, the only ending you can get (without abusing [[RandomlyDrops random drops]] in the last set of maps until your brains dribble out your ears) is [[spoiler:a NonStandardGameOver where the final boss ambushes your heroes with an acid mist, their faces melt off and [[RocksFallEveryoneDies the trio dies]]]]. If you get that far without grabbing the item, it's not totally gone: you go to a certain place to fight a certain cat that will grant you the key item. But that place is hard to find for people who aren't aware of this.
*** Subverted in ''Covenant'', where the ending you'll get is based on a single question asked right before the final boss. It's also important to note that it's actually the ''fans'' who declared the good ending the "good ending" and the other the "bad ending". [[spoiler:Mostly because in the "good" ending, Yuri dies... but is reunited with Alice. In the bad ending, he doesn't die but loses all his memories.]]
** The Secret Items of ''Koudelka''. There's NO indication of this, but if you have a certain amount of items in your inventory and save the game at PRECISELY certain times, special items appear on loading. For example, 10 items in your inventory and saving ''precisely'' at 22 hours, 22 minutes, and 22 seconds gives you Roger's Staff/Cane, the most powerful weapon in the game. NO hints at all.
** There's a part in ''Covenant'' and ''From the New World'' in which one of your characters is either tortured by a dominatrix named Veronica or interrogated by a pint-sized pirate. If you answer their questions ''incorrectly'', they'll repeatedly shock or stab your character. Picked the options that result in your character getting stabbed until they jump out of the barrel or are shocked into unconsciousness? [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential You sick bastard]]- wait, you get a good weapon for them if you do that?!
** Obtaining the Nemesis Fan, Lucia's InfinityPlusOneSword, in ''Covenant'' requires you to finish the item trading sidequest, done by talking to the [=NPCs=] until you find one that wants the item you have, giving it to them, and receiving another one. The problem is that midway through the game this become a LuckBasedMission, as there will be more than one person wanting the same item; giving it to the wrong one means that you failed the sidequest.
*** Thankfully if you do fail that sidequest, it's still possible to get the Fan, but it will cost you 500,000 Cash (or 250,000 with a full discount).
** Joachrhythms. Joachim from ''Covenant'' has three forms: himself, the Golden Bat, and the Grand Papillon [[spoiler:(or The Great Question if you finish his sidequest)]]. There's a graph that tells you where on the rhythm he falls, but there's no indication of what each does. Simultaneously, each form has different attributes, and unlike Yuri's fusions they aren't initially clear about which stats change. And then you find out there's a ''fourth'' form not even accounted for by the graph until you find it...

* GunsAkimbo: A fighting style employed by Natan, TheStoic badass MagicalNativeAmerican ProudWarriorRaceGuy from ''From the New World''.

* SanityMeter: You have Sanity Points (SP) which deplete by one each combat round, and when they run out, the character becomes TheBerserker, attacking nonstop and negating any EXP due to not remembering what happened. Harmonixers always have huge SP counts due to the inherent trauma of learning to endure fusion and channeling of spirits. [[spoiler:Johnny never learned this, so his points are as low as a typical person's.]]

* SendInTheClones: The Mutant Apes, ''Covenant's'' QuirkyMinibossSquad for the last third of the game.

* SequenceBreaking: Once you can return to Europe on Disc 2 of ''Covenant'', you can talk to a man in Florence and do the Castle Tiffagues sidequest early. The enemies are much stronger (As they're supposed to fought at the end of the game), but if you force your way through, you can get Neo Amon before fighting [[spoiler: Neo Astaroth.]] Heck, you can even finish up the Wolf Bout, getting Blanca's ultimate weapon and ultimate skills if you know where to go!
* ShipSinking: [[spoiler:Karin/Yuri fans get quite the shock.]]
* ShootingGallery: ''Covenant''. Doesn't effect anything, save for a different message depending on how well you did.
* ShootTheMedicFirst: The final battle in ''Covenant'' has four targets. Defeating one actually ends the battle, but the other three make the battle much longer if you ignore them. One of which ''heals''. [[spoiler: If you don't take down any of them? Well, let this troper just say that the game gives you a chance to kill the big boss with all four characters getting a turn each. After that, it's better to restart the Playstation.]]

* ShutUpHannibal: Yuri Hyuga will ''not'' take that sort of crap.

* VillainHasAPoint: [[spoiler:Cardinal Albert Simon]], the Big Bad of the first ''Shadow Hearts'', wants to wipe out humanity and restart civilisation because of the brutal repression of human elites. The party doesn't even disagree with him about the repression, but still fights him because of the loss of innocent lives. [[spoiler:The sequel reveals that his actions in the previous game were a misguided attempt to stop Rasputin.]]
-->'''[[spoiler:Albert Simon]]''': Only an illusion of peace exists in the superficial calm of our lives. In fact, the blood and tears of the poor are sacrificed daily by a handful of elite power-mongers. No matter how far science and technology advance, repression will never cease. We’re only human. Whenever the calls for revolution turn into concrete action, instigators are met by the full resistance of the elite, who stop at nothing to keep their power.

** Want to get Yuri the most powerful spells of his level three fusions? He needs to go berserk. This is something you typically want to ''avoid''.

* TheVoice: Yuri is guided throughout the events of the first ''Shadow Hearts'' by a voice in his head. Later, it is revealed to be [[spoiler:the imprisoned Koudelka, who also happens to be the mother of one of your party, the psychic London street urchin Halley]].
* WhamShot: It is made clear the reclusive Father Hans Doyle knows something about Alice's father, but he is killed by Olga before he can say anything. Upon looking through Doyle's belongings, Alice finds a photo of him with Albert Simon, who Alice's father went to see before Bacon ambushed and killed him and who owned the mansion Jack bought before going insane - revealing that the elusive witness of the mysteries, Cardinal Albert Simon [[spoiler:is none other than "Roger Bacon" himself]].
** Yuri nudging Alice awake after the train-ride to Domremy, [[spoiler:and Alice not waking up. Saving the world in no way undid the curse on her, a curse Yuri never knew about]].
*** [[spoiler:With full knowledge of the events of both ''Shadow Hearts'' and ''Covenant'', this goes from depressing to awesome: after doing all the extra sidequests, Yuri shows up to kick said curse bringer squarely in the balls to prevent said fate.]]
** [[spoiler:''From The New World's'' bad ending only differs in one detail from the good ending: Shania isn't there when Johnny leaves the agency. Then the camera leads us to her, on top of a skyscraper as a storm brews, and she opens her Malice-red eyes.]]

* Creator/YasunoriMitsuda: Composed part of the music for ''Shadow Hearts'' and ''Shadow Hearts: Covenant''.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: In ''Koudelka'' if you don’t have Koudelka’s Pendant you will receive a NonStandardGameOver however if you discarded the pendant or didn’t pick it up there will be an enemy that will drop it in the final area preventing the player from being locked out of the actual endings.
* AndIMustScream: From ''Koudelka'', Charlotte D'lota was kept in the prison under Nemeton Monastery from birth and beheaded on her 9th birthday. [[spoiler:If you try to reason with her without the letters from Sophia, she will curse you and trigger a boss fight which is also scream-inducing.]]

* BlatantItemPlacement: ''Koudelka'' follows this [[BreakableWeapons out of necessity]], but it's made slightly jarring by the fact that the game is, by comparison, extremely stingy about armor.

* BreakableWeapons: A prominent part of ''Koudelka's'' combat system.

* CallARabbitASmeerp: A [[PaintingTheMedium fourth-wall-breaching]] example in ''Koudelka''. The player can rename ''any'' item in the game, be it equipment or consumables. Want the cast to be healed by vials of crystal meth, or attack enemies with the Creator/ChuckNorris Gun? Have at it.

* CanonDiscontinuity: The ''Koudelka'' manga was written as a direct sequel of the game, and gave a lot of extra detail on the backstory of Roger Bacon and the Émigré Manuscript... but Patrick Heyworth's benefactor is retconned (from the manga's BigBad to someone else), and a line from Roger in ''Shadow Hearts: From the New World'' directly contradicts the manga (specifically, [[spoiler:he has never seen a successful Émigré ritual, whereas at the end of the manga he was witness to the revival of Mary Vermont and several fetuses as angelic beings. Though it's possible he was specifically referring to a ritual that completely revives a person as if they had never died in the first place]]), making the manga's connection to the ''Shadow Hearts'' continuity questionable.

* CharacterTitle: ''Koudelka'', natch.
* ChekhovsGun: Koudelka's amulet that she loses while scaling the monastery's roof. [[spoiler:Find it or else.]]

* MeaningfulName: "Koudelka" is a Czech name (originally a nickname) meaning "tow-headed," or blonde. It's not unreasonable for it to have migrated west among her Roma forebears. In game, she tells Edward that her nickname as a gypsy was "Szlato", meaning "treasure".

* PlayEveryDay: To a degree it shows up in Koudelka, only the game goes by hours played rather than days. Increasingly more useful equipment is automatically given to the party the longer the player keeps playing the game, until it finally ends with getting the Gargoyle's Claw - the most powerful weapon in the game.

* SoundtrackDissonance: ''Koudelka'' had some... very curious ideas of what a battle sequence song should sound like. See [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj_sgpk8g9o here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHlqledKmls here]].

* StatSticks: This is how Koudelka treated non-missile weapons, in fact against the hidden boss Gargoyle (which guarded the sword Sacnoth), the method is to boost someone's stats: Play the long enough and you get Gargoyle's Claw. Equip it on someone and arrange the formation so that wielder is in front. The Gargoyle's Claw will increase the wielder's stats by huge numbers, since the Claw is breakable just have the wielder defend. The Gargoyle will keep attacking the wielder for weak damage while your other heroes keep hitting the beast until it dies.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Koudelka, Edward and Father O'Flaherty in 'Koudelka'.

* TwoGuysAndAGirl: The main trio of ''Koudelka'' is Koudelka, Edward, and James; notably, the girl is TheHero.

* WithFriendsLikeThese: Koudelka, Edward and Father O'Flaherty are ''constantly'' bickering with each other.

* WidgetSeries: Far less subdued than other examples, but what other series will have characters wielding whatever they can find against the forces of evil... or have gun-based martial artists, [[HighlyVisibleNinja ninjas in red]], and egg-throwing princesses as party members?