History VideoGame / ShadowHearts

* WhamShot: [[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.]]

** [[spoiler: Albert Simon]] in the first game has his moments. [[spoiler: "Now it is time for the END OF THE WORLD!"]]

* BrutalBonusLevel: The Neam Ruins. Did you think that the time you went in there was it? ''THINK AGAIN''.

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Princess Anastasia from ''Covenant''. Shania of ''From The New World'' is of TheChiefsDaughter variety, with Natan explicitly calling her a princess occasionally and all.

''Koudelka'', while not a ''Shadow Hearts'' game in name, was the first to be released and exists in the same continuity as the ''Shadow Hearts'' games. It was originally developed as a radical new take on the RPG genre, but ExecutiveMeddling forced him to change the game from ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' style action-horror to ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' style traditional TurnBasedCombat. The result was a mess (teaching us, among other things, why SurvivalHorror games should ''not'' have RandomEncounters) with Kikuta resigning in protest after the game's completion.

After original developer Sacnoth was taken over by Aruze Entertainment, the Sacnoth team (sans Kikuta) created ''Shadow Hearts'' as a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Koudelka'', set in the same universe but [[GenreShift shifting the genre]] to pure EasternRPG.

The sequel, ''Shadow Hearts: Covenant'', sees [[BagOfSpilling Yuri's former powers sealed away]] by the new bad guys in town and introduces Karin Koenig as his new companion. They seek to find a cure for the Mistletoe Curse that Yuri has been afflicted with while struggling against the [[TheIlluminati Illuminati-like]] cult Sapientes Gladio, who naturally want to TakeOverTheWorld. ''Covenant'' later got an UpdatedRerelease under the name ''Shadow Hearts II: Director's Cut'' which was unfortunately never released outside of Japan. Curiously, with a little bit of [[VideoGame/GameShark hackwork]] you can unlock some of the English-translated Director's Cut content in PAL versions of ''Covenant''.

The third game, ''Shadow Hearts: From The New World'', could almost be seen as a GaidenGame (despite the fact it stays within continuity) in that it replaces Yuri with intrepid KidDetective Johnny Garland, moves the setting to America (refreshingly, ''not'' {{Eagleland}}) and gives the fusion powers to a [[{{Stripperiffic}} scantily clad]] MagicalNativeAmerican woman named Shania. She's searching for "Lady", the [[TheStoic Stoic]] CyberPunk woman who [[EverybodysDeadDave wiped out her entire tribe]], and Johnny [[JumpedAtTheCall signs up for the ride]] after developing the ability to create a LaserBlade out of a powerful ([[BlackMagic but evil]]) force known as Malice.

** Happens quite a few times in ''Covenant''. You control Nicolai and then Karin during the prologue, before Yuri reclaims his main character badge. Anastasia becomes the playable character at the outset of her arc, Kurando becomes the playable character during his own, and there's a section of the game where you control the [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Mutant Apes]] during a training exercise. And in the ''Director's Cut'' there's a bit starring Nicolai, Lenny and Veronica. You also got to control Blanca on two occasions.

** Happens quite a few times in ''Covenant''. You control Nicolai and then Karin during the prologue, before Yuri reclaims his main character badge. Anastasia becomes the focus character at the outset of the Rasputin arc, and there's a section of the game where you control the [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Mutant Apes]] during a training exercise. And in the ''Director's Cut'' there's a bit starring Nicolai, Lenny and Veronica. You also got to control Blanca on two occasions.

** 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.

** A variant: an unused subway system is a major first area in ''Covenant''.

** In ''Covenant'', there's a section of the game where you control the [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Mutant Apes]] during a training exercise. And in the ''Director's Cut'' there's a bit starring Nicolai, Lenny and Veronica. You also got to control Blanca on two occasions.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Part of the series' charm.

* FlunkyBoss: ''Covenant'''s FinalBoss, Susano-o, summons three flunkies (the Yasakani Gem, the Kusanagi Sword, and the Yata Mirror) to help him in battle. They do not come back when you kill them.

* 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 light-hearted setting. ''From the New world'' still keeps true to its macrabe roots; but could probably be officially called a comedy.

** In the third game, [[spoiler:Malice Unbreal is the actual final boss, and he comes as soon as the battle begins.]]

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: The series loves this one. Notable characters include Edward Plunkett, Roger Bacon, [[UsefulNotes/MataHari Margarete Zelle]], Princess Anastasia, [[UsefulNotes/RasputinTheMadMonk Rasputin]], Naniwa Kawashima (and his adopted daughter Yoshiko), and UsefulNotes/AlCapone. That's not even getting into cameo appearances.
* HistoricalInJoke: Heaps and heaps of them.

* FlunkyBoss: ''Covenant'''s FinalBoss, Susano-o, summons three flunkies (the Yasukani Gem, the Kusanagi Sword, and the Yata Mirror) to help him in battle. They do not come back when you kill them.

** The FinalBoss of ''From the New World'' - unlike most examples, however, you only need to kill ''one'' target as the other is invulnerable (and is automatically killed upon the main target's death anyway.)

* MultipleEndings: ''Koudelka'' has many endings. Every Shadow Hearts has two of them.

** [[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]] have been obliterated before the game even begins.

** 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 2: A man who can fuse his soul with demons, a ''female'' German officer/fencer, a perverted old man puppeteer, a ''wolf'', a vampire masked wrestler, an air-headed tarot reader/dancer, Anastasia Romanov, and a samurai.
** Shadow Hearts FTNW: A boy who can use the embodiment of humanity's malice as a weapon, a female MagicalNativeAmerican, a MagicalNativeAmerican who uses Gun Fu, a Brazilian ninja with a saw-katana, a giant drunken cat, an ElegantGothicLolita, and a mariachi which a guitar-machine-gun.

* RecurringElement: [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Roger Bacon]] and the [[TomeOfEldritchLore Émigré Manuscript]] have been involved in every game in the series.

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Princess Anastasia from ''Covenant''. Shania of ''From The New World'' is of TheChiefsDaughter variety, with Natan does explicitly call her a princess occasionally and all.

** If you think about it, [[spoiler:Lady's final defeat]] in ''From The New World'' counts.

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Princess Anastasia from ''Covenant''. Shania of ''From The New World'' is TheChiefsDaughter.

** ''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 once or twice in the game. By the time you get to them you won't likely let your SP get anywhere ''near'' zero.
** 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.
** 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.