Spoilers for Shadow Hearts and Covenant are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Shadow Hearts: From the New World is the third game in Shadow Hearts series of Eastern RPGs. The game was released in 2005 for Playstation 2. From the New World has no direct connection to previous games in the series, but there are plenty of Call Backs and other references to past events.
The game is set in 1927, and moves the setting to the Americas. Here, a young man called Johnny Garland, whose parents died in an accident several years ago, runs a detective agency in hopes to restore his own missing memories. One day, during an investigation, he accidentally finds a "Window" - a portal opened by Malice, which lets demons into this world. He's saved by a Magical Native American woman called Shania, who has the ability to fuse with souls of monsters. Shania is searching for "Lady", a strange woman, who wiped out her entire tribe, and Johnny decides to join her.
This game provides examples of:
- The Alcatraz: Alcatraz itself appears early in the game. Johnny and co. infiltrate it to free Al Capone.
- In Medias Res: Downplayed. When in the opening cutscene Shania transforms into Thunderbird and busts into a building, the scene cuts to Johnny several hours prior to this. After the tutorial dungeon, the last part of the cutscene is played once again, and the story continues on from here.
- Magic Square Puzzle: The first test you must complete to get one of Johnny's Tools is a staggered magic square, requiring you to match different sums for each direction.
- Powers as Programs: Stellar Chart allows characters to cast magic, and can be freely swapped between characters. Additionally, they have nodes, that can be filled with so-called "Stellars", each of which adds a specific spell for a character to use.
- Sound-Only Death: When at the end of the first dungeon a demon eats Marlow Brown, we are treated with his horrified screams over a shot of shocked Johnny, slowly backing out.
- Starts with a Suicide: Subverted. In the opening cutscene, Shania jumps from a building... Only to transform into Thunderbird and fly to a place where a Window has appeared.
