YMMV / Shadow Hearts: From The New World

• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Most players will pretty much use Johnny, Shania, Frank, Hildegarde, or Ricardo, occasionally swapping one out for when more physical or magical power is needed, or benching Hidlegard if one doesn't want to deal with her calorie system. (see Scrappy Mechanic)
• Demonic Spiders: Any enemy that takes Stock away from your party with spells or their basic attack (which they can use without sacrificing their own Stock, unlike the party), as you need them to initiate a Double (take two turns for the price of one) or a Combo (allow any chosen ally to take their next turn after an attack).
• Draco in Leather Pants: Killer certainly get this due to his devotion to Lady upon her saving his life, even giving his life to stop the party from reaching Lady as she opens the Gate to spread Malice to the world. This is in spite of Killer having no background whatsoever and is a unrepentent serial killer who's all too happy to help Lady end the world.
• Game-Breaker: The Double-Combo system takes the optional and fairer Combo system from Covenant, and evolves it into a ruthless boss-killing system. To elaborate, the Stock and Combo system allows players to begin boosting their party's offensive capabilities with buff spells, and then begin spending Stock on the last turn to initiate the Double-Combo with multi-hit abilities. If the player is especially good at the Judgement Ring, it is possible to kill every boss in the game before the boss even has a chance to take their first turn. The Final Boss and Superboss, however, prevents this method with their 'Lost Progress' ability, forcing the player to avoid using support spells at all during the fight.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: One of Frank's weapons is a Sword in the Stone... but Frank just picks it up with the stone and uses it more like a bludgeon.
• Jerkass Woobie: While every game has sympathetic people who wind up becoming villains, From the New World takes this trope even further. It's pretty clear that we're not supposed to sympathize with Lady or Killer at all... but all you know about Lady is how she razed Shania's home to the ground with no emotion, and how the same emotionless monster rescued Killer from certain death out of the kindness of her heart. The more you learn about Lady, by the end, you will either feel like a complete ass for having killed Johnny Garland's older sister, or you will see it as putting Lady/Grace out of her misery, earning both her and Killer a Redemption Equals Death.
• Low-Tier Letdown: Mao and Natan - they aren't bad characters per se, their main problem is that they just don't bring anything new to the table. There's fewer Let's Split Up, Gang! moments (like in Covenant) meaning there's less incentive to try and build up all the characters. What also doesn't help is that Mao's sidequest includes a Scrappy Mechanic, and they're generally not considered to be worth it.
• Nightmare Fuel: has its own page.
• Replacement Scrappy: Johnny. As far as some fans are concerned, he's not Yuri. Not helping is that in combat, he's somewhat of a Master of None, only saved by receiving a plot-relevant powerup later on.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Hildegarde's Calorie Meter is an utter bitch to work, unless you have rare accessories, that hasten the process, equipped or is willing to expend rare, irreplaceable items. To make things worse, she can only obtain new skills by talking to certain NPC's while being on a specific form.
  • Gathering Cat Coins require Mao to land the killing blow with her Cat Touch ability on her enemies, and then using them to pay for her sidequests. Lose to a boss you've paid to fight? You'll just have to gather the coins again. This is especially frustrating as accomplishing Mao's sidequest boosts the power of her Cat Touch, which also increasing the MP cost and makes the grind a bigger chore to do. It's generally advisible to farm for Cat Coins early and hold off on taking on Mao's sidequests until MP recovery becomes more manageable.
• That One Attack: Both the Superboss and Final Boss use the move called 'Lost Progress'. This move removes any buffs your group has. This is already bad enough, but both bosses use this as a counter immediately after anyone uses a buff, and they get an immediate extra turn to wreck you further.
• That One Boss:
  • Malice Killer. His normal attack cause Instant Death, and his area-based one deal heavy damage to the whole party. On top of that, Killer can inflict "Seal status", blocking the use of magic, and cast powerful fire spells that reset your characters Stock Gauge, preventing Combos and Double attacks.
  • The Final Boss is also quite brutal, especially in comparison to Malice Gilbert which was a bit of an Anti-Climax Boss. Like in Covenant, it is a multi-target fight... but unlike in Covenant where everything else was at best an annoyance, both targets alone are dangerous. Both Lady and Malice Umbral will unleash powerful attacks that hit the entire party at once. What's more, they are all multi-hitting and both targets can act one after the other and chain their attacks together and turn the bonus damage mechanic against you. Upon dealing enough damage against Malice Umbral, Lady will cast Entrance on Malice Umbral before it casts Calamity Gaze, which will likely kill the entire party unless they're sufficiently levelled enough. The only mercy that the game throws at you is on occasion, Lady will cast an easily blockable Ring Abnormality on you, and you only need to kill Malice Umbral. Just be ready to endure Lady's enhanced Malice Dirge move upon killing Malice Umbral, or else you'll have to start the whole fight over again. As a final middle finger to the player, using any buffs triggers Lost Progress, which not only clears the party's buffs but gives the boss an extra turn, so you have to do the entire battle without buffs.
• That One Level: Machu Picchu, where you need to solve puzzles while dealing with load of random encounters and searching for items. The first part consist of activating colored pedestals in a specific certain order to unlock doors and advance; afterwards, there is another puzzle involving colored flames. If you missed an item and have to revisit the dungeon, expect to do the puzzles again.
• That One Sidequest: The Photographer sidequest. It is a game-spanning sidequest that requires you taking photos of enemies. This includes ''Bosses and Bonus Bosses'', meaning you essentially need to complete other sidequests as well. Also, sometimes you need more than one photo so you can trade them for other photos you don't have, bringing a hefty dose of Guide Dang It! on top of everything else. It does not help that taking photo makes you waste a turn, which in a game where enemies can use the Double Combo mechanic against you the moment they get chance is not very good thing.
• Underused Game Mechanic: From The New World explains "Will" as the good counterpart to Malice, and it's explained that too much Will is as bad as too much Malice. But there is no gameplay mechanic about Will or Malice.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Mao, namely due to the Crossdressing Voices in the English version. In the Japanese version, Mao is voiced by Kujira, who is definitely a woman. She sounds very similar to Orochimaru, though.
• The Woobie: Edna. A sweet, bubbly flapper girl who hot for Ricardo and deeply cares for her brother, Al Capone. She's lusted after by McManus, then kidnapped then shot down for rejecting McManus advances, only to be brought back by Lady via the Kiss of Malice. This leads her to loses control of herself and kill indiscriminately while searching for her brother and Ricardo, and eventually she begs Ricardo to kill her before she transforms into a monster. This firmly leads Ricardo into this territory as well when he's forced to put her down.