It's the third installment and Yuri ain't here. Cue the fan backlash! SH 3 has a dicey reputation, which you may chalk up to the gaudy new setting, hyper-linearity, or lack of Yuri. You'll find something to gripe about. But you may also discover that SH 3 is a perfectly good game that fixed many of Covenant's most irritating problems.
For starters, the difficulty is balanced in this one. Sure, it's still easy, but most of the nigh-broken techniques from Covenant have been pruned down subtly. Energy charge is harder to pull off, award money has been reduced, enemies have more HP, there are fewer Mind's Eyes, the list goes on. The greatest change comes from the Stock system, which forces you to keep an eye on enemies at all times or take devastating hits. This is doubly true for the bosses, which are much tougher this time around and spam statuses like nobody's business.
Has anyone else noticed how similar SH 3 is to Final Fantasy X? I sort of suspect the developers felt like jumping on the bandwagon after the first game's release date fiasco and lackluster sales. In any case, it's a bright, colorful game, which honestly feels a little jarring after all the moodily dim areas in Covenant. You'll note that most of the scenes rendered in gorgeous CG involve the two most nubile female characters stripping or making out, for somereason...
The music, thank God, is put to better use than in Covenant, and you'll rarely hear the same few songs for hours on end. Sadly, fewer of the songs really stand out, so it all sort of melts into a generic but pleasing aural mush.
The talking cat and magnificent cleavage can't quite make up for your party's lack of chemistry and development, but the plot and pacing are tighter this time around and the VA has been improved. The trio of villains really steal the show but are criminally underdeveloped; it's frustrating to focus on the same few antagonists for 30 hours while knowing next to nothing about their motivation and background.
The disturbing monster designs of the first game are back. You won't see the penis demons in this one, but you will see a floating clitoris beast in the last dungeon. On that note, keep your eyes peeled for Shout Outs from everything from Discworld to The Simpsons. Historical accuracy is in very short supply.
VideoGame Shadow Hearts: From the New World
It's the third installment and Yuri ain't here. Cue the fan backlash! SH 3 has a dicey reputation, which you may chalk up to the gaudy new setting, hyper-linearity, or lack of Yuri. You'll find something to gripe about. But you may also discover that SH 3 is a perfectly good game that fixed many of Covenant's most irritating problems.
For starters, the difficulty is balanced in this one. Sure, it's still easy, but most of the nigh-broken techniques from Covenant have been pruned down subtly. Energy charge is harder to pull off, award money has been reduced, enemies have more HP, there are fewer Mind's Eyes, the list goes on. The greatest change comes from the Stock system, which forces you to keep an eye on enemies at all times or take devastating hits. This is doubly true for the bosses, which are much tougher this time around and spam statuses like nobody's business.
Has anyone else noticed how similar SH 3 is to Final Fantasy X? I sort of suspect the developers felt like jumping on the bandwagon after the first game's release date fiasco and lackluster sales. In any case, it's a bright, colorful game, which honestly feels a little jarring after all the moodily dim areas in Covenant. You'll note that most of the scenes rendered in gorgeous CG involve the two most nubile female characters stripping or making out, for some reason...
The music, thank God, is put to better use than in Covenant, and you'll rarely hear the same few songs for hours on end. Sadly, fewer of the songs really stand out, so it all sort of melts into a generic but pleasing aural mush.
The talking cat and magnificent cleavage can't quite make up for your party's lack of chemistry and development, but the plot and pacing are tighter this time around and the VA has been improved. The trio of villains really steal the show but are criminally underdeveloped; it's frustrating to focus on the same few antagonists for 30 hours while knowing next to nothing about their motivation and background.
The disturbing monster designs of the first game are back. You won't see the penis demons in this one, but you will see a floating clitoris beast in the last dungeon. On that note, keep your eyes peeled for Shout Outs from everything from Discworld to The Simpsons. Historical accuracy is in very short supply.