What
is the best RPG for the Playstation 2? Easily, anyone can tell you
that Final Fantasy 10 is the hands down winner. What is the
second best RPG? Well, most people will not mention Shadow Hearts.
Why is that? Shadow Hearts was released at approximately the same
time as Final Fantasy 10, making what should have been a decent
selling RPG disappear into obscurity.

Shadow Hearts most closely
resembles Final Fantasy 8 in terms of graphics and gameplay. You have
a party of 3 active characters and maybe a couple unused characters.
They travel in a linear progression from location to location solving
mysteries of the undead. The story is told through in game cutscenes,
with only a few higher quality scenes. The game is mostly read text,
with very few spoken lines. The graphics are dated compared to more
recent outings on the Playstation 2, and looks like the game was a
couple years old.

The
story is relatively simple, but does contain a few twists and turns.
Essentially, the main character possesses the ability to morph to
demons. Somehow, this makes him a figure of destiny and powerful enough
to fight Gods. You traverse through Asia and Europe proving how much
tougher you are than the monsters you encounter.

The combat system is the
highlight of the game. When you get into combat, you have a judgment
ring. In order to complete actions, you must press the x button on
the controller as a line moves around
the ring. Depending on how well you time your presses, you can do
increased damage and multiple attacks. This adds a sense of skill
and timing which can drastically alter the outcome of a combat.

There are many monsters
in the game, but none is overly memorable. In each area you explore,
you only get to sample two or three repetitively. One monster did
strike me odd. It was a male monster with a foot long male part. The
monster attacked by smacking you back and forth with that part. A
million nasty comments come to mind here, but knowing that there are
sensitive readers out there, I will leave it for you all to make your
own jokes.

With
the lack of true RPGs out for the PS2, Shadow Hearts should be on
everyones short list along with Final Fantasy 10 and Grandia 2. I
enjoy the game in chunks, often taking week long breaks between adventure,
but I keep coming back to it. I liked the game a lot more before I
played Final Fantasy 10, but absent that game, it stands out pretty
well on its own.

Final Grade: B