Shadow Hearts (Spoilers abound)

I was just wondering if I was the only one who thinks the first shadow hearts doesn't get its props. Everyone loves covenant which I liked but I thought it had lost a lot of what made Shadow Hearts and Koudelka(read the soldiers diary, some crazy [img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img]) so interesting. The darkness and black humor of those games seemed to morph into making outrageous characters and silly comedy. I'm not saying I don't like the last two games, I particularly like the continuing storyline with Kato in covenant but not a whole lot else.

I just don't think any game ever quite captures what the first shadow hearts has, and it never got good reviews and I don't understand why. Just the environment of that first game and a unique story and some great characters. The environment of that train, or the plains, or that graveyard, or cannibal village, or bistritz, or dalian, etc is so interesting and unique to rpg's. And the storyline with the dark magic that dehui and albert were dabbling in, or whats his name at the orphanage, it just had a unique, very dark feel to it. At the same time I think it had really interesting characters, yuri is such an interesting protaganist, he's such a sort of tragic figure, and I really liked Alice and her english accent, zhuzhen and his relationship with yuri was great, and roger bacon/albert simon was a great, fantastic character. The love story of Yuri and Alice is also as well done as you'll find in a video game. I mean at the end of the asia sequence when yuri tries to fuse with seraphic and alice says yuri your soul is fading and at the end you see the foggy image of yuri with wings flying away and alice saying that night was the last time I ever saw him, that is a great scene to me. The music is also fantastic and understated and perfectly catches the dark feel of the environments. I don't know to me the first Shadow Hearts is one of the top 5 rpg's ever, and I feel like I'm the only one who feels this way, am I?

Well, I wont list my reasons for agreeing with you, because you basically just said it all. Not alot I can add.

Yeah I think its a great game, which isnt that well recognized. Though I played the second one first, then went back and played the orginal.

I've got to agree; Shadow Hearts is one of my all-time favorite games. Now, I liked the tweaked battle system of Covenant, mainly because it was less frustrating... but the original, hands-down, had a better story and environment.

The comedy is fun... but I miss the gothic horror.

I tried to like Shadow Hearts. I really wanted to like it. But it just didn't rub me the right way. :D I didn't think it was dark at all. It was too silly for me. The characters all felt very cliche, and the storyline was predictable.

Music was really good though.