Shadow Hearts is a solid RPG, dark and gothic, with some good atmospheric music to it. The character designs are above average, and the story… well, the story is pretty much the same as all other RPG’s. Stop the bad guy, save the girl, and kick a lot of bad guy’s asses.
Shadow Hearts is the sequel to the PSX RPG/Horror game, Koudelka. Even has the main character from Koudelka (Koudelka Iasant) making a cameo appearance later on in the game (Sorry for spoiling. My bad.).
If you’d like to try something different from FFX, FF X-2, Wild Arms 3 and the like, give this one a go. You may be surprised.
Gameplay is slow and repetitive, but it does require that you pay attention to what you’re doing. The graphics are somewhat lacking, but the story was interesting enough to keep me playing. The monster designs are very odd, especially in the latter parts of the gmae. The characters are interesting as well, and there’s some funny bits in there. I’d recommend renting it first, as it might not suit you.
As for Shadow Hearts II… very slow start. Only thing that’s keeping me playing is my expectations gained from the previous game.
There is ALOT of flaws in the game, things that make it not as smooth, and just small gameplay issues. But, it’s still easily on my top 5 list. The system isn’t as good as most of square’s. It has potential, but something about it just isn’t right. Still awesome though.
For the story, it’s good. They didn’t do a great job at making it impactful though. The plot twists and whatever else don’t make you go "woah" or "awww :(" nearly as much as some of square’s games.
And I would give it the title of funniest RPG.