In 1999, unknown game developer Sacnoth released a very ambitious title called Koudelka to very little fanfare. Sadly, most gamers have never even heard of this game, let alone played it. While it was far from a perfect game, it showed that someone out there actually had some NEW ideas for console role playing games, and weren't afraid to implement those ideas. It was refreshing to finally see something different, something dark and character-driven. Flaws in that game hampered its effect, however, to the point where even it's champions were forced to admit that yes it was far from perfect. At about the same time, Sacnoth also released a game called Faselei! (and yes the exclamation point is part of the title) that was never released in English since it had been developed for the Neo-Geo Pocket Color at a time when SNK was going bankrupt in the U.S. and close to pulling their portable machines from store shelves in the states. Stinging from these near-failures, Sacnoth licked its wounds and went back to work. And, incredibly, they came back swinging, releasing one of the best games of 2001 for the Playstation 2. (At about the same time, Squaresoft released Final Fantasy X, Capcom gave us Devil May Cry and, earlier in the year, Konami set Silent Hill 2 loose on the world.) But while Sacnoth's new game, Shadow Hearts, was just as ambitious as it's prequel (yes, Shadow Hearts is a semi-sequel to Koudelka), and even fixed many of the problems of the original, it fared just as poorly as the original. This was a real travesty. How could a game developer continue to release such pearls only to have swine turn their noses up at it? Unfortunately, the problem might have lain with the lack of exposure this game received. But even so, a game of this caliber, one that saw a widespread release, should have been a huge hit. Instead, it has been all but forgotten by the gaming world.

STORYLINE: 8
This travesty cannot be blamed on the storyline, which skillfully combined elements of horror and the occult with Taoist philosophy, eastern mysticism, and Christian spirituality. At the same time, the game is incredibly character-driven. It's a joy just to watch how the characters interact with one another, as their backgrounds are slowly revealed, and their personalities carefully reflected in every bit of their dialogue. Squaresoft could take notes on how well these characters are developed throughout the game. But all this attention to detail surrounding the characters would be wasted if the overall storyline fell flat. Thankfully, it shines just as brilliantly. At the start of the game, you take on the role of Yuri Hyuga, who is guided by a voice in his head into protecting a young woman named Alice Elliot who wields mysterious powers. They are accompanied on their journey by Liu Zhuzhen, a famous sorcerer, and, later on, by Margarette Zelle, a spy, Keith Valentine, a vampire (wonder how they came up with his last name...), and Halley Brancket, a little boy. During the course of the game, many plots and subplots are revealed and become intertwined, including the nature of Yuri's ''fusion'' ability (more on this later) and the meaning of the fox-faced man he calls ''father'', the true identity of Roger Bacon (the villain of the game), and even what happened to Koudelka Lasant after the events of the previous game were played out. Shadow Hearts is also filled with horror-tinged subquests as the characters go from town to town. It's really amazing the depth some of these substories have. Even the shallower quests are well-thought-out and creative, such as the cursed cat village in the beginning of the game. But to discuss any more of the plot would be to give it all away. Suffice to say that the plot revolves around protecting Alice from Master Dehuai and Roger Bacon, who both plan to use her powers to unleash the Demon's Gate Invocation and summon a powerful demon known as the Seraphic Radiance. It's only as the story is played out that each villain's true intentions are revealed. For the most part, the storyline and characterization are carried out successful, even, at times, beautifully. However, other parts can be confusing, either due to poor translation, or just poor writing to begin with. Not everyone's reasons even make sense. Who would destroy an entire continent simply to send another country a warning? This is actually someone's reason for following Dehuai! There's a lot of little things like this that keep the storyline from really being perfect. Not everything makes sense or is completely logical. But the fact that such an ambitious and complex plot was actually carried out all the way to its natural conclusion is itself no small feat. And really, you won't notice that much or truly care that much when you're playing through the game because it's so different from other rpgs and just so much fun.

GAMEPLAY: 9
This suspension of disbelief is helped along by the different play mechanics used in the game. Sure, battles are typical turn-based fare, but with the addition of the ''judgment ring--basically a clock face with up to three colored areas (and sometimes three shaded areas within those colored areas) and a second hand that spins around the face but one time--they become completely engrossing. The player must hit each area for the attack or spell to be truly effective. Miss the first one, and the action won't even be carried out! This adds a huge element of excitement to battles that normally would be repetitive and boring. (Who gets excited by turn-based battles?) But the judgment ring isn't only used in battle. It's possible to get huge discounts at stores using the judgment ring, certain puzzles require you to complete one or more successive spins on the ring, and there's even a lottery where you can win prizes with the prize won depending on where you stop the ring at. Another great addition is Yuri's ''fusion'' ability. He can change into monsters, kind of like the summons in FFX, that will fight for the party until ''killed.'' What is so interesting about this is that it plays an integral part in the storyline and has an entire system set up around it. As Yuri battles monsters, his ''malice'' level rises up. He must go into the ''graveyard'' to battle the ghost monster that is his accumulated malice before it takes over and he goes berserk. Once in the graveyard, he can go up to any glowing tombstone in order to battle a fusion monster. Winning this battle allows him to equip that monster and fuse with it in battle. The tombstones are all element-based (fire, water, wind, dark, light, etc), and each monster that Yuri fights outside of the graveyard is also element-based. Once he's fought a certain number of one type of elemental monster (he doesn't have to actually kill the monster in question, only be in the attacking party), then the tombstone for that corresponding element will be glowing and he can take on the fusion monster contained within. It sounds more complicated than it is, but it does add an element of customization and strategy to the game. There are also a handful of minigames throughout the adventure, though less than most rpgs. You can do battle with monsters in an arena, play the lottery... and that's about it. no monster towns, monster breeding, fishing, or any number of the types of minigames offered in many recent rpgs. This is a good thing, though, as the focus is on the story itself, and only minigames that would make sense to the story have been included. Why would Yuri even want to build his own town and recruit people to live in it?

GRAPHICS: 7
One area of this game. though, that is a bit of a mixed bag is the graphics. They aren't bad, per se, but they aren't terribly flashy either. The only real complaint here is with the spell effects. I was downright shocked by how terribly lame most of them are. But maybe I'm just judging this area too harshly because it was one of the only let-downs in the entire game. Characters are large and detailed, the towns are mostly small affairs but the lighting, texture and everything else in them are all very well done. Nothing looks blocky or anything like that. But it would have been nice if the spells had been a bit more interesting. As it is, most of them are just about SNES quality, featuring, say, a shooting fireball or a blast of lightening, which looks more stylized then what something like this would actually resemble. It's hard to explain, but the spell effects just don't dazzle the player one bit the way they should. Another thing that I didn't really like is how big of a change the graphics are from Koudelka. Mind, Sacnoth made a great decision when it got rid of the weird dark chess board type pattern that was used during battles in favor of actual backgrounds, but whereas the earlier game looked Western in style and distinctly gothic, this one goes for a Japanese look and is a lot brighter and more colorful. There's plenty of daylight in Shadow Hearts, something that shouldn't be seen in a horror game, really. But that's just nitpicking over Sacnoth's choice of style. The only really bad thing about the graphics are the spell effects, and even that isn't terribly bad. It just could have been better.

SOUND: 8
Another mixed bag would have to be the sound. For once, though, I really enjoyed the music in the game. Not only was it beautiful to listen to, but every song seemed to fit the situation and the place perfectly. The problem comes in when the characters start to speak. Now I really didn't have a big problem with the voices themselves, some I liked, some I didn't care for, but none of them were truly irritating. No what WAS irritating was listening to the characters shout the same word in battle for every single magic spell that they perform, for every attack they do. Not only was it terribly repetitive, but also slightly ridiculous as the same word is being used for every action. And to make it worse, this didn't even sound cool the first time it's heard. Everything that they say in battle just sounds annoying, the very first time they do it. And the don't stop saying the same thing throughout the entire game.

REPLAY: 8
Another much larger problem is with the time it takes to complete the game, or lack thereof one might say. Forty hours is a generous estimate, more than enough for even the most die-hard gamer to get and do every single thing in the entire game. And it's an incredibly easy game as well. There are plenty of reasons to replay it, mainly because there are a few endings to see, and some hidden sidequests that one might miss, but for a game this short you almost have to replay it to get your money's worth! The bad part is that the game could almost use a little extension so that the writers can flesh out the storyline and clear a few more things up before the game is over. But at any rate, the game that IS there is brilliant, beautiful, and a joy to play.

So all we can do is hope that Sacnoth will continue to develop such wonderful games, and that maybe the gaming community will catch on eventually. (Thankfully, the series has continued since I wrote this. Sacnoth was taken over by Aruze Entertainment, however.)