After the announcement of Armed Fantasia and Penny Blood, I got the urge to finally play the Wild Arms and Shadow Hearts series, big favorites of a couple of friends of mine. I had already played WA1, so went to SH1
It's very simple, but if you enjoy turn-based JRPGs, do play this. Its biggest strength is that it wastes no time whatsoever: I did pretty much 100%, in about 30 or so hours - every sidequest is actually worth a damn and gives you useful stuff, a rarity in the genre. This tight pacing reminded me of Chrono Trigger
This ain't CT of course, the plot is not as tight, the characters aren't as charming, and the soundtrack is waaaaaaaaay inferior... quite a forgettable soundtrack if I'm being honest, with a couple of more interesting tunes.
If you ever played Suikoden 1, it's kinda like that - very simple, very basic, but very chill, though Shadow Hearts is better and has more personality than Konami's cult classic.
I have one minor annoyance though: when characters leave your party, they take whatever accessory they have equipped with them.
It's only minor because there's never a character that leaves your party permanently, but anytime the game switches members around, you often realize that whoever left took a pretty good equip with them, that you can't use until they come back.
It's very simple, but if you enjoy turn-based JRPGs, do play this. Its biggest strength is that it wastes no time whatsoever: I did pretty much 100%, in about 30 or so hours - every sidequest is actually worth a damn and gives you useful stuff, a rarity in the genre. This tight pacing reminded me of Chrono Trigger
This ain't CT of course, the plot is not as tight, the characters aren't as charming, and the soundtrack is waaaaaaaaay inferior... quite a forgettable soundtrack if I'm being honest, with a couple of more interesting tunes.
If you ever played Suikoden 1, it's kinda like that - very simple, very basic, but very chill, though Shadow Hearts is better and has more personality than Konami's cult classic.
I have one minor annoyance though: when characters leave your party, they take whatever accessory they have equipped with them.
It's only minor because there's never a character that leaves your party permanently, but anytime the game switches members around, you often realize that whoever left took a pretty good equip with them, that you can't use until they come back.