Forget World War I, the demons are coming!
Two years after Alice’s death, Yuri is back, with a lot more character and, now more than ever, the true image of the anti-hero.
Pursued by the Vatican (represented by Nicolai, a young good-looking priest), Yuri is cursed and stripped of his harmonixer powers. With the help of sexy German Army Lieutenant Karin, Geppetto the puppet maker (not the one you’re thinking), Blanca (a very special white wolf), Lucia (an exotic dancer) and Joachim (the pro-wrestler vampire with a bandit alter-ego), Yuri will struggle to get his powers back.
This time around, the overall environment of the game isn’t as spooky and dark as in the first title, with lots of well-placed humor here and there. However, it does manage to be scary at the right times, making perfect use of the grainy, shady backgrounds and creepy monsters.
To gain new fusions, Yuri will visit The Graveyard (which is actually representative of his heart) and exchange the spirit energy collected from defeating monsters and enemies. These fusions can gain levels, which will increase their stats and change their appearance, turning them into powerful and fearsome creatures.
Yes, the Judgement Ring is back! If you want to use an attack, spell or item in battle, you use the Ring, but each of them will have different hit areas. There are several items to customize the Ring, and some enemies have the power to reverse it, speed it up or make it really small. Aside from in battle, you can also use the Judgement Ring in stores to get discount prices, and in some mini-games as well.
The great innovation in the game’s combat system is the combo attack. First, you select a combo from the battle menu of whatever character you want to start the combo with. Then you select who goes next in the combo. This second character will move up next to the first and wait for its turn to attack.
A successful combo consists in a successful attack from the first character plus the chain linking button smash (the button flashes on the screen) and another successful attack.
Combos will require you to hit the Judgment Ring or strike areas. If you miss just once, the combo is aborted. In this case, the characters that lined up for a combo and who didn’t get a chance to attack, will lose their turns.
The continuity between fact and fantasy in the game is unbelievable, and there are even more characters and situations of the past applied to the supernatural theme in the sequel than in the original game. You can tell that the writers went trough great lengths of research to bring you this masterpiece that is a twisted tale of past times of our world.
A few examples… Rasputin had a lot more to him than just advisor to the Russian Royal Family, both in game and in real life. Princess Anastasia Romanov, who really had a passion for photography, becomes a valuable party member. In Tiffauges Castle you find a very strange and distressed group of children. If you don’t know why, it’s because this used to be the residence of the infamous Gilles de Rais, who kidnapped, tortured and murdered children.
Add a dose of modern slang and some techno music (lets not forget that this takes place in 1915… now there’s a discrepancy!) and the game becomes even more unique.
Every character has its unique personality and is weird in its own way, especially Joachim, the wrestler-vampire (who happens to be the brother of Keith Valentine, from the first game), whose weapons consist of things he picks up along the way (a mailbox, a table, a log, a locker…). The voice acting is perfect and contributes to give the characters the right amount of emotion right where it should be.
Faced with the possibility of bringing Alice back to life, but also with the chance of her turning into a demon in the process, will Yuri try the impossible and play with life and death? Can Alice really be brought back? Will Yuri accept a new love or hang on to a memory of the past? And what is it with this strange secret society? There are many questions to be answered, many secrets to be revealed and a beautiful epic story to be told while you play through both discs (yep, that’s right, there’s two).
To sum it up in a sentence, Shadow Hearts Covenant is the perfect sequel for a great game.