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Caspar · **02-21-2015, 06:39 AM**

(02-20-2015, 03:34 PM)Harmonixer Wrote: I'm actually baffled as to how all of you lovely people (just based on what I read in this thread, perhaps I've overlooked) managed to overlook my absolute favorite series ever:

Shadow Hearts.

It has yet to be topped by any RPG I've ever played and everytime I play it I notice something different. The story is creepy and unsettling, lined with lots of dark humor and for every typical trope there's a boatload of shining moments.

It also has a evolved gameplay mechanic that I believe Legend of Legaia/Dragoon started- called the Judgement Ring. Along with a Sanity meter, you'll need that.

The main characters don't use swords, they punch things. They also turn into horrible monsters and wreck shit. In one of the games, you bust Al Capone out of prison and in another you participate in 'The Man Festival'. A wrestling match where the losers... well I suppose it depends on your tastes. How about vampires that fight with sign posts and tables? Maybe you'd like to talking about the merits of necromancy?

I won't go as far to say it's all high concept stuff, but it's entertaining and full of twists I never saw coming. The characters are still better (subjective) in this series than years of FF and it's sadly never going to continue. I felt more feelings than anyone should ever have a right to feel.

I mean seriously, this wrestler rips out a pillar off a building and carries it around as his weapon. There's a ninja that uses a cactus as a sword. That's the tame stuff.

It's horror themed, that in itself was enough to attract me. If you haven't played it, or someone else mentioned it and I missed it- you should go play it. I mean that, you really should.

I was too tired to really get into it, but I loved Covenant. It is the only SH I've played. I think what really struck me about the game was how effortlessly it balanced drama and comedy. The funny scenes were genuinely funny and often unexpected, plus unlike a lot of rpg, integrated into the story.

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Yet it was still at its heart a really tragic story with a somewhat painful ending. I was impressed by how the game handled the idea of grief, very mature. Plenty of rpg have tragic deaths, but few seriously tackle the matter of learning to cope in the aftermath of one. Yuri was generic at first glance, but anti-hero protagonists were actually kinda rare in rpgs those days, and not only that, the game wasn't afraid to make him vulnerable and yet still badass. (I especially liked his scene before the Dark Seraphim optional boss.) And of course the party members were memorable. I just can't wrap my brain around how a game where you trade gay porno cards for doll clothes to dress up your dirty old man's marionette could handle such a serious story well. And of course Joachim, practically the best rpg party member ever, omg. I lost it when he found his new weapons. "Hmm. Nice tuna."

Speaking of which, the game's attention to detail was absurd. Literally every item and every monster in the game had a few sentences describing them and mostly unique artwork. Like what the heck, where did Nautilus find the time to do this? Things like Joachim's weapons in particular were pretty hilarious, such as the tuna that froze itself to wait until a cure for its fatal illness was found.

For srpg, the games I played a lot of were Valkyria Chronicles (really really fun and pretty game), pretty much every main line Disgaea, Soul Nomad (An unusually serious NIS game.), and Front Mission 3, 4, even the 5th game, which I never managed to properly patch to translate the Japanese.

Rpg other than Final Fantasy you like!

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes