There are certain role-playing game franchises that you can count on to provide certain experiences. Sight unseen, you know that sitting down with a new Final Fantasy, you're going to experience a game with high production values, an epic storyline, and stylish characters. The Shadow Hearts games, while by no means as widely popular, have a similar following from fans that appreciate their trademark combat system, quirky character designs, and a healthy dose of comedy that contrasts with the game's darker tone and setting.

In Shadow Hearts: From the New World, players take on the role of Johnny Garland, a 16-year-old amnesiac who inherited his father's estate and decided to start up his own private detective agency. You'll embark on a quest that takes place in Depression-era America, traveling from New York City's Upper West Side and Times Square to the ganglands of Chicago, the glitz of Las Vegas, and the… well, the grandeur, of the Grand Canyon. There are other, more exotic locales you'll explore as well, and the environments look quite good, truly capturing the feel of the era.

In this fantasy-filled take on the real world, Native American heroines like Shania, the main female protagonist, can summon great elemental powers by appealing to the spirits and stripping down to her panties. This is also a world where walking, talking anthropomorphic cats star in action films produced at Purramount Pictures. Possibly the greatest character to every grace a console RPG, Frank the Ninja epitomizes what Shadow Hearts does well. Without giving away too much of the storyline, he perfectly balances an efficient combat character with hilarious, well-acted dialogue and a concept that pokes good-natured fun at the stodgy, stoic swordsmen that are churned out dime-a-dozen in this sort of game. The character models look quite good, although their sheer creativity of design and style impress more than their polygon count.

The localization for Shadow Hearts was well done, with great care taken to preserve the game's mood. While some of the original humor may not have translated well if done verbatim, most players should be able to appreciate the tongue-in-cheek humor here, and some of the more subtle references are positively brilliant. You'll meet a character named Professor Lovecraft, for instance, who resides at Arkham University, researching horrible creatures. In one laboratory facility, an insignificant character I encountered made a reference to Terry Pratchett's Discworld, telling my party about the view of Earth from space, and how it rests atop a trio of giant turtles! If you're the sort of person who loves finding these subtle pop-culture or literary references in your games, then you're in for a treat.


The majority of console RPGs have been plagued by mindless turn-based combat, where all you needed to do was select the appropriate spell or attack from a menu and just sit back and watch the pretty effects. Shadow Hearts: From the New World is a refreshing change, especially if you haven't played the previous games in the series. The judgment ring system, along with the handful of other factors that need to be considered during combat create a complex system that requires you to employ healthy doses of both strategy and tip-top reflexes for every encounter.