Vandal Hearts 2

First Impressions The first Vandal Hearts was a quiet, unheralded strategy RPG that got lost in amidst the titanic RPGs of the time, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Ogre Battle. That was unfortunate, because it had a solid, enthralling storyline coupled with one of the best turn-based tactical combat engines ever seen on a game of this sort. Konami thought so, too, and gave the series another chance. Vandal Hearts II: Heaven's Gate was released several weeks ago in Japan, and IGNPSX has been taking it apart to see if it's improved on the original formula.At first glance, the changes seem superficial. The graphics received a minor facelift - textures are more detailed, the characters have more colors and variety, and the environments don't have that blotchy, tiled look anymore. Likewise, the pace of the game hasn't changed much either. Players move from cut scene with story sequence to world map to battle.

After the battle, re-supply at the local town, then head off to the next mission point. It's still very linear, but that's the case with all strategy RPGs. In an attempt to make the game longer, Konami has added a lot more story in between missions. Before getting to the first battle, you'll literally be wading through 10 minutes of non-interactive dialog.

You'll have about that much in-between missions, too. Although a few cut scenes work well, as when you encounter Adele by a classic 'meet cute' scenario, there are an awful lot of talking heads for a story this urgent.The most fundamental changes to Vandal Hearts' gameplay occur in the RPG character management section.

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The designers have discarded a class system and renovated the magic system. Now, any character can wear any armor, use any weapon, and cast any sort of magic. Of course, each character's abilities differ, and you'll want to specialize, but essentially, you can make any one of your characters an archer, a magician, a priest, or something in-between. While you now have more flexibility in choosing your strategies, it's harder for players who just want to sit down and play the game to develop the perfect mix. The characters also feel more generic, since none of them are confined to any role in your squad.Likewise, the magic system's flexibility makes the fine-tuning more complicated than the first Vandal Hearts. The source of magic comes from your equipment.

Many items contain the potential to become magical abilities. You develop those abilities by equipping said items, and gaining enough experience points to activate them. Then, depending on your level and your character's innate magic and elemental ability, you'll gain a number of uses of that spell. As usual, there is a wide variety of weapons and spells, ranging from healing to fire, lightning, and more cosmic offensive specials. More unusual is that once you've developed the spell, you can transfer that ability to another piece of equipment. It's very handy when you're upgrading to newer weapons and armor, but like to keep the abilities that you received from your previous item. Also, you can trade those abilities to other players, who can put them to better use.

The downside of this is that you need to keep track of all your equipment very carefully. If you don't, then you can end up selling highly charged super-swords with a careless button press, and then you'll have to waste extra money redeveloping those abilities, since once you've transferred a spell out of an item, it's gone. Those things don't regenerate.Once you're in the missions, though, you're in familiar territory. The basic game elements haven't changed any and the new ones add a fresh perspective on things. The battle maps can get much larger than before, and it seems to have more environments to play with. New lighting effects make dark forests and building interiors more exciting.

You also have a more powerful zoom feature, which can go in as close as the immediate space around your selected character and go out to encompass most of the map. Additionally, new data displays can display strategic movement in several different ways. The most convenient feature in Vandal Hearts II is probably the ability to have attack and movement ranges displayed at the same time, individually or collectively.Two fundamental changes will alter traditional Vandal Hearts strategies, though. The first is that reaction hits no longer exist. Before, when you (or an enemy) attacked, the opponent got a chance to hit you back if it didn't die. It takes some getting used to, but it makes sense with the other new feature.Vandal Hearts II now includes simultaneous movement.

That means when your character moves so does one of the enemy characters. As a result, you can't count on the enemy standing still while you move into position. Since you choose your attacks beforehand, you'll do some guesswork on whom to attack and where they are going to end up. This gets pretty tricky to deal with, but once you're used to it, intriguing new tactics emerge. As you get better at anticipating the enemy, you can set up ambushes and create deathtraps that you couldn't before under the original system. This is one instance where the new flexibility really works.Overall, it's hard to say whether Vandal Hearts II will catch on with the strategy RPG audience.

The new system's flexibility gives players almost limitless options, but it comes at the cost of constant character management and a disturbing lack of, well, for lack of a better way to describe it, character. The strategy engine portion still plays really well, and is designed well enough to be add new aspects to the traditional gameplay.Jeff Chen.

Contents.Story Thousands of years ago, the holy man known to history as Toroah the Messiah traveled far and wide across the continent of Sostegaria, spreading his teachings throughout the land. After his death, his descendants and heirs assumed absolute political power over the region, forming the basis of the Holy Ashah Dynasty and ruling through a combination of religious doctrine and military power for millennia.

The kings and queens of the Holy Ashah Dynasty, however, did not always rule wisely or justly, and, as time passed, the citizenry began to resent the power of their leaders.Fifteen years ago, this growing discontent found its ultimate expression in the person of Arris the Sage, who united the desperate and resentful anti-royal factions throughout Sostegaria and shaped them into a powerful army. Under the cunning leadership of Arris, this Liberation Army managed to outwit and outmaneuver the Royal Army, and finally smashed through to the palace of the Ashah Dynasty itself, and burnt it to the ground.With the monarchy dissolved, the rebels establish a ruling council founded on the principles of.

From the ashes of the Holy Ashah Empire emerges the Republic of Ishtaria. The leaders of the revolution naturally assumed leadership positions within the new republic: all, that is, except for Arris himself, who suddenly disappeared and has not been seen of, nor heard of, ever since.Today, the fledgling republic is in increasingly dire straits: the autocratic Minister of Defense, Hel Spites, and his elite squad, the Crimson Guard, are using ever-increasing force to stamp out the last vestiges of resistance to Ishtarian rule, while they allow to roam the countryside and to sail the seas. Meanwhile, Ash Lambert and his colleagues at the third battalion of the Ishtarian Security Forces begin to suspect a conspiracy at the highest levels of government.

Ash's attempts to draw attention to the situation, though, only draw the ire of the conspirators themselves, leaving only Ash and his allies to foil their plans and restore order to the nation.In Chapter 1, we meet Ash, Diego and Clint, who are posing as merchants. A group of thieves comes to rob them, only to find out that Ash is a member of the Security Forces. Ash, Diego and Clint dispatch Zoot Gach and his thieves. Despite Diego wanting to end Zoot's life at that point, the three companions head back to the capital Shumeria. Ash reports on what they found in the valley to their boss, Clive Beckett. Clive wants to know more when the meeting is interrupted by a citizen reporting a riot in the Dover District. This is a slum where the former nobles who lived the rich life under the Ashah Dynasty still live.

Diego, Ash and Clint assault a church, and meet up with Kane, the leader of Hel Spite's elite Crimson Guard. Ash and Kane trade some words, and the three beat back the monsters that appear and head to the church. There, they meet up with Count Claymore, who instigated the riot in the first place.

Kane shows back up and arrests Claymore, simultaneously killing the remaining nobles in cold blood. Clive shows up as Ash is ready duel Kane, and cools the two off.

The next day, a mysterious man by the name of Dolf shows up at Clive's office with a mission. Three months before, General Magnus Dunbar left for Gilbaris Island on a secret mission. He and his companions disappeared, and are presumed dead. Ash is to find out what happened to the general and report back to Dolf. Ash leaves with Clint and Diego, most think they are on leave because of what happened in the Dover District.

As they pass through the ruins of the Ashah Dynasty's castle, they run afoul of some clay golems created by Eleni Dunbar, the daughter of General Magnus. She and her manservant Huxley Hobbes join up with Ash. They also run into some brigands guarding a bridge, where another archer named Kira also joins the band. When the make the port to take them to GIlbaris Island, Grog Drinkwater refuses on account of Hassan the Pirate, who killed Grog's sailors and brother. Ash and his companions go to the desert to kill a sand creature that is stopping overland trade with a neighboring nation.

Once they slay the beast, Ash confronts Grog, saying that 'drinking won't bring back the dead.' Grog joins the party and they confront Hassan. After whipping the pirates, they find out that Hassan is actually Grog's brother, and that the life of piracy 'killed' the man who was Grog's brother. The party then travels to Gilbaris Island after burying Hassan at sea.Gameplay Gameplay is carried out through an. Battles are carried out on a series of grid maps, which include cells not accessible like water, trees and buildings. Although the environment is with a perspective that can be rotated by the player, the characters are two dimensional. A character's movement allowance for a turn can be used all at once or split, between two or more movements.

Turns are on a side-by-side basis; the player moves all of their characters before the AI is allowed to take its turn.Most stages are completed by killing all the enemy characters. Other stages have different victory conditions, such as killing one particular enemy character, moving characters to a specific location on the map, or killing certain enemies while saving others. In every battle, the death of the party leader results in an immediate loss.

Losing other characters in the party causes the loss of gold. The character is gone from the current stage and can return in the next stage.

Scram kitty dx free download. On stages that include rescuing other characters, the death of these characters also results in a loss.Classes A variety of characters join the battle party throughout the course of the game. Every character fits into one of seven: Swordsman, Armor, Archer, Hawknight, Monk, Mage and Cleric. The strengths of each class are determined through a hierarchy similar to the (and, another tactical role-playing game released in 1996): melee fighters (such as Swordsmen and Armors) are most effective when fighting against Archers. Archers are most effective when fighting against airborne characters such as Hawknights.

Hawknights are most effective when fighting against Swordsmen. The other three classes are magic-users: the Monk pairs healing magic with average physical strength, where the Mage specializes in attack magic, and the Cleric specializes in healing magic. In addition, Mages are also most effective against Armor. Most magic-using classes have weak defensive capabilities when compared to other classes in the game and most attacking magic spells are stronger against heavily armored opponents.Reception ReceptionReview scoresPublicationScore8.675/10 (PS1)7.1/10 (PS1)(PS1)MAN!AC76/100Vandal Hearts received mixed to positive reviews. Critics generally praised the incorporation of three-dimensional terrain and positioning into combat strategy, the sound effects, and the visual spectacle of the spells.

However, most critics disapproved of the linear progression of the gameplay and story.Reviews in both and likened Vandal Hearts to a bare bones reduction of the games, eliminating the exploration, town wandering, and replay elements that had helped make those games classics. Next Generation nonetheless had a firmly positive overall assessment, arguing that 'the lack of exploration is offset by the extremely engaging combat sequences.' GameSpot instead considered it a 'fatal flaw', and deemed Vandal Hearts a typical example of a fifth generation game with solid design and impressive graphics but less advanced gameplay than games of previous generations, though the reviewer highly praised the strategy involved in the battles. Robert Bannert at MAN!AC was positive about the game, but said it lacked depth and has little replay value. He cited the lack of hidden characters and an interactive storyline as weakness of the game, but praised the variety of the 3D terrain.Art Angel of found several elements of the gameplay unusual and refreshing, such as the ability to choose each character's class, and was especially pleased with the cutscenes.

He concluded, ' Vandal Hearts ' original gameplay and strong graphics and sounds should satisfy even the most particular RPGers.' Dan Hsu of criticized that the game sometimes its own plot twists through its use of, for instance by showing that the player characters are being betrayed before they learn it themselves.

However, he praised the enemy AI and said the variety created by the different character classes 'won me over.' He and his three co-reviewers gave it EGM 's 'Game of the Month' award. References.

From the original on 2017-07-10. Retrieved 2016-01-23. CS1 maint: archived copy as title. Harris, Craig (August 10, 2004). From the original on June 13, 2012. Retrieved December 1, 2018. ^ Bannert, Robert (2019-01-01).

MANIAC.de (in German). Retrieved 2019-05-11. ^ 'Vandal Hearts: Konami Makes American Graffiti'. P. 103. ^ 'Review Crew: Vandal Hearts'. P. 52.

^ Bartholow, Peter (27 March 1997). From the original on 2 March 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2018. ^ 'Pulse Pounding'. P. 146.

^ 'Vandal Hearts'. P. 112.External links. at.