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| Pollyanna 1278th Post
 
Red Carpet Executive Member
  
    
    
    
|  "Re(1):Voluntary Shadow Hearts thread" , posted Thu 4 Aug 09:29
quote:
Second, didn't SH3 just come out in Japan? Has anyone played it yet?
YESYESYES. Shadow Hearts 3 is AMAZING so far. I may lose interest in it as I did with the first two, but the cast of characters is the best I've ever seen.
Well, I mean, Johnny is nothing special, and as I said in another topic, Shania is characterized by taking her clothes off all the time (and Natan is just boring), but then you've got Frank.
Frank looks like "the president" looks in any Japanese depiction of America...but he's not the president, he's a ninja. A ninja who trained in BRAZIL and has a giant oni mask on his chest. GIANT. As if that wasn't good enough, each of his weapons has a "special meaning" to him and he acquires them by sticking random blunt objects on the end of a sword hilt (bus stop signs, giant cacti, etc). But the best -best- part of Frank is that his Japanese is TERRIBLE. He has the worst American accent I've ever heard. Sometimes I can't understand a damned word he's saying because his pronounciation is so poor. As a result, literally everything he says is funny.
Frank is enough to make the game great, but then you get Mao, who is a giant talking cat (who sounds like a drag queen) that happens to be a mob boss that fights with drunken fist Kung Fu (she's also Frank's "master").
Ah, and then there's Ricardo Gomez, the ultra-smooth mariachi guy who fights with a machinegun/rocket launcher acoustic guitar.
Aaaaand...well,I don't want to spoil anything about Hilda, because you don't see her "other form" in the opening and it's quite funny. she'd be my favorite character if her voice wasn't so irritating.
It's an amazing team. The music is also quite excellent, though I can see myself quitting early do to lack of interest in the plot, which like the team, barely holds itself together even by the most vague of logic.
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| Spoon 1187th Post
Red Carpet Premium Member+
| "Re(2):Voluntary Shadow Hearts thread" , posted Thu 4 Aug 16:18
quote:
Second, didn't SH3 just come out in Japan? Has anyone played it yet?
YESYESYES. Shadow Hearts 3 is AMAZING so far. I may lose interest in it as I did with the first two, but the cast of characters is the best I've ever seen.
Well, I mean, Johnny is nothing special, and as I said in another topic, Shania is characterized by taking her clothes off all the time (and Natan is just boring), but then you've got Frank.
Frank looks like "the president" looks in any Japanese depiction of America...but he's not the president, he's a ninja. A ninja who trained in BRAZIL and has a giant oni mask on his chest. GIANT. As if that wasn't good enough, each of his weapons has a "special meaning" to him and he acquires them by sticking random blunt objects on the end of a sword hilt (bus stop signs, giant cacti, etc). But the best -best- part of Frank is that his Japanese is TERRIBLE. He has the worst American accent I've ever heard. Sometimes I can't understand a damned word he's saying because his pronounciation is so poor. As a result, literally everything he says is funny.
Frank is enough to make the game great, but then you get Mao, who is a giant talking cat (who sounds like a drag queen) that happens to be a mob boss that fights with drunken fist Kung Fu (she's also Frank's "master").
Ah, and then there's Ricardo Gomez, the ultra-smooth mariachi guy who fights with a machinegun/rocket launcher acoustic guitar.
Aaaaand...well,I don't want to spoil anything about Hilda, because you don't see her "other form" in the opening and it's quite funny. she'd be my favorite character if her voice wasn't so irritating.
It's an amazing team. The music is also quite excellent, though I can see myself quitting early do to lack of interest in the plot, which like the team, barely holds itself together even by the most vague of logic.
See, the people that make Shadow Hearts are so obviously better at making off-the-wall comedy than they are at making a grand, serious, self-important plot that I wonder why they even bother with the serious plot part.
It's not just that the comedy is better... it's that their "serious plotting" and "serious characterization" bits often suck, straight up.
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| Pollyanna 1281th Post
Red Carpet Executive Member
| "Re(4):Voluntary Shadow Hearts thread" , posted Thu 4 Aug 19:50:
The plot in SH3 is really poor. The characters have little reason to be together and no interesting motivation to do anything. The events are only loosely connected and there's no legitimate drama whatsoever.
However...the individual situations, in themselves, are quite enjoyable, as are the characters. The big exception is Shania, who I absolutely can't stand. Not only is she skanky-looking (not reason enough to hate a character), she takes her clothes off ALL THE TIME (some of you might like that, but not me) and she's just...BORING. She's a totally bland serious character in a world of completely insane fucked up weirdos and she has NO REACTION to it. Johnny, who is...somewhat normal has comical, somewhat believable reactions to things, but Shania is just in the wrong game...and the game she's from sucks ass.
So I agree that the SH writers can't create legitimate drama (or haven't in the past), as I gave up SH 1 and 2 because the plot totally failed to keep my interest. It's a catch 22, because I complain when there's (out of place/poorly written) drama, but I quit the game if it doesn't have any.
SO, what I can hope for in SH3 is a story that has interesting twists and developments, but fun ones that fit with the world and characters. If they try to give me real emotional drama that's not the least bit tongue-in-cheek (especially if it involves Shania) it'll just irritate me. I'm not saying the game can't have romance or tragedy or whatever they want, they just can't pretend like I'm suddenly going to go for melodrama.
And to answer Iggy's question: I think so. I don't know the Kanji for his name, but it's the same as the SH2 composer. It's a good soundtrack...especially the opening (which I watch every time) and the song it plays when Frank gets a new weapon. Also, Ricardo's short little guitar songs are nice.
[this message was edited by Pollyanna on Thu 4 Aug 20:00] |
| KTallguy 716th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member
| "(ﾉ△･｡)" , posted Thu 4 Aug 23:38
I really really liked SH1's plot. I thought it was perfect... although the characters were kind of off at times. I really got into Uru and Alice's relationship.
I was really looking forward to beating SH2. I had just gotten to the 2nd disc, and there was a cool new character that I met with Blanka, and we were fighting it out in Japan.
So I head towards the next save point, and try to save my game. The save bar freezes. I look at it. I say, eh... maybe it's because it's a new disc, it's taking a while... and go eat dinner. I come back, it's the same. ... the PS2 won't turn off manually... I have to use the power switch in the back.
I turn it back on and boot up the game, and lo and behold, my save file is corrupted... =(
I guess I'll never find out what happens to Uru and crew, but honestly the game wasn't very engrossing. The serious bits were kind of cheesy and I did like some of the characters (esp that new one, damn it), but it didn't hold my interest like other games. I actually stopped playing for a few months and then started up again, which is strange for me, I always play RPGs straight through.
Gripes about SH2: The dungeons are long and repetitive. The battle system really gets slow and boring after a while. Story bits are a little long winded and although Uru is very well voice acted, he can't carry the whole game. The sense of purpose wasn't really there in the first disc at all, even at the end I was kind of underwhelmed.
Good things about SH2: Some of the characters are nice =) I like Uru and Maria... although Maria is annoying in the cutscenes. I like Blanka's weapons. Battles are entertaining, the ring system is quite smart.
I wish the battles had more strategy to them though... really all you do is power up your characters (or not), and hit them with your strongest moves, or combos, or whatever. It's rare that you have to use any kind of special elements on enemies... you kind of just throw your strongest stuff at it and it dies. I guess that's all RPGs though... =P
Damn save file... I guess I'll just continue trying to beat Killer 7 (the fricking craziest game ever) so I can go read the spoiler thread... damn power rangers...
Why are they called the Handsome Men if two of them are girls?
Proud Supporter of Next Generation GAMEPLAY
"テメエがヤクブソクなんだよ!"
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| Pollyanna 1283th Post
Red Carpet Executive Member
| "Re(3):(ﾉ△･｡)" , posted Fri 5 Aug 06:16
I'm not going to argue about which RPGs have fights that make you use strategy and which don't. Instead, I'll say that I feel that every system in SH (3 at least) is good and well-implemented, but not especially fun.
Even games that have great systems that I love usually have something irritating about them, but SH3 manages to have a large collection of systems that I neither enjoy, nor are irritated about. I like that the ring system makes me actually pay attention in battles, but I don't enjoy the rings in themselves. I like how combos give me something more to do than just attack, but it's not like they look good, require any particular strategy, or are the least bit fun to do. I don't like the spell system, either, but there's nothing wrong with it.
I like how the game has a unique way for all the characters to get their new skills (which all result in a hidden dungeon if you finish the quests...I think) and I like how you have something new and optional to do after every maze, rather than crowding all the extra stuff at the end. I don't especially enjoy any of the sidequests, though. They're just OK.
Oh...you are also highly dependant on items randomly scattered in hidden treasure chests/background spots, which isn't especially fun it itself, but gives you motivation to explore and beats the hell out of a huge world full of nothing.
The one thing I really really like about SH is that the encounter rate is low and the battles take a while. If they actually requires much strategy, it would be really great. As it is, it ends up like the rest of the systems in SH...good, but nothing exciting.
I'm not complaining, though. Most games have things really wrong with them on some level. It's just strange to play a game with nothing wrong, but nothing spectacular.
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