Jeff Hoy, American

I’m not a huge fan of RPGs.  Those that manage to keep my attention for longer than a cursory glance are few and far between.  The few that have managed to keep me playing have been of the tactical variety.  Games like the Shining Force series, X-COM, and Silent Storm are examples of tactical rpg games that I’ve played and enjoyed over the years.  Konami’s Vandal Hearts series has been my favorite though.  Shining Force got me started in the style, but Vandal Hearts made me love it.  Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment is the third installment in the series.  It’s a digital download only, available on the PlayStation 3 through the PSN store, and on the Xbox 360 through the XBLA.  As a download only title that sells for $15, how well will it stack up to it’s predecessors?  I’ll find out.  But first, here’s my first impressions of it after playing through the first act.

The essential core to any tactical rpg is the battle system.  Everything else is secondary.  Vandal Hearts’ system is well intact, with some improvements over the previous entry.  Tactical planning is rewarded and setting up battle encounters with allies results in multiple potential bonuses.  Environment and position bonuses also add to the necessary planning of battles.  So far I’m happy with it.

Graphically Vandal Hearts is a bit underwhelming for being a PlayStation 3 title, it looks more like a pumped up PS1 or maybe a decent PS2 title.  The models and environments are all very low poly-count.  I imagine that was a choice made to keep the size of the download small.  The special effects aren’t that special, just simple lighting and particle effects, nothing fancy there.  The few cut scenes are drawn in a very cartoony comic book style.  It’s quite nice looking, but I don’t know how well the style fits with the theme of the game.  The music, sound, and voice overs are all well done, again, nothing spectacular, but it all gets the job done.

The PlayStation 3 version has 12 trophies, one of which is a gold, ready to be earned.  A few are gimmes just for playing the game, others require accomplishing certain feats in battles.

My only complaint so far is that the level of difficulty seems to be pretty low.  Battles go by fairly quickly and with little challenge.  Hopefully they get tougher as time goes on.

Info:

Developer

Konami

Product web page

Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment

Buy it

Through PSN Store or XBLA.