[XBLA/PSN] Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment Review

[Bandango]

Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment

Title: Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment
Platform: XBLA and PSN
Developer: Hijinx Studios
Publisher: Konami
ESRB: Teen
MSRP: 1200 funny money or $14.99
Editor: Mike 'Bandango' Bellmore

What's Hot: Tactical role-playing on a system that doesn't have much of that; the price; the gentle learning curve.

What's Not: Excessive loading times; a clunky interface; shallow combat and spell system; boring story.

Once upon a time a young man embarked on a much beloved but ultimately unfinished journey through the mystical, medieval landscape of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. The calculated motions of attack and defense recalled both the obsessive, tactical decisions of X-com and the intimate, character-driven considerations of JRPGs. It was a huge game, filled with countless battles and layered with endless ways to customize your party of adventurers. The young man who fondly remembers this game is, of course, me, and I remember it here in this review because Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment is definitely not that game.

I wish I didn’t have to say that. I want to say this game is great. Turn-based strategy holds a dear spot in my heart. There is something therapeutic about finding the best load-out, the best positioning, and the most effective synergy for a team of soldiers under your command. At its most realized, the tactical RPG is a mind wracking fusion of role-playing, strategy, and puzzle gaming; at its worst it is a confused, boring mess. Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment lies somewhere in between.

The game begins with a cut-scene that features war, apocalyptic happenings, and fatheaded puppet-looking cartoons straight out of an episode of Thunderbirds. This cut-scene sets the stage for a confrontation between two enemy kingdoms that should be familiar to anyone who’s played an RPG before. Once the requisite tutorial mission begins, you’ll be pleased to find that the bizarre proportions of characters during the cinematics are not carried over into the game world. You may also be surprised that VH:FOJ looks more like a Western Saturday morning cartoon than conventional anime. All the characters, including the enemies, are bright and well defined, leaving little chance of mixing up who’s who or what’s what. Each level is clearly different from the last; I never felt like I was slogging through the same locales again and again. Spell effects are slightly underwhelming and the fountains of gore that spurt up after killing an enemy are absurd, but otherwise everything looks pretty good.

Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment is not the deepest of games, which is sad, because depth is what the tactical RPG player craves. The combat system is brutally simple. You can perform melee and ranged attacks, but there are no special moves to be learned by your soldiers, no tri-shots or flame arrows for your bowman to fire, nothing. The only action available is a simple, normal attack. Certain damage bonuses, however, are granted depending on the conditions of your attack. If, for example, you attack from an enemy’s side, you will gain levels in side attack. The bonus damage granted from that skill will increase accordingly. All skills in VH are handled this way. If you want to train a unit to handle an axe, equip one and go to town. If you want a unit to use a bow, equip it and start using it. Spell learning is handled much the same way. Equip a spellbook into the inventory of your would be caster and begin casting. Spells will be effective almost immediately and any character can learn any spell. This mechanic lends a great versatility to your units, but, in my opinion, at a cost. If every character can heal, swing a hammer, cast fireballs and use a bow, then all the characters feel the same.

That said, the weapon swapping system is interesting. Each character has two weapons equipped at any one time. During battle, these weapons can be alternated between, and switching does not cost a turn. So depending on the situation, your character can use a close range weapon for adjacent enemies, or a bow for those far off, or a hammer that strikes all foes, and friends, that surround him. If you attack an enemy that is surrounded by your own soldiers, those with sympathetic weapon types have the chance to perform a teamwork attack. Two bowmen in close proximity will often work together; two melee fighters will do the same. Like all other skills, the more often that teamwork attacks are performed, the more likely and more effective they will be.

While these mechanics are attractive, they aren’t enough to make for a fulfilling experience. The spell system is weak. There are 4 self explanatory disciplines: damage, heal, augment and hex. Each discipline is made up by no more than 8 spells, and once learned, leveling spells only increases their effectiveness. Leveling a spell will never increase range or area of effect, and a level 1 spell will look the same as a level 20 spell. A boring and clunky item/inventory system doesn’t help either. Killing opponents does not yield equipment, and the gold rewarded at level’s end is enough to purchase top of the line gear for all of your troops as soon as you hit the next shop. After struggling through tedious menus to buy and equip that gear, you’ll notice that all your units end up wearing pretty much the same thing.

The main quest line is equally shallow. It’s extremely linear and side ‘quests’ are few and far between. Every once in a rare while, after stumbling upon an inscription or an old note in a chest, alternate routes will open on the world map that lead to harder-than-usual battles that reward unique, powerful items. These battles, save a boss fight or two, are the only I found to be challenging. Otherwise, difficulty hovers at 'just challenging enough to keep you from getting bored.' Missions range from escort to kill all enemies, and a few toss conditionals into the mix. In one battle a party member is possessed by ghost skeletons. Another has an evil wizard teleporting your units to paralysis chambers scattered around the map. Neither these narrative tropes nor the special circumstances they bring to the table are terribly interesting, but they do break up the grind. And while the final boss fight is a surprising departure from the rest of the game’s rhythm, its conclusion wasn’t nearly enough to incite in me any emotional response to the bland and featureless story.

Additionally, three specific issues stand out in my mind as having lessened my enjoyment with this game; three issues that shouldn’t have been issues at all. First-- buying, selling, and equipping items is needlessly clunky. Second-- During a battle, there is no way to restart without exiting the game and reloading. Now this might not be such a big deal if it were not for the third issue. VH has some of the worst loading times I’ve seen in any modern game. I’m talking about minute long loads here, and an excessive amount of them too. Imagine a minute long loading screen to get to a place where you can save, another minute long load to get back to the world map, and then another minute long load to get to the next mission. And to make things worse, these loading screens are adorned by no more than a dozen, if that, pieces of concept art. You will be very familiar with them by the end of the game. I stared at those damn sketches for what felt like hours. It is possible that these load issues are unique to my own experience and not a problem with the game itself, though, because my poor Xbox red ringed the night I finished VH. I hope that hasn’t colored my score.

In short VH:FOJ is a relatively shallow, linear tactical RPG. It’s not great, but it’s not terrible. Most of my issues with the game’s story and mechanics don’t necessarily mean I didn’t have any fun-- I had more fun than I didn’t. The game just isn’t as good as it could have been, and it didn’t quite reach the bar set by other games in the genre.

Score: 2.5 out of 5 CoGs


Mike says, "If you are in the need for some old school tactical role-playing on your 360 or PS3, it's worth the low price. If not, think about it. There are better examples of the genre that cost just as little or less on other platforms."

*Note - Review based upon the 360 version

[Doctor Setebos]

Dammit. Flexamail is blocked here at work as a "proxy service", so images there don't show up for me.

[Bandango]

That is super lame... I guess I'll have to go back to using photobucket. Flexamail is so convenient too.

[torrefaction]

lmfao. How did your work already manage to find and block Serapth's site?

[Mike Kelehan]

When I played the demo, the loads weren't so bad. I mean, like 20-30 seconds, which isn't GOOD, but as long as there are no in-battle loads, I can deal.

Maybe we'll get lucky and Square Enix will put FFT: War of the Lions on PSN and XBLA?

[Gorvi]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelehan

Maybe we'll get lucky and Square Enix will put FFT: War of the Lions on PSN and XBLA?

That would be pretty great.

I would have bought this last week if it weren't for the PSN sale they had, it's good to know it's not half bad. I'll probably grab it in April or something now.

[Spigot]

This sounds interesting but given all of the really awesome and deep SRPGs I have to work on between the DS and PSP, I'll hold off for now.

[Urizen]

Oh - there's a demo? I'll definitely check it out.

But if interface and menu navigation isn't implemented well, then the game is broken as far as I'm concerned.

[Doctor Setebos]

Originally Posted by Bandango

That is super lame... I guess I'll have to go back to using photobucket. Flexamail is so convenient too.

Don't change it on my account. I doubt many others will experience the same fate.

Originally Posted by torrefaction

lmfao. How did your work already manage to find and block Serapth's site?

I have NO idea. I discovered it a couple of weeks ago. I didn't think much of it then because you don't really need to access the site to use it since it's all email-based. But until today, I had completely forgotten about the repercussions in relation to image hosting.

But I don't mean to derail the thread. Please continue talking about Vandal Hearts.

[Serapth]

Hmmm, I hadnt considered this.

I have other domains registered, I wonder if I should perhaps move file links to a different domain in the future.

[jpublic]

Just a plug: Vandal Hearts: FOJ was the first game in my JPublic Will Play It proto-feature. Read it for my experiences.

http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogfor...ad.php?t=15171

[forklord]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelehan

Maybe we'll get lucky and Square Enix will put FFT: War of the Lions on PSN and XBLA?

This brings up a good point, since this review has drawn me away from purchasing this title...I need to get my SRPG fix. Should I pay 9.99 for FFT on PSN or is it definately worth getting war of the lions on psp for 20 or so $ at gamestop?

[Gorvi]

Originally Posted by forklord

This brings up a good point, since this review has drawn me away from purchasing this title...I need to get my SRPG fix. Should I pay 9.99 for FFT on PSN or is it definately worth getting war of the lions on psp for 20 or so $ at gamestop?

War of the Lions. It has a couple of negligible extras, but the completely rewritten translation and beautiful cutscenes are worth it.

[jpublic]

I think War of the Lions is also for sale digitally.

[Spigot]

Originally Posted by Gorvi

War of the Lions. It has a couple of negligible extras, but the completely rewritten translation and beautiful cutscenes are worth it.

What Gorvi said. The extra classes are pretty much useless unless you play some of the multiplayer stuff, which is pretty much useless unless you have someone to play with locally (though I guess you could try the tunnelling software).

They're pretty much moot, but the awesome cutscenes and the translation that turns the story from so much gobbledegook into something fascinating.

[Mahkia]

Oh my goodness, I remember the original Vandal Hearts on Playstation. I own it, in fact. I realize I'll be tarred and feathered for this, but I found the original easier to get into than the similarly featured Final Fantasy Tactics. Similar gameplay, yet Vandal Hearts was more fun for me. And I'm a Final Fantasy fan. *braces for lynching*

[Gorvi]

Originally Posted by Mahkia

Oh my goodness, I remember the original Vandal Hearts on Playstation. I own it, in fact. I realize I'll be tarred and feathered for this, but I found the original easier to get into than the similarly featured Final Fantasy Tactics. Similar gameplay, yet Vandal Hearts was more fun for me. And I'm a Final Fantasy fan. *braces for lynching*

Nah, Vandal Hearts was much easier to get into. It's a simpler game by far in terms of mechanics, especially in terms of character progression. You could branch each characters path once or twice I think in terms of their "class", and that was it.

Just don't say you liked Vandal Hearts 2 or else you'll have to be checked into a psych ward.

And welcome to the site!

[Mahkia]

Originally Posted by Gorvi

Nah, Vandal Hearts was much easier to get into. It's a simpler game by far in terms of mechanics, especially in terms of character progression. You could branch each characters path once or twice I think in terms of their "class", and that was it.

Just don't say you liked Vandal Hearts 2 or else you'll have to be checked into a psych ward.

And welcome to the site!

I never played Vandal Hearts 2, but to be honest, strategy games aren't really my cup of tea, so it's really no surprise I was drawn in more by Vandal Hearts than Tactics.

And thank you! Seems to be a very solid community.

[Spigot]

Originally Posted by Mahkia

Seems to be a very solid community.

Just give it time...

[AgtFox]

Originally Posted by Spigot

Just give it time...

Don't listen to the Canadian contingent