Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgement Review

Ah, Vandal Hearts. The mere mention of those two words will pull up feelings of nostalgia for many who enjoyed strategy RPGs during the Playstation 1 era. After two games on the original Playstation, however the series vanished from the face of the earth, and was never heard of again... until a year ago when Konami announced Flames of Judgement (FoJ), a prequel of the original Vandal Hearts. Unfortunately the game suffered a six month delay, a bad sign for any game, let alone a downloadable one. On top of that FoJ was being created for a series that, while good for its time, is considered outdated and/or generic by many players now. Can Vandal Hearts prove itself a solid, fun RPG, or will its large delay and ancient heritage prove the game disappointing for Vandal Hearts fans and players in general?

The game takes place years before the original Vandal Hearts during the middle of a major war. Like many JRPGs before it, Flames of Judgement puts the player in control of a young man who has barely finished training for battle. Bandits attack his training ground and town, and things just get worse for him from there. While the story often follows trails set by other RPGs and doesn't really try to branch out, the player's decisions during the story scenes actually have an impact on the ending. This aspect may not sound like much but it does increase replay value quite a bit, which is a massive plus especially for a XBLA/PSN-only game.

Following the style of many turn-based JRPGs before it, FoJ has battles on a grid-based system. The player moves each character as their turns come up, then attack the enemy with their weapons of choice. Each character can equip two different weapons, each type (Axe, Sword, etc) having different targetting n easily make any character however he/she wants them. All the character zones, and switch between them without it costing them their turns. They can also equip magic books (which take up one of their item slots) to use and eventually learn spells. Interestingly enough though, the game doesn't follow the JRPG staple of gaining experience and leveling up, but rather takes an approach seen more in Western RPGs: each character develops his or her abilities individually, making him or her more proficient in the spells or weapons they use the most. While characters start out with set abilities and have looks that hint at what the developers suggest you use them as (i.e. squinty, scrawny glasses-kid as a mage), the player caneeds to do is use the weapon or magic he or she wants enough, and they'll become masters of their arts. The system allows for a lot of flexibility, allowing players to adapt to the game however they like.

The graphics and sounds in Vandal Hearts: FoJ do their job, but I am rather disappointed that they decided to go for a generic, World-of-Warcraft-ish style that seems rather popular in games today, like Torchlight. As a result, none of the characters really stand out and look generic. The same can be said about the sound; characters have rather bland phrases in-battle, and the effects and music are forgettable at best.

In fact, “forgettable” sums up Vandal Hearts's single yet large weakness: it does not make itself stand out in any real way. The story is not memorable at all, and the characters are simply bland. This is not helped by the battle system in that the system's flexibility also results with the characters not having anything in-game to make them stand out from each other outside of their (also-lackluster) designs. Due to this, while there are multiple endings that are decided by your character's choices, many players will probably find themselves not playing the game after the first time, since there really is no real incentive (outside of the ending) to play the game again. Despite this serious issue however, the game still proves to be solid in what it does even if there's nothing that will make it stand out from the other strategy RPGs.

Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgement is a solid game that lets players build their armies however the way they like it, and provides a solid battle system as well as incentive to replay the game with its multiple endings. While the game does not do anything to make itself stand out and will never be as well-remembered as Vandal Hearts 1, it is still definitely worth the fifteen dollars it costs to own, and for that price is a great addition to any SRPG Player's selection.

- Neil Chatterjee

article id: 912 | poster: OG