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Review: Vandal Hearts – Flames of Judgment | PSNStores

Review: Vandal Hearts – Flames of Judgment

Posted by on March 10th, 2010 | 0 Comments | Tags: , ,

Developer: Hijinx Studios
Release Date: January 21st, 2010
Price: $14.99
Demo: No
Players: 1
Rating: Teen

What I liked:

  • Very lengthy game (for a downloadable title)
  • The leveling system.
  • Something not done on PSN before

What I disliked:

  • The art-style is the stuff of nightmares.
  • Inventory system is a little tough to learn.
  • A little on the easy side.

I think when people see a game on PSN with no demo that is $14.99 they will turn away. On the off chance that they look into the game, Vandal Hearts isn’t doing itself any favors with the art-style it possesses. But if you can look past the art, Vandal Hearts is one of the best SRPG games I have played in a long while.

What made me love the game so much as the way leveling was handled. You can make every character what you want them to be. Let’s use Tobias in this example. Say you want to make him your party’s healer. Well all you will have to do is constantly use healing spells and buffs and he will level up in those areas. Maybe you want him to be a ranger and use a bow. Well you guessed it, have him attack with a bow and he will level in that. Making each character the way you want is pretty awesome. By the time I was half-way through the game I had a bunch of excellent rangers, 2 magic users, and a pretty awesome tank character.

I was tearing through this game, and it made me a little sad. The game is fairly easy, I think that I only got a game over maybe one or two times and it was from my own stupidity. While this isn’t the easiest SPRG I have played, it is up there (Jeanne d’arc was the easiest I have played). But this fact may be do to the way I play the game (power leveling is my thing). Another thing I really didn’t like was the art-style. I dunno why they chose this cartoony/anime look. The cut-scenes had me laughing out loud at how weird they looked. It was like they rushed to put them in, but I guess the game wouldn’t be as good as it is without them.

The story is your typical jrpg type story. A boy’s homeland is at war and he must fight to stop it. Even if it was corny I still cared about my characters. If one of them would die, I would usually start the quest over just so they wouldn’t lose experience. RPG fans who are looking for something to play in-between Final Fantasy 13 sessions will definitely like this breath of fresh air. Even though there aren’t many RPG titles on PSN, I think that others will have to try very hard to beat Vandal Hearts. Do yourself a favor and pick this up.