Happy Halloween, here's something for your witching hour. INB4: "But you can save Alice!" ... Yes you can, and just like saving James in Koudelka, that is NOT the canon ending. This game establishes that James died, and the next Shadow Hearts game establishes Alice dies here (though you Can save her Then). As usual, I am going to only talk about the canon ending. Otherwise, a lot of things to like about this game, though they shot themselves in the foot coming out one week before Final Fantasy X. It's interesting they went with more of an occult vibe than straight horror like Koudelka, but it laid good groundwork for a series regardless. Please enjoy, be safe, and stay healthy.
I actually just checked because I expected it to he between 3~4 am Believe me as weird as it sounds, you and Exploring Series are my bedtime stories lol
My best friend at the time showed me this game and it was one of best games I ever played on PS2. The story was really good and the inclusion of the mystic arts in different cultures was a nice touch.
Playing Koudelka, SH1 then SH2 is SUCH an amazing experience and story. Koudelka is painful to play with those battles but.. the story is so worth it. My favorite RPG game series.. minus From the new World.
I cant stand board style combat for rpgs. I can do turn based but not the board style. I can even do that live action hack and slash whatever you call it type of rpg. Not that bs board style though.
I'm just saying any old game is called underrated or hidden gem. That's stupid logic obviously the new generation doesnt know old games. People from that generation know the game. By that logic every old game is underrated. Which is what people do say literally in the comment section of every old game.
When someone asks me what my favorite game is, it's this one, immediately. Something about it is just so intensely charming, even though it's another "Save The World" sort of game. What a blast from the past it was to see this. Thanks for the cover!
God this game, this freaking game, great cast, great story, but god this game needs a remaster, it did not have enough time to cook in the oven, I'd kill to see a remaster trilogy of these games, with Koudelka being some unlock bonus or a buy off the PS Store, this along with the Xenosaga games.
There is currently a Kickstarter running for a spiritual successor of Shadow Hearts, named Penny Blood. Its actually together with an Spiritual Successor of Wild Arms, named Armed Fantasia. Since the Guy who made Shadow Hearts back then is the one making the Kickstarter for Penny Blood, Machida Matsuzo together with Akifumi Kaneko who is making Armed Fantasia i have very high Hopes for both of those Games. I hope the Info Spreads fast. More ppl need to know even if the Games already met the Minimum. More is always better :)
I love everything about this game. The dark setting, the soundtrack, the sound effects, all tome appropriate. I even love the font of the text. This needs a remaster. One of my favorite all time games
I love the supernatural horror WW1 setting. global mission across China England and France. top of the line story telling. Historical figures laid throughout.
Your recapitations are some of my favorite content on RUclips. Sometimes it takes me a bit to get around to watching because I want to sit down and give it my full attention. Thanks for this. Very good stuff.
@@Plazoblock12 The Power That Be that runs the world. Usually the games in this category suffer from development hell, cutting or changing their content. The movies or games or music with the content they don't like will end up flopping. It's called PROGRAMMING after all.
I grew up playing this series and it meant the world to me. Thank you so much for taking the time to put this together! And like a multitude of other comments, I hope you get to Covenant at some point down the line :D
this is my all time favorite game growing up and I still have that copy. thanks for doing a recapitation on it and hope you do the rest of the series as well :3
I’ve never realized that Alice died in the end. I’ve finished it a bunch of times and thought the fight with god just canceled out any deal with her soul. There is a 15 year delay hit in the feels.
There's actually 2 endings to this game. The "Good" ending is achieved after completing a certain side quest and results in Alice living happily ever after with Yuri. The "Bad" ending has Alice die and is the one that is canon.
One of my favorite games of all time, this game really needs a remaster for current systems. It really deserves better. I still boot it up on my PS2 from time to time.
I never found Shadow Hearts 1 in any stores I've looked in over the years, which is where I must tip my hat to you, Oni Black Mage, for this series. I poked around with it at my friend's house when I was 14 years old, and I liked what I saw and felt from the gameplay (I had no comprehension of the story given I only had 30 minutes before we began playing D&D that night). My understanding of this game has been a patchwork, poorly done at best, so I am grateful of your comprehensive RECAPitation. I knew only the basics of the possible branched ending of this game, so I'm glad you answered that question in the Discord. This story is a heavy one, and I feel for everyone's various losses in this long journey. Alice's sacrifice in the end hurts because she shows nothing but courage throughout this tale, and such a loss harms all of us. Easter eggs: PK Fighting Spirit!
I’m so glad you ended up covering this one Oni! It brings back so many memories and makes me want to break out my PS2 to replay it! Honestly I feel like I understand your explanation of the story more than I did while playing it year ago? Lol Also I loved the add in of the game’s important “key items” ahah thanks for another great video!
Oh I love these games, if nothing else the Ring of Judgment was one the best ways to make the combat and frankly doing everything in the game interesting Hope you make a Shadow Hearts Covenant video too
I played this years ago. First time I didn’t like it so I put it in the shelf for a while. One year after, I played this again before playing Shadow Hearts 2 and absolutely loved it! Especially that I played Koudelka first.
So... What was that original Demon Gate from 15 Years before the game? If the Reverse Demon Gate summoned the Seraphic Radiance, an ancient god from within the Earth, then what is the regular Demon Gate supposed to summon? I'm extremely curious.
I love Shadow Hearts. Sadly, I think it's trapped in some legal hell due to Sacnoth's death. BUT I have that faint hope that the game could be one day blessed by the algorithm enough to generate demand, and thus a second chance. Great video, very concise! :)
i only played shadowhearts 2 but loved that game. I had a surreal time when playing it as geppetto's puppet looked exactly like me when i was 3-4 years old. same hair, hair type eye color and features. It wasn't even me who noticed, my mom saw the puppet on the screen in passing and stated she looked like me. put a picture of me next to the screen and ya looked identical. loved the game, and loved dressing up the puppet.
So far I've played Shadow Hearts 1 & 2. Both games back to back and for the first time a couple of months ago. Those games are so good. The setting is fucking awesome and really unique. Maybe it seems that way because it is really unrestrained in comparison to basically everything. Still the thing that makes it stand out for me is the enemy design. I've played a lot of JRPGs and RPGs in general but Shadow Hearts (and Shadow Hearts Covenant although to a lesser extent) enemy design was next level. You always were guessing what would come next and you still would be wrong for all the right reasons. Everything was so weird but so good at the same time. Most of the enemies were in some way unique and I'm still asking myself why I never knew about this series.
Damn, I love this series so much! It would be amazing to see a remake or remaster of this beloved game but who knows what Midway and Aruze are doing with the IP.
I played this game so much as a teen. I reckon I've finished it close to 20 times. Interesting that your version calls it the Émigré Document, whereas in the version I had it was called the Émigré Manuscript, like in the sequel. Maybe it was an NTSC/PAL difference
i only finished this game 1 or 2 weeks ago, great game held my attention from beginning to end, didn't play anything in between like i normally do, i'll have to bookmark this for a recap before i return to the series haha
I fucking love the Shadow Hearts series, a shame it didn't continue. Also, while I don't know if it can be considered anything more than speculation, the endings can be interpreted as such: Shadow Hearts 1 bad ending > Shadow Hearts 2 good ending > Shadow Hearts 1 good ending.
So a bit late to be clarifying this but both endings are actually canon, given how one of the endings in the second game explains how that other ending in this game is made possible. In any case, I always found the canon and non-canon discussion funny since if it's in the game regardless of what ending the next games follow, everything that happens in the game (outside of clearly joke endings) does actually happen canonically since it's not something written by someone else but the game creators (AKA it's alternative universe shenanigans). The Legend of Zelda for example would be a clear example of what happens when the franchise decides to try and go off several possible endings regardless of whether the game itself gives that as a possibility outside of giving you a Game Over screen. It's a fairly weird mess but it's canon regardless lol
A great and underrated series it's great your covering this cult classic. By the way is it alright if you cover another Quick time mechanic based game namely the first Paper Mario?
Thank you. It's one of those games we hear about, but never play and probably never will because of whatever excuse we have. Now at least we can know about the story.
I only ever played the sequel, but I was shocked how good it was and how little hype it received. It's underrated to the point of anger. I'd love a remaster of both, so I can play the first one
Just subscribed! You have some real Gems 💎 on this channel! Please do Saga Frontier 1... not 2 lol. Saga Frontier 1 was one of my favorite RPG's for PS1 and deserves more attention.
I played Covenant after and when I saw Yuri pop up by that train station I realized that Yuri got the chance to get that good ending in SH1. I would love a sequel set in the 80's with a descendant of Yuri and Alice set in.....Los Angeles.
Such a shame that the third installment killed the franchise, and it wasn't even a bad game, I finished SH3 and was happy with it, but the final boss was disappointing.
Man I loved the Shadow Hearts series! Maybe it's just me, but I loved "SH From the New World." I know most people hate this title the most but I can't help how stupid it is. If you guys are feeling nostalgic about SH, I would suggest playing Legrand Legacy. It's a new game that has the same attack wheel style. Thanks for the great video. Subbed and like!
Shadow Hearts 2 is "Stupid" as well compared to the first in my opinion, so I should try From the New World. at least that doesn't pretend to be a horror game like the T rated SH2
Wish they would rerelease this game. My backwards compatible ps3 hasn't been working well and I got rid of my PS2 ages ago. I only played and have the first two games but would love to try the 3rd on a collection.
Damn, now I need to suggest another ps2 era rpg that nobody knew about.... Always getting my favorites. Looking forward to when you get to the second game in the s.h. Series. While not rpg, let's go for psi ops for the time being. Lol Keep on rocking these my man!
Happy Halloween, here's something for your witching hour. INB4: "But you can save Alice!" ... Yes you can, and just like saving James in Koudelka, that is NOT the canon ending. This game establishes that James died, and the next Shadow Hearts game establishes Alice dies here (though you Can save her Then). As usual, I am going to only talk about the canon ending. Otherwise, a lot of things to like about this game, though they shot themselves in the foot coming out one week before Final Fantasy X. It's interesting they went with more of an occult vibe than straight horror like Koudelka, but it laid good groundwork for a series regardless. Please enjoy, be safe, and stay healthy.
Who here remembers my old 4am posting times? Just like the good old days of this year
I actually just checked because I expected it to he between 3~4 am
Believe me as weird as it sounds, you and Exploring Series are my bedtime stories lol
No better rpg game for halloween, happy halloween!
Please make recapitations for SH2 and 3 when you can.
Yeah ya just gotta level up all Yuri's gravestones to max kind of like Shanias statues is 3
One of the best franchise that needs a remake or remaster.
Agreed. I still have the ps2 and all three games.
That or atleast sony makes a ps2 mini and not mess it up. This should be one of the games on it.
Except for the one with the dolls lol
@@666magic
Chances are it would be for Japan only.
@@Raximus3000 Ya but I can hope. Though my hope for them not messing it up is small. I'd just mod it like my psone classic.
My best friend at the time showed me this game and it was one of best games I ever played on PS2. The story was really good and the inclusion of the mystic arts in different cultures was a nice touch.
Playing Koudelka, SH1 then SH2 is SUCH an amazing experience and story. Koudelka is painful to play with those battles but.. the story is so worth it. My favorite RPG game series.. minus From the new World.
I cant stand board style combat for rpgs. I can do turn based but not the board style. I can even do that live action hack and slash whatever you call it type of rpg. Not that bs board style though.
FINALLY! Urgh one my favorite franchise! Thank you for doing this, this game needs more exposure and deserves so much love
It's not a hidden gem or underrated. These morons on the internet call everything underrated. It's a well known game lol
I'm just saying any old game is called underrated or hidden gem. That's stupid logic obviously the new generation doesnt know old games. People from that generation know the game. By that logic every old game is underrated. Which is what people do say literally in the comment section of every old game.
When someone asks me what my favorite game is, it's this one, immediately. Something about it is just so intensely charming, even though it's another "Save The World" sort of game. What a blast from the past it was to see this. Thanks for the cover!
I agree.
When people ask I say this and get asked "what is Shadow Hearts?"
Shame no one knows of this masterpiece
God this game, this freaking game, great cast, great story, but god this game needs a remaster, it did not have enough time to cook in the oven, I'd kill to see a remaster trilogy of these games, with Koudelka being some unlock bonus or a buy off the PS Store, this along with the Xenosaga games.
There is currently a Kickstarter running for a spiritual successor of Shadow Hearts, named Penny Blood. Its actually together with an Spiritual Successor of Wild Arms, named Armed Fantasia. Since the Guy who made Shadow Hearts back then is the one making the Kickstarter for Penny Blood, Machida Matsuzo together with Akifumi Kaneko who is making Armed Fantasia i have very high Hopes for both of those Games.
I hope the Info Spreads fast. More ppl need to know even if the Games already met the Minimum. More is always better :)
I love everything about this game. The dark setting, the soundtrack, the sound effects, all tome appropriate. I even love the font of the text. This needs a remaster. One of my favorite all time games
I love the supernatural horror WW1 setting. global mission across China England and France. top of the line story telling. Historical figures laid throughout.
Your recapitations are some of my favorite content on RUclips. Sometimes it takes me a bit to get around to watching because I want to sit down and give it my full attention. Thanks for this. Very good stuff.
A very underrated game. Noone does this kind of RPG anymore. 😢
I hope it would be revived sometime in the future.
@narmaK I don't think it's allowed. Due to its occultic nature. Everything are generic these days
Sadly the devs are gone.
@@budigunawan5624 By who? Whos stopping occult themes in games?
@@Plazoblock12 The Power That Be that runs the world. Usually the games in this category suffer from development hell, cutting or changing their content. The movies or games or music with the content they don't like will end up flopping. It's called PROGRAMMING after all.
The morning I wake up and there's an Oni Black Mage video is a happy morning!
I grew up playing this series and it meant the world to me. Thank you so much for taking the time to put this together! And like a multitude of other comments, I hope you get to Covenant at some point down the line :D
This series is kind of a hidden gem. I enjoyed it.
Yes!! I'm so glad you did this! It's my favorite RPG of all time. And I've been following your recapitatations for years! Thank you and more power!! 😁
Same
this is my all time favorite game growing up and I still have that copy. thanks for doing a recapitation on it and hope you do the rest of the series as well :3
Thank you so much for Shadow Hearts, this series was amazing and damn, he deserve to get more attention and Remaster!
Shadow hearts is one of my favorite games of all time (I count both 1&2 as a single thing for me....most so I can have both in my top 10)
I loved this game growing up, hope you get to do the rest of the series. Dope video bro
I’ve never realized that Alice died in the end. I’ve finished it a bunch of times and thought the fight with god just canceled out any deal with her soul. There is a 15 year delay hit in the feels.
There's actually 2 endings to this game. The "Good" ending is achieved after completing a certain side quest and results in Alice living happily ever after with Yuri. The "Bad" ending has Alice die and is the one that is canon.
Oni! This makes me so happy! Thank you for doing Shadow Hearts! Will you be doing the sequels?
In time, absolutely ... and not as long as the wait for this one was!
Just hitting up all of the under rated greats from back in the day. Thank you for this. Really hope to see the second one soon
One of my favorite games of all time, this game really needs a remaster for current systems. It really deserves better. I still boot it up on my PS2 from time to time.
Thanks for this. Can’t wait for Shadow Hearts 2. Your channel and the content really brings back some great memories ^^
You could argue that the alter ending is canon and follows the ending of Shadow Hearts Covenant
I'd say it's canon that it's canon lol, the bad ending happens first and the good ending happens after SH2.
What a beautiful Yawang... Gate.
I never found Shadow Hearts 1 in any stores I've looked in over the years, which is where I must tip my hat to you, Oni Black Mage, for this series. I poked around with it at my friend's house when I was 14 years old, and I liked what I saw and felt from the gameplay (I had no comprehension of the story given I only had 30 minutes before we began playing D&D that night). My understanding of this game has been a patchwork, poorly done at best, so I am grateful of your comprehensive RECAPitation.
I knew only the basics of the possible branched ending of this game, so I'm glad you answered that question in the Discord. This story is a heavy one, and I feel for everyone's various losses in this long journey. Alice's sacrifice in the end hurts because she shows nothing but courage throughout this tale, and such a loss harms all of us.
Easter eggs: PK Fighting Spirit!
Yo thanks for this, was about to finally start shadow hearts 2, 5 years later and was just... I only remember bits and pieces. You rock!
A remaster and remake could really help this series come back - so true for all old ps1 & ps2 games.
Fully agree
I’m so glad you ended up covering this one Oni! It brings back so many memories and makes me want to break out my PS2 to replay it! Honestly I feel like I understand your explanation of the story more than I did while playing it year ago? Lol
Also I loved the add in of the game’s important “key items” ahah thanks for another great video!
Oh I love these games, if nothing else the Ring of Judgment was one the best ways to make the combat and frankly doing everything in the game interesting
Hope you make a Shadow Hearts Covenant video too
I absolutely loved how dark this game was. It was beautifully done and deserved more recognition than it got.
I've never heard of this game but thank you for this
I've always wanted to play this and forgot until just now. Thanks OBM!
These videos are awesome and I’ve been watching for YEARS!! Thank you!!!
I thought I'd have to wait many a winter for this my absolute favorite game ever
First or second game I finished on stream was Koudelka this is pretty dope
yeah not to be the broken record, but technically both endings are canon, but that's probably something to be covered in the Shadow Hearts 2 Recap :D
I played this years ago. First time I didn’t like it so I put it in the shelf for a while. One year after, I played this again before playing Shadow Hearts 2 and absolutely loved it! Especially that I played Koudelka first.
Hearing the story makes me want to play this again.
was just thinking about replaying this for the 100th time, thanks for this! i hope 1 day someone makes a remake :(
I just started playing this last week and am so lost, thank you!
So... What was that original Demon Gate from 15 Years before the game?
If the Reverse Demon Gate summoned the Seraphic Radiance, an ancient god from within the Earth, then what is the regular Demon Gate supposed to summon?
I'm extremely curious.
I would totally play that game.
I love Shadow Hearts.
Sadly, I think it's trapped in some legal hell due to Sacnoth's death.
BUT I have that faint hope that the game could be one day blessed by the algorithm enough to generate demand, and thus a second chance.
Great video, very concise! :)
Such a great game. I would consider it on my top 10 classic favorites list.
i only played shadowhearts 2 but loved that game. I had a surreal time when playing it as geppetto's puppet looked exactly like me when i was 3-4 years old. same hair, hair type eye color and features. It wasn't even me who noticed, my mom saw the puppet on the screen in passing and stated she looked like me. put a picture of me next to the screen and ya looked identical.
loved the game, and loved dressing up the puppet.
Please do the others, they’re all SO GOOD
So far I've played Shadow Hearts 1 & 2. Both games back to back and for the first time a couple of months ago. Those games are so good. The setting is fucking awesome and really unique. Maybe it seems that way because it is really unrestrained in comparison to basically everything. Still the thing that makes it stand out for me is the enemy design. I've played a lot of JRPGs and RPGs in general but Shadow Hearts (and Shadow Hearts Covenant although to a lesser extent) enemy design was next level. You always were guessing what would come next and you still would be wrong for all the right reasons. Everything was so weird but so good at the same time. Most of the enemies were in some way unique and I'm still asking myself why I never knew about this series.
Damn, I love this series so much! It would be amazing to see a remake or remaster of this beloved game but who knows what Midway and Aruze are doing with the IP.
Oh Man, this game was great. I enjoyed it a lot.
Can you make a video on Shadow Hearts 2 and Shadow Hearts Covenant?
I played this game so much as a teen. I reckon I've finished it close to 20 times.
Interesting that your version calls it the Émigré Document, whereas in the version I had it was called the Émigré Manuscript, like in the sequel. Maybe it was an NTSC/PAL difference
Oh my goodness, this game hasn't ever stopped being awesome to me ! Such wicked weird story telling !
loved the game played it with my best friend on ps 2 was a blast
Yay im happy you did a video on this because I need this to better understand anyone playing it on twitch🤣
i only finished this game 1 or 2 weeks ago, great game held my attention from beginning to end, didn't play anything in between like i normally do, i'll have to bookmark this for a recap before i return to the series haha
I freaking wish the series got a modern day remaster.... It'd make for a pretty damn great collection.
I had this game and it was great, but then I lost it (with Covenant and From a New World) when my apartment burn down.
I fucking love the Shadow Hearts series, a shame it didn't continue.
Also, while I don't know if it can be considered anything more than speculation, the endings can be interpreted as such: Shadow Hearts 1 bad ending > Shadow Hearts 2 good ending > Shadow Hearts 1 good ending.
So a bit late to be clarifying this but both endings are actually canon, given how one of the endings in the second game explains how that other ending in this game is made possible.
In any case, I always found the canon and non-canon discussion funny since if it's in the game regardless of what ending the next games follow, everything that happens in the game (outside of clearly joke endings) does actually happen canonically since it's not something written by someone else but the game creators (AKA it's alternative universe shenanigans).
The Legend of Zelda for example would be a clear example of what happens when the franchise decides to try and go off several possible endings regardless of whether the game itself gives that as a possibility outside of giving you a Game Over screen. It's a fairly weird mess but it's canon regardless lol
A great and underrated series it's great your covering this cult classic. By the way is it alright if you cover another Quick time mechanic based game namely the first Paper Mario?
Thank you. It's one of those games we hear about, but never play and probably never will because of whatever excuse we have. Now at least we can know about the story.
"It has begun..."
I only ever played the sequel, but I was shocked how good it was and how little hype it received. It's underrated to the point of anger. I'd love a remaster of both, so I can play the first one
Ooh man this was an amazing game
Damn i love this game so much!
Love this Series.
I can't help but to laugh because of the cutscene & dialogue's text font is the same as the Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life
Shadow Hearts 2 when :( ?
I miss this game so much
Just subscribed! You have some real Gems 💎 on this channel! Please do Saga Frontier 1... not 2 lol. Saga Frontier 1 was one of my favorite RPG's for PS1 and deserves more attention.
Their goal was to create a horror themed jrpg and they definitely succeeded. I’ve always considered this to be an underrated gem of a game.
Sadly who knows if this masterpiece since the company doesnt exist anymore and lost the whole game file. But we can always hope! Such a masterpiece!
Great video . Keap doing a good jog
Shadow Hearts and Covenant are so underrated. Sucks that they're so hard to find these days.
The ending of SH2 is good.. that twist is ahead of its time
I tryed to play this game so many times.
yessss thank you. can't wait for covenant
I played Covenant after and when I saw Yuri pop up by that train station I realized that Yuri got the chance to get that good ending in SH1.
I would love a sequel set in the 80's with a descendant of Yuri and Alice set in.....Los Angeles.
damn the underwear part really broke the immersion lmao
Facts.
Such a shame that the third installment killed the franchise, and it wasn't even a bad game, I finished SH3 and was happy with it, but the final boss was disappointing.
Finally! Thought it was never gonna happen.
so when are the other two games gonna be done? just curious
Man I loved the Shadow Hearts series! Maybe it's just me, but I loved "SH From the New World." I know most people hate this title the most but I can't help how stupid it is. If you guys are feeling nostalgic about SH, I would suggest playing Legrand Legacy. It's a new game that has the same attack wheel style.
Thanks for the great video. Subbed and like!
Shadow Hearts 2 is "Stupid" as well compared to the first in my opinion, so I should try From the New World. at least that doesn't pretend to be a horror game like the T rated SH2
Wait Dehui tried this in Wuhan? Maybe he succeeded after all this time...
Wish they would rerelease this game. My backwards compatible ps3 hasn't been working well and I got rid of my PS2 ages ago. I only played and have the first two games but would love to try the 3rd on a collection.
pls do Covenant as well, it was my favorite game :)
Damn, now I need to suggest another ps2 era rpg that nobody knew about.... Always getting my favorites. Looking forward to when you get to the second game in the s.h. Series.
While not rpg, let's go for psi ops for the time being. Lol
Keep on rocking these my man!
would you think about covering Galerians?
The best series
Big nut, thanks for the episode
"Making sure to also collect the finest underwear..."
I wasn't expecting that...
Because JAPAN
XD
14:04 should have let me know this wasn't a joke
33:32 but the it is!
XD
Now do one for Shadow Hearts: Covenant
Technically the alternate ending is canon.
I just started playing this last week 😂
Play this a loooooogn time ago.
Absolutely love this game, and it's sequel. Let's forget about the 3rd game
Smart choice
It's my favorite RPG, I think I beat it over 10 times!
love it!
Can you do star ocean 2 or legend of legia?
Or legend of dragoon?
You can find Legend of Legaia and Legend of Dragoon recaps under my 'Singles' playlist. Please enjoy: tinyurl.com/y5uzlsp9