Title: _Vandal Hearts_
Developer: Konami 
Genre: Strategy RPG
Price: $54.99 (@ Software Etc./Babbages)


	Whassis I see before me? No...no. It's a Konami title, but...but...
it isn't a sports title! Something's awry, here. Could it be that Konami
has seen the error of their ways and is returning to days of yore, when
every Konami release was aglitter with the iridescent polish of playability
and imagination?
	Well...er, maybe. _Vandal Hearts_ is a step in the right direction,
at least. The release of the solid RPG _Suikoden_ in the states was a glimmer
of light amid the seething fog, and, with the release of _Vandal Hearts_, as
well as promised titles _Castlevania X_ and _Other Lives, Other Dreams_, 
Konami may usher us back to the Other Side of Gaming, the place mothers,
girlfriends, and cheap joypads fear most and twitching NES-era dorks like
myself wax wistfully about for weeks - nay, YEARS - on end...
	But enough proselytization. You wanna know about the game, right? Yeah.
_Vandal Hearts_ (the name becomes vaguely explicable towards the end of the
game) is a swords-and-sorcery strategy title where you control a small band of
warriors as they hack-and-slash their way to saving the kingdom of Ishtaria
from a league of corrupt right-wing militarists. This game, plot-wise, shares
a lot with _Suikoden_, in that the main character is part of a "Liberation
Army," has a lot of unresolved issues about his father, does a little time-
-travelling, and generally has that RPG "coming-of-age" experience which
has less to do with some brief frolic during the summer break of junior year
and more to do with the whole "hero finds his true strength during a period
in the 'wilderness'" cliche that defines the universal epic. But we love it
and identify with it and we get all goopy when the hero finally proves himself
(or herself, though I haven't seen much of this) so writers continue to pump
these similar storylines out by the gallon. In this case, the main character
is the just-minded knight Ash, who serves as a commander in the Ishtarian
security forces. Eventually, he is framed by evil defense minister Hel Spites
and his sadistic butcher of a son, Kane. From there, Ash hacks and bashes his
way through a web of, er, "political intrigue and dark magic..." (you fill in
the rest), in the company of a motley collection of friends who aid, assist,
and even abet him along the way. All of the characters have distinct 
personalities which shine through during the between-battle cutscenes, keeping
a very cinematic feel to the game and drawing the player in.
	Graphics are, for the most part, quite good. Battles are set on a
3-D texture-mapped cubic-topological map, which can be rotated and scaled in
various ways using the L/R buttons and specific menu options. Characters, on
the other hand, are hand-drawn 2D sprites, which, naturally, incurs the old
"characters always face the camera" issue. This doesn't really perturb me
aesthetically, but polygon geeks out there will probably complain about it.
The biggest graphical drawback has to be the pixellation of the texmaps and
character sprites, which can reduce your characters to checkerboards of
primary color up close and personal. I'm sure this is probably a memory
limitation with the hardware, though, so I'll be forgiving and assume
Konami did the best they could. However, I *do* have an aesthetic issue with
the portrait/character artist for this game - I don't like his style that much.
This is a matter of personal taste - I just don't go for the chinless, neckless
look of his characters. Some people may like them solely for the deviation from
the traditional anime style, and most probably will not care, but, durn it, Ma,
it just doesn't tweak my nubbin. Oh well. Making up for this is the outstanding
spell effects and the beautiful geyser of hemoglobin that erupts when living
enemies meet their demise by the sword/axe/arrow. The spells are gorgeous in
their pyrotechnics, easily surpassing those of Suikoden in their dramatic
visuals. Tres funky.
	I've seen a few people dissing the sound as "unmemorable" or 
"unnoteworthy," and I don't get this. I *like* the music. The opening vocals
are a little overstated, but the rest of the music fits the mood perfectly
and is pleasantly unobtrusive, with a few catchy scores here and there. Sound
effects are also well done, with the usual gamut of roars, yells, crashes,
clangs, and explosions. A fairly well-polished aural package all around -
there's little room for complaint from THIS reviewer.
	Controls are somewhat less-than-intuitive, initially. As mentioned
before, the L/R buttons rotate the map, the circle button selects, et al,
but the movement of the on-screen cursor rarely seems to move the direction
I want it to. Also, perhaps I've been playing too much _Persona_ lately, but
I REALLY hate the way every company seems to map its basic "select" option 
to a different button. Argh. There needs to be some sort of standardization
in this regard - maybe I should make a petition. Ha - just a little satire 
there, folks.
	Play itself is standard _Shining Force_ type fare, where you position
your characters about the map in such a way as to maximize their abilities
and inflict the most hurt on the enemies. Some pleasant additions to this
approach are the ability to toggle switches, move crates, and shove boulders
on the enemy. Use of this interactivity will prove useful, and sometimes vital
to completing the later missions. The characters themselves comie in one
of five basic classes: Hero, Mage, Archer, Healer, or Warrior. Each class can
also advance to higher classes upon receiving 10th or 20th level, respectively.
For example, an Archer can choose to become a Bowman or Hawk Knight upon
receiving 10th level (and entering a Dojo), and a Healer could choose to
become a Bishop or a Monk. Choose wisely when selecting the new class, as
the more you specialize, the weaker your character becomes to certain enemies/
attacks. In the beginning of the game, it might be nice to have your warriors
become Guardsmen, but their weakness to magic may prove a liability later.
Also, in battle, height and terrain come in to play - archers can shoot better
from heights (duh), and terrain with a specific percentile value gives you
that percent defense bonus. Attacking foes from the sides and rear also
increases your chance of success, so exploit this whenever possible. And, of
course, there is the omnipresent "outfitting" of characters with weapons and
armor - the limited amout of variant types of equipment is a slight minus.
There are unique items hidden in some maps, usually paced in difficult
enough positions to reward the patient and frustrate the hurried. It'll
take a couple plays to get ALL of the cool stuff.
	The game itself will not take too long to complete - about 16 to 20
hours over all. The game is broken into six chapters with six battles in
the first five and four in the final chapter. Between these chapters are
story-advancing cutscenes with enough drama, humor, betrayal, and romance
for a whole library of 2 AM soap operas. Hero Ash hates his dead father,
swordsman Clint has a troubled past, fun-loving Diego has a crush on the
mysterious hunter Kira, blah blah blah...it's all there. The final battle
seems a bit anticlimactic when compared to Suikoden's, but the ending ties
things up nicely and shouldn't disappoint, IF you watch the whole thing
through. You'll see what I mean. It's a fairly short but visceral ride, and
you'll probably replay it a number of times to mess around with different
strategies or try different characters as different classes. There are some
difficult fights, like 3-6, but, overall, the difficulty isn't ridiculously
high. The middle of the game is arguably the hardest, IMHO.
	Overall, the game is a good representation of the Strategy/RPG genre.
If you liked _Ogre Battle_ or the _Shining Force_ series, this game should
please. People who don't like slow-moving, turn-based combat will probably
be repulsed by this game. I think it's a solid title, myself -  not 
superlative, but eminently playable.

	Stats:

	Graphics (Technical): 7
		 (Aesthetic): 7
		 (Animation): 6.5
	Sound:   (Technical): 8
		 (Composition): 7
	Control: (Technical): 7
		 (Technique): 5
	Gameplay: (Interest level): 9
		  (Replayabilty): 7

	OVERALL: -7-

	It's a really good title, especially if you like this subgenre.
Scads of story, interesting characters, and cool magic effects should
keep you engrossed thoughout its rather short play span. It looks like
Konami is back in action - now if they'd just hurry up with _Castlevania X_...

 
---
Douglas L. Erickson             |  Curiosity killed the cat/
douglas@mailhost.ecn.ou.edu     |  Loathsome rituals brought it back.
Visit my Anime Art Gallery at:  |                          - Revelation X
http://www.ecn.ou.edu/~douglas  | {My opinions remain unsponsored by ECN}