Yet another Konami RPG.  After the short, but excellent conventional 
RPG Suikoden, comes Vandal Hearts.  Here's the summary, do you like 
Turn Based Strategy Combat games in the mold of say X-Com ?  Well 
then your sure to like VH.  It's basically a decent combat engine 
wrapped in an RPG.  It's linear, like all Japanese RPGs and so is 
more like an interactive Novella.

The basic plot is one filled of magic, power hungry tyrants, heros and
liberation armys.  Unlike Suikoden, there does not appear to be any army
based combat.  Instead the player follows a set of staged combat
sequences with plot and character exploration in between.  There are no 
random combat sequences as you wander the badlands.

You initially start with 3 characters, your hero Ash, and his best
friends Clint & Diego. As you progress through the game, more and more 
characters join your party.

VH has an interesting character class system, with some career branching
to different classes when you reach the 10th & 20th levels.  With the 
advancement come new spells and abilities.

So how's the combat engine ?  Well really good.  3D objects are used to
represent the combat area and characters are rendered as sprites. 
Konami have done a nice job allowing you smoothly rotate the environment 
and change viewing angles.  Nice job on the controls by the way, they are 
well thought out and become natural after a short time.  Also some 
annoying interface problems from other RPGs are nicely fixed in VH, like 
when you are in a shop, you can buy new armor and the shop immediately 
offers to buy your old one from you rather than having to take the armor 
off and then go back in and sell it.  Attention to detail basically.

Here's a new twist.  As long as the the loss objective in a particular
fight sequence is not meant you do not loose.  Therefore Your characters 
can 'die' in combat and they are just considered off the board.  In this 
respect it's a lot more like the EA Classic Archon, where individual 
characters are considered board pieces and you play them strategically.

A really nice idea is that combat sequences have specific objectives,
like destroy all enemies with a certain number of rounds, or have the 
main character escape without dying, etc...  It really adds to the 
strategic value of the game.

I've been playing it for about 12 hours in total now and I think this
one is going to be short, but nevertheless it's a good game overall and 
I look forward to more games based on this engine in the future.

Scores:

Plot/Storyline: 7/10

	Well it's getting a little tired now, but it's well handled and
not too melodramatic

Technical:	8/10

	Loading times are good and interface is well thought out and 
attractive

Graphics:	7/10

	Good detail and size.  Interesting combat areas and pretty and 
enjoyable spells. Watch the blood spurts fly when you kill stuff, very 
gory.  The movie sequences are also nicely rendered and add to the 
value of the story.

AI:		7/10

	Reasonably challenging AI.  It's not super hard, but it's been 
designed to be touch but fair on the player.  It will have you 
replaying a battle scene multiple times.  It's tricky, and uses missle 
firing enemies to great effect.

Sound:		8/10

	This has really great sound.  From the digitized voice of a woman 
in the opening titles, to the spoken sequences in the cut films between 
major parts of the game. Spot effects for spells and fighting are 
really fun.

Animation:	8/10

	Simple animation is used for the characters, but it is fun to 
watch. Magic, on the other hand is very very well animated.  All spells 
are animated in 3D and using the excellent and smooth 3D backgrounds 
engine, you get delightfully cinematic special effects.  It's so much 
fun to let loose some of these spells!

Overall:	7/10

	Why so low if I liked it so much ?  Well, like Suikoden, it's a bit
short.  For the $50 this game cost, I think it ought to last at least 
30 or 40 hours, like typical square titles do. Aside from that, if your 
into Japanese RPGs, go for it.  You'll enjoy it very much while it lasts.  
Konami just need to get working making them longer.

- Yan-Fa Li