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[XBLA/PSN] Vandal Hearts prequel announced, wins "Out of Left Field" award
Lunker
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From PR:
Art design: Iffy. Skill-based character building: Promising. Giant geysers of blood: Fully intact!
Vandal Hearts First Look
The M-rated strategy role-playing game series returns with a prequel, and we get our first look.
The original Vandal Hearts came out on the PlayStation more than 10 years ago and its sequel followed just a few years later. It's been a while since we've heard anything about the world of Vandal Hearts, but now Konami is revisiting the bloody series with a prequel, set to be released on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network. At the Konami event last week, we were able to get a quick look at the game, but unfortunately we weren't able to see much more beyond a battle demo.
The events of Vandal Hearts will take place before the original game, and newcomers will find that this is an excellent starting point if you're new to the series. For those who are familiar with the previous two games, there will be story elements that will provide more insight into the original storyline, given that this was made with the fans in mind. The fighting mechanics should feel familiar to anyone who's played a strategy RPG before; between the story-driven sequences, violent battles are fought and won. Movement is grid-based, so characters are limited to the highlighted squares for each turn. Each character can carry two weapons, so you can shoot a long-ranged bow or make a melee attack with an axe, depending on the situation. Your party (up to six in the game) takes individual turns as they move around the field like chess pieces, trying to find ways to swarm and conquer.
Characters will have affinities to certain job types, but it's up to you to determine which path you want them to specialize in. Some of the features have been streamlined so that you don't have to deal with a ton of menus regarding leveling and statistics. We were told that your characters will develop based on how you use them. For example, if you make a specific character move around the battlefield a lot, eventually his or her movement will increase. If you use a bow and arrow frequently, the character's long-range attacks become stronger. All of this is happening behind the scenes as you play, so you don't have to deal with the micromanaging.
From watching the short battle, it flows like a standard tactical RPG would, but every game varies. Your characters can counter attacks if they've been hit with the same weapon type that they are wielding. If you're standing next to an ally that's low on health, you can use a turn to swap places to try to save him or her from an impending death. Keeping up with the spirit of Vandal Hearts, blood flows liberally--like a fountain--whenever possible.
The art style has a different look and feel than what you're normally used to when it comes to Japanese RPGs. The portraits are like ink cartoons and the environment gives off a more sinister vibe. This is fitting due to the gory nature of the series, but considering that we didn't get to see much, we're waiting to get a more detailed look at the game. No release date has been set yet, but it's supposed to come out later this year on XBLA and the PSN.
From PR:
Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment will be released for Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 in August 2009 and the PLAYSTATION®Network in September 2009.
Art design: Iffy. Skill-based character building: Promising. Giant geysers of blood: Fully intact!
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I'm such a whore for turnbased strategy titles.
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire,
I'll give this a look later on in development.
The first one was a really solid early PS1 game. I had a lot of fond memories of it; it wasn't overly complex and had almost no character customization, but it felt streamlined as a result. Jeanne D'Arc reminded me a lot of VH.
The second game could have been great but went too far off the beaten path: It had this crazy turn-based system where you would pick a character to move and perform an action with, the enemy would do the same, and the two characters would actually move simultaneously—you could try to predict what the enemy was doing and block his path or move the character the enemy was going to target out of the way.
Vandal Hearts II battle demo
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
I don't remember liking it. Weird battle system and unappealing artstyle.
Will that stop me from buying this one?
Hell no.
EDIT
After reading Lunker's above post, apparently I had Vandal Hearts II and not the first.
Also, I suppose this means there is no Vandal Hearts DS.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1Pajl8dMXE
Arterial spray at 0:55.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
It sounds wonderful on paper, but in practice it always became a bit silly. I remember several maps where I would just leave one enemy alive and keep baiting him along with one spare party member, running in a tiny circle around the map while I used my other characters to scour the map and pick up treasure.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
PS2
FF X replay
PS3
God of War 1&2 HD
Rachet and Clank Future
MGS 4
Prince of Persia
360
Bayonetta
Fable 3
DS
FF: 4 heroes of light
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Twitter
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Bought! But...
WTF?!
Why Konami?!
YES.
Bah.
Maybe one of these days I'll actually play FFT.
Just track down another copy on eBay.
So very, very true. FM3 was incredibly fun.
We need more strategy RPG's like these.
It's not August?
This is the most important part.
Also, I rather like the art...
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
It's way too close to silly season (October-November) for my liking as well. It's really not a great time for a RPG to come out.
Anyway, fantastic news. Just yesterday I was complaining in the sales thread about Konami and how much they utterly suck when compared to their efforts in the last two generations. Now they go and pull a move like this, bravo.
Now how about we get Vandal Hearts 1 and 2 on the US and PAL PSN?
PS2
FF X replay
PS3
God of War 1&2 HD
Rachet and Clank Future
MGS 4
Prince of Persia
360
Bayonetta
Fable 3
DS
FF: 4 heroes of light
I mean, isn't this pretty much the first original downloadable strat-RPG we've had?
There was Band of Bugs on XBLA, which I never picked up.
Played the demo... never looked at it again. Can't wait for this one, I'm an SRPG whore.
PSN: Dyvion -- Eternal: Dyvion+9393 -- Genshin Impact: Dyvion
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/50594.html
i see lots of kids...
___
NNID: carmofin
3DS: 2852 6971 9745
Throw me a PM if you add me
So does Major Nelson.