Strategy RPG. It is a genre that for the current gamer brings to mind Disgaea and Final Fantasy Tactics and the dozens of others that populate our consoles. It also reminds me of large parties, height and distance variations and class vs. class match-ups.

This week I played Vandal Hearts which you may have skipped over due to its proximity to Suikoden II, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Final Fantasy 7.

What it lacks in the complexity of FFT and I’ll-hold-you-forever-because-you’re-rare loving of Suikoden II, it makes up for in its gameplay simplicity, story and general ease of entry into a genre that can be entirely too demanding.

Why should you read this review? Because VH offers a great plot that will show you where many of our current inventions came from. You can spill more than enough blood to make Gears of War look T for Teen.

The story is dark, full of betrayal, pixilated babes, demons, alternate dimensions, kings and mages that look like they’re straight out of the Chronicles of Riddick. It is told well, too - you won’t need an encyclopedia to understand the cultures and dimensions.

So now, dear reader, welcome to the world of Vandal Hearts. Prepare for a chess game with a ruthless AI - but one where all is not lost when you lose your melee characters - because your priest has a bitch-ass lightning spell.

Ah, nothing like your daily shower of blood

Graphics

Vandal Hearts made its debut in the United States in 1997, half a year before Final Fantasy 7 would storm onto shelves and redefine graphics. In that light, Vandal Hearts Heart’s graphics are dated.

I find that I’ve fallen in love with the style - giant spurts of blood erupt from every enemy, regardless of skin, bone or mud composing it.

Why do I love this touch? Because it is from a simpler time when developers tried to put their own touch on games. There was no standard Unreal 3 engine powering most of our games and bloom effect didn’t exist. Instead I see mushroom-clouds of fire from a spell called “Roman Fire” exploding over enemies. It may be pixels, but I love it.

The downside? Step onto a large map - which you’re sure to run into as you may very well have 9 members in your party and at least twice as many enemies - and you may have to scroll three or four tiles in a direction on the edges to bring the entire thing into view.

Gameplay

Vandal Hearts has a very simple gameplay strategy. Rock, paper, scissors. Air beats melee, melee smacks archer, archer smacks air. At least, most of the time. When the map is full of archers that use poison arrows they’re liable to smack your Swordmaster or Paragon. When your Hawknight can zoom across the map and send his spear diagonally through the skull of the ghoul, it might be the winning move.

And unlike FFT, when I misuse my turn and cast Cure instead of Heal, I just have to find my Enchanter, open up Phase Shift, watch the screen go wavy and POOF! the melee are gone. It is a game that will let you make mistakes…And did I mention it has an in-battle save button that you can reload at any time? Konami knew people were going to fuck up - and they planned for it.

In a very strategy-oriented move, each character can carry two items – generally fitting the categories of healing, mana replenishing, or attack. They can wear a helmet, chest piece and weapon. There are only 3 levels of each of these you can purchase for each class, too, so no worries trying to scrimp and save all that money for the best item for each character - the game tells you! Hallelujah!

Your mission objectives in the game are very linear, although there are some side quests I suggest you use GameFaqs for. You go from point A to B and complete missions that typically involve slaughtering every enemy on the map. The gameplay is a driver for the story, but he’ll take you to some interesting sights while you’re with him.

Except for those mission objectives that appear tied into the story. At one point early on, an entire town is brainwashed/zombified by evil statues. Your objective? Don’t kill them! Actually, it is don’t kill all of them, but a skilled player can get around keeping them all alive…. but wait, the game makes you counterattack! That feat you loved so much, that saved your leader time and time again, is now out of your hands! This is a memorable scene in the game for me because I typically hate ‘not killing’ things in games - but this story clicked for me here. I loved this story.

Story

I’ve mentioned the story a number of times. You’ll run into the betrayed main character, the drinking sailor, party companions that question everything or spout 1-liners. Your priest will get in an argument with an old war buddy as they call each other old dogs for 1 line apiece.

The story will be told through character dialogue, your standard 1-on-1 scenes that happen as someone has gone to a river to contemplate, and between the chapters you receive background images (tastefully chosen) with a solid narrator and sound effects.

These are not 20-minute ordeals like today’s cut-scenes. They will finish in two to three minutes, letting you know what your actions have done, the efforts of the baddies and the overall state of the world.

Konami put effort into making this work - and damn if it isn’t one of my favorites. I refuse to spoil it – so much so that I won’t write on it more.

Who doesn’t want to fight a Dragon?

Final Details

Konami thought of everything for you. In-battle saves, blood spurts, and a story that weaves politics, brothers, betrayal, democracy and two of the greatest lines ever:

“Each man is always at war with the side of his nature that seeks death.”

and

“To save the people from pain and suffering I must have power.”

Konami even thought of different classes for you. Each character can advance at level 10, and based upon their class, choose one of two. Then from that class at level 20, they advance again. The maximum level in the game is level 30. It seems absurd now, but it accomplishes what many games today do not: Merging gameplay, story and being beatable within 20 hours.

Then

+ Simple, playable game with an awesome cover on the front of the game that made me want to play it. Come on, I’d get to fight dragon! This was 1997, by the way. Oh, and the blood.

+ I loved the story and how it was delivered. I’d played FFT, FF7, Suikoden but Vandal Heart’s made the story easy to follow and let my imagination fill in the blanks at a young age.

- It didn’t always hold my attention when there were other games to play gameplay wise. Sometimes simple is not always better - sometimes.

- More character customization could have made this game deeper and more technical - the one thing I liked most (the simplicity) is also the thing I would change.

Now

+ 15 hours. A 15 hour RPG in today’s world that didn’t make combat so simple that I hit the same button every time.

+ Story still stays good after a decade. It’s like picking up a book you’ll know is good after the first read, but you read it again anyway.

- Well, combat is too simple now that I’ve played and gotten used to Disgaea. I still had to think - it is like a chess game - but I didn’t have to take into account too many factors.

- If you can find it, don’t be deceived by the relatively simple dialogue. There are no 20 minute soliloquies in this one, and you’ll see some cliché lines. It could have been spiced up even back then, and I’d love to see a remake.

Editor’s Note

I spent, according to the clock, 18 hours and 37 minutes playing this game.