Vandal Hearts

The first installment of a series of turn-based jRPGs developed by Konami. The game tells the story of a group of heroes who discover a conspiracy and are considered rebels.

Story

In an empire that has existed for hundreds of years, a rebellion breaks out, as a result of which the Ashah dynasty loses power. The former monarchy is replaced by the democratic republic of Ishtaria. Residents enjoy the peace for a short time. Soon, a bloody witchhunt for alleged henchmen of the previous system begins. One day a young member of a republican army unit, Ash Lambert, discovers a conspiracy in which the authorities were involved. Trying to find the truth, he is accused of treason. Together with his companions, he must not only fight for survival but also deal with people who introduced the rule of terror in his homeland.

Mechanics

Vandal Hearts is based on formula well known to fans of turn-based jRPGs. Exploration of the world takes place by selecting the subsequent points on the map, to which the team is to go. The axis of the game are battles fought in special arenas divided into square fields. The camera presents the action in isometric projection, enabling the viewer to rotated it by 90 degrees. During the battles the players control individual team members, giving them turn-based commands. In each turn, the hero can move by a given number of fields, as well as perform one action. The game is enriched by different goals of individual battles, for example, forcing us to escape to a specific place, save the indicated NPCs or kill a specific enemy.

The game is characterized by high level of difficulty. Although the characters accompanying the main hero cannot die permanently, any escape from the battlefield will result in a financial penalty for the player in the form of a smaller number of gold received for the victory. The pre-defined, limited number of battles in the game means that in later stages we may run out of money to buy better equipment for the heroes.

There are seven character classes in the game, which differ in armor and skills. These include knights, archers, and wizards, as well as flying warriors, clerics and monks. Each of the professions is effective against one and weak against another - this mechanic was built on the principles of the well-known game of paper-stone-scissors.

Technical aspects

Vandal Hearts is one of the first jRPGs released on PS1. The devs used 2D graphics, with simple sprites of characters and building models. Only during the visit to cities we see backgrounds presenting the metropolises themselves and individual shops and taverns created in three dimensions. The title is distinguished by a large degree of brutality and a serious storyline.

Last updated on April 6, 2020