Vandal Hearts is a perfect (retro) game to suggest to newcomers to the series. Why? Well, for one simple reason: It feels like THE vanilla SRPG. I don't even mean this in a bad way. Otherwise I wouldn't even suggest it as a starter game. The game has plenty of good qualities. But as you put hours and hours into Vandal Hearts, and the game comes to a close, you will have played a game that managed to entertain, but never amaze. It is a modern SRPG stripped of everything that makes it modern, leaving you with simple turn-based combat and some tactical acumen required, as far as positioning and prioritization of enemies is concerned, in order to beat its many battles. So when you ultimately beat Vandal Hearts and move on to the next SRPG, there is a high chance that it will move the needle forward, because there are sooo many mechanics not explored here. Does it make sense what I'm trying to say?
Basically, as a SRPG noob, and as part of this challenge, I am glad to have played Vandal Hearts. Because not only did I enjoy myself, but I feel like this will allow me to appreciate the more fleshed-out games in the genre that much more.
That said, the "vanilla" nature of the game can be attributed to its release date first and foremost. It came out in on October 25, 1996 for the PlayStation, before receiving Japan (and South Korea for the latter)-only ports for the Sega Saturn and PC. Its early 1997 release date in the west means it was one of the earlier SRPGs for this side of the world to check out, since even Tactics Ogre (originally released in 1995) didn't make its way to the west until 1998, and the same goes for FF Tactics.
Is the game as sick as the box-art suggests? Let's see.
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| Title Screen |
STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 7/10
The game has a really high emphasis on storytelling. There are usually multiple cutscenes playing in between battles, progressing the overall plot or giving each character a little bit more individual time to shine.
There are about a dozen player-controlled characters that you encounter. Each of them get their own backstories, but only a couple of them are explored for more than a couple minutes. In that sense, this game feels like a move in the right direction, but it's not quite there yet.
The backstory is that there once was an Empire, which were overthrown 15 years before the game begins. The man leading the charge disappeared shortly after the victory, leaving a group of corrupt men repeat the problems that started the rebellion in the first place.
The game tells a story of war, betrayal and revenge. Characters, both good and bad, have either been involved in the coup themselves or have had their relatives lose or win the war, depending on which side they were on. The main character for example is Ash Lambert, who leads the third platoon of the Security Forces and resents his father for being a traitor during the war. Another, Eleni, was a helpless child found alone in a burned-down village and adopted by General Magnus Dunbar, who at the start of this game is now charged of treason himself.
There are your typical plot twists of "Oh I thought you were bad, but actually you are good" and vice versa in the game. There is also a story element regarding Time Limbo and there is a surprising and well told scene connected to this, which was definitely my favorite part about the game's story.
Overall, the writing is just too poor to resonate like it would for a child playing this game, even if the plot itself is not bad. If you can look past this, and you can get attached to characters pretty fast, there might be something here for you to enjoy. For me, I really appreciate the effort. It's on a high level in terms of 1996 non-cRPG gaming, which is a low bar but passed only by few still.
There are six chapters overall and I like how they are separated through nice chapter introductions. There is even a narrator while full motion videos are playing in the background. The narration existing is great, the narration's performance is .. not great. But not so bad that I would rather not have it. It definitely adds to the experience overall.
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| Clint delivers us some story exposition |
GAMEPLAY | 14/20
This is a Strategy RPG. There are multiple battles in each chapter (5 or so per) that play out on grid-based maps. Usually, the goal is to defeat all the enemies to win, but sometimes you just have to kill a specific enemy, reach the end of a map, last for a certain number of turns or guide an NPC to an area.
This way, Vandal Hearts manages to bring a little bit of variety to an otherwise repetitive gameplay loop. And I say repetitive because of how progression works in this game.
First, there are your typical classes. You don't choose these, your characters all have a set class to start with. You got your soldiers, your archers, your mages and so on. Where the game gets more interesting is in promotions. Your characters can be promoted to one of two sub-classes on Level 10. You can have a Bowman or a Hawknight for your archers, the Hawknight giving the levitational ability and equipping them with spears/lances instead of a bow. Your white mages can become bishops or monks. Your soldiers can become Swordsmen or Guardsmen. These have different playstyles, though I found certain classes to be by faaar stronger than others, which speaks for sub-optimal balancing. Either way, this does offer some player choice, replayability and variety. The next promotion for the characters is at Level 20, which offers you only option depending on your previous choice. After this, the game has another 25-40% of its run time to go and there are no upgrades on the horizon anymore.
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| Transfering items from one character to the other is cumbersome to say the least |
Let's get to the combat. Oh boy. Outside of being "vanilla" like I described it, Vandal Hearts has pretty damn persistent AI. If you have 5 guys lined up next to each other, the AI will relentlessly attack the one with the lowest HP until they are dead. If that guy is Ash Lambert, too bad, you lose, because for some reason only Ash has to survive the entire battle. You can lose all the others and just win it wish Ash, but if everyone else is alive and at the final turn, Ash dies, you have to start over.
This AI logic translates over to the special levels as well, where you have to defend four towers for example. Each tower has basically no health, so one hit destroys them. There is literally no way for you to defend them all. The enemies will just attack and destroy them all. The only way to beat that level is to literally circle one of the four towers with your four characters and block the enemies path. There is a monetary penalty for each destroyed tower / killed character, so if the economy in the game were to be more stringent, it would suck to basically have no ability to do anything about it. Finally, some enemies can one shot even your soldiers in your party, even with the best equipment, which is another instance of being helpless. Don't get me wrong, there is a certain part to this AI that I really like, but it has its clear drawbacks. That said, this AI is probably not too different from the many other SRPGs out there, though I will come to find out over time.
Boss fights are a major letdown, since the bosses all are basically the same as regular enemies. Even their health pool, which you would expect to skyrocket near the end, remain on the very low side. So low in fact that three hits can kill the boss. The final boss for example is a normal guy at first, with a bit over 200 HP. After you defeat him, he transforms and has .... 160 HP? What? And while this version can deal area of effect damage, it takes two hits to take him down. As I said, letdown.
Outside of combat and shopping for better equipment, there is no gameplay. You are in the town menus, where you select the shop, the dojo for promotions, the tavern for brief dialogue by three NPCs, the items menu for item sorting and equipping and the save menu for saving. Or, of course, the "leave town" option to move on to the next section.
For SRPG fans, this should be enough, but at the same time, veterans might get bored halfway through once they have seen pretty much everything.
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| Battle Screen |
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 9/10
The voice acting is limited to the narrator, which as I mentioned is not great, but it's there, and that's a plus. Outside of that, the game excels in sound design. The sounds of the swords slashing, the lances piercing and the staffs smacking, or the sound effects to the variety of magic spells and, best of all, to the blood splatter after every death, is really great for 1996. Of course it's the 64-bit era now and this is to be expected, slowly but surely. But still, I liked listening to the game.
That extends to the soundtrack, which has great tracks fitting every type of cutscene and battle the game throws at you. There are some tracks that I really liked, like
- Harbor City Ports
- Warlock (my favorite, the composer did a great job with this one)
- Bygone Days 2
Worth a listen for sure. Doesn't quite manage to equal the great OSTs of its time, but it's yet another good one.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 8/10
The sprite work is solid and the art style is simple, but nice to look at. Where the game does a great job is in its special effects. The game has a gritty and medieval style to it, which fits the plot and the tone that it aims for. This becomes notable in the background of the battle maps, the still image of the towns and villages you visit and the full motion videos to begin each chapter. The battles usually take place in basic forests though.
My favorite part is how the character designs change for each promotion they get. The sprites and portraits all look great.
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| The main menu and all our options |
ATMOSPHERE/IMMERSION | 9/10
I mentioned gritty and medieval. That applies to the atmosphere as well. The game is set in a war-torn country, multiple characters have lost loved ones due to the war and lose more during the game. Characters betray, they get revenge and they ultimately kill for their ideals, all the while fighting their hardest battles internally in silence. This is further represented by the artifacts you hunt down during the game, whether it is a magical stone, a powerful ring or the titular sword, all of which unleash the characters deepest desires and insecurities. The thematic consistency and depth here is admirable for its time.
CONTENT | 6/10
The game is roughly 20 hours in length. You can literally cut down somewhere between 2 to 5 hours from this if you use an emulator and fast forward through the enemies turn or the loading screens. In these 20 hours, you spent roughly an hour or so watching cutscenes and buying equipment. The rest is spent during battles, which become repetitive after a while and as we went over, don't have a ton of depth to them. I enjoyed it enough, especially once the magical abilities of your black mages kick in which cover literally half the battlefield, but it's more of a "listen to a podcast or watch a video on the side" type game. If that's what you're looking for, go for it. All in all though, the game doesn't offer enough to always keep you fully engaged.
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 8/10
Repetitive, sure. A little too much on the easy side, perhaps. But there is enjoyment to be found in the game's simplicity. Whenever you are bored of it, the game adds just a little bit of a twist to keep things kind of interesting. There is one level for example where you hide behind the trees and have to wait a few turns to let the enemy approach before you ambush them. Then they don't try to fight back but rather flee, and you have to kill them all before any one of them reach the end of the map. The game has many of these small puzzles. The normal battles also require strategic thinking regardless of the lack of depth to classes, equipment and abilities.
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 4/10
Fire Emblem, Tactics Ogre and Shining Force are some of the titles that released prior to Vandal Hearts. Fire Emblem even 6 years earlier. Vandal Hearts doesn't change the game much, if at all. Its heavy focus on storytelling and character development is probably its most "innovative" feature, well outside of the blood splatter effect of course.
REPLAYABILITY | 2/5
There are three reasons to replay this. One: You want to try other classes. Two: You want to try to finish each level without any deaths (don't know if this is possible). Three: You want to do the secret levels. I don't personally know about them a whole lot, I just know that they were ridiculously hard to get to and therefore not worth counting towards this score.
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
Works well at all times. The game's only real fault is that a lot of time is spent waiting for the enemy's turn. Like A LOT of time. Not unusual at all, but these days it can become irritating quite quickly.
OVERALL | 72/100 ⭐⭐⭐½
Vandal Hearts did it. It made me like Strategy (J)RPGs, finally. That's probably as big a compliment as I can give it. It makes me excited to check out future SRPGs that continue to innovate and improve. Outside of my personal perspective, the game tells a nice, thematically consistent story, has fun strategic gameplay at its best and tries to mix things up with a few unique winning requirements here and there. I can see why it has a cult following.
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