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Shadow Hearts 1 was already in my list of favorite games of all time and then 2 ups the ante in so many ways. I was a bit concerned at first when I saw the T rating (1 is rated M) but my concerns were unfounded. The only real difference I noticed was that 2 isn't as explicit when showing the aftermath of violence. I had actually found 1 (brand new and sealed, even) in the bargain bin of a local game store for $10. I vaguely remembered hearing good things about it and $10 was the right price to give it a shot. So glad I did. So after completely loving 1, I drove to a nearby GameStop the night Covenant was released and grabbed one of the three copies of it that they'd received. The one employee on duty that night was a huge Shadow Hearts fan and we spent about fifteen minutes talking about the game. He ended up telling me that they'd actually had a preorder bonus of a free copy of 1. I wasn't sad I'd missed out on that at the time since I already owned 1, but seeing the ridiculous prices the games in this series are fetching on Amazon and eBay these days (even disc-only copies!) now I wish I'd gotten that free copy. As it is now, the price of the games pretty much ensures that very few new people will get to play them these days, which is extremely unfortunate. It would be great if they'd get rereleased on modern consoles but that seems extremely unlikely. I think there are a lot of rights issues involved. 
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Mar 2, 2019 19:01
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Oh, well that's fortunate then. The bottom's about to fall out of the pachinko industry in Japan. I know that Konami, for one, is already gearing up to return to video games so that they don't go bankrupt. So hopefully whoever owns the Shadow Hearts rights will do the same thing. Maybe there's hope!
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Mar 2, 2019 19:14
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Well yeah, HD remasters are the main things I'd want. After playing FtNW, I'm convinced that at some point they forgot how to make good games.  So there's a good chance that a new game in the series would be awful and that would just be sad. 
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Mar 2, 2019 19:31
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One interesting thing I noticed way back when I played this game: The PS2 was actually capable of outputting true surround sound (Dolby Digital 5.1) via the digital optical jack on the rear but very few games did. Most games used that jack to output virtual surround sound (Dolby ProLogic II) instead. I assume that outputting true surround sound required more processing power than was realistic for most games. It's kinda similar to how the PS2 was capable of outputting graphics in 1080i over component but only a handful of games did and they all had extremely simplistic graphics. Hell, since the vast majority of PS2 titles used 480i, a huge deal was made about any game that was capable of 480p (for example, Resident Evil 4 and Shadow of the Colossus). Anyway, in Shadow Hearts: Covenant I noticed that -- like most PS2 games -- the audio was output in virtual surround... except during prerendered cutscenes. Prerendered cutscenes used true surround. I always knew when a prerendered scene was coming up because I'd hear the soft click of my receiver switching audio modes. I was really impressed that they put that much effort into it.
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Mar 3, 2019 20:36
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Ring Soul is one of the best video game characters ever.
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Mar 5, 2019 21:40
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StandardVC10 posted:Okay but how soon before we get multiple dead children poured together to create some kind of magical abomination What do you think Karin is?
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Mar 6, 2019 14:38
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Personally, in Yuri's position I'd just kill the smug rear end in a top hat trying to call me out like that rather than doing as he says.
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Mar 6, 2019 20:29
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Shitenshi posted:I'm starting to think that every woman who crosses Yuri's path is literally or figuratively hosed over. Alice was saved god knows how many times and proceeded to get involved in all kinds of stupid bullsit and even took on his curse. Karin was saved and still has to deal with the trauma of her squad getting killed twice over and now is forced to process the betrayal of the churchman who's only been nice to her up until now, and make a conscious decision to help the literal demon shapeshifter that was fighting her army. So not a good day. Heh, for some of us that's just a typical Thursday. 
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Mar 8, 2019 06:23
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Eh, it still has the same problem of certain characters being worthless compared to the others. There's three characters in this game who I just flat out never use unless the game forces me to because the others are just so much better. So essentially three Zhuzhens. In the first game I mainly used Yuri, Alice and Keith (he's better than he sounds on paper, especially because his high SP makes him the least likely character to go berserk -- Yuri's SP is technically higher but he burns a ton of it when he fuses) but Margarete is a good backup choice. So Covenant is arguably worse in that regard; it has three mostly useless characters compared to two in the first game.
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Mar 12, 2019 22:34
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One of them is Gepetto. I'm sorry but he's awful. I ditched him as soon as I got better party members. Edit: And Cornelia (his puppet) creeps me out for multiple reasons.
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Mar 13, 2019 04:42
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Yeah, the per turn SP costs for fusions is so much better than the one large upfront cost from the original in many ways. It allows Yuri to change roles throughout the fight as the situation demands. You can buff with a fusion on one turn then switch to a strong physical attack fusion for the next turn and then switch to a strong healing fusion for the next turn. And the stronger the fusion, the higher the per turn cost, so there are situations when it might be smart to switch to a lesser fusion (or even defuse altogether!) in order to slow the SP drain. Way more options and a lot more strategy involved.
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Mar 15, 2019 05:54
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I don't remember much about FF12 at all because I thought it was a really terrible faux-MMO but the one thing I do remember is that Vaan and the female Vaan (can't remember most of the character names from that game (and I don't even remember Ashe at all  )) is that they were both completely worthless as characters and have pretty much zero plot relevance. As in, you could remove them entirely from the game and you'd lose absolutely nothing from the story. That's a pretty sad state of affairs for the characters who are supposedly the main protags.
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Mar 17, 2019 22:19
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MachuPikacchu posted:This is what really gets me bent out of shape about game localizations. It's a pity that a large part of the possible audience for games (and anime/manga for that matter) have a quasi-fetishistic view of the Japanese language that views as blasphemous anything that isn't a 100% word-for-word translation of the Japanese script. I remember when some sperg got incensed about the "liberties taken" with the script in Final Fantasy 6's English localization and released a patch that changed the translation to word for word. I read a bit of his translation and it was horrific gobbledygook that made little to no sense in English. I wonder what that guy thinks about things like "you spoony bard!"
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Mar 18, 2019 00:53
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Accordion Man posted:Seraphic Radiance also fits better because its reinforcing what they were going for; the original Jewish interpretation of angels looking like cosmic horrors like flaming wheels within wheels covered in eyes instead of the eventual Christian interpretation of androgynous pretty people with wings. No, that's the Christian interpretation too. Read the New Testament sometime. Hell, just read Revelation on its own if you really want to read about cosmic horrors. The whole beautiful angel thing is a pretty recent phenomenon, much like the modern day pretty boy white immaculate Jesus. That's not how the Bible describes him at all and wouldn't even make any sense given the location and historical period. Yet that weird interpretation is what a lot of people hang on their walls.
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Mar 18, 2019 03:48
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The Wolf Bouts are awesome. 
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Mar 18, 2019 21:36
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Yeah, it is pretty great that Ernest's "wolf" is actually just a dog. Starts Blanca off with baby steps.
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Mar 18, 2019 21:56
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Kanfy posted:Shadow Hearts: Covenant is a very good game, and also remarkably horny in several different ways. The fact that the front cover (on the US version at least; I'm not sure about Japan) is just a gigantic portrait of Karin -- with Yuri nowhere to be seen -- is clearly an appeal to get horny teenage boys to buy the game.
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Mar 19, 2019 21:11
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Ubiquitous_ posted:Yoko Taro directing a Shadow Hearts IV would be incredible. There'd have to be a Shadow Hearts 3 first.
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Mar 20, 2019 16:32
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It's much the same as there not being a Star Control 3. I really, really want a third game in that series. But I guess it would be under the franchise's new name: The Ur-Quan Masters.
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Mar 20, 2019 17:04
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Rude
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Mar 23, 2019 18:58
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ultrafilter posted:There have been gay people for as long as there have been people, but the degree to which it was socially acceptable has varied a lot over time. I don't know specifics about WWI-era France, but in other times and places there has definitely been underground erotica of some sort. Bodybuilding magazines got their start as hidden softcore porn, for instance. If that's true then why did I never meet any gay people in the late 1800s?
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Mar 24, 2019 22:09
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Yeah I honestly couldn't parse that third sentence.
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Apr 14, 2019 23:56
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Once I was able to use Joachim, I ejected Gepetto from my party forever. Joachim is just too good and Gepetto is awful. Gepetto is the Zhouzen of Covenant.
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Apr 19, 2019 20:20
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This ended up being my main party for most of the game; all four characters are great. There is a fifth character I would use a lot of the time once I got them but the other characters are all garbage. And, to be frank, the whole deal with Cornelia and her dresses is just super creepy. Just one more reason Gepetto needs to go.
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Apr 19, 2019 20:44
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Leraika posted:Joachim alternated with another character we'll meet eventually as my fourth (after Yuri/Blanca/Karin). We're probably talking about the same fifth character. Although I'd sometimes swap them in for Blanca or Karin. All five characters are so good that it can be tough to make a decision.
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Apr 19, 2019 20:45
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The word "book" is also a synonym for "scroll." People calling scrolls books isn't exactly uncommon.
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Aug 4, 2019 19:10
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Cardiovorax posted:I've never seen anyone call a scroll a book. And yet that's what the word means, your personal experience aside. The word book originally only meant scrolls because modern codices didn't yet exist. For example, the subdivisions of the Christian Bible have always been called "books" even though they were originally written on scrolls. Today the word "codex" has fallen out of fashion since people don't really use scrolls. Given how "ye olde time"-y this series tends to get, it's not a complete shocker that they'd purposely use the word "book" to refer to a scroll.
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Aug 5, 2019 18:04
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Night10194 posted:Getting tricked by Yuri of all people is a very specific, very deep low. Rude.
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Sep 18, 2019 15:57
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Schwartzcough posted:Tarot seems incredibly bad. So it seems to have a flat 50% chance to be actively detrimental to your team and probably worse than most actual boss attacks. And even if you get a good effect, the chance of you getting a good effect that is actually helpful at the moment is probably only 25-50% of the possible good effects. So the odds of something bad are 50% and the odds of something helpful are probably 12.5-25%. That is not a good bet. It's almost like Lucia is a terrible character who isn't worth using and who was ejected from my party the first chance I got. 
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Oct 16, 2019 22:19
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"bares investigation" should be "bears investigation" Nearly everyone gets that one wrong.
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Nov 3, 2019 20:59
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Nah, I just think that to a lot of people, the word "bear/bears" just looks wrong when it's used as a verb (or used to refer to anything other than the animal). Bear left/right, bear arms, etc. Edit: "The right to bear arms" is the right to wield weapons. "The right to bare arms" is the right to go sleeveless. 
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Nov 4, 2019 21:55
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This sequence is yet another reason this is one of my favorite games of all time. And this is nowhere near the craziest thing we're going to see in this game.
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Dec 7, 2019 21:36
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achtungnight posted:So many great memories brought back by this update. Bad dungeon, bad enemies, bad Final Fantasy VI cameo, hilarious 4th wall breaking interaction with the Ring Wraith (I mean Ring Ghost, no, wait, Ring Specter!). I'm not sure that that's an FF6 reference. "Locke" just seems like an obvious pun name for a thief. ultrafilter posted:You really need to watch Yuri attempt to trick Yuri
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Dec 13, 2019 02:22
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Not sure why there's shock at the reduced body count. The first game was rated M but Covenant is rated T. It stands to reason that the level of violence would drop accordingly.
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Dec 19, 2019 17:23
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Anastasia permanently sat on the bench for me, firmly sandwiched between Gepetto and Lucia. It was the right call.
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Dec 21, 2019 19:00
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Shitenshi posted:I don't know why they dropped the idea of Nicolai being the protag anymore than anyone else, but word on the grapevine is that after the initial press releases and first screenshots were leaked, the fans raged so hard about Yuri being dropped that the development crew changed things around just to appease them. And yet he was left out of FtNW, and a sequel that was already destined to be bad became even worse. Maybe, MAYBE Yuri could have saved that drat game.
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Jan 8, 2020 22:05
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Zagglezig posted:I'm inclined to cut 8 some slack, since that party wasn't as rebellious in nature as this one for most of the game, they had a horse and cart to worry about, and making a permanent enemy of the worldwide religion earlier would've gotten in their way more often than not. Seeing as the alternative was life imprisonment in a hellish dungeon, they should have rolled the dice. The bit with Rollo was some extreme luck that they could have in no way predicted. If he hadn't a) been thrown in the dungeon in the first place, and b) decided to sacrifice himself (which was a little out of character) to help the party escape, they would have all died a miserable death. They should have fought.
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Jan 11, 2020 14:36
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Xander77 posted:Rappelled. Rap battled.
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Jan 15, 2020 02:37
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Req.Martyr posted:But I'm curious if this is our full party or not? I remember some talk before about "future party members" sticking around, but it's been so long that I can't recall if it was one or two people, and I can't be assed to go back and look. Nope. quote:Assuming that it's not, my guess is that the Ring Soul is our next member, but that he? it? has a different form (probably not). Also nope. We haven't met the next one yet. They are awesome.
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Jan 18, 2020 22:16
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Junpei posted:I used Lucia as a solid mage and only really focused on her Aromatherapy skill. She's actually really good at team support and her magic offense is nothing to sneeze at! 
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Jan 19, 2020 03:51
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