Shadow Hearts: Covenant is a role-playing video game developed by Nautilus (Sacnoth) for the PlayStation 2, and is the second entry in the Shadow Hearts series. Published in Japan by Aruze in 2004, the game was released internationally by Midway Games in 2004 (North America) and 2005 (Europe). A director's cut with additional content was released in Japan in 2005.
Covenant takes place in 1915, six months after the events of the first game. At the height of World War I, German Army lieutenant Karin Koenig is drawn into a conflict between original protagonist Yuri Hyuga and the secret society Sapientes Gladio. During gameplay, the player explores various locations through a growing party of characters. Four characters take part in turn-based battles against a variety of enemies, with actions relying on a timing-based system dubbed the Judgment Ring. The game's worldview combines alternate history with elements of Lovecraftian horror.
Covenant began development in the autumn of 2002; returning staff members included writer and director Matsuzo Machida, artist Miyako Kato, and composer Yoshitaka Hirota. The team redesigned the battle system and altered the story's tone based on feedback from the first game's players. The localization was handled by Jeremy Blaustein, who remembered the game as one of his favorite projects. Selling around 240,000 units in Japan and North America, the game was praised by reviewers. It has since been ranked by several journalistic sites as one of the best games of its time. A third Shadow Hearts title, Shadow Hearts: From the New World, was released in 2005.
Gameplay
Shadow Hearts is a role-playing video game (RPG) where players take control of a party led by either Karin Koenig or Yuri Hyuga as they progress through the game; progress is split between a linear story-driven first half and a second-half which allows greater exploration and access to optional areas. During gameplay, the party explores a number of towns and country areas across the Eurasian continent, collecting and buying items and equipment, talking to non-playable characters who act as quests givers and merchants, and completing both story-centered quests and side quests.
The game's turn-based battles are triggered through both random and scripted encounters. Turn order is dependent on a character's "speed" statistic. Each player character has hit points (health), skill points (magic), and sanity points (SP). SP ordinarily decreases once per turn, and when a character runs out of SP they go berserk and cannot be controlled by the player. Actions include a variety of normal attacks, special attacks specific to characters which are earned through side tasks, Crest magic which can be assigned to different characters, Items such as healing and modifiers for character abilities, and defending against attacks. After each battle, characters earn experience points to raise their level and character attributes, and Soul energy from defeated monsters. The higher a character's level, the more Crests can be equipped.
A key element of gameplay is the Judgment Ring. Represented as a disc with colored areas on its surface, the player's aim is to hit those areas as a pointer passes over them. If the player fails to hit an area, the attack can either be shortened or canceled altogether. Magic attacks use green hit areas during the initial stages of an attack. For items, blue hit areas are used with increasing hue; the deeper the hue when the player triggers the action, the more effective that item is on its target. The final portion of each target area is red, and if the player hits it the attack or skill is boosted in power. The Judgment Ring is also used outside battle in shops; when shopping at a merchant, hitting the right areas can discount prices and increase sale values for items.
The Judgment Ring is used with every battle action, from standard attacks and special abilities to item use. Some status ailments impact how the Judgment Rings behave. An individual character's Judgment Ring moves at a different speed, and can be customized; options include adjusting hit zone numbers, increasing hit area size, increasing damage while decreasing hit area size, and activating an auto-battle option at the cost of attack power. Characters, including some enemy types, can use combos with two or more characters. Combos require successful use of the Judgment Ring, in addition to a button trigger to continue and complete the combo. If the button input fails, or a non-compatible ability is used, the combo is broken and all remaining characters lose their turn actions. Each successful hit in a combo increases damage for the next character's action. Using four characters in a successful combo triggers a fifth special magical attack.
A key ability for both Yuri and late-game playable character Kurando Inugami is Fusion, the ability to transform into a monstrous creature with access to unique abilities. Character attributes are also changed depending on the Fusion type. New fusions for Yuri are unlocked in the Graveyard, a realm within his soul accessed either at save points or on the world map. Charging gravestones with Soul energy gathered from defeated enemies unlocks new Fusions within a specific group. Activating a Fusion costs a set amount of SP, with additional SP reduced each turn by an amount dictated by the Fusion form's power.
Synopsis Setting and characters Shadow Hearts is set in an alternate reality, taking place in the year 1915 during World War I, and mingling historical events and people with supernatural elements including divine beings and cosmic horror. The story shifts locations between Europe, Russia, the Near East and Japan. Another key location is the metaphysical Graveyard. The story takes place six months after the events of Shadow Hearts, following on from that game's "bad" ending.
The main protagonists are Karin Koenig, a German Army lieutenant; and Yuri Hyuga, the main protagonist of Shadow Hearts. Following the events of Shadow Hearts which culminated in the death of his lover Alice Elliot, a depressed Yuri buried Alice in Domrémy-la-Pucelle, taking it upon himself to defend the town from the War. During their journey, Karin and Yuri are joined by a large cast including Gepetto, Alice's uncle; Blanca, an intelligent wolf-like dog; Joachim Valentine, a vampire obsessed with wrestling; Lucia, a fortune teller; a fictionalized version of Anastasia Nikolaevna; and Kurando Inugami, a swordsman from Japan.
The main antagonists are members of Sapientes Gladio, a formerly peaceful secret society perverted into a terrorist group; key characters are its current leader Grigori Rasputin, and his right hand man Nicolai Conrad. Additional characters include Roger Bacon, a 12th century philosopher who achieved imperfect immortality; Kato, a former ally of Yuri's; Jeanne, a young girl from Domrémy; Shadow Hearts antagonist Albert Simon, who appears as a vision in Yuri's mind; Jovis Abraham, the original co-founder of Sapientes Gladio; the Japanese foreign minister Kantaro Ishimura; and Ouka, a cloned version of Kato's dead lover Yoshiko Kawashima.
Plot During a mission to Domrémy, Karin's unit is attacked by a demon. To combat him, Karin is partnered with Nicolai to retrieve an artifact called the Holy Mistletoe from Apoina Tower in the Vatican City. Returning to Domrémy, the "demon" turns out to be Yuri, and Nicolai reveals his true goal of destroying Yuri before he can threaten Sapientes Gladio while holding the girl Jeanne hostage. Yuri ends up impaled by the Mistletoe, which begins disrupting his powers and releasing trapped Malice, dark energy generated by monsters. During the attacks on Domrémy, Jeanne is killed, and in Yuri's journey, her spirit resides in the Graveyard. Nicolai blackmails Yuri into retrieving the forbidden Émigré Manuscript in exchange for releasing the captured Roger Bacon. The group is double-crossed and ultimately rescues Bacon, although Nicolai takes the Émigré Manuscript. Guided by Bacon, they head to Russia to face Rasputin. Rasputin is fuelling the war through Sapientes Gladio and an alliance with Japanese sympathizers, his ultimate goal being to replace Nicholas II of Russia with Nicolai, the tzar's illegitimate heir. After learning of Rasputin's invulnerability due to his pact with the god Asmodeus, the group flees Russia along with the endangered Anastasia.
To overcome Rasputin's power, the group finds Abraham; he reveals that Albert Simons' actions during the events of Shadow Hearts were an attempt to foil Rasputin. Yuri travels inside his soul with Karin's help, meeting Simons' spirit and taming the god Amon. The group returns to Russia, exposing Rasputin. Defeated by Amon, Rasputin sacrifices his soul to Asmodeus, who takes over his body and summons a magical fortress, aiming to obliterate humanity. Prior to leaving, Nicolai confronts Rasputin, revealing that he has made a pact with the god Astaroth. Yuri's group defeats Rasputin, but before dying he reveals that the Mistletoe's Curse will destroy Yuri's memories and that Nicolai intends to release the Malice from Apoina Tower, increasing the war's barbarity. The group is too late to stop Nicolai from releasing Malice into the world as an act of defiance against Yuri. They are about to kill him when Kato intervenes, sealing Apoina Tower and leaving with both Nicolai and the Émigré Manuscript due to Japan's alliance with Russia.
In Japan, Foreign Minister Ishimura intends to use Nicolai to destabilize the West and protect Japan from its influence. Attempts to extract Astaroth give the demon full control of Nicolai's body. Yuri's group, allied with his cousin Kurando, fails to prevent Astaroth's escape due to the opposition of Kato and his cloned group of soldiers which includes Ouka. After Astaroth's escape, Kato helps Yuri's group defeat the god at its lair in Mount Fuji. The enraged Nicholai tries to kill Yuri, then attacks Kato when he intercedes; Ouka blocks the blow, dying in Kato's arms. Kato kills Nicolai, later giving Yuri the Émigré Manuscript to attempt Alice's resurrection and declaring them now enemies. The group confronts Ishimura, and when his grandson appears and Ishimura begs they spare him, Yuri flies into a rage and beats Ishimura nearly to death before breaking down in tears, having forgotten his reason for fighting. Bacon helps Yuri attempt Alice's resurrection. The ritual briefly works, with Alice assuring her love for Yuri before her new body disintegrates. Bacon deduces that Kato encouraged the ritual to use its side effect of time warping for his own ends; Kato plans to travel back in time and rewrite history, unmaking the current world.
After meeting Alice's spirit and having a final talk with Jeanne, Yuri faces Kato as he summons the magical Asuka Stone Platform to enact his plan. Kato is defeated, and before dying tells Yuri that the group must wish for their heart's desire in order to escape. As the others depart to places they can find happiness, the Mistletoe's Curse manifests, and Yuri bids Karin farewell and remains behind. Depending on his answer to a question from Jeanne, Yuri can allow the Curse to consume him and end up in Roger's care as an amnesiac; or commit suicide, reuniting with Alice's spirit before going back in time to the day they met and getting the chance to save her. The latter has been confirmed as the canon ending. Whatever Yuri's choice, Karin is sent back in time to Tokyo in 1887, there meeting Yuri's father and deciding to move on with her life; Karin uses the name "Anne", and becomes Yuri's mother.
Development