Vandal Hearts: Flames Of Judgment

By Neilio Hunsdalio

Have you got MS points burning a hole in your virtual pocket? You could spend them on getting a ridiculous outfit for your avatar, but why not spend them on something more enjoyable? Like Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment!
Currently available for download via Xbox live marketplace and PSN, Vandal Hearts is a strategic RPG arcade game, where you control a team of 6 characters, each with specific skills, as they try to stop bad things happening. The bad things in this case are mostly bandit types. You know? The type that are always up to no good. The 6 characters are all orphans of Balastrade who survived the Great War. They were settling into normality again, and rebuilding their lives, when out of no where, Bandits attack their village. The 6 orphans must build their skills by beating enemies, and the player has the choice of which skills they want to be more prominent. Characters can focus on magic, where new spells can be bought throughout the game and which consist of Defense spells, Healing Spells, Augmentation Spells, and obviously, Attack Spells. If magic isn’t your thing, then you can focus more on Melee attacks with a number of large sharp objects available for your character to purchase. Lastly, there’s the long range option of Bow and Arrows, which again can be upgraded by buying the newest and best equipment.

Of course, it doesn’t matter how good your characters are if you cant think up a good strategy. In each battle there are 1 or 2 characters that must survive in order for the story to continue. If you don’t take care of these particular characters, then your screwed! Enemies seem to know this as well, and they will sometimes gang up on one character, and wipe him out in no time, and before you have a chance to retaliate.

I must admit, I’m not into these strategy types of games, but Vandal Hearts totally sucked me in, with its addictive and fairly fast paced battles. The RPG aspect appealed to me most, with the leveling up and acquiring of new equipment. Each stage of the story is infinitely re-playable, so if your having trouble in a battle, you can go back and re-do older battles to gain more gold, and experience. There are also a host of different endings to the story, which are controlled by decisions the player must make during the game, and again add to the re-playability of this title.

You may know the Vandal Hearts name from your childhood, as there was a series of Vandal Heart games out for the PSone, of which Flames Of Judgment is a prequel. Konami hope this new addition will regenerate the franchise and bring new fans, as well as nostalgic old fans back to the game. Check out the demo for Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment, available on the Xbox live marketplace and Playstation Network.