Vandal Hearts

While I try to play a variety of genres and styles of video games,

there are, as you may imagine, ones I like way more than others.

One of my absolute favourites when looking at "Pre-HD" gaming,

is definitely the big and fascinating genre of role playing games.

I love getting lost in a fantastical world, see stories and characters

impossible to exist in our mundane and boring reality, do things and

learn all sorts of abilities to get out of troubles or sometimes, cause them,

seeing different cultures and being able to enjoy amazing soundtracks.

And on top of that, RPGs can be done in a myriad of ways, which are separated

into sub-genres or styles that radically change how they play, look or even feel.

Turns or Action, Japanese or Occidental influences, First or Third person, 

some centered around the gameplay, others more interested in tell a story,

and, of course, you then have mixtures of RPG and other genres.

Looking at one game to start the PlayStation entries, 

I knew very well what game to choose beforehand.

It's quite underrated, and also one of my most liked ones from this library.

It's Vandal Hearts.

Developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokio and published by Konami in 1996, Vandal Hearts is a Strategy RPG set in a dark fantasy world.

I usually talk a bit about the developers that make each game, but c'mon... Who doesn't know Konami?

Even if it what it is today is not even a mere shadow of its former self, either because their disappointing output on current gaming landscapes, or because how much the company has fallen from grace thanks to all the terrible stuff they've been doing since around 2010, when it was discovered that the directive of the company treated their workers like absolute trash, Konami should be at least known by most. If not for that, at least you should recognize them for all those jokes about Pachinko (I still can't believe "Erotic Violence" is a thing).

They even devoured Hudson Soft, creators of among other things Bomberman, just to not let them do all that much, which is really saddening.

But before they went down hard, and become almost entirely another company, Konami was one of the most cherished developers that ever existed. I always grouped it with "The Big Four", as I like to call them, alongside Nintendo, Sega and Capcom, as Japanese developers with a huge array of games of different genres, tones and personalities. From Arcade cabinets to home console and handheld games, the old Konami made tons of fantastic games.

The only thing I can feel positive about Konami recently was tha they let Hudson create Super Bomberman R fot the Nintendo Switch, after years of everybody thinking the franchise was dead. While the game started a bit underwhelming, the developers put a lot of work to improve the game and give it a lot of new content for free, and nowadays is a really neat Bomberman game with a magnificent soundtack to boot (seriously, listen to this or this!). In fact it seems it will be released on other systems thanks to the success hit it became on Nintendo's new hybrid machine.

Besides that though, they haven't done much good, at least in my eyes.
But we have a game from better times to talk about, though!

Something I really like about this game is how great is the introduction at setting the mood for the game:

It could very well start with a long CGI showing characters or "epic" (people ruined that word for me, I'm afraid) moments, with a long main theme, like many other games, but no, not at all.

What you get is a lonely voice that catches you off guard and charms you while the Title Screen is revealed to you. No bells, no whistles. I don't know exactly how to explain it, but I find this one of the most memorable introductions I've seen. It's classy, and at the same time is very simplistic. Once the singer stops, there's absolute silence until you start a new game, or load a saved file, giving the little chant more weight. Every time I turn the game on I'm compelled to let it play and never skip it. It feels a bit magical to me.

But enough of me looking too deep into tiny things.

Vandal Hearts takes place, like I said earlier, on a dark fantasy setting, in a continent named Sostegaria. The beginning of the game gives us a small history lesson about this land, which is ruled by the Holy Ashah Dynasty, descendants of a very important figure in this land's history, a man known by the name of Toroah the Messiah.

Oh, early CGI, how badly have you aged... But still possess some charm.

But things weren't golden forever. Amidst all the wealth and exotic pleasures, the nobility lost their way and sank to corruption and depravity, forgetting even the teachings of Toroah. It was in these days of unrest that the citizens struggling under an oppressive regime, rose up, and under the leadership of Arris the Sage, took up arms against the Kingdom. That was the first outbreak of violence in what was simply called "The Revolution".

The royal armies' counterattack was swift and fierce, but time and time again by the cunning strategies of Arris, and the indomitable will of the advancing Liberation Army. Victory at hand, the rebels set up a Council and worked to establish the continent's first Democracy. And so, the first Republic of Ishtaria was born. However, Arris the Sage, whom all hoped would lead the country, mysteriously vanished, and has not been seen again to this day.

...15 years later, the shadow of war once again threatens the land. It is man's doom to forget, after all.

The citizens of Sostegaria are again at unrest. The powerful bend the laws to their benefit, while using the military force to instill fear on the population, the gap between rich and poor is getting bigger by the day and strange things are starting to happen all over the continent. This is the moment our story begins.

In the middle of a forest, a group of what seem to be merchants transporting their goods gets surprised by a band of thieves, surrounding them and asking for their valuables in exchange for their lives, or they'll be dealt with. Unbeknown to them, those robed men are more than the can chew...

That's a lot of stuff to carry on your back...

When approached by one of the criminals, the man in the middle takes a sword from under his robe, and with a single blow, takes out the brigand. Surprised by this, the leader of the thieves, a disgusting man by the name of Zoot, asks who the hell are these guys, as no merchant would be able to do that.

Removing the disguise, the man presents himself as Ash Lambert, a soldier working for the Ishtarian Security Forces, and alongside him, his trusty companions, Diego Renault, an experienced bowman, and Clint Picard, a skilled swordsman. They reveal the ones falling for a trap are in fact the gang of brigands, as they were sent to put an end to their deeds.

Having sorted this issue, they find out that the despicable Zoot was supposedly imprisoned not so long ago, bu he got freed by some "friends". Smelling something fishy, they go back to their headquarters to speak with their boss, Clive, a man who fought in the rebellion 15 years ago, and agreeing with them about the situation going on.

I don't know what it is, but I find quite charming to see sprite characters on chunky 3D maps.

 After a rough day where they attempt to stop a riot, only to meet with the Crimson Guards, a highly violent elite of soldiers formed by the right winger Hel Spites, a man with a mighty desire for greatness, and commanded by his equally despicable son, Kane, Lambert and his friends get approached by a mysterious man named Dolf. With some nice words, but dubious intents, he talks about the incident, and proposes what he calls a "Top Secret Assignment", to find the disappeared general Magnus Dunbar, who was apparently doing shady stuff. Doubtful of what to believe, the people at the Ishtarian Security Forces end up deciding to explore Sostegaria in order to find Magnus, even if they feel something big is happening behind the scenes.

This is how Vandal Hearts begins.

While I don't want to spoil much of the story, as I rather have any of you reading experience it if the game tickles your fancy, I will say that the plot of this game goes along with the dark fantasy setting, as it deals with gray morality, betrayal, political intrigues, rebellion, how little war really solves, and the aforementioned strange events happening as your ragtag band of heroes journeys around the land. Lots of classic storytelling elements, really. While it's not overly complicated or too heavy (even if some serious stuff happens), I think it is overall pretty good, and the abundant cutscenes move along the plot in a timely fahshion while also letting the characters interact with each other.

Oh boy, you will despise this bastard...

Talking about characters, while not the deepest cast of all time, each one of them has a defined personality. For example, Ash is a noble man, always worried of doing the right thing, but also aware that being a decent person wont make him look better at the eyes of the people because of his past. Diego is a playful guy, trying to cheer others up with his jokes, but that also can find hard to stay positive himself with all the stuff going on, while Clint has a reserved personality, and it is also very observant and reflexive man, trying to think ahead of time, but is not afraid of reprimand his companions if he sees reckless behavior. All those three descriptions are just their starting points as characters, though, because they grow throughout the game, as most of the characters you will meet in your adventure. Again, is not the stuff of legends, but I find satisfying that each one grows a bit through the adventure.

You can also get a lot of details of the world of Vandal Hearts through conversations with NPCs on the bars of each city, which paint a very cold and bitter image, something completely understandable in a world of constant unrest and conflicting informations. What is in the game as far as narrative stuff I find to be enjoyable, it has weight and it is present all the way through. Without trying to make it sound exaggerated, it is more than I expected from a game of this sub-genre, and I like it.

And without wanting to reveal more on that front, let's go on with how it plays!

You may be surrounded, but you're no chump!

Vandal Hearts, being a Strategy RPG, revolves around fighting in large maps divided in grids, with each cell being a different terrain (like sand, grass, rock, water, etc) that can affect your movement and your defensive power, while you command your characters by moving them in order to attack enemies or avoid to be attacked in a tactical, turn based fashion.

The name fits well enough, when you need to think not only on your fighting strategy, like in most games of the genre, but also on how you move around, how do you organize your characters to make them work well with each other while also using their talents and how you use things like terrain or height to your advantage in order to survive, because enemies will do the same and punish you if you're not paying attention.

It's one sub-genre that I tend to enjoy quite a bit. While my appreciation for Strategy games dwindled as time has passed (as I find the "create units, send them to their death, create more" style to become stale for me), Strategy RPGs still let me have several of the mechanics and ideas from the genre, while also making each unit you control important, necessary, and way more personal than, let's say, a mob of 10 "Berserkers" from Warcraft.

Now the gameplay of Vandal Hearts, is quite simplistic and direct, with very clear and important rules.

Hmm... A sword unit against a flying unit. I'm probably at a disadvantage...

Almost all characters (enemies included) fall into several classes, which can fulfill different roles and have different strengths and weaknesses, and those classes fall into categorizations. I'll give you a quick overlook about all of this.

When I mention Class, I mean that each character starts with a basic job. These being:

• Soldiers - Your usual front-line warriors. Have high HP, Attack and Defense, but lack any magical abilities and range. Even if they're the most basic unit, the better defensive stats make these guys be great meat shields to block roads and force enemies to attack them so they can counterattack.
• Archers - As you may expect, these guys deal physical damage at a range using bows and arrows. While not as strong or resistant as Swordsmen, they can use height to increase their range and damage and attack without fear of being counterattacked.
• Mages - Weak physically, as one can imagine seeing the name of the class, but they possess a great number of spells to deal status effects or damage to groups of enemies, sometimes with very impressive range. Very powerful, if you can maintain them alive.
• Priests - Imagine what they do. They mantain the health of your characters, and improve their abilities in certain ways. They even get a couple of offensive spells, so they're not defenseless either.
• Hero - Lastly, this is the class of Ash himself. Very similar to a Soldier, but with the difference that he learns a few spells throughout the game, giving him and edge over Soldiers and making Ash more closer to a magic knight in other games. He learns only a handful, but it is a mix of offensive and supportive magic, and well used can be a big asset. 

Ah, now we're talking! Arrows are the weakness of any flying unit!

At level 10, though, a character is given the option to promote. Each class (besides Hero), can then have the option between two choices, one that simply follows their standard class, and an alternative class that radically changes their purpose.

A Soldier can become either a Swordsman or a Guardsman.  As the first, he follows the usual path, with a good balance of his stats, and still using swords. This class is the more balanced option, and it offers better evasiveness and a bit more movement range.

But as a Guardsman, a character leaves behind that balanced idea and becomes a stronger and sturdier warrior, capable to dish out higher damage and resist way more physical punishment, at the cost of being weak to Magic spells, and losing a bit of their movement range because of the new heavy gear. Basically, they trade off weaknesses for more strength. They also start using Axes, which are really powerful. Overall they are amazing as long as you don't stupidly send them against Mages.

An Archer can become either a Bowman, or a Hawk Knight. As the first, he follows the usual path, keeping their bows and acting just like before, but with improved repertoire of equipment at their disposal, still using long range and height as their best asset. Overall, Bowman are really useful.

But as a Hawk Knight, they leave behind not only their bows, but also the very ground they used to their advantage, and become flying units wielding Spears that attack at close range. Their stats get improved, and their movement range is unparalleled, making them very versatile, but with their new airborne nature, comes a weakness to arrows. It's a useful unit, and has a talent for finding items.

Hmm, choices, choices...

Lastly, both Magic-Users, can continue their respective ways as Sorcerers and Bishops, and learn more and more powerful spells, or relax their magical training in favor of becoming Monks. As the first, they stay pretty much the same as before, which is great all by itself, spell casters are really useful in this game.

But as a Monk, though, they try to become an "all-around" sort of character. They still leave behind their rods and get the unique weapon type of Claws, which are way better weapons. Their stats shift to become much more evasive and able in close combat, and while they can still use magic, they will learn spells at a slower rate. Lastly they have less Magic Resistance than pure casters. They don't excel at anything at first glance, but their flexibility lets them play different roles depending on the situation.

Now, if you're asking why I said all of this, well, there's a reason, beyond talking about a game I like. You are informed about all of this quite early into the game, and that's because it relates to the Categorization I mentioned early, which is very important once you start playing beyond the first battle.

By Categorization, I mean at which "group" a character or class falls in, and it is pointed out by the symbols near the name of the character or enemy unit. In a picture above, you can see Ash has a sword icon, while the enemy has an icon with wings.

The groups are these:

• Knights, symbolized with a Sword.
• Archers, symbolized with a Bow.
• Airmen, symbolized with a pair of Wings.
• Armors, symbolized with a Shield.
• Mages, symbolized with a Staff.
• Priests, symbolized with a Cross.
• Monks, symbolized with a Fist.

These act similar to elemental weaknesses and strengths in many other games.

For example, Knights are weak to Airmen, while they are weak to Archers, and these are weak to Knights, and each one takes less damage from the group they're strong against, creating a triangle akin to Fire Emblem's Sword, Axe and Lance.

On the other hand, Armors are stronger against physical attacks, specially coming from Archers, but they're weak magically, which is the complete opposite of spellcasters (Mages and Priests), which are fragile physically but resist much better enemy spells. Monks end up in a weird place, where they're not specially weak to anything, with average Defense and Magic Resistance. Fitting with the rest of its design, I suppose.

You must learn and understand how these different groups act with the rest in order to maximize your chances of surviving.

Jesus...This game really doesn't shy away!

Besides the strengths and weaknesses of your characters and enemies, another big important thing is to know that units in the battlefield won't just get hit when attacked, they will try to counterattack if they're able to, depending if the unit being attacked has enough range to reach you, which in most cases means every short range attack will receive a counterattack, just like Archers attacking each other will cause it too.

You also have tho think about what side your units are looking, as attacking someone from the back will increase the chances to hit it (as far as I know, it does not increase damage, if it does is not by much). And as I said, height is rather important, not just for Archers (although they're the ones who benefit the most), but any unit. Even if you're just one little step above your enemy, it will help you deal more damage and take less too.

Needless to say, going like a headless chicken without taking all this into consideration will let the enemies make short work of you, even more when you have in mind that...

Oh no, not only they are more... They also have the high ground!

...You'll be fighting for the most part in numerical inferiority, and usually with geographical disadvantage. While the basics of Vandal Hearts are quite simple, the game keeps you on your toes constantly by putting you in situations where the enemy have the upper hand, and also are positioned in certain ways to make it trickier to begin a battle, making the first few turns a bit tense.

Talking about turns, by the way, in Vandal Hearts they work more like "rounds". In each turn, you can give actions to all of your characters at once, only to then finish your turn (by going into the main menu) and let your enemies have their turn. It may sound like you could do a lot in one turn, but is important to move with a bit of brain, as once your turn is finished, the enemy group could mob around one of your character's and outright kill him or her because you weren't careful in all the actions you took in during your phase, and when they are always more than you, instead of one they can take even out two or put a serious dent in several of your characters.

In case one of your units gets defeated, it will retire and you'll be one unit down for the rest of the fight, only to get a penalty at the end of the battle if you happen to win (the penalty being a reduction in your money reward). There's no "perma-death" in Vandal Hearts, but I guess its for the better, as it can be pretty easy to die. Personally, I still reset the battle if one of my characters die, anyways; I've always liked the satisfaction you feel when everybody makes it to the end.

There's a pretty big variety of enemies throughout the game, all of them working inside the group system I already mentioned. You will fight way more than evil versions of the classes your characters have, like for example different kinds of Bats (beware their poisoning abilities!), or Golems, which are inside the Airmen and Armors groups respectively, and each of the Chapters that divide this game will bring its own new enemies for you to deal with.

Leveling up is also essential, and it is done in a very traditional manner. Any character gains Experience Points through attacking or casting spells, you can even get EXP by counterattacking. Vandal Hearts uses a system that goes from 0 points to 100, and when the latter number is reached, a new level is gained. Fighting enemies that are of a lower level than you will provide less EXP than ones higher though, so having in mind that will let you take a bit of advantage and let lower level characters defeat those enemies instead.

In this battle, you need to advance fast or the breaking bridge will collapse, spelling doom for you! 

This is important on the long run because Vandal Hearts is not a game in which you can grind. You cannot repeat battles (there's one exception, but doesn't really matter and I'll cover it later), and once you finish one you go on the next one. Balancing your character levels becomes even more important when you factor in that you'll use every single character in your group at the same time. Most SRPGs will make you choose a number of units between your roster, but Vandal Hearts does not swing that way.

Every member present will always be in the battlefield, making the numerical inferiority remark from earlier have more weight, and also making fights much bigger than in other SRPGs. Fortunately having your group of characters be well leveled is not hard as long as you put enough care into it, which you should be doing as you're playing a Strategy RPG.

Another good thing is that, while the increase in stats at each new level achieved is random, RNG (Random Number Generation) will never screw you, and in fact, you'll never have a character that ends up being disappointing. Two characters of the same class may have one or two points of difference in a stat at maximum, at least based on my own playthroughs over the years.

Oh and by the way, you get all your characters quite early, which I find spot on. I've always rolled my eyes when games keep giving me characters when the game starts to end (unless they're important for reasons, of course). There's a point where I can't help but think it's a bit pointless. In Vandal Hearts, you already have all of them before the half point mark, and you can enjoy your entire party for the rest of the game. It may sound like a silly thing, but I like it.

Easy to say, don't you think?

Another thing that I really like about Vandal Hearts its how varied its different battles are.

Most of the battles have a unique little spin, like the one in the image above. It happens somewhat early into the game, you reach a new land, and when you approach this village, you find out they're being controlled by some weird statues that emanate a dark energy, transforming them into mindless killers.

Feeling bad about them, you attempt to save them by destroying the statues, but sparing the villagers. This means that during this battle you keep playing cat and mouse with the villagers that rush towards your characters, and you need to go around the map while avoiding contact (so you don't kill them with counterattacks) and being persecuted, blocking paths with boxes so they can only reach you by doing the longest route, wishing to get enough time to destroy those evil artifacts before they reach you. Pretty fun stuff.

And that's one example. The game has elevators, buttons that activate things, bridges collapsing, poisonous swamps, rolling rocks that you can use for attacking or creating bottlenecks, dams... And then you get little set pieces, like doing an ambush or a battle on a train. The game has lots of ideas, and is pretty great to see that it can maintain itself fresh, specially seeing how easy can be for SPRGs to fall into a routine and feel a bit tedious. Of course, the game has its fair share of more "normal" battles, but they usually throw something into it.

Yes! I knew going to the other side of the map could be worth my time... I think.

Even more than that, pretty much all the battlefields hold secret items sprinkled here and there. Some are hidden in chests you need to hit to open (thus, sending Archers for them is useless). But others are hidden in specific points, normally pointed out by weird looking cells, like a rock floor with strange cracks, a weird plot of grass, or a suspicious pile of dirt. Reaching to these places can be sometimes harder than the battle itself, but they usually reward you with interesting items, like pieces of equipment (sometimes unique!), magical items to use against your enemies, and sometimes something even more special.

Hidden around Sostegaria there are a number of mystical keys. These mysterious objects somehow are linked to that historical figure that was mentioned at the beginning of the game, Toroah the Messiah. Finding them requires different steps to take, and some are rather obscure, but are a very cool part of Vandal Hearts, and in fact the only side content of the game (but is one that lasts the entire game).

Why, you ask? Well...

Between so many battles, it's nice to relax for a bit. And maybe save, yeah, that's convenient.

From time to time you'll be able to rest for a bit in Cities. In these places, you can do a number of things, like go to the Shop and buy equipment or consumable items for your characters (you can even send them to a Depot and have healing herbs on reserve, for example), go and talk with people on the bars I mentioned way earlier, go to plot related places to advance the story, and lastly, go to the Dojo.

The Dojo is the place you go to promote, but if you go with one of these special keys, the Master of the temple will stop you when trying to leave. Impressed by the fact that you're holding such an important item, he tells you that they can be used to open portals to other planes in which you can have Trials!

Thank goodness most of them don't fly, or they'll get the, oh so powerful high ground before me!

The Trials are special battles that have the goal of defeating all enemies and claiming one mystical object inside a chest. Usually they also have a unique (and one very irritating, probably the guys at old Konami were laughing at us) gimmick, like having each group being at a different side of a mountain, and having to climb in order to fight (and who gets first gets to have height as a bonus), or even a Puzzle-like battle.

In case you end up defeating every foe without getting the important item, you're able to repeat it, and you probably will get a few naughty ideas, but let me shut all them down: No, you get no EXP at all from fighting enemies on those levels. Once you retrieve the object, though, that Trial is finished and can't be entered again (no reason for it, really). Finding all the keys and beating all the Trials it's quite the work and as I said it's a quest that lasts almost the entire the game. To me, having more stuff to do I find good enough, but trust me, the reward is one really cool. I wont spoil it, though.

This one has a fun concept, but can be tricky. Do you feel lucky?

But I guess I should be wrapping this entry up, I've talked for way too long.

Vandal Hearts offers a decently long adventure. My last playthrough took around 32 hours doing everything it can be done at a pretty chill pace (not counting repeating missions when one of my characters died, though), but I can see a new player going beyond that. If you feel like that's not much for a SRPG, seeing how long other games like, I don't know, the Disgaea series can be, let me say one thing: Vandal Hearts is a game without fat. It is a SRPG where you can't grind (and there is no need to), a game that's always moving forward as it throws new things at you.

I've always been of the mentality that two games of the same genre (or sub-genre) can have completely different ideas, intentions and executions. Games like Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea may let you have hours upon hours of grinding and let you make super powerful and customized characters, and that's great fun. On the other side, Vandal Hearts has other ideas, and its obvious that the guys at Konami wanted to make a tight, streamlined game where the actual tactics and careful movements are more important, and I find that's also very entertaining. I don't like comparing games by genres or styles as much as I do comparing games depending on what they want to accomplish.

But anyways, I'm getting sidetracked... Again.

The game also possesses a pretty good camera system, at least for the time. You can rotate and change the height of the camera, giving you a much easier time looking at things; and going to the main menu lets you choose three different levels of Zoom. Basic, but many games lack this.

With the game being long enough to make it pretty hard to beat it on a single sitting, you may want to save. The savefile has a size of 16KB, so it is bigger than your average PS1 game, but you can make three normal save slots, plus a battle save which is fantastic in case you have to stop mid-battle, specially when some fights can get very long.

Hey, Is... Is Konami winking at Taito, or something?

Visually speaking, I quite like the game. While obviously is not using the full strength of the PlayStation, the sprites have some charm and effort put to them. Most entities in the game sport good animations, both during battles and cutscenes. When a member of your party promotes, it gets new clothes and weapons to go along with it, and they change depending on which promotion (and its upgrade) you chose, and they show even on cutscenes. For example, Guardsmen will remove their helmets so you can see their faces.

And yes, this means that the developers actually drawn every single animation frame that all members of your party have with the different costumes they wear (and mind you, even two characters of the same class have wildly different designs of wardrobe). Even more, looking at the sprites inside the game, they even made sprites for moments that you wouldn't probably even see in normal playthroughs, just to cover every situation.

That's dedication, and seeing how often characters get a default look and that's all in other games, I really want to give a thumbs up at VH's developers. Wasn't really needed, but it's a great little thing. Besides the spritework, though, the ambient of the game its also pretty well done, and the different battle maps, while using a chunky design to accommodate the SRPG grid-based gameplay, have some personality too, but that just may be me that have some acquired taste towards it.

The artistic design of the characters is rather uncharacteristic, though. It's not quite any of your usual "anime" looks, and while I personally like it and think it makes the game feel unique, I can understand when others may find it weird, often times pointing how some of the citizens at bars look (some had very bad luck in the gene lottery, I must say), or the long noses of most characters have.

Between each Chapter, you'll get a small video showing off how the story progresses. Sometimes the animations are a bit cheesy, but work pretty well all things considered, and also are narrated.

Oh, and please, don't think the game looks this blurry in reality. I don't have a good way to capture footage of PS1 games. When played on my PS2 with RGB cable, it looked really good and crisp. And now that I mention this, let me give you a small advice: This game looks better with the texture smoothing option turned on when playing on a PS2. It makes the sprites look more consistent with the constant zoom-in and zoom-out. And do not use the faster loading times, they can mess up the sound!

I've heard about hurrying to not lose the train... But to hurry when you're in it? Preposterous!

Sound wise, the game has basic yet effective sound effects (although some are quite recognizable stock audio effects, like the "blocking an attack" sound), specially some of the ones related to physical attacks, they sound brutal.

Now, much more interesting is the soundtrack. Most of the music is made by a group of composers, those being Hiroshi Tamawari, Miki Higashino, Kosuke Soeda, and Masahiro Yamauchi.

The music, without being "the greatest thing ever" works really well with the tone and universe of the game, with a military vibe that permeates through a good chunk of the OST. Cutscenes have a variety of themes like Defiance, Karma, Speculation or Bygone Days that fit well with the events unfolding, while battles have different themes depending on whose turn's is; like Mountains or Military Tactics for your members, and Enemy Turn for whenever your foes move. Cities have a variety of music, some even slightly optimistic, like Capital City Shumeria, Trade City Keriachi or Harbor City .

It's a pretty neat package. My only criticism is that, like with other games in this sub-genre, you may hear certain battle themes for long periods of time and you may get a bit tired of certain ones, but that's more of the concept of the game than the music's fault. For me, in this game the theme is Ruins. Its so slow it makes me feel sleepy.

But I'm forgetting of something, right? Yes, that voice from the game's introduction!

Well, let me introduce you to Jadranka Stojaković:

Jadranka Stojaković was a singer and songwriter well known in Yugoslavia because of her unique voice (and they are right). She went to Eurovision and even sang for the Olympic Games in 1984!

Somehow, Konami managed to get her singing a few pieces for a couple of games, one fortunately being Vandal Hearts.

The little piece for the introduction is sung by her, but she also sings the ending theme of the game, both pieces oddly named "Burning Sorrow". Even more confusing, in the OST there's a bonus track with another short piece with her singing, named with that title too.

She sings in Serbo-Croatian, which is very uncommon for video games. Her voice is spectacular, and at least to me, makes a big part of why I like Vandal Hearts so much. Her singing kind of elevates the game a bit for me, both the intro chant and the full ending song are beautiful.

It's incredibly sad to find that she passed away in 2016. Rest in peace, Jadranka, you were amazing.


You can listen to Vandal Hearts' soundtrack by clicking on DK here.
You can hear the entire song Burning Sorrow here.

...And well, now I truly finish this.

While not being perfect (nothing is, in reality), I find Vandal Hearts to be a highly enjoyable game on several levels, and on a personal level it's also one of the most memorable games on the PS1. Konami would make a sequel some time later, but it's a very different beast. I hope you give it a chance if it sounds like fun!

Also, I hope it wasn't way too long to read.