Vandal Hearts II uses a three-map layout of an overworld map, town map and a battle map. The overworld features a basic map of the country with dots to mark the location of points of interest. Players travel over the overworld map by clicking on the points of interest and moving towards the location they have chosen.
Vandal Hearts is a series of tactical RPGs released. Three games have been released in the series so far, Vandal Hearts, Vandal Hearts II: Heavens Gate and Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgement.Although both Vandal Hearts and its sequel involve the same, the titular 'Vandal Hearts', they are unconnected story wise. Flames of Judgement, meanwhile, is a direct prequel to the first game.The original Vandal Hearts follows the story of Ash Lambert, a soldier in the Republic of Ishtaria, as the government is gradually being corrupted into an empire. It was a fairly standard tactical RPG, with its main differences from the rest of the genre coming in the form of a small amount of interactive scenery; one could kick boulders out of the way, push blocks, and so forth. Characters were restricted to a limited tree of classes based on their initial predetermined classes.
Each side in battle would move all of their characters as part of their turn, then the other side would get a turn. Many missions included goals other than defeating all of the enemies, such as surviving X number of turns, reaching a certain point on the map, or destroying all enemies while preserving at least one villager. The game was originally released for the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation in 1997, and a decade later, plans were made at one point for a Nintendo DS re-release, but those never materialized.Two years later, Vandal Hearts II: Heaven's Gate was released and was a huge, both in terms of plot and gameplay. Featuring a completely different world and an entire new cast of characters, it takes place in the kingdom of Natra, which is in the middle of a that threatens to explode into a full-on. Our hero, Joshua , is a young boy in a small village.
One day, the village takes in a weary traveler named Nicola, who turns out to have grand plans for Natra.Vandal Hearts II expanded on the first game by doing away with the class system (a character's class is determined by their armor and weaponry), adding learnable skills through the weaponry, allowing mission maps to be repeated, and introducing the 'Dual Turn System'. In the Dual Turn System, the player and the computer simultaneously give commands to one character each, and these characters would take their actions at the same time.
This would sometimes require the player to second-guess the computer, as the enemy the player wanted to attack may not be standing in the same place when the attack went off. One aspect of the original that was downplayed in the second game was the variation in mission objectives; while there are a few missions in Vandal Hearts II with a goal other than 'Defeat All Enemies' or 'Defeat the Boss', they are far fewer in number and proportion than in the original game. Unlike the first title, this was a Playstation exclusive. Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment was released in January 2010 as a downloadable title on the. Being a to the first game, it returned to the world of Ishtaria and ditched the Dual Turn system, brought back the first game's varied mission objectives, and introduced a somewhat -like character advancement system, where characters' stats improved automatically based on their actions.
The story follows a young priest named Tobias Martin as he battles a for the fate of his country.This series provides examples of:.: In Vandal Hearts I, the characters briefly discuss whether the archeological evidence they're about to find might give the land's a legitimate claim to the throne. This is never mentioned again.: In Vandal Hearts II, fulfilling will eventually reveal that the world is actually a post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting.: Every game in the series has at least one villain turn semi-sympathetic just before their demise.
Vandal Hearts I's Hel Spites gives a speech about his honest intentions moments before being assassinated. In Vandal Hearts II, finally opens up and shows caring and compassion. Just before her child poisons and stabs her to death for everything she's done up to that point. Meanwhile, her former ally, Cardinal Ladorak, gets in over his head when he accepts Godard's help in furthering his agenda, and is burned to death when Godard learns that he saved Nicola and has been supporting him from the very beginning. Flames of Judgment's Daldren Gray is a bit more sympathetic all around, but especially in his last words: 'Have mercy on my little girl.' .: Many of the character and setting details in Flames of Judgment are only mentioned in the in-game journal.: The AI is ruthless, deliberately playing to the and using the terrain well to surround your characters and strike at their backs whenever possible. The player has to be very careful about how everyone is positioned at the end of their turn, otherwise the enemies will gang up on the most exposed member and take him or her out.
However.:. Occasionally, the tendency of the AI to work the type advantages works against it. Enemy archers — including boss characters — will occasionally walk right up next to your tanks and swordsmen so they can hit one of your fliers, and enemy mages will occasionally move closer to your front lines to target a specific unit, when it would be smarter to retreat to relative safety and pick a different target.
The AI in Vandal Hearts II is completely deterministic - for example, it will always try to move behind one of your units, and will choose which unit to move behind in an order that, once figured out, it will never deviate from. Couple this with the fact that you move one unit and the enemy moves one unit, and you can move the unit to be attacked either out of the way, or even have that unit move behind where the enemy will be and attack them, while staying completely unharmed themselves. It is possible to win maps with not only every one of your units intact, but not even damaged.:.
Kira becomes this on defecting back to you in Vandal Hearts. Queen Agatha is planning to become this near the end of Vandal Hearts II, but her daughter and son-in-law team up to assassinate her just as she starts to explain herself. Liana Talbot in Flames of Judgment, who was an assistant before becoming a childrens' teacher at a religious charity. If you read all the it's even implied that she helped kill Tobias' mother.: Most of the villains by the end of Vandal Hearts II; Shance Aya in Flames of Judgment.: Zohar Abu freaking Sa'id. An ancient, legendary sorcerer. His long black robes are really cool. Plus, while all the characters have a strange squatting animation while idle.
Zohar just stands there, hand in pocket, with his white hair flapping in the breeze.: Sebastian in Flames of Judgment.: When Clint, Eleni, Amon, and Darius bust out of prison only to find themselves trapped in some tiny stretch of sand where archers can wreak merry hell on them, Ash and co. Turn up to storm the impenetrable prison and save the day. (It's okay, the prisoners were political dissidents that supported the good guys' rebellion.).:. The Crimson Guards from the first game are brutal 'law enforcers' who merciless kills anyone who gets in their way. 'Blood Knight' Jacob from the sequel. The game even begins with him and his soldiers burning a town to the ground and killing its inhabitants.: In VH2, Nicola is betrayed and backstabbed by his own generals.: The key/prism levels in the first game. To a lesser extent, the various hidden maps in Vandal Hearts II and Flames of Judgment.: Numerous characters in Vandal Hearts II are mindwiped into killing machines by Godard, including Adele's grandfather Lord Kossimo, Ladorak's three operatives Jacob, Jamir, and Manon, and Friar Mahler.
Their character portraits include completely vacant eyes to represent their brainwashing.: Flames of Judgment includes references to Grog's fetch quest, Huxley's ending, and several characters' last names from Vandal Hearts I.: In an early scene, Kane declares he likes another character because, 'You're almost as evil as I!' .: A certain level in Vandal Hearts I is packed with mimics, mixed in with occasionally-legitimate chests, one containing a unique, very powerful helmet that won't be outdone for a few chapters.: Vandal Hearts II had HP and MP determined by the characters' armor. Used to a smaller extent in Flames of Judgment.:.
One of the few genre staples missing from Vandal Hearts. The nearest we got to mention of religion is the 'Holy Ashah Dynasty' from the ancient past and that Huxley and Sara can become Bishops and Archbishops. Played straight in Vandal Hearts II. The Church State of Nirvadia is supporting the eastern faction in the fight for control of Natra; Cardinal Ladorak has been promised the papacy if he succeeds in uniting Natra with Nirvadia. The church itself unwittingly worships a as their patron saint.: Two from Vandal Hearts II. St.
Nirvath saved the world from a plague. By.
Godard is the of the Kudur Cult, who, by dint of being a cult, are bad.: Kane Spites trades his soul in order to exact revenge on Ash, transforming into a bloodthirsty monster.: Kira Wulfstan in Vandal Hearts I.: In the final act of Vandal Hearts II, Godard takes over the body of, and reveals that he has been jumping from body to body for a century and a half.: Mohosa in Vandal Hearts II. Pool of radiance. He is captivated by Yuri's good looks, and is implied to have been regularly sexually molesting the catatonic King Franz for years when Joshua and co. Arrive.:. Clive Beckett in Vandal Hearts I is mortally wounded, gives a, and appears to expire (complete with ), but a line of dialogue afterwards reads, 'We may yet save him!' And a later line says, ' Clive's going to be okay!'
Kira:Ash: What bravery!Enemy Bat:.:. Vandal Hearts I has you escort Leena, Eleni's past self, around a narrow stone path that can be raised or dropped into the sea at will so she can open an ancient shrine which is protected by the same ancient guardians who later serve the. Almost makes sense in context. Flames of Judgment has you protecting Connor during his, and later protecting King Everett (twice).
Thankfully, the former is a capable fighter, and the latter's usually pretty smart about letting you protect him.: Kane is a who likes people who's just as evil as he is. However, even he loves his father and wholeheartedly support his quest for peace through dominance, even if he's a little bloodthirsty about it. He even ruined a perfectly set ambush when he heard that his father just died.: Vandal Hearts II features several. Yuri casts his lot in with Godard upon discovering that the religious tradition in which he was raised is based around worship of a mass murderer. This is later if you have the to explain the reason for St. Nirvath's actions.
If Joshua tries to make excuses instead of amends for his perceived role in Kossimo's death when he encounters Adele in Chapter 3, she will swear revenge against him in their rooftop conversation in Chapter 4, even if both Yuri and Clive are still alive. Mages are weak but wise, armour is strong but slow and monks use word and claw.: Comes up often in Vandal Hearts I and II, where characters frequently have long conversations in the middle of battle.
Mostly averted in Flames of Judgment.: Most of the adult men in Flames of Judgment were killed in a war sixteen years before the game begins; thus, most of the characters are either very young, very old, female, or the scarred, middle-aged veterans of the war.: In Vandal Hearts II, Ladorak and Agatha each have a group of three enforcers.
Developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo Co., Ltd. Released Mar 27, 1997 Also For SEGA Saturn, Windows Published by Konami of America, Inc.
Vandal Hearts is a turn-based strategy RPG. It follows a fixed plot-line with set battles, focusing more on strategic elements than adventure elements. The combat takes place in a series of 3D grid based maps and each character in the party has a certain amount of movements they can perform each turn. As the game progresses, other characters join and leave the party and as they increase in level they can progress along different paths of development. Between each battle there is a cut scene that develops the plot using the same 3D engine as the combat (and often the same areas). In between battles you have the opportunity to talk to people in cities as well as purchase different equipment for the up coming battles.