So happy to finally have gotten this video out! Absolutely adored this game and I'm so happy to be able to share my thoughts with all of you finally! Hope ya dig it and I would absolutely love to hear any thoughts ya'll have! Thank you again for the support and happy holidays!!! Patreon: www.patreon.com/TransWitchReviews Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/transwitchreviews Chapters: 0:00 INTRO 3:58 EMULATION ISSUES 6:52 PENNY BLOOD 8:33 WARTIME VIBES 10:58 THE JUDGEMENT RING PERFECTED 16:03 DUDE, WHERE'S THE MAP 18:57 BANGER BASS 54:56 FINDING A REASON 57:20 WATCH THE TONE MF 1:02:53 GODSLAYER GANG 1:16:18 THIS GAME A LIL FRUITY 1:22:25 THE MAN FESTIVAL (CONTENT WARNING ADVISED) 1:28:16 YURI OF WIND 1:44:03 BAD BROKEN PEOPLE 2:08:47 KARIN 2:19:09 WHAT IS YOUR HAPPINESS? 2:31:13 CONCLUSION 2:33:37 OUTRO
Thank you so much for making this video and even talking about Penny Blood! I might try to reach out to you to possibly cover its recent developments. Much love to any Shadow Hearts fan!!
I wish these games would receive a port/remaster or a remake, but to be honest I don't think it'll never come as the publisher "Universal Interactive" (Not the film studio) will be interested renew the IP due to poor sales and it's obscurity and why it's difficult to find and emulate it. Shadow Hearts and Koudelka deserves way more in the conservation of underrated gems in video games.
Everyone out here appreciating this masterfully made video while im losing it over the Chapter 8 title XD. Seriously though, this must have taken a ton of time and effort to make and i probably wouldn't have known about this game otherwise, good job!
I don't know if anyone's mentioned this, but the fmv audio issue is a problem with the game itself. I had that issue playing an actual copy of the game on an actual PS2. Only happened on disc 2 for me though and i also fixed it by changing the audio to stereo
What an amazing video for an amazing game. I played Covenant without even playing the first game at all and it still instantly shot up into my all time favorites. It’s one of those games where even despite its few shortcomings, I wouldn’t hesitate to call it a masterpiece because it just does everything else so right. On the surface it’s a really bizarre game, which seems like it shouldn’t work at all. A JRPG, mixed with a WWI setting, mixed with light horror, mixed with comedy. But it all comes together perfectly, and it still managed to nearly make me cry, and Yuri ends up as one of the most well developed/relatable characters in gaming. I can’t thank you enough for this video, seeing people still talk about this game always brings me joy and gives me hope that maybe it’ll be remastered at some point. Keep up the great work, and merry Christmas.
Yeah same! Like on a few levels in concept you wouldn't think all of it would mesh and meld so well together but then it just does! It all works and blends so well together! Yuri's development is absolutely one of my favorites in JRPG's and games in general. No problem! Happy holidays and I'll always hold out for the hope that all of these games can be remastered one day. But for now I'm just happy that we're getting Penny Blood honestly.
Whenever I think about this game, I always think of a certain quote from Karin that stuck with me: “Everyone wants the same thing. To be just a little happier than they are now.” I feel like it perfectly encapsulates the whole theme of the game.
Same. I feel that honestly sums up the game and its whole point perfectly. That and the multiple talks between Yuri and Kato perfectly nail a lot of that home for me.
@@TransWitchReviews well you mentioned kuuga, but that song was more the older style of riders meaning rx and before than the modern one as in Kuuga and after, haha
@@TransWitchReviews for sure! I appreciate you covering some underrated stuff in such detail. Glad to hear you have a patreon, happy to help you out. Great content!
You did it. You did it and it made sense and I finally feel like someone else sees what I see in this series. Its what you keep saying "It hits in my core"
Thank you! I'm glad I got across what this series makes me feel! I really do my best to convey myself properly all the time but I worry sometimes if I'm getting the feelings across well enough. So thank ya!
It would have been kind of neat if there was a New Game+ mode that added Alice into the story and messed with it that way. To truly canonize both endings from the previous game. Would it invalidate the plot and open so many worm cans? Absolutely. But I can appreciate that kind of chaos. I love intra-diegetic reasons for game functions.
I hated that aspect of the ending, it seemed like a twist simply for the sake of a twist. And given Alice's character and party role in the previous game, it totally "damsels" a fierce warrior woman, how does she forget how to wield a sword and fire a gun? How does her _personal element_ change?!
One of my favorite details about Covenant as a sequel is its characterization of Yuri through its description of his fusions plus their design itself, in the first game they looked a lot more animalistic and violent but in this game while some early game fusions feel kind of generic as a whole they have either a more human or just entirely animal and at peace with it vibe to them, in the first game fire fusion represented rage with nowhere to go while in this game they're more like a passion to protect something and so on, it's just a really interesting and subtle way to give a character even more Yuri's design also really rocks in this game, he used to cover himself with his coat but now he literally looks more open, and the cross on the back still reminding he's got some issues to work through and sometimes it feels like he's trying a little too hard and ends up shouldering more than he can alone Apparently in an early version of the story he was going to be the antagonist with Nicolai as protagonist, I think it's cool how they probably kept some ideas from that version in the final version
@TransWitchReviews Oh btw, there is a piece of text in the game that explicitly states that Joachim is gay. If you choose him to get tortured by Veronica, one of his dialogue options is telling her that he's gay. It's admittedly easy to miss, but the fact that its even explicitly stated out right for a 2004 game is astonishing for the time. lol I love this fucking game .
Karin’s twist was basically already shouted out by the time yuri’s aunt and her had that conversation in the waterfall, the way you can look at it as she wishes she can love him and spend the rest of her life with him, while every character got to go to where they want, non of them made any actual changes to disrupt the world state, annastasia was said to be missing and conspiracy theory say she was alive, so her ending kinda went with that conspiracy theory, Blanca’s little girl was a chin princess and she was only executed after she was well into her adulthood and went to spy on China for Japan, by that time Blanca would have died from natural age The song’s title you mistranslating it a little, it meant moon loving flower, is basically telling you what Karin’s reason was and why she made that choice, even when the moon can’t possibly be together with the flower as it is high up in the sky, and it isn’t what the flower needs, aka the sun, she would still watch over him (the flower) in his time in the darkness and keep him company even though she isn’t the light of his world and not the one he truly wants, that damn songs still haunts me from time to time
Yeah, in retrospect I really should've covered the ending songs lyrics in more explicit detail given how it basically screams at you what Karin's entire deal especially in the ending was. I'm learning as I go along with these though and thank ya for pointing that fact out! Yeah in retrospect too I think what threw me off is exactly how the ending wishes exactly worked? I do like how some of them, like Anastasia's, plays into the history of the people they're based on a lot though.
@@TransWitchReviews think of it more this way, they went to a part of the world/time that they would like to live in the most, because the whole point of fighting kato was so that the world isn’t destroyed and remade, so basically the world stays the same, except they got to go to somewhere and sometime of their choosing where they will be happy, or think they will be happy, according to heir wishes, So if karin’s wish is somewhere along the line of, I wish to be able to love yuri and stay with him and care for him for the rest of my life…. Bang
Y'know I was gonna wait til later to comment because the video is still going and it's 00:18am here but the Karin chapter is just gold, seriously, it's everything I was expecting and more lol
Can I just say I fucking love the fact that whenever you speak about a game's music you play a sample of it that is actually long enough for me to be able to soak it in. It bugs me so bad when creators talk about banging soundtracks but don't play enough of it for it to mean anything to me.
Wow theres nothing quite like experiencing genuine, heartfelt emotion from a CGI cutscene only to burst into laughter when a jank facial animation ruins the mood. I love it sm and wouldnt trade it for the world tbfh (and I'm talking about the Alice revival attempt, Yuri's mouth does some Weird Stretching when he starts crying)
Side note, Blanca’s new little girl and the old man who adapted her in Japan actually had a lot of dark shit, it was said she only went to spy on China for Japan because her adapted father, that old man, was sleeping with her..... take that however you will
So, Joaquim is the actual best? His flamboyentness makes me infectiously happy? Also, hell yeah, Kuuga shoutouts and blatant IchijouXGodai shipping, 10/10. These videos have definitely added these games to my "To Play" list, even if it takes a while.
Hell yeah gotta spread the good word of IchijouXGodai!!! Happy to hear that these have convinced you to give these games a chance! Hope ya dig them whenever ya end up getting around to them :D
Hey, another excellent and fabulously put together analysis! For what it loses in the overt horror, it improves on SH1 on so many other levels - a really enjoyable and thoughtful watch! One minor thing (which is super easy to miss given the way it plays) is that Joachim does actually explicitly say he's gay - but only if he's selected in that torture mini-game...so yeah, yay for representation, boo for...well, the other stuff this game handles in that department. The fact that on your reviews you cover the soundtrack is fantastic, because it's a pivitol part of the feeling of the game IMO, although I fully agree that some of the reused tracks do make things repetitive. The devs actually share your thoughts about Kurando! They made him to be a very dull "good nice boy" as a foil to Yuri - which is also why they made them related. But in agreement with you that a big chunk of the characters are lacking, storywise. Also fully agree with your take on the whole deal with Karin. The art book actually lists the devs interpretation of the endings (what they planned, and what they think the characters would be doing, although they leave things up to the player's personal interpretation)...and the whole Karin thing still comes across as a bad decsion. One thing they apprently were debating over was the ending for Kurando and Anastasia - the plan was originally to have them appear in 1990 in Moscow celebrating the fall of the Soviet Union...but they thought that may have been undermined by the whole murdered family thing, so they made it more ambiguous and had them standing at Lake Baikal at an ambiguous time frame. The whole Anastasia surviving thing is a direct play on the whole "Oh one of the Romanov Princesses escaped" stories that emerged. And yeah, for Yuri both endings are equally valid in the eyes of the devs (and indeed for the players - though they do hint at the SH1 Bad -> SH:C Good -> SH1 Good, but it is up to the player's own readings of those scenes). Excited to see what you think about From the New World - hesitant to say stuff as I don't want to colour your opinion going in, but I will say that the desire to make these games more light-hearted as they went along and lose some of the horror was a direct push from the higher-ups to try and broaden the market appeal. Milage may vary on that. The devs have said felt it was not the right direction, but they weren't the ones calling those shots. Be curious what you make of the From the NW battle system, as some of its features look like they're set to appear in Penny Blood, going by the preview anyway. Anyway, excellent stuff, and look forward to your future videos (also thanks for the shout out to the wikia! Glad we can be of use to you!) On that note, if you want any of the info from the art book for any insight, let me know and I'll set up a linkable document (probably not best to read it until after your playthrough though if you wish to remain unspoiled). Keep up the cool stuff!
Thank you so much! Really wanted to do my best with this one given the length and I'm super happy people are enjoying it so that seriously means a lot! I knew I should've gone through the torture minigame a few times just to see the differences. I was super curious about Joachim's specifically because of that and how his would be handled but that's actually really rad to know! Sound is super vital to me with any work and I feel like music especially isn't always talked about and shown in ways that I've always wanted to see so I'm happy that ya dig my music sections :D Yeah I can definitely get the whole comedy routine straight man contrast and I do dig that as an idea, there's a few scenes that I think shine though I wish it was utilized a little more throughout the game. I'll have to read that myself honestly. I like it left up to interpretation cause that's just rad but I am curious about what the devs think about it too. Karin's is just such a crazy misstep and I can't believe that's what they ended up going with for her lmao. That's actually a really rad way of getting around a lot of that. Leaves it far more vague and ambigious as to when exactly they've sent themselves too, if they choose to do anything or not, if she just got away. That's super rad. I'm excited to see how I feel about From the New World. It does make sense that one is the more "broad appeal" game as far as what the execs wanted them to do with it. I'm still curious to see how it pays off, how it carries the vibes regardless, etc. I'm definitely curious to see what exactly carries into Penny Blood in general and if its already taking cues from FtNW that's a pretty great sign! Thank you so much and no problem! I check the wiki a ton to verify info and everything and I feel like its only right to shout ya'll out for the work that ya put in over there! It's very very much appreciated! I absolutely would love access to that art book in some fashion if possible though yeah I probably won't look at it until I finish From the New World and start working on the video for that. Thank you I definitely will do my best :D
I absolutely will at some point! I'm most interested in covering the Raidou games, the DDS duology, SMT4 and 4A, Strange Journey, Devil Survivor 1 & 2 and Soul Hackers!
The only problem with the good ending is, if that is actually real life, then Yuri doesn’t save Karin and Karin is canonically his mother, it wasn’t just an ending drop, it was implied by many people during the game yuri’s aunt downright knew and gave her that photo, so if Karin dies in the church, yuri wont be born, so time paradox, so if the good ending is canon, it can only exists in yuri’s dream
I honestly never thought about it that way. It would majorly depend on if Alice and Yuri would even be in the area or if there would be a shift in the timeline cause of that. Personally I like that it's left far more to interpretation as to what happens once he goes back in the good ending. Like I wonder if it makes the entire game a potential bizarre dream or premonition or something.
@@TransWitchReviews the thing is if Alice doesn’t die, Karin would never have traveled with yuri and thus never developed feelings for him and has a chance to make a wish to go back, judging from the shadow hearts series including koudelka, most likely the “bad” ending is the canon one, add on the fact the good ending would break timeline it was probably not going to happen, unless it’s just in yuri’s mind/ dream
@@KageNoTenshi True, it could also be what his possible after life gets to be or something like that too. Where it's not possible within his own reality but he gets to live in a world where Alice gets to live but it has no real bearing on anything that has happened outside of that maybe? I do dig this as what it could be though. My guess is if they got to continue the series they probably would've found a way to make that canon or maybe even both would've just been canon or something. Love the way the series handles its bad endings.
Thx a lot for your amazing videos, I love koudelka and shadow hearts, sadly the quality of the story decreased with wich new game Koudelka - 10/10 SH - 9/10 SH2 - 7,5 SH3 - 5 (at best) Let's not forget "the mother couldn't bang her son, so she banged his father" is a plot in covenant 💀
Aw hell yeah, another banger video! Yuri's duology holds a special place in my heart, but From The New World was actually the game that got me into the series so I'm really curious how that one is going to go. It is very much its own thing and I think people wanted more Yuri, hence the disappointment among fans. Even on its own though, the story of FTNW is kind of all over the place, but in what other game do you break Al Capone out of prison alongside a talking kung-fu cat? I read that setup in Game Informer some 16 years ago and was like "what the fuck, I need to play this."
Yeah, FTNW is definitely one of those games that has always fascinated me quite honestly. It was my first exposure to the series too and I'm legit curious to see how I'll feel about it given everything I know/have heard about it. But we shall definitely see!
I’m late to this party but here’s my take on Karin’s wish. I don’t think she wished to be Yuri’s mother. If you remember tidbits from the first Shadows Hearts and Covenant it’s said a few times that Yuri looks EXACTLY like his father. They even give you info stating that Yuri said his mother named him after her first love. I think she wanted to be with Yuri but understood he still loved Alice. So the wish was granted differently. Instead of being with Yuri she got Yuri’s dad who’s a exact replica of Yuri(of course we know Yuri is the replica here but you get what I’m saying). So in way she got her wish fulfilled.
It's sorta coming back in a way with Penny Blood at least! Not in the way of it directly being the franchise itself but nice to see the same team trying to make something in the spirit of it again!
Evil gate opener2 reminds me of the band Apocaliptica. I only played covenant and the story slaied hard . it is funny, dramatic and kick ass. I sadly dont own my copy any mor but love to listne to the play full through from time to time. I wished that in future a remake for ps 5 or a classic release would apear. then I´d try to compleately filling the soule gage from Yuri´s neckles couse i always wonderd what would happon.
@@Videodragon64 Yeah exactly! Just feels a lot less repetitive to listen to especially with how frequent the encounters are even if standalone the music itself is like good imo.
So happy to finally have gotten this video out! Absolutely adored this game and I'm so happy to be able to share my thoughts with all of you finally! Hope ya dig it and I would absolutely love to hear any thoughts ya'll have! Thank you again for the support and happy holidays!!!
Patreon: www.patreon.com/TransWitchReviews
Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/transwitchreviews
Chapters:
0:00 INTRO
3:58 EMULATION ISSUES
6:52 PENNY BLOOD
8:33 WARTIME VIBES
10:58 THE JUDGEMENT RING PERFECTED
16:03 DUDE, WHERE'S THE MAP
18:57 BANGER BASS
54:56 FINDING A REASON
57:20 WATCH THE TONE MF
1:02:53 GODSLAYER GANG
1:16:18 THIS GAME A LIL FRUITY
1:22:25 THE MAN FESTIVAL (CONTENT WARNING ADVISED)
1:28:16 YURI OF WIND
1:44:03 BAD BROKEN PEOPLE
2:08:47 KARIN
2:19:09 WHAT IS YOUR HAPPINESS?
2:31:13 CONCLUSION
2:33:37 OUTRO
Is this recorded on an emulator or a copy running of the resolution of a older tv like all of your videos?
@@blinxman4956 emulator!
Thank you so much for making this video and even talking about Penny Blood! I might try to reach out to you to possibly cover its recent developments. Much love to any Shadow Hearts fan!!
For sure! Thank you :D
Yeah most definitely! Best place to reach me is on Twitter @TransWitchSammy :)
I wish these games would receive a port/remaster or a remake, but to be honest I don't think it'll never come as the publisher "Universal Interactive" (Not the film studio) will be interested renew the IP due to poor sales and it's obscurity and why it's difficult to find and emulate it.
Shadow Hearts and Koudelka deserves way more in the conservation of underrated gems in video games.
Everyone out here appreciating this masterfully made video while im losing it over the Chapter 8 title XD. Seriously though, this must have taken a ton of time and effort to make and i probably wouldn't have known about this game otherwise, good job!
Thank ya so much! I defo do my best on these and always hope that people dig what I'm doing! Glad I could expose more people to this wonderful game!
I don't know if anyone's mentioned this, but the fmv audio issue is a problem with the game itself. I had that issue playing an actual copy of the game on an actual PS2. Only happened on disc 2 for me though and i also fixed it by changing the audio to stereo
Same thing in emulation lol, was playing on aethersx2 on my s24, thought it was a bad rom
What an amazing video for an amazing game. I played Covenant without even playing the first game at all and it still instantly shot up into my all time favorites. It’s one of those games where even despite its few shortcomings, I wouldn’t hesitate to call it a masterpiece because it just does everything else so right. On the surface it’s a really bizarre game, which seems like it shouldn’t work at all. A JRPG, mixed with a WWI setting, mixed with light horror, mixed with comedy. But it all comes together perfectly, and it still managed to nearly make me cry, and Yuri ends up as one of the most well developed/relatable characters in gaming.
I can’t thank you enough for this video, seeing people still talk about this game always brings me joy and gives me hope that maybe it’ll be remastered at some point. Keep up the great work, and merry Christmas.
Yeah same! Like on a few levels in concept you wouldn't think all of it would mesh and meld so well together but then it just does! It all works and blends so well together! Yuri's development is absolutely one of my favorites in JRPG's and games in general.
No problem! Happy holidays and I'll always hold out for the hope that all of these games can be remastered one day. But for now I'm just happy that we're getting Penny Blood honestly.
Whenever I think about this game, I always think of a certain quote from Karin that stuck with me:
“Everyone wants the same thing. To be just a little happier than they are now.”
I feel like it perfectly encapsulates the whole theme of the game.
Same. I feel that honestly sums up the game and its whole point perfectly. That and the multiple talks between Yuri and Kato perfectly nail a lot of that home for me.
The fact that you recognized karmen rider from that song, well done
I'm always on the lookout for Rider references lmaoooo
@@TransWitchReviews well you mentioned kuuga, but that song was more the older style of riders meaning rx and before than the modern one as in Kuuga and after, haha
So happy to see that you liked this, SH2 was one of my absolute faves as a kid
Yeah I'm stoked that I adored it more than I thought I would. Genuine banger!
@@TransWitchReviews for sure! I appreciate you covering some underrated stuff in such detail. Glad to hear you have a patreon, happy to help you out. Great content!
The lyrics used in Astaroth... It's the same as "Bunga Seroja".
Some of the tracks you highlighted were giving me a Gackt-fronted Malice Mizer/just solo Gackt and I'm here for that.
You did it. You did it and it made sense and I finally feel like someone else sees what I see in this series. Its what you keep saying "It hits in my core"
Thank you! I'm glad I got across what this series makes me feel! I really do my best to convey myself properly all the time but I worry sometimes if I'm getting the feelings across well enough. So thank ya!
It would have been kind of neat if there was a New Game+ mode that added Alice into the story and messed with it that way. To truly canonize both endings from the previous game. Would it invalidate the plot and open so many worm cans? Absolutely. But I can appreciate that kind of chaos. I love intra-diegetic reasons for game functions.
I hated that aspect of the ending, it seemed like a twist simply for the sake of a twist. And given Alice's character and party role in the previous game, it totally "damsels" a fierce warrior woman, how does she forget how to wield a sword and fire a gun? How does her _personal element_ change?!
Seeing a proper in-depth review of this game is amazing! Love this game and love your review of it too!
Thank you so much! Glad I could give this the proper in-depth look it deserves!
I only grow happier when this CORNERSTONE of my childhood gains more of the recognition it always deserved.
One of my favorite details about Covenant as a sequel is its characterization of Yuri through its description of his fusions plus their design itself, in the first game they looked a lot more animalistic and violent but in this game while some early game fusions feel kind of generic as a whole they have either a more human or just entirely animal and at peace with it vibe to them, in the first game fire fusion represented rage with nowhere to go while in this game they're more like a passion to protect something and so on, it's just a really interesting and subtle way to give a character even more
Yuri's design also really rocks in this game, he used to cover himself with his coat but now he literally looks more open, and the cross on the back still reminding he's got some issues to work through and sometimes it feels like he's trying a little too hard and ends up shouldering more than he can alone
Apparently in an early version of the story he was going to be the antagonist with Nicolai as protagonist, I think it's cool how they probably kept some ideas from that version in the final version
@TransWitchReviews
Oh btw, there is a piece of text in the game that explicitly states that Joachim is gay. If you choose him to get tortured by Veronica, one of his dialogue options is telling her that he's gay. It's admittedly easy to miss, but the fact that its even explicitly stated out right for a 2004 game is astonishing for the time. lol I love this fucking game .
Karin’s twist was basically already shouted out by the time yuri’s aunt and her had that conversation in the waterfall, the way you can look at it as she wishes she can love him and spend the rest of her life with him, while every character got to go to where they want, non of them made any actual changes to disrupt the world state, annastasia was said to be missing and conspiracy theory say she was alive, so her ending kinda went with that conspiracy theory, Blanca’s little girl was a chin princess and she was only executed after she was well into her adulthood and went to spy on China for Japan, by that time Blanca would have died from natural age
The song’s title you mistranslating it a little, it meant moon loving flower, is basically telling you what Karin’s reason was and why she made that choice, even when the moon can’t possibly be together with the flower as it is high up in the sky, and it isn’t what the flower needs, aka the sun, she would still watch over him (the flower) in his time in the darkness and keep him company even though she isn’t the light of his world and not the one he truly wants, that damn songs still haunts me from time to time
Yeah, in retrospect I really should've covered the ending songs lyrics in more explicit detail given how it basically screams at you what Karin's entire deal especially in the ending was. I'm learning as I go along with these though and thank ya for pointing that fact out!
Yeah in retrospect too I think what threw me off is exactly how the ending wishes exactly worked? I do like how some of them, like Anastasia's, plays into the history of the people they're based on a lot though.
@@TransWitchReviews think of it more this way, they went to a part of the world/time that they would like to live in the most, because the whole point of fighting kato was so that the world isn’t destroyed and remade, so basically the world stays the same, except they got to go to somewhere and sometime of their choosing where they will be happy, or think they will be happy, according to heir wishes,
So if karin’s wish is somewhere along the line of, I wish to be able to love yuri and stay with him and care for him for the rest of my life…. Bang
Y'know I was gonna wait til later to comment because the video is still going and it's 00:18am here but the Karin chapter is just gold, seriously, it's everything I was expecting and more lol
Yeah I'm defo happy with how that entire bit turned out in the end! I did not see anything with her coming at all so it hit me like a train!
Can I just say I fucking love the fact that whenever you speak about a game's music you play a sample of it that is actually long enough for me to be able to soak it in. It bugs me so bad when creators talk about banging soundtracks but don't play enough of it for it to mean anything to me.
Wow theres nothing quite like experiencing genuine, heartfelt emotion from a CGI cutscene only to burst into laughter when a jank facial animation ruins the mood. I love it sm and wouldnt trade it for the world tbfh (and I'm talking about the Alice revival attempt, Yuri's mouth does some Weird Stretching when he starts crying)
Side note, Blanca’s new little girl and the old man who adapted her in Japan actually had a lot of dark shit, it was said she only went to spy on China for Japan because her adapted father, that old man, was sleeping with her..... take that however you will
So, Joaquim is the actual best? His flamboyentness makes me infectiously happy? Also, hell yeah, Kuuga shoutouts and blatant IchijouXGodai shipping, 10/10. These videos have definitely added these games to my "To Play" list, even if it takes a while.
Hell yeah gotta spread the good word of IchijouXGodai!!! Happy to hear that these have convinced you to give these games a chance! Hope ya dig them whenever ya end up getting around to them :D
Hey, another excellent and fabulously put together analysis!
For what it loses in the overt horror, it improves on SH1 on so many other levels - a really enjoyable and thoughtful watch!
One minor thing (which is super easy to miss given the way it plays) is that Joachim does actually explicitly say he's gay - but only if he's selected in that torture mini-game...so yeah, yay for representation, boo for...well, the other stuff this game handles in that department.
The fact that on your reviews you cover the soundtrack is fantastic, because it's a pivitol part of the feeling of the game IMO, although I fully agree that some of the reused tracks do make things repetitive.
The devs actually share your thoughts about Kurando! They made him to be a very dull "good nice boy" as a foil to Yuri - which is also why they made them related. But in agreement with you that a big chunk of the characters are lacking, storywise.
Also fully agree with your take on the whole deal with Karin. The art book actually lists the devs interpretation of the endings (what they planned, and what they think the characters would be doing, although they leave things up to the player's personal interpretation)...and the whole Karin thing still comes across as a bad decsion.
One thing they apprently were debating over was the ending for Kurando and Anastasia - the plan was originally to have them appear in 1990 in Moscow celebrating the fall of the Soviet Union...but they thought that may have been undermined by the whole murdered family thing, so they made it more ambiguous and had them standing at Lake Baikal at an ambiguous time frame. The whole Anastasia surviving thing is a direct play on the whole "Oh one of the Romanov Princesses escaped" stories that emerged.
And yeah, for Yuri both endings are equally valid in the eyes of the devs (and indeed for the players - though they do hint at the SH1 Bad -> SH:C Good -> SH1 Good, but it is up to the player's own readings of those scenes).
Excited to see what you think about From the New World - hesitant to say stuff as I don't want to colour your opinion going in, but I will say that the desire to make these games more light-hearted as they went along and lose some of the horror was a direct push from the higher-ups to try and broaden the market appeal. Milage may vary on that. The devs have said felt it was not the right direction, but they weren't the ones calling those shots.
Be curious what you make of the From the NW battle system, as some of its features look like they're set to appear in Penny Blood, going by the preview anyway.
Anyway, excellent stuff, and look forward to your future videos (also thanks for the shout out to the wikia! Glad we can be of use to you!) On that note, if you want any of the info from the art book for any insight, let me know and I'll set up a linkable document (probably not best to read it until after your playthrough though if you wish to remain unspoiled).
Keep up the cool stuff!
Thank you so much! Really wanted to do my best with this one given the length and I'm super happy people are enjoying it so that seriously means a lot!
I knew I should've gone through the torture minigame a few times just to see the differences. I was super curious about Joachim's specifically because of that and how his would be handled but that's actually really rad to know!
Sound is super vital to me with any work and I feel like music especially isn't always talked about and shown in ways that I've always wanted to see so I'm happy that ya dig my music sections :D
Yeah I can definitely get the whole comedy routine straight man contrast and I do dig that as an idea, there's a few scenes that I think shine though I wish it was utilized a little more throughout the game.
I'll have to read that myself honestly. I like it left up to interpretation cause that's just rad but I am curious about what the devs think about it too. Karin's is just such a crazy misstep and I can't believe that's what they ended up going with for her lmao.
That's actually a really rad way of getting around a lot of that. Leaves it far more vague and ambigious as to when exactly they've sent themselves too, if they choose to do anything or not, if she just got away. That's super rad.
I'm excited to see how I feel about From the New World. It does make sense that one is the more "broad appeal" game as far as what the execs wanted them to do with it. I'm still curious to see how it pays off, how it carries the vibes regardless, etc. I'm definitely curious to see what exactly carries into Penny Blood in general and if its already taking cues from FtNW that's a pretty great sign!
Thank you so much and no problem! I check the wiki a ton to verify info and everything and I feel like its only right to shout ya'll out for the work that ya put in over there! It's very very much appreciated! I absolutely would love access to that art book in some fashion if possible though yeah I probably won't look at it until I finish From the New World and start working on the video for that.
Thank you I definitely will do my best :D
I wish Shadow Hearts would have continued with the true third entry exploring's Yuris father backstory.
Never played this game.. very interesting. Might have to search it out.
It would be cool if Sammy reviewed some Shin Megami Tensei games
I absolutely will at some point! I'm most interested in covering the Raidou games, the DDS duology, SMT4 and 4A, Strange Journey, Devil Survivor 1 & 2 and Soul Hackers!
Omg i forgot about this game! I loved it so much!!!!
The only problem with the good ending is, if that is actually real life, then Yuri doesn’t save Karin and Karin is canonically his mother, it wasn’t just an ending drop, it was implied by many people during the game yuri’s aunt downright knew and gave her that photo, so if Karin dies in the church, yuri wont be born, so time paradox, so if the good ending is canon, it can only exists in yuri’s dream
I honestly never thought about it that way. It would majorly depend on if Alice and Yuri would even be in the area or if there would be a shift in the timeline cause of that. Personally I like that it's left far more to interpretation as to what happens once he goes back in the good ending. Like I wonder if it makes the entire game a potential bizarre dream or premonition or something.
@@TransWitchReviews the thing is if Alice doesn’t die, Karin would never have traveled with yuri and thus never developed feelings for him and has a chance to make a wish to go back, judging from the shadow hearts series including koudelka, most likely the “bad” ending is the canon one, add on the fact the good ending would break timeline it was probably not going to happen, unless it’s just in yuri’s mind/ dream
@@KageNoTenshi True, it could also be what his possible after life gets to be or something like that too. Where it's not possible within his own reality but he gets to live in a world where Alice gets to live but it has no real bearing on anything that has happened outside of that maybe? I do dig this as what it could be though. My guess is if they got to continue the series they probably would've found a way to make that canon or maybe even both would've just been canon or something. Love the way the series handles its bad endings.
Thx a lot for your amazing videos, I love koudelka and shadow hearts, sadly the quality of the story decreased with wich new game
Koudelka - 10/10
SH - 9/10
SH2 - 7,5
SH3 - 5 (at best)
Let's not forget "the mother couldn't bang her son, so she banged his father" is a plot in covenant 💀
Aw hell yeah, another banger video! Yuri's duology holds a special place in my heart, but From The New World was actually the game that got me into the series so I'm really curious how that one is going to go. It is very much its own thing and I think people wanted more Yuri, hence the disappointment among fans. Even on its own though, the story of FTNW is kind of all over the place, but in what other game do you break Al Capone out of prison alongside a talking kung-fu cat? I read that setup in Game Informer some 16 years ago and was like "what the fuck, I need to play this."
Yeah, FTNW is definitely one of those games that has always fascinated me quite honestly. It was my first exposure to the series too and I'm legit curious to see how I'll feel about it given everything I know/have heard about it. But we shall definitely see!
I’m late to this party but here’s my take on Karin’s wish. I don’t think she wished to be Yuri’s mother. If you remember tidbits from the first Shadows Hearts and Covenant it’s said a few times that Yuri looks EXACTLY like his father. They even give you info stating that Yuri said his mother named him after her first love. I think she wanted to be with Yuri but understood he still loved Alice. So the wish was granted differently. Instead of being with Yuri she got Yuri’s dad who’s a exact replica of Yuri(of course we know Yuri is the replica here but you get what I’m saying). So in way she got her wish fulfilled.
One of the best games of its generation. Hope they resurrect the series some day.
It's sorta coming back in a way with Penny Blood at least! Not in the way of it directly being the franchise itself but nice to see the same team trying to make something in the spirit of it again!
Evil gate opener2 reminds me of the band Apocaliptica. I only played covenant and the story slaied hard . it is funny, dramatic and kick ass. I sadly dont own my copy any mor but love to listne to the play full through from time to time. I wished that in future a remake for ps 5 or a classic release would apear. then I´d try to compleately filling the soule gage from Yuri´s neckles couse i always wonderd what would happon.
I watched this in a more competitive manner than anyone else here. I win!
Stop 59:19 this line killed me😂😂 also it fully time that every rpg has an animal party member they are always amazing
It’s Joachim- yo-ha-keem
Ah shit my bad! Thanks for letting me know :)
Karin as a character: no matter what, i will have Yuri inside me! EVEN IF I HAVE TO GROW HIM MYSELF!!!!!
I don't get how this channel has managed to stay as small as it had
That's super sweet thank you! Definitely working hard to grow this more and more and gonna keep doing my best to grow things more and more!
the Persona 1 remake music is why I prefer the old PS1 battle music its less repeative with all the vocals and stuff imo
@@Videodragon64 Yeah exactly! Just feels a lot less repetitive to listen to especially with how frequent the encounters are even if standalone the music itself is like good imo.
@TransWitchReviews it's also spookier and imo sets the mood better.
Also a jam lol