Vandal Hearts II

Vandal Hearts
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Developer(s)	KCE Nagoya
Publisher(s)	Konami Corporation
Platform(s)	Sony PlayStation
Release	August 7 1999 November 30 1999 June 30 2000
Genre(s)	Tactical role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single player

Vandal Hearts II is a Japanese tactical role-playing game developed by Konami for the Sony PlayStation. It is the sequel to Vandal Hearts, released for PlayStation and Sega Saturn.

The game centres around the protagonist Joshua, from the village of Polata, and follows his life story from childhood until the end of a civil war in his home country.

Gameplay

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 thereby automatically moving towards the location they have chosen.

The dots on the overworld map have been divided into two sections, battle maps and town maps with all but a select few maps being re-visitable. Some locations open up only to advance the story.

Town maps are a screenshot of the town with locations of interest selected from the menu on the right of the screen, featuring the local tavern, shops and little else except where the story deterermines otherwise.

Vandal Hearts II boasts over 120 different weapon and armour combinations and the game features non-set classes unlike many other RPGs. Warriors can be changed to Healers without any penalties. This is achieved through the armour and weapon systems, skills must be learned through equipping weapons and earning enough points to master them, while armour determines the characters hit points and magic points as well as movement rates and defence.

Combat

Combat in Vandal Hearts II is done using a new Dual-Turn System, stated as being an Active Time Battle system for Strategy RPGs. The dual turn system permits both the player and the computer to move one unit on the battlemap simultaneously. This system was criticised by IGN as being even more time-consuming than it needed to be.

Plot

Vandal Hearts II' takes place in the country of Natra and follows the story of Joshua from childhood until adulthood, focusing his progress through the civil war that tears his home country apart. The early stages of the game introduce the hero and his childhood companions and acts as a prologue to future events in the hero's adult life.

The adult stages of the game shows the country of Natra immersed in a civil war with both warring factions having foreign backers. Joshua's renegade band of outlaws gets drawn into a plot to create a third faction to end the war and restore peace.

Joshua

The protagonist of the game, he is only 13 years of age when the story begins, a farmer's son in the village of Polata. An orphan at young age, his parents died in a squabble with nobles and thus he is raised by his Uncle Kordif. Due to the mayor's progressive education system he was allowed to socialise with Adele, a member of the aristocracy. They became extremely good friends bordering on romance.

Joshua ends up being manipulated into killing the mayor, resulting in his forming the Red Wolves bandit group. However he eventually falls into the company of Baron Pratue and the two men begin to shape and influence the country duringthe civil war.

Adele

Adele was the chatelaine of the House of Bryon, laird of the Polata village. Although she spent a lot of her childhood with Joshua, circumstances resulted in their parting. In her adult life she was manipulated by a religious cult to become their head public figure.

Critical Response

Vandal Hearts II is generally considered vastly superior to its predecessor.

General criticism of Vandal Hearts II has mostly to do with the storyline in itself. IGN considered the story lackluster enough to not even "remember it", CNET also agrees considering the storyline to be one that most people "won't care to follow". GIA on the other hand believes that the game lacks the variety of its predecessor, with standard "kill everything" missions.

The controls and battle system was also criticized for being stiff and laborious and the story as long and as twisting as it was linear.

However, despite criticisms, reviewers all generally agree that the game has some unique features and moments and that it is a solid game. Its complexity (especially the storyline) gained many positive reviews from gamers and earned a cult following.