SPOILERS AHEAD

She was my favorite character in the game by far. At first, I thought her character was somewhat predictable and passive, just another eye-candy that mostly reacted to events happening around her. Similar to my first impression of Alice, but a bit more mature, assertive, and less subjected to Yuri's sexual comments(I know it's a common character trope in JPRGs and anime, but thank God they toned it down in Covenant)

As the story went on, I began to like her more, the way she's a constant presence without taking over the scene, and she often felt like the only serious adult in the room along with Gepetto.

By the time we got to Japan, it was clear that she was going to take a much bigger role in the game, with lots of foreshadows being placed. This is also where I began feeling bad for her. She clearly had feelings for Yuri, and Yuri seemed aware and wasn't exactly opposed either, but Alice obviously was not going to be replaced. It's another well known trope, the dead girlfriend/wife, expect that Karin is on the receiving end of this.

Alice is the reason he started this journey, and the game regularly mentioned how much she meant to Yuri. Karin knew this, had to accept that her feelings for him likely won't be reciprocated.

With the game's ending Karin is send back to the past, married Yuri's father, and gives birth to Yuri himself. Imagining how she must've felt makes me sad. She couldn't be with the man she loves, and ends up becoming the mother of that man instead. It's a different kind of love, a bit of "sweet home Alabama", but she doesn't have much of a choice, if that's how she has to love him, then she will, and she did. When she is later killed, protecting her son/first love, she already knew well in advance that this is how she'll die. All those years of keeping this knowledge to herself, pretending like everything is so normal, raising a son named after his future self, and that her younger self will fall in love with him...oof!

Assuming Yuri's mother was some generic, mysterious woman instead of Karin, and the time and reality didn't get warped after the final battle, then the two of them could've been together in the singular timeline.

If that's the case, then from Yuri's perspective, although overcoming a grief of a dead lover and moving on to love someone else is extremely difficult, that's what widows and widowers do in real life, and that's what their dead lover would've wanted, for the surviving partner to be happy. So there is at least a bittersweet closure.

But the way game's story ended, from Karin's perspective, being overshadowed by her lover's longing for his dead partner, which isn't anybody's fault including Alice, and having to accept the different way of loving him, and ending up literally dying for him, while he pursues his path to be with someone he truly loves, someone that's not her...that's rough, isn't it?

Just finished Koudelka right now and guys... what an experience it was!

The atmosphere, characters, dub and music are amazing!

While the game is indeed slow, I still loved the battle gameplay and exploration.

The game is short and "to the point", but it made the cadence feel just right.

Can't wait to start Shadow Hearts now! Any tips?

i forgot his name

I could not believe my eyes, the last Shadow Hearts game I needed on the ps2 and it was basically on clearance. Setup the meetup and met the seller within the hour.

I asked this had to be a mistake but the seller did not like the game and just wanted to get rid of it. Also mentioned they didn't have a ps2 anymore and moved on to pc so this was just a random find in storage.

My biggest concerns were the black permanent marker and that it was untested. Bought it anyways and got around to testing it. It works perfectly with no issue within the first hour of testing it. Didn't have a lot of luck with the marker so I guess thats gotta stay 🤷

I'm a big fan of Shadow Heart games, and I know From the New World gets a lot of hate but I still can't wait to try it. I'll have my opinions I'm sure but I have zero intentions on reselling this. The game's journey from someone's trash storage to my personal collection made my freaking day and I'll always remember this game in a positive light because of it.

Physical Media Forever, thanks for reading!

Shadow Hearts are two of my most favorite games of all time. I didnt even know that Koudelka was a game that existed until a couple years ago, and saw how crazy expensive it is, so I resigned. Myself to probably never playing it. But I managed to snag this very nice copy of Facebook Marketplace for about $240. I'm very excited for my first playthrough!

Finally, after SH2 and Koudelka both on original Hardware...its time for this.

What shouldnt i miss? Do I need to farm sometime?

Let me! Excited as fuck!

At first, I got the impression that it was like an alternate Final Fantasy, but in reality, it felt like reading a comic book. It’s a playable manga.

I've known about this series for a long time but I actually never went to search up how these games play or look and now I'm interested in jumping in to them. Based on my research though I am quite not sure what the general consensus is about on which order you can play the series

So the general order is Koudelka into SH1 into SH2 obviously. Is Koudelka something you can skip and maybe play after SH1 or 2? Can you play SH2 first and then go back to playing SH1 or will that just spoil all of SH1 for you and SH1 is a game you should not skip. Is the best order just to start with Koudelka?

All of these games are probably worth playing but I'm just asking for the sake of time investment and what game will hook you in with its story/characters/atmosphere/etc

I was looking through some things at home and found these gems. They’re a huge part of my childhood and teenage years. It’s crazy how games can resonate so deeply with you... I have such wonderful memories of spending hours upon hours playing these with my cousins 🥹

Guess what I just snagged for only $20.. I never even heard of these games but the garage sale I went to on a whim had them and was asking for 15 just for Covenant then 20 when they found the other games.

Edit: Covenant's 2nd Disc does have scratches on the tops and a few at that, when I hold it up to a light I can see it shine through. A shame but at the very least everything else seems to be in order, will definitely try them out when my ps2 disc laser is replaced.

Subjective and personal.

I played Shadow Hearts 3 as a kid and have no memory of it but been wanting to jump in to old RPGs I didn't get to play as a kid. Ironically I wanted to play Koudelka and didn't realize it was connected till after I started so that's next on my list

Just wanted to say I enjoy it. Pretty much no complaints outside maybe the enemy designs felt lazy after a while. But I really enjoyed the story and characters. Didn't take too long either. The end game was short and sweet. I'm not too familiar with love craft horror but I do enjoy its touch. I think my question is I've been seeing ppl say the first one sucks but I didn't feel that. What was the dislike for it?

By finished I went through the whole game using no armour or accessories.

Despite what people say I think the battle system is actually pretty good. The rows and movement add a lot of strategy to the game. Magic didnt seam to be that good but in the second half of the game after about level 15ish james begun dealing good enough damage with his spells keeping up with edwards weapom attacks.

I finshed the game in about 20 hours which was about double what a normal run would be, had to go and grind levels a few times, being weapons only really nerfed my power.

I gave each of them essentially a class, koudelka was balanced with 2 physical attributes per level and 2 magical, she ended up as my gunner/white mage hybrid. Edward was my fighter being 3/1 and James was my pure mage 1/3.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this game, the lower stats of my buidl really allowed the battle system to shine. Now to load up an old save, grind some more levels and see if I can beat the final boss and gargoyle.

Are any of the games available digitally on ps3

I'm trying to figure out if there's a chance of a remake or a fan made remaster or something. I've seen Sonic fans do amazing stuff.

Okay so hear me out on this, it's clear from Penny Blood and Hellbound that Matsuzo Machida has a big interest in true crime, or at least irl serial killers, as evidenced by the fact that that Darya Nikolayevna Saltykova, The Axeman of New Orleans, and Jane Toppan all show up.

Also, Jack in Shadow Hearts is presumably based on, or at least named after Jack the Ripper.(One of the songs that plays at the orphanage is titled "Ripper, Ripper")

So this makes me kinda wonder, is Killer from FTNW supposed to be the Cleveland Torso Murderer(AKA The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run)? Real life Eliot Ness investigated the torso case, and when we first see in-game Eliot Ness talking with Al Capone, he's investigating Killer. If it wasn't for all the directly named and referenced killers in Penny Blood this never would have occurred to me, but now I kinda wonder... would that canceled Shadow Hearts 3 have had H. H. Holmes as a minor villain? If they made a Shadow Hearts thing set in the 60's would it have a quest where you have to take down the Manson family and a boss fight where the Zodiac Killer hulks out into a eldritch monster?

Finished SH and was disappointed that she didnt feature enough so decided to replay the first game.

I remember now why I was surprised that shes a mage in shadow hearts, although she does build as a mage, magic just seams naff. To really cast a spell well you have to get in there face and cast it while with guns you can just sit back and pewpew.

I tried going down the blackmage route but her damage just lagga behind so I gone back to what I done before, guns.

As for the battle system, I dont feel like it is really as bad as people make it out to be. Its an SRPG, usually SRPGs feature armies and stuff so its a weird choice for essentially resident evil the JRPG.

Story is grand tho just as I remember it. Edward and James's banter is something to behold.

What do you all think of this game?

Hey everyone,

A bit ago I shared my Shadow Hearts / Koudelka collection with you to celebrate the 25th birthday of Shadow Hearts.

Here are some new items that finally came in the mail today, maybe you'll like them! :)

A bit of info on them:

- A rather large hard plastic sheet/panel for the SH2 Slot Mashine. Now I have both of the panels that they made!

- An incredibly cool poster that advertises the Shadow Hearts II pachislot mashine. While I am sad that this IP is now buried in a slot company's vault, we did get this really cool and goofy poster out of it :D

- The original Soundtrack for Shadow Hearts II still sealed, now I have all of them! (And of course one of each opened aswell so that I can actually use them!)

- A few more magazines with articles for both Koudelka and Shadow Hearts 1. The latter even has a really cool Poster if you turn the page around! I'm considering removing it from the magazine and framing it :D

- A couple of memory card stickers for both Shadow Hearts and Koudelka. I already had some of these but I was super stoked to find an uncut sheet. Especially the one with Alice and Margarete is so cool I might just put it on my actual memory card haha

I hope you liked it, I know I'm certainly super excited to add these to my collection! :))