Shadow Hearts (PS2)

2013-09-08 11:17:13 pm

So, let's discuss this game a bit, because I know someone here has played this game. I liked this game a lot when I was younger. Was my third game on PS2. It's still pretty badass, because it's a macabre JRPG with a pretty neat-o combat system, great plot/atmosphere/writing, and it doesn't take itself very seriously at all. I always recommend this game to anyone who likes JRPGs.

Only information I can find is on GameFAQs so far:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/459510-shadow-hearts/faqs/37506

This guy has finished Best Ending in 7:39, but there is no video. There is also an RTA on the Nico RTA wiki in 6:57:17, for Bad Ending, but literally no information on that since there are no VODS.

http://www40.atwiki.jp/niconamarta/pages/479.html

I tried brute-forcing my way through the Yamaraja: Earth fight multiple times, but idk how you're supposed to manage to beat it without levelling a little bit. Seems you can get away with just Yuri using Raging Tiger, and Zhuzhen and Alice using Thera Leaves and Cure spells... but the boss attacks that hit your full party absolutely wreck since you're so underlevelled. Yamaraja: Earth's whirlpool attack and Beast Dog's flame attack are especially terrible. Maybe levelling is fine in small doses? idk.

I'm thinking it would be beneficial to get the first Fire fusion too. 14 Fire Spirit out of 30 from the forced encounters. That's already halfway there, so you could probably fight 4 mobs of Ogre Flames on the Smuggler's Ship to max it out. Fighting Spirit doesn't stack, but coupled with Weird Bottles, 5th Keys, and 7th Keys, any kind of temporary attack buff is beneficial. I would think it's pretty much a requirement for some of the later bosses in the game.

Thread title:

So, let's discuss this game a bit, because I know someone here has played this game. I liked this game a lot when I was younger. Was my third game on PS2. It's still pretty badass, because it's a macabre JRPG with a pretty neat-o combat system, great plot/atmosphere/writing, and it doesn't take itself very seriously at all. I always recommend this game to anyone who likes JRPGs.

Only information I can find is on GameFAQs so far:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/459510-shadow-hearts/faqs/37506

This guy has finished Best Ending in 7:39, but there is no video. There is also an RTA on the Nico RTA wiki in 6:57:17, for Bad Ending, but literally no information on that since there are no VODS.

http://www40.atwiki.jp/niconamarta/pages/479.html

I tried brute-forcing my way through the Yamaraja: Earth fight multiple times, but idk how you're supposed to manage to beat it without levelling a little bit. Seems you can get away with just Yuri using Raging Tiger, and Zhuzhen and Alice using Thera Leaves and Cure spells... but the boss attacks that hit your full party absolutely wreck since you're so underlevelled. Yamaraja: Earth's whirlpool attack and Beast Dog's flame attack are especially terrible. Maybe levelling is fine in small doses? idk.

I'm thinking it would be beneficial to get the first Fire fusion too. 14 Fire Spirit out of 30 from the forced encounters. That's already halfway there, so you could probably fight 4 mobs of Ogre Flames on the Smuggler's Ship to max it out. Fighting Spirit doesn't stack, but coupled with Weird Bottles, 5th Keys, and 7th Keys, any kind of temporary attack buff is beneficial. I would think it's pretty much a requirement for some of the later bosses in the game.

Gerrick

2014-07-15 04:53:29 pm

This is probably my third favorite game of all time. I am looking to run it in the future if at all possible. With the ability to manipulate extra hits with the Keys, and maybe finding some optimal strats with Fusions I don't see why this can't be done. I think the Idea of the fire fusion being the way to go is correct, and it seems like you have good ideas to get to the max for the fusion to be where it needs to be. Would be a really cool run to watch and or do.

Gerrick

2014-07-28 04:11:16 pm

I have started to work on this game. Unfortunately I have been working on it on Emulator while waiting for my copy to come in the mail. I've cleared Asia, using the notes on Gamefaqs that you pointed out, however it is horribly unoptomized as he notes towards the end of the guide. He grabs a ton of items that essentially waste time. One thing to note is that his timings appear to go by the in game timer which is about 9 minutes slower than real time. I'm not sure how it functions, but it is significantly slower than real time. For example, I cleared Asia at 3 hours 43 minutes real time, and was into Europe at 3:34 game time. I can still cut about 10-15 minutes with further routing. I think I can get Asia down to between 3:30 and 3:20. Lag costs me a couple of minutes in places where I know it doesn't lag on the console. I take a few safe shopping trips that turn out be not as necessary. But there is more work to be done. I intend to start working on Europe this weekend. Addtionally I think this game can be broken into a couple of categories, like New Game, then New Game + and maybe even Asia/Europe runs for times. So there is alot of depth that hasn't even been scratched upon.

Gerrick

Edit history:

Gerrick: 2014-08-18 01:17:24 pm

2014-08-16 07:20:49 pm

http://www.twitch.tv/gerrick1/c/4921397 run in 7:41:55 on emulator. Good ending.

Silentsigil

2018-06-30 06:39:03 pm

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_nve2iojdct_dhLGTdl9Ixh1X5ySHCqk4uDlJ_Uj28I/edit

That's a link to Gerrick's notes, feels like it should be here.

I scanned them, and ogled a few mechanical things about the game. I didn't see anything about manipulating Malice rewards. Seems like there are a few items on there that it would be beneficial to nab, if you could figure out what counts for what malice.

Did some poking about, doesn't seem like Malice starts to accumulate until after you can actually see it. (Fight dad, go to graveyard, do malice tutorial.)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/459510-shadow-hearts/69162693

This thread seems to break down the math pretty well. I'll look into it a little more, and if I find anything I'll plug it in here.

Silentsigil

Edit history:

Silentsigil: 2018-06-30 08:54:56 pm

Silentsigil: 2018-06-30 08:39:41 pm

Silentsigil: 2018-06-30 07:12:04 pm

2018-06-30 07:11:36 pm

Seems accurate. Got the wolf form, left the graveyard. Punched 2 wolves, went right back into the graveyard. Bam, free seal of wisdom.

http://shadowhearts.wikia.com/wiki/Malice_Meter

If that's accurate as well, then you can fairly easily count your Malice so long as you keep track of the number of monsters you kill. (2 per monster until you actually level up your elements and get the bonuses). Looks like 1 of every stat up, a Key to Success, Silver Hand, Kirin Scale, 7th Key, Monkey Paw, and Dice of Caesar are on the list of things you can nab.

Before you get an elemental level, only even numbers are possible if I'm looking at this right. That splits it into two lists.

Early stuff [even]: (4)-Seal of Wisdom , (42) Kirin Scale , (50) Seal of the Soul, (56) Seal of Force , (60) Seal of Speed , (70) Seal of Life , (98) Seal of Luck

Late Stuff: [odd]: (7) Key to Success , (25) Seal of Vitality , (35) Silver Hand , (63) Seal of Strength , (77) 7th Key , (99) Dice of Caesar.

Since enemies are worth differing elemental points, you could probably route out a fairly high malice growth by killing specific things in order to get some high 'even' items if they are worth it.

Since you start with 2 levels in the elements, as soon as you get a 3rd, you can get odd numbers from the 'bonus' thing.

---------------------
The kids in the village/Hellcats don't seem to count for Malice. You'd have to kill a 2 wolf battle before entering to get 4 malice. I don't see any 2 monster encounters inside the village?

The wisdom seal is 1 to 3 INT, which looks moderately significant since stats start at 10 or so.

----

Ogre Flamedance at 16 INT does 45-48 dmg on (good, good) (snail/zombie 4 formation) -- 36-38 on (good, hit) 53-59 on good/perfect

"" 19 int did 57-61 on good/perfect.

The seal of wisdom seems to add 1 outside combat, 2 on 'good', and 3 on 'perfect' in combat. Doesn't seem that large of a boost, but it's a free levelup or three essentially, I guess.

-----
From there, I'd guess you'd be around 30 or so Malice before you got a level in an element? Calculating around there would net you a Silver Hand (2000 bucks) and from there it would be moderately simple to get the Key to Success, if there were monster formations that allowed the math. Should be 1 battle of 3 enemies. That's a dead boss or some more pocket change just for visiting your headspace.

I guess we can assume that set encounters don't accumulate malice until more testing is done.

I might play through this casually now, I'm interested.

Seems accurate. Got the wolf form, left the graveyard. Punched 2 wolves, went right back into the graveyard. Bam, free seal of wisdom.

http://shadowhearts.wikia.com/wiki/Malice_Meter

If that's accurate as well, then you can fairly easily count your Malice so long as you keep track of the number of monsters you kill. (2 per monster until you actually level up your elements and get the bonuses). Looks like 1 of every stat up, a Key to Success, Silver Hand, Kirin Scale, 7th Key, Monkey Paw, and Dice of Caesar are on the list of things you can nab.

Before you get an elemental level, only even numbers are possible if I'm looking at this right. That splits it into two lists.

Early stuff [even]: (4)-Seal of Wisdom , (42) Kirin Scale , (50) Seal of the Soul, (56) Seal of Force , (60) Seal of Speed , (70) Seal of Life , (98) Seal of Luck

Late Stuff: [odd]: (7) Key to Success , (25) Seal of Vitality , (35) Silver Hand , (63) Seal of Strength , (77) 7th Key , (99) Dice of Caesar.

Since enemies are worth differing elemental points, you could probably route out a fairly high malice growth by killing specific things in order to get some high 'even' items if they are worth it.

Since you start with 2 levels in the elements, as soon as you get a 3rd, you can get odd numbers from the 'bonus' thing.

---------------------
The kids in the village/Hellcats don't seem to count for Malice. You'd have to kill a 2 wolf battle before entering to get 4 malice. I don't see any 2 monster encounters inside the village?

The wisdom seal is 1 to 3 INT, which looks moderately significant since stats start at 10 or so.

----

Ogre Flamedance at 16 INT does 45-48 dmg on (good, good) (snail/zombie 4 formation) -- 36-38 on (good, hit)  53-59 on good/perfect

"" 19 int did 57-61 on good/perfect.

The seal of wisdom seems to add 1 outside combat, 2 on 'good', and 3 on 'perfect' in combat. Doesn't seem that large of a boost, but it's a free levelup or three essentially, I guess.

-----
From there, I'd guess you'd be around 30 or so Malice before you got a level in an element? Calculating around there would net you a Silver Hand (2000 bucks) and from there it would be moderately simple to get the Key to Success, if there were monster formations that allowed the math. Should be 1 battle of 3 enemies. That's a dead boss or some more pocket change just for visiting your headspace.

I guess we can assume that set encounters don't accumulate malice until more testing is done.

I might play through this casually now, I'm interested.

Silentsigil

2018-07-01 07:05:19 pm

No bosses, minibosses, or otherwise notable set encounters appear to grant Malice.

Whether or not the Malice rewards are worthwhile to fetch I'll have to leave to the experienced runners of this. Just did my bit of poking around to sate my curiosity here.