Yuri Hyuga is a young harmonizer, which is a term that refers to a man who has the ability to shift into a demon. A young British girl named Alice Elliot, whose father was brutally killed and who is being pursued by a mystery warlock who calls himself Roger Bacon is one of the people Harry meets during his travels. Yuri and Alice go on an adventure in China before the war, where they face off against demons, terrible magicians, and the Japanese occupation army. The trip will ultimately take them and their companions to Europe, where they will not only have to face their most dangerous foe but where will also learn the truth about their own personal histories.
Shadow Hearts is a role-playing game in the style of Japanese role-playing games, although it is set in a historical time period (China and Europe in 1913, one year before World War I), and it features a large number of fantastical aspects. The game is essentially a sequel to Koudelka because it has many of the same characteristics in terms of both the plot and the style. The user controls a party of characters (up to three active combatants) as they move across settings that have already been rendered. Random chance determines who wins in combat with normal adversaries. During combat, characters will either employ their standard attacks or cast spells. In addition to the standard health (HP) and magic points (MP) bars, each player character additionally possesses a unique SP (commonly known as “sanity points”) bar. The character’s sanity bar will steadily drop as they engage in battle; once it is depleted to zero, the character will become insane and therefore unmanageable until their sanity can be restored with items.
Traditional turn-based combat is used for the game’s fights, and an additional element known as the Judgment Ring has been added to the mix. At the very top of the screen, there is always a ring with a rotating arrow that emerges whenever a character uses an attack. If the player is able to halt the arrow as it passes over a vital part of the ring, then the attack will be significantly more effective. On the other hand, if the greater impact region is missed, the assault will be totally canceled. There are many different kinds of attacks, and each one has its own unique ring with a different level of difficulty. In general, the hit area on the ring gets smaller the more potent the spell is. In addition to its primary function, the Judgment Ring serves a variety of other functions. For example, it can be used to negotiate lower pricing with merchants, and it is essential to the solution of a number of riddles.
Every character, with the exception of Yuri, gains a new ability whenever a new level is achieved. Yuri is able to collect soul energy and use it to gain a variety of fusion forms because to the demon-fusion talents he possesses. When Yuri undergoes his transformation into a demon, he not only obtains new skills but also continues to battle alongside the party as a character that may be controlled. He must also make periodic journeys to a cemetery located within his own mental world in order to confront his own personal demons and rid his party of Malice, which is a form of destructive spiteful energy that is accumulated when opponents are defeated.
