So, Shadow Hearts: Covenant is one of my favorite JRPGs on the PS2. I actually played it first, then hunted around for Shadow Hearts, and then Koudelka.
When Shadow Hearts: A New World came out, there were so many negative reviews, and my life was so busy, that I skipped it.
Well, with nothing to play, I recently finally bought this game and dusted off my PS2 to play it.
Perhaps it's because it's been a number of years since I played the other three games, but I actually found SH3 to be a fairly good game. It had all the trademark whacky humor, was fairly dark, and easily had the best gameplay of the four games.
I mean, I loved Yuri, but it's hard to compare his story with that of SH3's, seeing as his story spanned two games with clear ties to a third (Koudelka). SH3 was a far more self-contained story. The characters may not have been as great from the previous games, but that doesn't mean they were bad.
And, yes, they obviously continued their trend of sexualization of the female lead, though it wasn't quite as linear as one would think. We start with Koudelka, with her stockings, lace, and short shorts. We then had Alice who showed less skin, but liked to flash her panties at you.
. Then Karin, who had the most blah and non-descript clothing of all the female leads, but it was also the second most revealing, which also raised strange thoughts in your head when you realize she's actually you know who's mother. Then Shania, who wins the award for most sexualized native american...ever.
My point being that the way they portrayed Shania was hardly all that different from the way they portrayed the women of the rest of the games.
My only real complaint was that the game was too short. It was more on par with the length of Shadow Hearts, rather than Covenant. I would have enjoyed it a lot more if they had tied into the rest of the games more than they did. For instance, a story centered around Halley (and possibly Koudelka), in America could have given them both the young male protagonist they seemed to want to have (and obligatory hot female lead
), while keeping players emotionally connected to the rest of the overarching themes of the series as a whole.
Anyways, I know I'm years late, but I've finally finished off this series. The fourth and last game could have been better, but it was still pretty good. It's possible I'd have been more let down if I'd played it when it was released and Yuri's story was still relatively fresh in my brain. The series, as a whole, only ranks behind the Xenosaga series-in my eyes-for JRPGs on the PS2.