Shadow Hearts and Evergrace for PS2

These represent the midpoint and low of the spectrum that Final Fantasy X tops. They are clearly of the same type -- games where you move through territory, talking and fighting and growing more powerful. They're simply not as well executed.

Shadow Hearts has several interesting game mechanisms. Every uncertain action calls up the "judgment ring". A line like a second hand sweeps around a dial marked with colored sections. Hitting x within the colored sections allows you to succeed at your task, whether you are attempting hand to hand combat or bargaining. More difficult tasks require hitting more colored sections to succeed. Other game mechanisms include sanity points which decline during battle and gathering the spirit energy of fallen foes to unlock the main character's power to transform himself into different forms.

The art is acceptable, and so is the music -- neither notably good or bad. Occasional forays into horror imagery seem undermined by longer stretches of anime cheerfulness. The judgment ring gave my thumb quite a workout. The weakness of the game is in the plotting. I play for the reward of story at least as much as for the pleasure of the process -- and this story took arbitrary turns. I was also disappointed when, after carefully working to gather the spirit energy in one section, when the next section began, I had been given a large quantity of it -- and then couldn't use it. Why set the player a goal, and then render it meaningless? I had trouble caring about characters visibly controlled by the plot's strings. I rented this, and haven't finished it.

Evergrace is simply incomprehensible. I'm watching my husband, who has more persistance than I do, and the basic method here is to explore until you have done everything so that you can move to the next area. The story gives little guidance on why you are working on any particular task. Conversations consist largely of strings of non sequitors. The music is unsettling, and the graphics are those 3-D forms that show their polygons, which makes them Evergrace's strongest point.

Characters develop themselves very little -- most progress comes through better equipment. Equipment in use needs constant infusions of palmira, the world's currency. So this game does keep you challenged with maintaining a sufficient cash flow, unlike many games where reaching other goals incidentally provides more cash than you can spend. And the fighting itself works well. But I can't see myself spending hours on "dress up Barbie goes adventuring" as Doug called it. And he wouldn't be playing it if it hadn't come bundled with the PS2 we bought on ebay.

All in all, they're worth about what we put into them -- a rental for Shadow Hearts, and nothing for Evergrace.