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Hey all,

Bought and completed Xbox live arcade Vandal Hearts - Flames of Judgement. Some old-schoolers will remember Vandal Hearts on Super Nintendo. The old one was pretty cool - just another nice alternative of Final Fantasy Tactics, basically.

This one was pretty fun as well and worth the $ I'd say. If you like these turn-based little strategy games you won't be disappointed. The art style is unusual, but I wasn't distracted by it. The story isn't exactly deep, but it drives you along from one battle map to the next.

Characters are set in stone (they each have a distinct class), but you can have them use whatever weapons/spells you see fit.

There is some motivation to explore on the battle maps to find chests, hidden treasure, and hidden battle maps. I was a little annoyed sometimes when I sent a character away from the battle to find treasure and only found money (not a lot of exciting things to buy/save up for) and basic weapons/items (that could just as easily be bought in store).

Semi-spolier on hidden maps:


There are some nice varieties to missions overall, with some escort missions and interesting boss battles. I wish the difficulty could be cranked if desired; quite frankly I kicked most battle maps in the butt. The AI makes some incredibly dumb decisions on a regular basis and overall just seems a lot weaker than my characters at all points in the game.

PROS
-An appreciated, affordable turn-based strategy distraction
-Surprisingly in-depth combat strategy if you look carefully at the skills and how they work
-Creative battle objectives on some maps
-Motivation to find hidden battle maps and their rewards

CONS
-Artwork was a little amateurish, even for a live arcade game
-Music and sound effects get grating during 1 hr + game sessions
-Had a lot more potential for cool objective-based battles
-All characters can be made to do anything, which kinda spoils an opportunity for cool specialization
-No cool, super expensive items to save for; I finished the game with gobs of money
-Enemy AI is dumb and enemy power level could be much higher to make it more challenging
-Slight spoiler complaint:

Overall, if they add some DLC at a cheap price I will probably add it and play it through!

- Blackbone

Wasn't Vandal Hearts on PS1? That old school strategy/RPG

Zid wrote:Wasn't Vandal Hearts on PS1? That old school strategy/RPG

You are correct that the original was on PS1.