Vandal Hearts
COME FOR THE STRATEGY, STAY FOR THE BLOOD
» PLAYSTATION » 1996 » KONAMI
I’ve been well aware of Vandal Hearts’ brilliance for some time now, but never found the time to add it to my ‘to play’ list.
Even though Konami’s strategy RPG has been in my collection for several years now, the thought of jumping into a lengthy epic really didn’t excite me and I’d regularly pass it over in favour of a shooter or anything else that would be less time-consuming. As it stands, I should have visited Vandal Hearts earlier as it’s a tremendously solid take on the popular genre.
Granted, it’s not perfect and it lacks the job structure of similar games like Final Fantasy Tactics, but what it does offer over many of its peers is great characters, a surprising politically charged plot and some truly satisfying combat encounters. Oh, and lashings and lashings and lashings of blood.
I knew Vandal Hearts has a propensity for being something of a claret-spiller, but I didn’t realise how over-the-top it actually was until I killed my first enemy. After being introduced as travelling merchants, Ash and his loyal followers Client and Diego are ambushed by thieves. Happily engaging with the filthy vagabonds, Ash cuts one down, and as he delivers the killing blow, blood erupts everywhere. I’ve not seen so much gore on-screen since Johnny Depp’s character got sucked into a bed during A Nightmare On Elm Street and I assumed the excessive gore spillage was down to Ash being a skilled swordsman.
I quickly realised that it didn’t matter whether you were using a cleric to smite an enemy with a piddly mace, or dispensing an irritating foe with the titular Vandal Heart (a dangerous, soul-hungry sword) the effect was always the same – fountains of blood that sprayed with all the intensity of the Bellagio’s water fountains at the end of Ocean’s Eleven. Despite its story, entertaining characters and cleverly constructed scenarios, it was those constant promises of gushing blood from my defeated foes that helped spur me on through Vandal Hearts’ 17-hour running time. I wonder, then, what on earth that says about me?