I was very reluctant to play it because of the Judgement Ring system, but it was worth every moment of my time.
The detail of the animated opening scene is nothing like the graphics during gameplay. They are a little fuzzy and blurry, but that helps the game move smoother and lowers the loading time, which is something we all like in our games.
Shadow Hearts could have been classified as your average role-player if it wasn't for the original Judgement Ring, a disc with a pointer that goes around (a bit like radar). You have to hit the button when the pointer is over the colored areas of the ring so your attack actually hits the opponent. Basically, you need to pay attention and hit the button at the right time.
Most actions (if not all) use the Judgement Ring: you need it to use an item, cast a magic spell, get a discount or raise an item's price at the shop, and even for some plot developments. Your performance will be better if you hit the red areas in the Ring, but of course these are small and hard to reach. So keep your eyes open and your finger ready, because if you miss, that's one lost change for attacking or healing your party.
During a fight, you can also use items or magic to modify your Ring stats, and sometimes enemies can make your Ring spin faster or even make the colored segments disappear.
You can modify your Ring through Acupuncture. You can increase the power of your attack or the range of your colored areas. Increasing attack power will cause your hit area to become smaller, so my advice is to balance them out.
While fighting demons, your party will lose Sanity Points. Yeah, they can actually go berserk and you won't be able to control your characters then, but even that isn't so bad at times, because it's the only way Yuri can learn those last powerful magic spells from the demons he merges with. Yes, you read that right, our hero Yuri is a Harmonixer, a shape shifter. He can merge with demons at the cost of some Sanity Points, and then use their magic at the cost of some Magic Points.
But fighting demons isn't that simple. As Yuri kills, malice is accumulated (a gem will change color when this happens). To counteract this, you need to return to the cemetery (do it at the save spots), talk to the masks and fight to reset the malice.
It is also in the graveyard that you release the demons you can merge with from the graves with symbols. After each battle, and besides experience points and money/items, you receive soul points. The soul points will fill up each category bar (earth, fire, wind, depends on what sort of creatures you fight against) and once they gain a level you can go to the graveyard and fight the respective element guardian. If you win the battle, you will be able to merge with that guardian.
Shadow Hearts is a dark and gloomy game. Almost everywhere, the lights are dim and you never know what lurks in the darkness. The game if full of demons of all kinds and shapes, accompanied by strange spooky music and sound effects. And the disturbing events that take place here and there along the storyline (the bloody dollhouse, the cannibal town - or are they?) will show you just enough to let your imagination take the most horrific paths.
I was very reluctant about playing this game just because of the Judgment Ring, but after a few minutes I really got into it. It was worth renting, it was worth playing, and it was worth buying it, since a copy now takes its proud place beside my PS2.
Review text part of Grrlgamer.com
http://www.grrlgamer.com/review.php?g=shadowhearts