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Vandal Hearts Resurrected, Has Terrible Character Art

You’d never suspect that, once upon a time, strategy RPGs were a rare and beautiful beast. Twelve years ago, you wouldn’t open a magazine and think, “Ah, yes, I see. This month there are thirteen different Game Boy games coming out from Namco, Square, Inis, Nippon Icchi, and Atlus that will allow me to train tiny warriors to walk across a colorful grid to slaughter evil beasts. Oh, look, there’s six more on Sony’s Playstation and nine more on Sega’s Saturn. Can’t wait to see next month’s haul. I’ll be moving across those grids and having fun until the sun goes out, by gum!” It just didn’t work like that. There were only a few of them. There was Tactic’s Ogre, which was made by Yasumi Matsuno. Then there was Final Fantasy Tactics which was, um, made by Yasumi Matsuno. But then there was Vandal Hearts, a dead ringer for Matsuno’s SRPGs that was, in fact, not made by Matsuno.

Crystal Defenders: Square's New Low

While hopping onto the Xbox Live Marketplace yesterday to force another innocent soul into the cult of Peggle, I noticed something that could only be described as “curious.” Somehow, a Final Fantasy game had snuck its way onto XBLA—and it wasn’t just any Final Fantasy-based product. This new title, Crystal Defenders, was entirely based on the Final Fantasy Tactics (Advance) universe, my most preferred of Final Fantasy settings. So, knowing absolutely nothing about Defenders, and with the screenshots and marketplace description giving no clue as to what the game actually entailed, I downloaded Crystal Defenders if only to find out what the hell it was. Booting the game up, I was greeted by a selection from Hitoshi Sakimoto’s amazing Final Fantasy Tactics A2 soundtrack.

And after that, it all went downhill.

Suikoden Tierkreis: The 108 Stars of Destiny Go Portable and They’re Looking Good

Suikoden games are an odd lot. Role-playing games are long enough without having to track down and manage 108 different, predominantly optional characters. You have to do this in every single one of the little blighters! Of course, the effort’s rewarded with lovely music, lively anime art, and, in the franchise’s best entries, really excellent war stories. That’s what JRPG fans lust after, isn’t it? Sure it is. Suikoden Tierkreis is a nice change of pace for the series; now you can track down 108 characters on the bog. Beat that for convenience.

I sat down with a near complete English build of Tierkreis today and based on just that small chunk, I find myself looking forward to a new Suikoden for the first time since Suikoden III. For the non-Suikoden diehards out there, here’s the formula. In Suikoden, you play as a plucky youth embroiled in some sort of military conflict that usually starts small and gets gigantic. You inevitably become integral in amassing an army whose core is 108 colorful individuals marked by destiny and some sacred runes. You all live in a massive castle that expands as you gather these Stars of Destiny together. You fight turn-based battles and many of your characters can do snazzy attacks together based on their personalities. Tierkreis adds its own special blend of spices to this classic concoction.

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.