Discovered this game with a video titled "Best levels ever 13". It really seems anyone that talks about this game is truly excited and happy to talk about it, and I gotta play it somedays. I love strategy games.
I take that as a very high compliment!! I think you'd enjoy it, but do plan on spending some time - it's not a quick play. If you do play it please please make a video on it! :)
@@SayItIsntJoe These types of games unfortunately don’t fit our format, but we love action strategy like X-Com, Advance Wars, and even Worms 3D of all games. Not sure why Paul and I missed this one back in the day.
God, such a classic. Vandal Hearts 1 and 2 are my all-time favorites of that genre, even tho the second one's combat system was a bit.. inspired. Disgaea series is a close runner up.
I think the sequel to this one is great too, but this still has such charm to it and the story is SO detailed and interesting, it hits all the good spots for me
@@Dizerfullpower Yeah there were so many good secrets in the second one. Items opening up new maps that are easy to miss, having to explore every off/odd looking spots on the ground, or building blocks to climb something. Honestly, the story is pretty solid, too.
Only minor complaint i have. Limited exp, no grinding or repeating fights. You have share exp each fight amongst your party to stay balanced. It wasnt a big deal, but it will be something new players notice
That's true, the idea of grinding like you can in a traditional rpg is mostly missing from this one. Technically you can replay maps but it's not the same for me
@@Krumpetpirate Yeah I reviewed the PS1 version, but honestly I don't know if there would be any differences in the other versions. I've played this game every once in a while since it came out, so for me it's just a PS1 game. That said, the sequel is also great, so worth playing both I think
Vandal Hearts 1 always stuck with me for its interesting characters and setting. It wasn’t very common and still isn’t to portray a democracy in a medieval setting along with all of it’s issues and vulnerabilities. Even if that gets lost in the greater narrative I still appreciate the world building over the same empires and kingdoms of so many stagnant fantasy settings. Vandal Hearts 2 also stuck in my mind.. for it’s awful characters, horrifically bad character portraits but whacky story where you can among other things convince a priest disillusioned with his messiah that said messiah started a nuclear armageddon for a really good reason, actually. So. Ups and downs.
Ah yes, enough blood spray to fit into a Tarantino movie. I never got to play this one back in it's heyday, but I had FFT. I should check it out if I get the time.
I actually love this series, though the more exclusive version on xbox 360 was kinda eh. I just wanted to mention some things I encountered that I think are issues, more so if you were fresh to the game. One of the units you have in your party will eventually leave and you won't really be aware that it's going to occur. If you decide to have an item on this unit, it can lock you out of the best ending route, which is a shame. The game is setup in such a way that most units, despite having two paths, will make it more difficult for you if you decide to take that alternate job. The game is pretty mobile, so it tends to punish you for picking slower units. The game basically makes prior healing worthless the longer you go on, instead of being like a base and going from there, it will steadily go down into being completely worthless. The game has items you can find that only have the description of ??? You simply have to waste the item to realize it's effect, which is just simply unnecessary. This is probably my only in-combat gripe that involves enemies. When deciding how you'll proceed, you'll probably have some sort of expectation of how the enemies work, maybe based off your units. Sadly, the archers on the enemy team are purely absurd, hitting ridiculous marks that limit your options in defending against it till you can get close enough. Certain stages require you to reach a exit point, even if everything is dead. Really slogs during these periods. Hope yea cover the second one, love how that one implements its weight system.
These are all true points! I didn't cover every detail in the video, that's for sure - I could have made the video an hour if I did that! But I think I covered the basics well enough. Despite it's flaws, I still consider this one of the more enjoyable TRPGs I've played.
Vandal Hearts was cool for its time but it still doesn't hold a candle to the games that surrounded it and shaped the genre into what it is today: TacticsOgre and FFT.
I personally liked VH more, but again that was because it had a lower barrier to entry and I'm a fan of strategy but maybe not enough to really dig into FFT and the like. It's all good though, we all love what we love!
This game was the first time I ever saw a character say the word "shit" in a console game. I thought that was so funny back in the day. I still do. 😆
I'm all for profanity when it's called for, and not obtuse. I think this game did a really good job with that.
I used to looove the Vandal Hearts games as a kid. Great video! c:
Thanks!!
Vandal Hearts is a tactics game?!? Nobody told me! I've got to play this.
That's the rumor going around...
Play the first....not the 2nd
This was my first Tactical RPG and I loved it. It set me up for when Final Fantasy tactics came out
I feel like it did a lot of things differently, in the right way. Glad you enjoyed it too!
Discovered this game with a video titled "Best levels ever 13". It really seems anyone that talks about this game is truly excited and happy to talk about it, and I gotta play it somedays. I love strategy games.
Do it! I think you'll have a blast.
Great look at this game! You’ve succeeded in making me wanna try it out after all these years.
I take that as a very high compliment!! I think you'd enjoy it, but do plan on spending some time - it's not a quick play. If you do play it please please make a video on it! :)
@@SayItIsntJoe These types of games unfortunately don’t fit our format, but we love action strategy like X-Com, Advance Wars, and even Worms 3D of all games.
Not sure why Paul and I missed this one back in the day.
Thanks for the awesome video. I just replayed this game and Kartia last month 😅
Thank *you* for watching!! I'll have to check out Kartia
This game.... Ty for making me play it!
Glad to hear it!
I made the mistake of playing Final Fantasy Tactics after playing Vandal Hearts. It felt like FFT was a game that refused to be played...
God, such a classic. Vandal Hearts 1 and 2 are my all-time favorites of that genre, even tho the second one's combat system was a bit.. inspired. Disgaea series is a close runner up.
I think the sequel to this one is great too, but this still has such charm to it and the story is SO detailed and interesting, it hits all the good spots for me
Making units go simultaneously is a great idea, just look at Phantom Brigade.
What VH2 did absolutely right was secret hunting though
@@Dizerfullpower Yeah there were so many good secrets in the second one. Items opening up new maps that are easy to miss, having to explore every off/odd looking spots on the ground, or building blocks to climb something. Honestly, the story is pretty solid, too.
As a fan of the simpler, FF Tactics style of TRPG, this is on the list.
I definitely recommend it!
It's not better than I remember because it was already beyond awesome to begin with!
Love that!
Only minor complaint i have. Limited exp, no grinding or repeating fights. You have share exp each fight amongst your party to stay balanced. It wasnt a big deal, but it will be something new players notice
That's true, the idea of grinding like you can in a traditional rpg is mostly missing from this one. Technically you can replay maps but it's not the same for me
What differences are there in the versions or did you play a certain copy?
Oh I see in the chapters you’re talking about ps1
@@Krumpetpirate Yeah I reviewed the PS1 version, but honestly I don't know if there would be any differences in the other versions. I've played this game every once in a while since it came out, so for me it's just a PS1 game. That said, the sequel is also great, so worth playing both I think
Vandal Hearts 1 always stuck with me for its interesting characters and setting.
It wasn’t very common and still isn’t to portray a democracy in a medieval setting along with all of it’s issues and vulnerabilities.
Even if that gets lost in the greater narrative I still appreciate the world building over the same empires and kingdoms of so many stagnant fantasy settings.
Vandal Hearts 2 also stuck in my mind.. for it’s awful characters, horrifically bad character portraits but whacky story where you can among other things convince a priest disillusioned with his messiah that said messiah started a nuclear armageddon for a really good reason, actually. So. Ups and downs.
Both great summaries lol! I haven't played 2 in forever so I can neither confirm nor deny the statement, I don't remember hating it tho..
Ah yes, enough blood spray to fit into a Tarantino movie. I never got to play this one back in it's heyday, but I had FFT. I should check it out if I get the time.
Good work. Thank you.
Thank you!
I actually love this series, though the more exclusive version on xbox 360 was kinda eh.
I just wanted to mention some things I encountered that I think are issues, more so if you were fresh to the game.
One of the units you have in your party will eventually leave and you won't really be aware that it's going to occur. If you decide to have an item on this unit, it can lock you out of the best ending route, which is a shame.
The game is setup in such a way that most units, despite having two paths, will make it more difficult for you if you decide to take that alternate job. The game is pretty mobile, so it tends to punish you for picking slower units.
The game basically makes prior healing worthless the longer you go on, instead of being like a base and going from there, it will steadily go down into being completely worthless.
The game has items you can find that only have the description of ??? You simply have to waste the item to realize it's effect, which is just simply unnecessary.
This is probably my only in-combat gripe that involves enemies. When deciding how you'll proceed, you'll probably have some sort of expectation of how the enemies work, maybe based off your units. Sadly, the archers on the enemy team are purely absurd, hitting ridiculous marks that limit your options in defending against it till you can get close enough.
Certain stages require you to reach a exit point, even if everything is dead. Really slogs during these periods.
Hope yea cover the second one, love how that one implements its weight system.
These are all true points! I didn't cover every detail in the video, that's for sure - I could have made the video an hour if I did that! But I think I covered the basics well enough. Despite it's flaws, I still consider this one of the more enjoyable TRPGs I've played.
This game is a classic.
Absolutely! And I think the fact that it's easy to get into made it a great intro for a lot of people who got turned off by Tactics in general.
Vandal Hearts was cool for its time but it still doesn't hold a candle to the games that surrounded it and shaped the genre into what it is today: TacticsOgre and FFT.
I personally liked VH more, but again that was because it had a lower barrier to entry and I'm a fan of strategy but maybe not enough to really dig into FFT and the like. It's all good though, we all love what we love!