Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me will be the Xbox Live Arcade version of Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment. A download only title developed by Hijinx Studios and published by Konami. Hijinx Studios, formerly Phoenix Soft, has a twelve year history of developing games for mobile phones. They were also responsible for Frogger Returns, also from Konami. Flames of Judgment is the third title in Konami's Vandal Hearts series with the first two titles being PlayStation games. Vandal Hearts games are strategy role-playing games. The original Vandal Hearts was very much inspired by Shining Force and was a rock solid game. The sequel lost fans for having a mechanic of the enemies moving at the same time you moved and proved too complex for most people. Which is a shame as Vandal Hearts 2 offered one of the greatest video game stories ever created. From the time I've spent with Flames of Judgment I can say they've taken the game mechanics back closer to the original Vandal Hearts while adding some new things all their own. You no longer level up in levels. You level up your skills by using them. So the more you attack with your sword, the better you are with it. Same goes for bows or magic or evasion or what have you. This allows for more of a build them your way approach. The art style is interesting. It's very cartoony in nature, but somehow it remains serious. The more I see of it, the more I'm liking it. The graphics and lighting are rather impressive for a little download title. I'm also rather impressed with the sound design thus far. I'm also enjoying the story. While it's all standard SRPG politics, it initially seems well done. My initial impression is that Hijinx Studios have delivered a real game here. But as always let's see how it is when everything is said and done.