Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment announced for PSN & XBLA

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Oppenheimer
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Re: Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment announced for PSN & XBLA

Post by Oppenheimer »

avenger wrote:The Lady with a cape can cast a spell that heals people each turn.
Luce? What's the spell called? All I see are Heal and Cure.
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Re: Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment announced for PSN & XBLA

Post by thcrock »

Mending. It doesn't heal anything immediately, but does heal a good amount each turn. I never really used it, but I suppose it would be useful if you are having problems protecting an escort.

If you're not seeing it, that's unfortunate. Luce came with the spell in my save. Maybe starting spells are partially random?
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Re: Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment announced for PSN & XBLA

Post by avenger »

Yes , I just didn't want to spoil anything. But I can say that Luce comes with that spell called Mending, and that 's what I was talking about.

Ok Folks I finished the game completely. I got both endings. Two playthroughs...
The second time i fought in the last battle, Tobias had to fight the last of the three bosses alone. Luckily I pulled it off....Again it took me exactly 50 minutes...
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Re: Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment announced for PSN & XBLA

Post by thcrock »

I was replaying some of this game today, and have some more thoughts:

I understand they kept spell animations short to keep the action going (VH1 had some looooooong animations), but they could've taken cues from Final Fantasy Tactics. Most of the spells in that game were short, but they still had heft to them. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AL4Mv8ruAA at about 1:30 (Gafgarion's Night Sword).

Also, I'm really disappointed at the scarcity of situations that allow you to take advantage of height for your archers (or even be on the receiving end of it). There's a couple maps with some good height (like the church, but only in a specific situation), but most maps either are relatively flat, or with inaccessible high points.

Overall, I think the level design lets this game down. The gameplay mechanics are there, but simply not taken advantage of by the levels. In the story battles, the battles usually have events or enemy placements that make the battles interesting, but they aren't backed up by the level design like they should be. This comes out in the skirmish battles, where there are no mid-battle events. They're just boring, and I feel sorry for anybody who feels compelled to grind skirmish battles in this game (perhaps to get the lvl 40 combat skill trophy/achievement). Forget about the character art, spell animations, and short length. The most disappointing part of the game is the level design.
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Re: Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment announced for PSN & XBLA

Post by Oppenheimer »

Mending is there, I was getting it confused with healing burst for some reason.

Does anyone know when you know you've learned a spell from a book and can unequip the book?

Yeah the level design isn't that exciting now that you mention it. And I'm constantly casting movement increase because you have to treck so far across the level all the time. The annoying thing for me is that you can't hold off getting chests, someone has to be alive or the battle ends. So if there's chests you have to just defend with everyone while they take hits from the remaining person and have someone run for the treasure. It kind of breaks up the thrill of victory.
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Re: Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment announced for PSN & XBLA

Post by thcrock »

Oppenheimer wrote: Does anyone know when you know you've learned a spell from a book and can unequip the book?
Not sure. I think it might be after the spell levels up at least once. As far as I know, the mechanic is:
1. You start at level 0 for every spell
2. You need to be at least level 1 to cast a spell
3. A book adds +3 to your level for a spell

So equipping a book just brings you to level 3. When you reach level 4, your 'real' level is 1. This also means that the damage advantage for a spell lessens as you level up the spell.
Yeah the level design isn't that exciting now that you mention it. And I'm constantly casting movement increase because you have to treck so far across the level all the time. The annoying thing for me is that you can't hold off getting chests, someone has to be alive or the battle ends. So if there's chests you have to just defend with everyone while they take hits from the remaining person and have someone run for the treasure. It kind of breaks up the thrill of victory.
Ensnare. I just kill everybody but one, ensnare, and disperse towards the treasures. By the time the enemy gets out of ensnare, all your people are too far away for it to matter. The good thing about negative effect spells in this game is that they almost always work. I've never had an ensnare fail, except on an immune boss.
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Re: Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment announced for PSN & XBLA

Post by avenger »

You will know when you can unequipt the book by going to the status screne and looking at that spells' name. If it says level 4, then you can unequipt that book. The spell then will only be level 1. However you can level that spell up on your own now.. without the book. :arrow:

I used a quite of few maps of height. i disagree with you.

First map with Church
second map with colorfull background and dogs as enemies.
The theive's fort.
the caves
entrance to caves, the one with the cart and lever.
the battle when Conner goes nuts.

I employed many usefull archery skills in these maps. when you are above the enemy you sure can knock them down one by one due to experiance with bow, height and range increase. (the thing with the range increase is limited however,) at least that's what I got from it.

This game does have it's flaws as some of you state, however I do believe that this game was good, why?

the story got me to finally understand the before history of VH1. I enjoyed Toroah/Tobias. The story kind of let's me know about armageton that is to come in real life.
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Re: Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment announced for PSN & XBLA

Post by thcrock »

Most of those maps you mentioned either:
1. have only small to moderate height differences (caves, dog enemy map), or
2. don't make the heights very accessible (cave entrance)

The thieves' fort and the church were definitely good archer maps, though.The other thing about the battles is that they are so easy that you're never compelled to use a height advantage. In VH1 or FFT, taking advantage of height was the difference between life or death for many stages. I found archers were very strong in this game even without a height advantage.

For instance, Dorter Trade City (FFT). That is a map for archers.
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Re: Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment announced for PSN & XBLA

Post by avenger »

Now that is a map... yes sir..

Ok I see your point. But I kinda made everyway possible to do things the archer way in the maps i mentioned. I prolonged battles just so I could utilize the map to my liking..
I suppose that's just a waste of time , I agree, but i'm a nut in my gameplay.
I prolong games just to level up or get everything.

I suppose being an online only game doesn't really matter for this one. It was short and sweet.
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Re: Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment announced for PSN & XBLA

Post by Oppenheimer »

Gah! Dorter is "that one level" in my opinion. Every playthrough I die there a million times. It's too early to have any really good abilities and getting to the enemy archers is difficult. But I agree there aren't very many strategic maps like that in this game.
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Re: Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment announced for PSN & XBLA

Post by LanceHeart »

Oppenheimer wrote:Gah! Dorter is "that one level" in my opinion. Every playthrough I die there a million times. It's too early to have any really good abilities and getting to the enemy archers is difficult. But I agree there aren't very many strategic maps like that in this game.
You're supposed to develop black mages to nuke them early, regardless of them dying at the hands of the knight two turns later.

Which goes very will with the usual Ranged --> Physical --> Magic --> Ranged circle.

Of course, Orlandu eats the circle like a yummy doughnut. (oh, and I refuse to use the new translation).
Last edited by LanceHeart on Sat Mar 20, 2010 10:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Oppenheimer
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Re: Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment announced for PSN & XBLA

Post by Oppenheimer »

So I got 100% of the trophies on Vandal Hearts and have uninstalled it. It was well worth my time though. I hope they rerelease some of the others in the series.
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Re: Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment announced for PSN & XB

Post by rickstilwell1 »

I really enjoyed this game, but wish it were longer like the first two. Only getting 6 characters and only lasting half as long as the first game made it seem like half a game. I hope some day a 4th Vandal-Hearts is made. If they can take 10 years to revive a series, maybe the same thing will happen with the Suikoden series someday.
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Re: Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment announced for PSN & XB

Post by Antimatzist »

They have already done the opposite of this idea by making Suikoden Tactics like Vandal-Hearts, yet placing Suikoden IV characters in the game.
Euuuuh no. Expect that both games are Strategy-RPGs, I don't think they have much in common... Suikoden lacks this class-upgrade system, gameplay (magic and weapons) work much more like in Suikoden.... I don't really see many similarities between these two titles.
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