Recently (after such a long time), I caught up in a game " Shadow Hearts III, from the new world".

This RPG in Playstation 2 is the third series from the Shadow Hearts series. Though I don't follow Shadow Hearts series from the first, this one feels good enough to compete with other great rpg series such as Final Fantasy.

The stories starts it's story with following Johnny Garland, a sixteen-year-old detective who lost his father, sister and memory in an accident. He accepts a request to find a criminal suspect who escaped from custody. As Johnny approaches the escapee, an illusion-like beast, who appears from a green light known as "The Window," swallows the escapee up. Johnny soon finds himself in a fight against the illusion-like creatures. Johnny has a female counterpart taking a central role in the story. Shania is a 21-year-old Native American who makes use of spiritual power when she fights. Sensing a strange power from Johnny, she decides to join him on his journeys. And like usual, after that, the stories developing to become deeper and they got new partners along the way.

What makes it different with other RPG is the judgement ring. Judgement ring plays very important role in Shadow Hearts. It determines if ur attack would execute, or if u would get discount, etc. Judgement ring is a ring with a needle like clock needle that would rotate, and u (as the player) would need to hit the button when the needle get into certain area to determine if ur attack would execute, etc. It is just a simple addition to the classic RPG, but it adds to the fun and works like magic. It adds some challenges and depths to the game system which is easy to learn and takes time to master. What's more, the publisher adds some twist to the judgement ring, like the status effect to the judgement ring that makes the hit area smaller, the needle turns faster, equipments to slower the needle's turns, etc. And u can even choose to make the judgement ring auto hit if u're really bad with it (though it comes with some penalty and decreases the fun of the game).

So, all in all, this game is worth to play, fun, lots of side games and the story is not bad.