Ring Out, Solstice Bells (Day 320)

Vandal Hearts is a little known strategy RPG from early in the PlayStation's life cycle. I've never been a fan of developers' early attempts at 3D graphics on consoles, and the garish blocky backgrounds in this game can certainly attest to that. However, most of the game's graphics are 2D sprite-based and not particularly pretty to look at either. Despite some reasonably slick animations and fountains of gratuitous blood, the artwork and character designs in this game are mostly awful. Fortunately, the gameplay itself is very solid.

Vandal Hearts could best be described as a hybrid between strategy RPGs like Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics with a class system more reminiscent of Fire Emblem or Seiken Densetsu 3. Each character recruited to your party in Vandal Hearts corresponds to a certain class such as Soldier, Healer, or Archer. At level 10, you are given the option to promote to a new class. Like Seiken Densetsu 3 or Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones, you'll be afforded the opportunity to choose between two possible classes to which you can upgrade. For instance, a Soldier can become the more offensive Swordsman or the defensive Guardsman, who wields a large shield and an axe.

Although I haven't made it that far yet, I've read that you can promote again at level 20. I can only assume each class again has two options to choose from. If Vandal Hearts follows in the foosteps of Seiken Densetsu 3, this will be the case. In the case of that game, each class had a light and dark upgrade, so each character ended up with a wide variety of different choices for class advancement.

Another similarity that Vandal Hearts shares with Fire Emblem is the fact that each unit in your party is a unique character. There is no such thing as a generic unit as in Final Fantasy Tactics. However, I can't speak for any depth these characters might have. The plot so far seems mostly forgettable, but that could easily change later. The only thing really keeping me interested at this point is the desire to see all of the different classes and spells I can unlock. It's a solid game, but I can't call it essential by any means--at least not so far.