Konami has released the sequel to their popular strategy RPG, Vandal Hearts. The first game was pretty easy and, quite frankly, on the short side. The

The Vandal Hearts 2 storyline is completely independent from the first game. This time around, the plot is very politically oriented. After many wars, the world is divided into four major nations. In the Kingdom of Natra, a power struggle for the succession to the throne has sparked a civil war that tears the country apart. Each side is aided by a neighboring country which serves its own interests. Enter the hero character who, by birth, is a simple peasant but through ambition quickly rises to the leader of an infamous bandit gang.  Through auspicious circumstances, his party gets caught up in the civil war and thus begins his quest to fulfill his destiny. 

The game begins when all of the major characters are kids.  This sets up their relationships which become very important later on in the game. What's obvious about this game which wasn't in the first is that the relationships between the characters play vital roles in the plot. Betrayal, deceit, and lost love all give the basic war plot an edge that was missing in the original.  

The graphics have not changed much from the first game. Each stage is a fully rotatable landscape with the same sprite-based characters. The portraits this time around are drawn from what looks like photographs. This approach moves the game away from the cartoony feel of the original game and toward a realistic atmosphere. The sound and music are typical for this kind of game - repetitive and uninspired. Attacks and spells have their own sound effects and environments, such as rivers, add their sounds as well. Unfortunately, none of these are particularly noticeable and really add little to the overall gameplay.

And gameplay is where Vandal Hearts 2 really departs from similar games of this genre.  One important difference is the deviation from set character classes such as mage, warrior, or war bird. Instead, each character can be made whatever the player wishes by using weapons and armor. For instance, winged armor can make a character fly around the map but with the trade off of lower hit points.  Robe-type armor will increase magic points but decrease hit points, etc. Thus, it is very easy to change a character from a knight-type to a mage-type by simply changing the armor and weapons. 

There is a very large variety of weapons ranging from swords, lances, and knives to bows, hammers, and projectiles. Magic is also handled very differently here. Instead of gaining spells through experience, the player needs to buy different weapons which are attached to spells or special abilities. A stronger weapon may have a stronger attack spell. Shields have defensive and healing spells.  Once bought, the weapon must be used in battle a bit in order to activate whatever spell or special ability it may have.  The coolest part about this system is that spells from one weapon can be attached to another weapon of the same class. So you can mix and match your favorite spells to enhance the final weapon.

Unfortunately, due to the extremely complex spell and weapon system, menu navigation becomes extremely tedious and time-consuming.  Preparing characters for battle may take as long as an actual battle.  While the game certainly offers something new in this regard, the menus-upon-menus navigation system makes it overly complicated which may turn off some gamers from digging deep into the game. 

The basic plot flow goes from town, to story segment, to overworld map where you move to a battle location and a repeat of the next story segment. Once a mandatory plot location is cleared, you can go back and fight more generic battles to gain experience and open missed treasure chests at your leisure. Once battles are won, the player acquires money and a double money bonus if all characters survive. 

The battles are where the actual strategy takes place. The player must position his characters and move them to achieve a specific objective such as defeating all the enemies and keeping the hero alive. The player's turns are taken simultaneously with the computer's turns.  This means that every time a player character moves, an enemy character also moves. This can be frustrating if you position your character to attack an enemy character and that enemy character moves away at the same time.  As a result, you end up missing and wasting your turn. Conversely, if you play right you can anticipate the enemy movement and move your own characters to dodge an attack.  This second-guessing approach makes for an intensely strategic battle. As seems to be the emerging norm, attacking from higher elevations or behind an enemy will deliver bigger damage.