There are certain things in life you come to expect. The sun will rise in the morning, the Vikings will always choke in the playoffs and one day, you’ll die. Another of life’s expectations is that every Shadow Hearts game will be just as odd as the last. Shadow Hearts: From the New World is the third game in the series and, while it manages to hold on to everything that made past games so entertaining, things never seem to come together as well as you would hope.

Visually, From the New World keeps the same style as previous games and is up to par with what you would expect from a current generation RPG. Each of the game’s locales are true to their real world setting and give the game firm grounding before spinning off into their own twisted little universe. Characters are modeled well and animated really nicely, especially during battles. Each character’s personality really comes through during battles.

While the voice acting isn’t the best I’ve heard, the localization is top notch. The game’s dialogue is full of one-liners and obscure pop culture references. As for music… well, let’s just say I liked it enough to buy the soundtrack.

The Shadow Hearts series has never been anything other than strange. The games eschew the traditional swords and sorcery setting found in most RPGs and instead use real-world settings and events as their backdrop. Okay, so it is a very screwed up version of the real world…

Shadow Hearts: From the New World moves the series from Europe, where the last two have taken place, to America. This break means all new locations, as well as a whole new game. Except for a few vague references and the Judgement Ring, there are few connections between From the New World and the past two games. The game follows Johnny Garland, a sixteen-year-old detective who is hired to find a criminal in New York City. In true Shadow Hearts fashion, the job doesn’t go as planned and the criminal is eaten by a demon. Before the demon can turn its sights on Johnny, a winged creature appears and vanquishes it. From here, the game spirals from one twisted situation to the next. For starters, there’s Mao, a fat, talking cat that knows kung fu and Frank, a Brazilian ninja master. Then of course there’s Hilda, an insane magic user whose appearance changes based on how many calories she’s consumed. You’ll also team up and run into a few notable figures from American history as well – but I won’t spoil the surprises.

From the New World’s story is long and follows the pacing of other games. Except for the middle ten hours or so, the story is enjoyable – at least when looked at from the perspective that this is a Shadow Hearts game. If you’re expecting Final Fantasy, this isn’t it. The problem with the game’s narrative structure is that it jumps around a little too much. Most of the time, location jumps are logical. At others, especially during that 10-hour lull, the jumps are completely random.

Overall, the entire game takes about 25 – 30 hours to complete the main story. Optional sidequests are also available and can easily tack on another 10+ hours. These include finding cast members for Gao’s movie, trapping creatures and appeasing the ghost that lives outside Johnny’s apartment. Completing these tasks isn’t necessary, though they do offer up some nice rewards, especially new Judgement Ring parts.

Shadow Hearts: From the New World leans towards the difficult side as far as RPGs go. Battles aren’t all that hard, provided you can use the Judgement Ring correctly (and really, it is pretty easy), but they are numerous.

Adding to the frustration of numerous encounters is a character’s Sanity meter. Each time a character is hit, his sanity drops. Once it hits zero, the character goes berserk and will begin to randomly pull off actions, sometimes healing enemies or hurting allies. Since the encounter rate is so high, berserked characters aren’t all that uncommon. These moments usually seem to come at the worse possible times, possibly sending you into a berserker rage of your own.

The story’s randomness leads to objectives not always being very clear. Nearly all of the story events require that you talk to someone in each area. Sometimes that person is easy to find, while at others, you’ll find yourself walking around in a daze trying to find that one person.

The Judgement Ring is the only real holdover from past series. For those unfamiliar with it, it is essentially a circle with colored bars on it. The goal is to stop a spinning arm on one of the colored sections. Stopping the bar on one of the smaller sections provides a greater benefit than stopping on a larger bar.

Almost everything in the game uses the Judgement Ring. The most obvious is, of course, combat. Every attack made by a character requires using the ring; so the more attacks a character has, the more colored spots appear on the ring. Building up successful attacks will eventually earn Double attacks, allowing them to take two turns in a row. Combo attacks can also be unlocked, letting another character in on an attack. Combo attacks are unique in that they not only use the Ring, but also require an additional button press (which is flashed on the screen). If you’re skillful enough, you can even pull off Double Combos, though these are understandably rare occurrences.

Adding even more depth to the system, you can also choose to use height-changing attacks. By successfully pulling these off, you can change a character’s posture; either by throwing them up in the air or knocking them on the ground. Height-changing attacks can even be teamed up with other attacks for even more damage.

Shops also make effective use of the Judgement Ring. After making purchases, stopping the Judgement Ring on the “sweet spot” nets you a discount. The more successful you are, the better the discount you’ll earn.

The Judgement Ring is extremely flexible, which is a good thing considering how much you use it. New parts are earned throughout the game. These can then be added to a Character’s ring, giving them more attacks, wider colored areas, special attributes or a slower bar. And, if timing really isn’t your best attribute, you can also switch the Ring to automatic. Doing so guarantees a hit every time, but removes the ability to perform critical strikes.

Shadow Hearts: From the New World is a good game, but not a great one (at least when compared to the last two games in the series). The battle system is one of the best available and the story is amusing enough that you’ll keep wanting to play just to see what weird thing happens next. However, the story never fully comes together, leading to a slower pacing and confusing moments – both of which keep the game from reaching its full potential.