I'm Waking Up Every Morning at 5am to Play Shadow Hearts on a Pink PS2 with a Pink Controller

Inspired by a friend, who has a blog of her own, I've decided to start blogging some of my gaming adventures. In particular, I've had a unique schedule with Shadow Hearts for the PS2. Starting over the Winter Break from school and while I was at my parent's house (and, therefore, had access to my Sakura Pink PlayStation 2 and several DVD-Rs to burn), I began charting a path towards making my Japanese PS2 playable.

Between December 20th and December 22nd of 2025, I was in New Mexico visiting family. I believe it was the 21st when we were doing some Christmas shopping and went to a thrift store, where I found a PlayStation FreeMcBoot card in it's full package, manual and all. I bought it and, once back in Texas, tested it out. It worked! But I didn't want to boot games from a USB stick (I heard that was slow and had bad performance) and I didn't want to boot from a hard drive (I haven't done the research to see how that works). However, last summer I was experimenting with FreeDVDBoot. The family PS2 is a Phat, but the PS2 I bought for my sister is a Slim. FreeDVDBoot *always* works on a Slim, as far as I'm concerned, so I started burning DVDs for her. And roughly 85% of them worked! I got invested, but couldn't make games for her once I got home. So, I started trying to crack the family Phat PS2. Although I still haven't managed it, I felt that I made decent progress. With this experience, I felt more comfortable burning ESR-patched ISOs onto discs for me to use on my Japanese PS2.

The first disc I made, of course, was an ESR patched version of my ISO for Haunting Ground. I love this ISO, have it backed up to a Cloud, and want it to become a family heirloom some day (not entirely joking on this one). I've talked about it with friends and family before, but there is something so special and neat about burning discs for my friends to play Haunting Ground, one of my favorite games of all time, and it's not an ISO I found on the Internet. It would be totally fine, if that was the case. The ISO for Haunting Ground on Vimm's Lair has always worked great for me, both the North American and European version, and I'm extremely grateful for the people who got those ISOs and shared them with the public. However, there is something much more personal about sharing the ISO of my personal copy with friends and family. Have any of my friends/family played the game, yet? No. But in their home, they have a disc that says "Haunting Ground," the version it's been patched to, and a note that says "Love, Maia." I don't know if those discs will last, but things have a way of sticking around, and I'd love to imagine someone else finding those years down the line. And, maybe they'll pop it into the PS2 and experience the game for themselves.

Anyways, I'm ranting. Oops.

On January 7th, I burned a copy of Shadow Hearts onto a disc for myself and popped it into the PS2. My first time playing this was during mid-morning, probably around 8am - 10am, and I wasn't immediately hooked. But, I'd heard the words "gothic" and "horror" surrounding this game, and so I decided to give it more time.

I liked the music and dark atmosphere of the outdoor night sky in the opening. I enjoyed Alice's character and character design, was frustrated with Yuri, and decided to save the game and quit.

Until I woke up around 5am on January 8th and decided to pop the disc in again. There's something magical about waking up in a house that has so many people (I come from a big family) and knowing it's morning but the sun not being up yet. Sneaking down the stairs and getting breakfast. Closing the doors quietly, keeping the lights off, and booting up your game with the volume barely up. I don't know what it is about Shadow Hearts, but it fit into the ideal image perfectly. The noise when you boot up the game, and the "ding" it makes when you press 'X' to skip the opening company credits. I believe you press it three times before you get to the opening screen, and the pretty music plays. Press 'X' two more times for that same "ding," and you get to continue where you left off. It's lovely, and I liked it.

I remember distinctly the cannibal village because I was genuinely spooked. I wasn't confident in the combat system yet, and Alice isn't exactly the strongest team member. In this early game, I was constantly complaining in my head about Yuri's characterization and how I just wanted to play as a girl. Sometime after the cannibal village, this predominant thought would move from the forefront of my mind to the backseat and I would be mainly enchanted by the game. At this point, now, I'm used to being Yuri and I actually like the combat. Whereas I had originally been praying for a modded version of the game that switched Yuri and Alice's character (so that I could play as an Alice that was a bit more mean to Yuri and witness a Yuri that was constantly having to be protected by Alice), I now just enjoy the game for what it is.

I would wake up early again on the 9th of January to play more Shadow Hearts. And then the 10th. I got to the fishing village, and would listen to Sea Mother's recounting of Li Li's story. However, the sound got really funky at one point and just became loud static, so I had to pull out the sound cables to try and fix it. When that didn't work, I just muted it until story time was over. I would head back to my apartment the same day, and then wake up the following day around 7am instead of 5am to play some more. This gameplay session was mostly just leveling up for a boss I had deemed rather tough. I was in the fishing village, but before the Li Li fight on the boat. On the 12th, I would wake up around 7am on the first day of class on my final semester of undergrad and would beat the boss of the fishing village before the smuggler's boat section. On the 15th, I played some more (and, unrelated, broke my smartphone screen... Now we're really stuck with the Nokia 2780). I don't have any notes made about playing on January 16th, but I did start Heated Rivalry! On the 17th, I woke up early once again and played some more. On the 20th, I traded Shadow Hearts time for some RE5 Mercenaries (who can blame me?) and on the following day, I would beat the trials in the tower.

I made it through some of the Dehaui section, and on the 27th I decided to start making this blog on the 28th. The following notes for the 27th were written on the 28th, and the notes for the 28th were written on the 28th. Here are the following names of characters for reading convenience, as the game has canonical names but lets you have fun and name them whatever you want:

1/27/2026
For this section of the game, I did pull up a GameFAQs guide. I don't need to provide an excuse but I will anyways: I play this game almost primarily at 5am. Brain no worky. Can't figure out picture puzzle.

Excuse finished.

Nonetheless, I kept it pulled up for the following fights before I'd even attempted them because, hey, the website was already open! And things progressed smoothly. (Here's the guide I used.)

Fighting the Badger Devil was a piece of cake because I'd leveled up Margarete/Piper and she now had the 'Snipe' spell. Which was a one-shot kill, I'll have you know. When I saw that rifle drop from the sky, I squealed. SHE IS SO COOL. And the sound when each end falls in her hand? It's just so satisfying and I love the 'clicky' sound it makes.

The following fights were easy, but the Dehuai/Yamaraja/Calamity fight at the very top of the tower was taking too long, and while I'd prepared for petrification, I had not prepared for Piper and Zazzerta to be silenced. Also, I was too excited to go write about Sheva Alomar, and so I turned off the game (after saving before the fight) and went and did that, instead.

1/28/2026
Today is not a 5am play session! I actually woke up around 7am and played some Wild World (more on that, later). I successfully beat Dehuai/Yamaraja/Calamity on the first try of the day, although Zhuzhen/Zazzerta died (sorry) and Piper went berserk (sorry, again). This is particularly unfortunate because neither of these characters, her arguably need the experience more than Yuri/Mop, got the experience that Mop ended up getting.

Also, Alice fell down right after the fight and was like "owie" even though bitch wasn't even part of party. Tired, Alice? OVER WHAT?!

Also-also, every time Dehuai says the word "Seraphic," I read it as "Saphic." Oops.

...

Kawashima x Margarete when?

Question! And this is nitpicky, but, is this a typo? "Yes. The bastard tried to loose his last bit of strength and ignite the Spirit Machine." Did they mean 'lose'? I am only asking because I can see it both ways. Like, he tried to "let loose" his last bit of strength? I get that this game has been localized (and I'm grateful for that) but some of the dialogue options and the fact that I had to pick up a dirty magazine... Yeah, I'm allowed to make fun of this game.

Also: Kevin Bacon saying "spot of tea" and "ta-ta, everyone!" and then evil laughing is possibly a new vocal stim.

And finally... Sorry, Shanghai... Couldn't save you :(

...

1/30/2026
This morning is an early morning and bagel in one hand (energy drink in other), I sit down to play. Terry has died (rip to a real one) and Alice and Zazzerta make it to the town of Bistritz to check out the situation and inform his family that he is, in fact, dead. When we make it there, the town is covered in the coolest, spookiest fog and I can't help but laugh at the dialogue Zazzerta has here. He says something along the lines of "This is kinda creepy," which- yeah. Yeah, it is.

We meet Terry's wife and daughter, Michelle and Nina. Nina mentions something about the master of the castle not being involved, but is quickly told to stfu by her mom. Probably not important.

The mayor walks in (why is he roaming around the monster-ridden fog at night?) and lowkey starts making moves on Michelle after finding out that her husband is dead. Albeit hilarious, probably not the time.

The mayor, Kevin, is immediately giving off the wrong vibes - which the game confirms a second later by having Alice confirm that there's something "evil" behind his house door. We go house to house, talking to villagers through their locked doors, and then meet back up with Michelle and Nina. Michelle is feeling sick (which makes sense, she just found out her husband died), so Nina greets us instead. She tells us about how the man in the castle saved her from wolves one time, and that he's not responsible for the monsters.

We decide to go ask him some questions, and make our way to Blue Castle.

The forest we have to go through, though, is full of gnarled and grotesque looking trees (sorry, trees). It's really cool looking and is reminiscent of not only Yuri's graveyard, but of Kingdom Hearts 2's Nightmare Before Christmas world. Very cool looking stuff.

I make it through the castle a tiny bit, before getting the itch to play some Animal Crossing, haha.

I am still getting used to Alice's attack ring, and am lowkey missing Yuri/Mop. That guy was a bit irritating at first, but he really grew on me. Heard he was in the second game, too, and a bit more likable off the bat there. So, I'm looking forward to that. I also want to play as a GIRL.

Thank you for reading. Wanna go back to the home page?