This layout is based on 'kawaii collage' by sugarpurr. I removed the background and I scaled the image up a bit with an AI tool.

Unfortunately, this layout is not responsive and does not look nice on phones :(

But it's still super cool!

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You can find the code to this layout here.

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 also had searched up PS2 games where you got to play as a girl, and was expecting this to be one of them. About an hour to two hours in, I would realize that the search results I'd gotten back was in reference to the second Shadow Hearts game, Covenant. Oops. I guess the vibes of the game had already had me hooked at this point, because I decided to keep playing. I couldn't quite figure out how to get the wheel to work, had somehow missed the message on the bottom that said to press the 'X' button three times, and stumbled my way through the opening. (I would later have to search up a long-play video of the game on YouTube to figure out the combat system.)

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:

Yuri has been named Mop. Alice is still Alice. Zhuzhen has been named Zazzerta. Margarete has been named Piper.

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?

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.

Uh oh! Roger Bacon is here! I always forget that his first name is Roger and, unfortunately, want to call him Kevin. Bacon is a name I simply cannot take seriously. I still need to work through Koudelka on my PSP, but I've been enjoying Shadow Hearts way too much.

Thirteen hours into the game, and we're finally blessed with another CGI cutscene. I'm a fan of this God creature thingy's design. The long, red nails... Slayyyyyyy, queen. (Seriously, though, I'm a huge fan of the wings coming out from the head. I have a Procreate folder on my iPad ironically titled 'Angles' because I had a long-ass phase, that still isn't over, where I was drawing angels and wings. One of the drawings, coincidentally, is of a man with wings sprouting from his head and around his face. Love seeing something like that in this game! It feels fitting.)

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 :(

...

Did I just get the bad ending?

Oh shit, we're in Europe now. I definitely got the bad ending.

Six months later... DO I get to play as a girl, now? Please??

YES!! THIRTEEN HOURS IN AND I GET TO BE ALICE! FUCKING FINALLY!! (The time during the trials doesn't count. I had my magic locked away from me.)

So, now it's six months later, and Alice and Zazzerta are Scooby-Doo-ing it in Prague. They go out for a bite to eat, Zazzerta makes a comment about getting old and... experiencing incontinence? Talking to the customers, we find out that Zazzerta and Alice have only called Prague home for about a month, which leaves me wondering where they've been for the past five? Having about 40,000 in cash, I buy a Chainmail Vest and Silk Bolero both on discount. Zazzerta's incontinence spell (?) is over and he meets us after I'm done buying from the woman. Zazzerta reassures Alice that Mop/Yuri is still alive.

A man named Terry enters the bar looking for us (the exorcists) and tells us his story, which is a tale all too familiar: his town is overrun with monsters each night, and he needs help.

I think that maybe they should just sell their houses and leave... but to who, Ben, fucking Aquaman?!

We hear a scream from near the castle walls - could it be... Terry? We run that way, but only to meet yet another evil old woman... (It's not that many times, but it's weird that it's happened twice. Maybe it's balanced out by Sea Mama being a good-guy.)

The monsters we face have crow heads atop their necks and what look like worms stringing out from their torso. At least, upon first glance, that is. Something tells me I'll be seeing them again soon enough.

I love being able to play as Alice, but I'm admittedly a little bit frustrated that my current duo is both Zazzerta and Alice. Arguably, my weakest characters. The game hasn't given me any magic attacks for Alice, and Zazzerta's defense is always questionable. I'd much rather be a Piper/Margarete and Alice duo, again. We love a girls' outing.

Except, that won't be happening, as the two have decided to go on ahead without waiting for Piper/Margarete...

Which, I think is a stupid idea - but I obviously don't get a say.

Onto the village! (Resident Evil reference?)

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.

1/31/2026
We're inside Blue Castle! Zazzerta and Alice are wondering around, doing some leveling up, and stumble upon a room full of eight coffins. They all have names (one of them is Leon! Is that... saying something about RE9?) and you have to get all the torches above the coffins lit. It's like the RPD lock box puzzle in RE2R that makes that cute ringtone once you've unlocked it. The answer is alphabetical, which I thought to try but was too focused on how I *almost* had it each time. Then I just googled it and, yeah, it was just the names in alphabetical order. Oops.

We're sixteen hours into the game and we have a new character joining our team! The vampire of the castle, named Keith Valentine, has joined our ranks. I changed his name to Lestat, though, for obvious reasons. "Keith" just wasn't cutting it.

We level up some more, and Zazzerta learns a new skill! "Corpse arm." Cool.

2/6/2026
Welcome back, gamers! I had a busy couple of days, but now we're back in action. Honestly, a break from the game made me appreciate it even more upon boot-up on this lovely 5am-morning.

So, where were we?

The cursed town of Bistritz is in need of our assistance, and it's revealed to us through Kevin that Terry, the man who reached out to us (and died, as a result) was actually his partner. They were researching vampires in order to figure out how to get their hands on the "treasure of Blue Castle." Lestat, the vampire of Blue Castle who just joined our party, informs us that there is no treasure. In the middle of researching, Kevin and Terry (what a duo!) figured out how to summon monsters, and they're under the complete control of Kevin. So the monsters that attacked and killed Terry? All Kevin's doing. The monsters that have been attacking us? Fucking Kevin!

(I was going to make a Kevin Bacon joke but, alas, there is already a Bacon in this game and I don't want it to get confusing. The Kevin Bacon jokes are reserved for the Big-Bad-Bacon when we see him again.)

We run to Nina after recruiting Lestat, only to find that her mother (Michelle) has been kidnapped. Kevin told Nina that the only way to get her mother back is for her to give him the gold dust that she has.

So, we break into his house and threaten to bonk him on the head.

He turns into a monster (don't they always?) and it's a pretty cool design! He looks like a fleshy, meaty dog that's been wrapped with, like, a wire. And the meat protrudes around the tightness of that wire. And he has one bulging eye on his left side. The wire wraps around his body, leading to a spiked collar around his neck. He has a stump for a tail and the flesh is worn around his front left elbow, revealing the bone that's wearing the flesh like a frayed sock. It's spooky and reminds me of something from Silent Hill 1 and 3, if memory serves me right.

I'm fond of our newest addition, Lestat the Vampire, already. Maybe it's because he's a vampire, maybe it's because I named him Lestat, or maybe it's because we were in dire need of more attack power, but I'm excited that he's here and to see what he contributes to the story overall. I love his boots, as well. They look like the Antique Boots from New Horizons. Or the boots that the prince wears in the The Little Mermaid. I love the way he seemingly teleports over to the enemy, and dodges attacks. I will say that his weird moans during rituals is funny and kinda catches me off guard.

During the Dog-Kevin fight, Alice ends up going berserk. And I really want to talk about how frustrating it is that berserk characters who survive the battle don't earn any XP at all. I get that it's, like, a punishment (for going too long in the fight, I guess?), but I wish we'd get like at least half of the total XP we would've earned. Nonetheless, Alice's berserk music is cool and pretty spooky, so that was nice to hear, at least.

After the battle, Michelle and Nina are reunited and the fog is gone. Going back to Kevin's lab to talk with Lestat, he informs us that there is a demon in his castle that "looks human but transforms into a monster." Alice and Zazzerta excitedly agree to exorcise the "demon," thinking that it might be Mop. After this dialogue, I look around Kevin's lab - and I come across what Alice calls a "cheap-looking crucifix." Which is just too funny to me. Of course she would know what a cheap crucifix looks like compared to a quality one. And it seems so in-line with her character, too, to indirectly insult one of the foes.

2/9/2026
Time for Blue Castle (dark!).

I decide to visit the Acupuncturist beforehand to get Lestat's attack ring a bit larger, and... I'm morbidly curious to see what his reaction is going to be. (It wasn't that bad.)

Lestat unlocks the door to the left and allows to climb the tower. My attack ring executions are not the best today, unfortunately.

We start climbing the tower, and it is really, really tall. Like, kinda stupidly tall. But I really like the fixed camera angles on the way up!

The tower is ridiculously tall, and I hope I have an option to jump out the window to get down. Because I don't want to go all the way down. Please, don't make me go down.

Mop is in the tower! And we have to fight him! Yay! Exciting!

Alice get's knocked out (twice) and corpse arm misses. Awesome.

Mop is really difficult, unfortunately. But WHO made him that way?? ME. I LEVELED HIM UP.

Now we're just stuck with Mop using drain wave (to take away my MP) BUT I have no more MP and he keeps trying?

OH?! Okay, we got Mop down to low HP and the game switches over to Alice in the graveyard. Alice talks to the four masks, and they agree to let her past the gate, but in return she will bear their curse and they will one day come for her soul. She agrees, saying that she does not care as long as she can save Mop.

Alice finds him digging his own grave (literally). Fox Face appears (Mop's dad who is lowkey evil?) and Alice confronts him, cries, and then he fucking pelts her in the face?! I let out a nasty snort at that, so funny. Now everyone is just hitting each other and goodness. Now we have to fight him. Die, Papa!

...

He killed me. He has an attack that does 300-something damage, and kills me. And then I get an actual game over, not a fake one. And then it takes me back to BEFORE I fought Mop originally.

I am done. Terrible point to NOT put a save spot. Done.

BYE.

2/10/2026
It's time to redo the fights from yesterday, but what I'm mainly dreading is skipping all that dialogue. Literally right now, I am typing with one hand, pressing 'X' with the other.

I ended up reusing that guide from earlier to look into what I needed to do for each fight, and it seems that I was pretty close to defeating Fox Face the first time. If I die again, though, I'm gonna lose it and not play again until tomorrow.

I GOT HIS ASS!

I was worried about that fight, but it was pretty easy (knowing what was going to happen made it so). And the biggest threat was having to do all those cutscenes again.

So, for context, Fox Face (Mop's dad wearing a fox mask) has been "chasing" us throughout the game. There is a monster meter that goes up with the more monsters you defeat, and you have to reset it every now and then by visiting 'The Graveyard' (which I think is a place within Mop's mind/soul) and defeating a monster there. If you don't reset it, and the meter goes into the red, then Fox Face will start to chase you.

Now, that sounds absolutely terrifying - so I never let the meter go into the red.

After defeating Fox Face here, though, it is revealed that it's not actually Mop's dad (who is dead btw), but Mop himself. Some sort of inner turmoil thing, I'm sure. I really liked this moment though, especially because of the soundtrack this game is sporting, but I think it would've been more impactful if I'd let Fox Face chase me a time or two. Maybe on playthrough two, however many years from now that'll be.

With Lestat joining us on our adventures, and Mop now back in our party, we head back to Prague. We go to the bar and are told that Piper is waiting for us just north of Paris.

A drunk woman named Yuria kind of bugs the group before heading to the woman's restroom. We chat some more, and then get concerned about her since she's still in there. Alice agrees to go check, but there's a witch in the bathroom and a fight ensues.

You have to fight the witch as just Alice, which is a bit frustrating. I went berserk before much else happened. So at one point I was just writing this while the game autoplayed. And then I died - and I, once again, expected that to be a scripted fail - but I got a game over. This game is something else.

The design of the witch (Olga, funnily enough, is her name) during the battle is really cool, though. It's like her classic purple witch-robe is made of leather.

Just before my sanity counter reaches the negatives, I manage to defeat her. The problem I was having before is that I didn't realize Alice had one magic spell that didn't damage, I thought she was solely support (and I'd read the attack description wrong, thinking it added a light-class attack to a move and not just being a light-class attack within itself).

So, I kicked Olga's butt. Fun.

Mop, hearing the commotion, enters the woman's restroom. Be careful, Mop! Bathroom laws are tight in Texas, these days :(

Without really finding out what happened to Yuria (only knowing that Olga had possessed her during that fight and we successfully exorcised Olga out of her) we regroup outside of the bathroom and head to Rouen in France. The carriage ride takes about a month, and once we get into to town we head into an inn. Upon asking the inn-owner some questions, we learn that Piper has a room there as well, but isn't in right now. Everyone decides to go ahead and turn in for the night, but Mop has a nightmare.

In the nightmare, we're back in the graveyard. The four masks inform us that now, when the meter gets into the red, Fox Face will no longer be there to chase us. Instead, the masks themselves will chase after Alice, with the goal of snatching her soul (since, when she visited the graveyard, she agreed to share the burden of the curse Mop has with this whole graveyard thing. Uh oh.). I have a bad feeling about this...

Also, I'm calling it - Piper is a bad guy. I love Piper, so this pains me... But she's just too suspicious.

2/20/2026
It's been a hot minute! I've been a busy bee. Where were we?

We start out in the hotel looking for Alice. As Mop, we head out and find her in an alleyway near the back entrance to a church. Apparently, this is where her father was murdered.

While Mop and Alice talk, Bacon shows up with his little old lady henchman, Arcane Olga. He says that he's not there to fight, but to alert the party of his presence (isn't that nice of him?). Olga doesn't seem to be as friendly, though, but before she can send her evil cohort of enemies after us - Piper shows up! She jumps down from a roof from somewhere and makes quite the entrance. She's probably my favorite character, and I'm very happy that she's back.

The three of them, Mop, Alice, and Piper, fight off two enemies summoned by Olga. After they're defeated, Olga and Bacon teleport away. The group returns to the hotel room to meet with Zazzera and Lestat. Piper and Lestat are introduced to each other, and it seems they both have a thing for the other (rip Kawashima x Margarete, you'll remain in my head only, I guess).

The group asks Alice about who her father was trying to meet up with the day he died. Alice says that the Father of the church will know, but before they head out - Piper shares the culmination of her research over the past few months. It turns out that Bacon is hundreds of years old, and was exiled by the church during the witch hunts in Europe. When precious holy books were stolen from the Vatican 23 years prior to current day, Alice's father and a man named James O'Flaherty eventually split up to look for the three books. The game mentions Wales, which is where my ears perked up! The hour-ish I played of Koudelka, the "somewhat prequel" to Shadow Hearts, is paying off. I looked up the characters from Koudelka, and James O'Flahtery is on the list! I'm guessing he died, though, because Alice informs the group that the last letter her father received from the man came from Wales.

The group decide to head out to the church, despite Olga (who has been spying on them in their hotel room) warning them not to go. I group up with Mop, Piper, and Alice (my star trio!) and head out. Mop breaks the back door down and we meet the Father of this church, who is afraid of the group. He is able to tell Alice the name of the man her father was going to meet the day he died: Cardinal Simon. However, he is struck down by lightning (from Olga, of course) before he manages to share Simon's location.

Oops.

The Father's dying words inform us that Cardinal Simon is in London, and then he disappears and I return to the hotel to save my game. The music for the hotel/Rouen is very relaxing. I actually have my game on as I write this, letting Mop just stand there so I can enjoy the music. I love this game's soundtrack. I was going to have the map music playing on this blog page of the website, but I'm not a premium Neocities user and so it won't let me :/

Here are the two songs that I've added to my iPod from the game, though:

• Plains 'Sphere -qu-'
• China Map 'Blow up'

2/21/2026
We make it to London! It's sort of dark, some point at night, and there's a kid that's almost getting kidnapped, I think? But I can't take it seriously because the game has this cheery-ass tune playing in the background. Definitely does not fit the ambience the environment is giving, and feels misplaced.

Maragarete/Piper helps out a kid who was about to get dragged off to "the orphanage," and in return the kid steals her wallet. We track down the punk and find other punks, too, who are all without parents, but refuse to get caught and go to the orphanage. Why? Well, they claim that the children who go there get "turned into monsters." With all the shit we've seen in this game, I believe them immediately.

The leader of the London Rats is a boy named Halley. We have the option to name him something else, but I got confused and thought I was naming the bartender who was telling me about Halley? Anyways - we kept his name Halley, and he goes with us to ask the old man next door if he knows where Cardinal Simon lives. The old man tells us about the mansion Simon owns in the next town over, so we go there - but upon arrival, Halley freaks out, saying that this mansion is actually the orphanage that he protects the other kids from.

Halley hides and waits for us to go inspect. When we knock on the door, we're greeted by a man named Jack. He says that he doesn't know much about the previous owner, but does remember that his name was Cardinal Albert Simon. Margarete/Piper immediately calls bullshit, interrogating him about his knowledge of Cardinal Simon as well as asking where all the kids are, all while under the guise of being a reporter from the USA named Malkovich.

I don't believe Margarete's nationality was reveleaed to us earlier in the game - for some reason I thought she was Russian? Either way, I'm curious now where exactly she's from. We know that Yuri/Mop is Japanese, Alice is English (I think?), Zazzera is Chinese, Halley is English, and Margarete/Piper is... North American? Russian? Also, I'm pretty sure Kieth/Lestat was in the Prague section of the game, so I'm guessing he's from modern-day Czech Republic. I only point this out because we've been everywhere in this game, and I love that our journey is reflected in the cast of characters we adventure with. Everyone is from everywhere, forming unlikely friendships out of necessity or common goals. I know that language barriers is part of the "suspension of disbelief" (as in: we don't bring it up), but I'd like to think that they all find some joy when they go to a new place and are chatting with townsfolk and come across someone who knows their native tongue.

Anyways - Jack kicks us out of his mansion, and we go back to the London Rats hideout. However, we're being followed (unknowningly), and by the time we get to the hideout, Chris, Joshua, and Shanon (Sharon? I forgot...) are missing. Halley concludes that they've been kidnapped, and in a brief spat of anger reveals he has powers. The game recruits him, giving us one person to swap out with. Not knowing Halley's moveset, I send Piper to go back to the hotel to inform Lestat and Zazzera of what's happened. I want Alice in my party in case we need healing. However, the upcoming battle with the Night Crawler in the mansion proves my decision kind of pointless...

We travel back to the mansion, and the music is fittingly disturbing now (finally! I hated the little upbeat tune they were playing for gloomy London). We sneak inside, inspect a locked door, and hear the three missing kids on the other side. We're caught by the man in the black suit who had tailed us back to the hideout, and a fight breaks out. He turns into a monster called the Night Crawler, where he's basically a two-faced man hanging upside down from the ceiling, armed with a gun. He's relentless against Alice, and all I can do her turn is make her heal herself. If I'd known that Halley also had healing magic, I would've brought Piper with us for maximum damage output. Oh well. You live and you learn. Halley passes out, and then right before the fight is over, Alice does, too. Dammit. Only Mop is walking away with any EXP these days.

I head back to the inn and swap Alice out with Piper. When I get back to the orphanage, though, it's some typical random encounters that help with leveling up - so I might have to swap out characters a couple of times to get everyone up to a decent level. I personally dislike using Zazzera, and Lestat is cool but doesn't do as much damage as I wish he did.

Here are some screenshots I took, though, becuase I found them ironic for the times, but also very sad. As of February 21st, 2026 (the day I'm writing this), there's a worldwide 'scandal,' for lack of better word, that involves the abuse of children and the protection of the rich. Seeing it in my game, made when this abuse was happening, and having that realization that "this isn't fiction" is a bit heartbreaking. Anyways. Here's those screenshots:

If seeing the images is difficult, I'll quote them for you here.

The first one is when you're talking to the massuse guy who does acupuncture, and is also obviously gay and the game rags on it a bit (more on that later). He says the line "There aren't any young boys in this town. Wonder if some rich pervert's rounded them up somewhere!"

The second one is when you're inspecting the room that you saved the kids from in the orphanage. When inspecting the toys, the game (or Yuri/Mop, maybe) says "Toys that will never be played with again are scattered on the shelf."

Something tells me that the monsters we're fighting in this mansion we're once the orphaned children...

2/22/2026
UGH. TWO BOSS FIGHTS IN A ROW. AND IF ALL OF YOU GET PETRIFIED IT'S A GAME OVER.

WHO KNEW?

I beat Jack's boss fight, without saving beforehand because I didn't know there was going to be a boss fight. And then immediately after is another boss fight, again without saving and without healing, and I accidentally let all the characters get petrified. Whoops!

I will say, though: there was a puzzle where you had to enter dates as passcodes and because we're in Europe, it was day/month/year, rather than the U.S version (month/date/year), and I'm really glad that they didn't change it for North American localization. It would've "taken me out of it," probably. It just made sense, and I liked it.

Also, right before Jack's boss fight, he gets really upset and his boss fight begins when he, without notice, lunges at you with his entire body. It's awesome, and shows how he's kind of not all mentally there.

So, yeah. I might need to level up some more, and wear petrification prevention items when I load up the game again.

3/1/2026
It's a start of a new month, and it's been a good start - with me beating those two bosses from prior! I used the mirror shields to prevent petrification from the fight against Jack's resurrected mother. Apparently, I had an item equipped that made Halley's SP go down each turn by two, which I had noticed but thought was done on purpose by the game (since he was at the orphanage and was stressed by the situation). Also, I had no items equipped for Mop or Piper. I was raw-dogging literally everything.!

Jack is pathetic, and he calls out for his mother after we defeat her. It's not lost on me, the parallels between Jack and Halley. Jack, a man who is fully grown when he loses his mother and is "orphaned" takes advantage of and abuses orphan children, who are without their parents (just like him). Halley, who was "abandoned by his mother," according to him, has beef with the man who was also "abandoned" by his mother, when she died. Love it!

Both boss fights in a row took about forty-ish minutes to complete, which is a pain, but now it's over with! I had to keep using items to restore SP and MP for Piper and Halley. When the fight ended, Mop's SP was around six! That is SO many turns, especially since he starts out around, like, forty SP and your SP is consumed each round.

After the battles are complete, we are taken back to the London Rats' hideout for some story time. Halley reveals that his mother was taken away from him by the Inquisition and sent to a mental hospital. It's revealed that the voice that's been calling out to Mop throughout the game is Halley's mother. There were some lines that made me chuckle during this part, such as when Halley asked the group if they thought he was a monster, to which Zazzerta looks towards Mop and Mop goes "What are you looking at me for?!" When Halley reveals that the Inquisition took his mother, Alice is surprised and Mop asks what an inquisition is. Alice says the following:

"The Inquisition was a religious tribunal formed to stamp out heresy in 11th century Europe. They burned witches and warlocks in God’s name, but many innocents were slaughtered as well. Many were killed for political purposes as well. They were beaten, tortured and burned alive. It was terrible. Started by people who derived their authority form their religion."

And that last line really stuck with me.

The group decides to head to the mental hospital to retrieve Halley's mother, and that's where I called it. I have Resident Evil Requiem to get to, after all!

(Happy late Resident Evil (9) Day btw!!!)

3/13/2026

Hello, happy March, I'M GOING TO BLOW UP.

I've returned to my parent's for Spring Break, and I've resorted to playing on the living room television since it's one of the only televisions in the house with working AV ports. BUT - the screen is huge. And because of this, I'm pretty sure it's fucking up my Judgement Ring game.

I literally could not attack anything because I just kept missing. I am having to purposefully mistime my attacks to hit the spots within the ring. When I first started playing Shadow Hearts, this was the tv I started on. So, because of that, maybe I didn't notice?? But my Judgement Ring skills have been honed to an artform on the CRT television back at my apartment.

Also, I literally cannot hit anything as Alice. I've tried. I keep missing. So, I switched her out for Piper.

UGH.

On a different note, happy Resident Evil requiem, I finished the game last week and have begun to speedrun it and it is SO MUCH FUN. The clinic section is my favorite. I love Grace and Emily. I've noticed a lot of Haunting Ground "iconography" (idk if that's the right word to use), and I plan to write about it/make a video about it at some point. So, keep an eye out for that!

We've travelled from London to the Calios Mental Hospital, and inside are a bunch of the Friar Knights(?) and, you guessed it, cockroaches! Which is a great way to represent zealots. I get surrounded by five of them, they kill Mop and Piper, and Halley finished them off but while berserk. So, no one gets any XP and it was an overall waste of my time.

There are four vases in the room we're in, and I think we need a coin for each one - though, I've only picked up two so far. I pull up my handy-dandy guide (https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps2/459510-shadow-hearts/faqs/50849) because I'm not going to walk around aimlessly while I can hardly get the Judgement Ring to work. It's like someone is forcing me to play Guitar Hero while jumping on one foot. It sucks.

I use the guide to find the other two coins, plus some other items lying about the hospital (dungeon), and head back to the vase room. A door opens up once all the coins are put in their respective vases, so I heal, save, and go through the door.

Once through, we're met with another, heavier door and we hear Halley's mother's voice. Halley lets out a burst of magic/anger, and we're met with one of the creepier lines in the game from an "Arrogant Male Voice." He says "Ah hah hah hah... You miss your mother's milk that much, do you?!"

Which is, frankly, gross.

The dude who says that is the leader of the crazy religious fanatics, and he turns into a gross bald guy, with another bald head for feet, and a pot belly. Gross :D

He's not difficult to beat, though, so Mop, Halley, and Piper kick his ass. I have Piper give everyone, including herself, Aqua Edge whenever the boss increases his special defense. It takes a short time before he's down for good.

We make it into the heavy door, and we when Bacon tortures Halley - Halley's nonverbal mother goes verbal... and Bacon calls her "Koudelka Iasant." ??? Is Halley's mother Koudelka??? I saw her in the flashback and she didn't look the same??? She's a ginger here! Koudelka(?) tells Mop and the gang to meet a man in Wales... which is where the first game took place... the first game being titled Koudelka, of course.

This is so cool!!! I literally saw this coming out of nowhere.

Koudelka makes a deal with Bacon - she will be his Key of Darkness if he let's Mop, Piper, and Halley go. Bacon agrees that he won't kill them, since he needs Koudelka "willing," but he sends Olga out instead. Before this fight, though, I went to the graveyard and unlocked Baldo. So, now, I'm just a wee bit more powerful and prepared for the fight. Olga poisons us immediately, and we are poisoned for the rest of the battle because every time she does dark fog, I think that's what causes it (and, boy, did that bitch spam!). The fight takes a while, maybe thirty minutes or more, and the game didn't let me unequip the thing on Halley that takes two of his SP per turn (which I'd accidentally reequipped at some point).

I use Mop primarily for healing, Halley for damage output, and Piper for item usage. Towards the end, I'm consistently using Piper or Halley to increase one or the other's SP, and Mop is primarily healing. Just before the end, Piper goes berserk - and then the next move, Mop kills off Olga. So, the only character walking away without XP was Piper. Oof! Definitely not the ideal way to do that fight, but it got done. Now, with that section done, I think we're even closer to the finish line. I've thoroughly enjoyed Shadow Hearts, but I am extremely excited to play the second game.

We wake up back at the London Rats hideout, with Alice watching over Mop as he wakes up, commenting that he must've been exhausted and that Halley's mother's death really shook him. I guess since Koudelka went with Bacon, everyone is assuming that that's the end of her. But, since Bacon needs the Key of Light (Alice) to go with his Key of Darkness (Koudelka), I'd imagine that Koudelka is probably fine until Bacon gets his hands on Alice.

We find Halley upset, looking over a bridge, and Mop accuses him of being a crybaby weakling. Halley, of course, gets upset and lunges at Mop. Mop, in return, punches Halley in the face - immediately knocking the kid down. Alice just stands to the side, watches, has a flash back, and decides to go to Rouen - the place where her father died - by herself. Mop just lets her go, returns to the London Rats hideout, and informs the gang where she went. The gang is like "yo, what," leaves the room," and Halley begs Mop to let him come along. In response, Mop says probably my favorite line ever from him: "Halley, thou hast not won even once."

I don't know who the writers are. I don't know who the localizers are. But bless them.

3/16/2026

Alice goes to Rouen by herself (for some reason???) and learned that...

Cardinal Albert Simon is actually.. Roger Bacon? Ruh Roh!

We "hear him out," and he makes some banger points, actually:

"In fact, the blood and tears of the poor are sacrificed daily by a handful of elite power-mongers."

"Instigators are met by the full resistance of the elite, who stop at nothing to keep their power."

They talk briefly, and I thought that he was going to kidnap Alice - but since he already has Koudelka, he leaves Alice be, thanks her for the conversation, and expresses his regret that the next time they meet, they'll be enemies.

Alice makes it back to the hideout to tell everyone the news. Halley mentions an incident that happened in Wales, one that his mother told him about (probably the events of the first game, I'd guess), and the group heads out. My party consists of Mop, Alice, and Halley.

We travel to the Monastery Ruins and meet a new character, introduced as "Strange Creature," even though he only looks like an old man, to me. The game tells us to name him, which made me think he was going to join our party. But, the moment you press a button, the "Strange Creature" interrupts, looks directly to you, the player, and starts making fun of you for thinking that he was going to join the party. It's a really fun fourth-wall break, and all the other characters are like "what are you going on about?"

He reveals himself to be the true Roger Bacon, and when we tell him about Koudelka, he invites us into his strange house, where we fill him in on what's happened so far.

Albert Simon used to be a student to the real Roger Bacon. He rejected a world where a person's worth was "determined by their birth" and was labeled as a heretic by the Vatican. HE'S ONTO SOMETHING. And the real Roger Bacon seems to agree, but stated that the idea was "nothing but a pipe dream" and "too ahead of its time."

Real-Roger says that he'll take us to Albert, which indicates to me that we have a final fight coming up soon. There's a vending machine in the back of the weird house, so I get a bunch of items for it as successful 20% off discounts (except on my first try). I also pull up my handy dandy guide (https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps2/459510-shadow-hearts/faqs/50849) to see what I should equip before the next, and final?, stages of the game.

Because Alice is mandatory to the party, but my weakest link, I head back to the mental hospital to level her up. I take off the Flash Badge she had, 'cause it made her Judgement Ring go crazy fast, and replace it with a Pocket Watch.

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

4/03/2026

I think the beautiful thing about keeping this blog is that, when I haven't played a game for a while, it'll help me remember what the hell I was doing last. Funnily enough, though, I kinda just knew this time around. Maybe it's because I really like Shadowhearts, maybe it's because I've been actively writing down what's going on, or maybe it's both - but I didn't really need to look at the last entry despite how much time has passed since I last played.

I haven't downloaded the iso for the second Shadowhearts, made the disc yet, or anything like that. I want to wait until my experience with the first game is complete.

I do think I'm missing an entry though (I write these in my notepad on my laptop and it's possible I closed it out without saving), but basically: I'm in the endgame, now! I am in the last section where I can do the necessary steps to get the good ending (even though I don't know what those steps are) and I can still level up my characters. I decide to go back to Bistriz to talk to Nina (I think her name was?) and see if I can get any goodies from there. After, I'll stop in Blue Castle and level up a little bit.

You enter the town, and it's a beautiful sunrise with beautiful music playing. I step through the gate and... am immediately disappointed. Wanderer Meiyuan is here, depicted peeping through a window. The gay character being a voyeur isn't a good bit, but I let him be and go see Nina. She talks about Seeds of Happiness that she planted, but I'm not sure if there's anything for me to actually do here. I head to Blue Castle, but the enemies are too weak - so I give up on leveling up and just go to the Monastery.

There was a reveal about the real Roger Bacon being an old man - and the game almost gave you the chance to name him, making me think that he was joining the party - to which he then broke the fourth wall and addressed. It was a whole thing, and I really liked it - but I can't find the entry in which that happened and I said so! Darn it.

Real-Roger-Bacon leads us to this place and Alice falls to the ground because of the amount of evil spirits here. Mop goes down on one knee to check on her, asks if she's okay, and I thought it was really sweet. CHARACTER GROWTH. YAY!

We go through a couple of doors, and we fight fake-Roger-Bacon (Albert Simon!) After beating his first phase, we fight Amon. Then there's a little movie cutscene and it's revealed that God is an alien and sees humans as a bunch of ants! We have to stop a machine from drawing God's attention to us, or else he'll come crush us basically.

4/04/2026

Good morning! I watched a creep Instagram reel after I woke up, so I'm playing Shadow Hearts with the lights on!

Despite the bad ending being canon (or, at least, the second game picking up where the bad ending left off), I really want to leave this game on a good note. So, we're going to get the good ending!

Because Alice gave up her soul to save Mop when he'd gone berserk, we have to defeat the four masks in the graveyard to save her (or else she will die in the end). I head back to the area where we fought Albert Simon, and we're going to just fight a bunch of enemies until we get the malice bar to red.

Malice reaches red, and we now have to get the masks in order! I Googled it, and learned that holding R1 or L1 gives you the option to flee! About time I learned, I guess.

I return to Blue Castle and I wander around for like twenty minutes, and I keep getting the Sword Mask instead of Grail Mask. It's frustrating, but I will say that I really like that there is no music when you encounter the masks. It's spooky, and I like it.

4/08/2026

This entry is a long one, so be prepared!

Grail. Grail. Grail.

I NEED THE GRAIL MASK!

And once I get it, I realize that - it makes the Judgement Ring invisible. There is no area indicator of where to hit, it's completely muscle memory. And I haven't played in four days, so I have no idea where to hit. The first half of the fight is just me losing SP and HP while I try to remember where to hit on the ring for each of the characters. With both Piper and Alice down for the count, and with Mop only having one SP point left, I manage to defeat the Grail Mask on that last attack using Nova.

WOOOOOO!

Grail done. Next is Gold. Then Staff. Finally, Sword.

While running around for Gold, I got the Staff mask SIX TIMES IN A ROW. Then Sword, before Staff two more times again. Then the Grail mask showed up, like panting and shit? This isn't even including the normal random encounters.

Oh, here's the Sword Mask again! FUCK YOU.

Fucking finally. Gold Mask is here, after fifteen-twenty minutes. He doesn't seem to cast any Judgment Ring anomalies, though. And I think I can still use items? It uses a move called Strike, which does 0 damage to Mop and Alice and only 1 damage to Piper. Maybe we have something equipped that's making us resistant? I'm not sure though. The next use of Nova defeats it, and we all level up. Mop is ay 42, while Alice and Piper are both at 37. This is the group I plan to take with me into the final battle.

Overall, this has taken roughly 40 minutes to defeat two of the four masks. Kinda sucks, but it's satisfying to do. I barely beat the Grail Mask, but completely demolished the Gold one.

(I have to go to class now, so I can't keep playing until later...)

Back from class, back from lunch, and back to that Shadow Hearts grind!

Staff mask says the line "feel the power of the Gold Mask," which I thought was weird. It uses the move Hellfire, which has a lot of pizazz to the animation, but ultimately barely hurts anyone. Same with its physical attacks. Ultimately, it goes down extremely quick and everyone levels up from it (Piper also learns a new move and it's literally just a bazooka). They just keep getting easier, but I'm definitely not complaining.

I encounter the Sword Mask, who makes a comment about the Staff Mask, which makes me realize that the Staff Mask was making a comment about the Gold Mask, who had also made a comment about the Grail Mask - probably as a way to indicate to the player that they had the order correct.

We encounter the Sword Mask fairly quickly, and it definitely has my favorite design out of all of them. Something about the bird-like face and feathers adorning the head is just really creepy, and I love it. Piper lands the finishing blow, and everyone levels up from it yet again.

We're still working towards the good ending - so I head to the Graveyard to get a Level III soul. I defeat the soul of Sandalphon, which I believe is the only one available to me at the moment, and I save my game again before heading towards where the masks usually reside in the Graveyard.

I referred back to my handy dandy guide here and taught Mop how to use Pulse as Sandalphon, which will come in handy for the fight in the Graveyard.

Apparently, though, I have to board the Nemeton Float first. I decide to just do the optional sidequests for Lestat (Keith) and Piper (Margarete).

I haven't had Lestat/Keith in my party since he was last relevant (which was Bistriz, back in February), and apparently his sidequest involves a battle that he alone has to do.

He's at level 24. For reference, Alice and Piper are at level 40.

So I give up on that. Let's try Piper/Margarete's sidequest?

Hers seems to be a bit easier. We go to Rouen and we have to get the Water Gravestone, which involves entering a priest confessional box and pretending to be a priest while another man confesses to you.

Now this shit is right up my alley.

Having successfully acquired the Water Gravestone, I need to go back to the London Rats Hideout to talk to Koudelka (which might've been why the Keith/Lestat sidequest wasn't working for me?)

We have a nice cutscene with Koudelka, which kind of feels like a "passing of the torch" moment - from one game to the next. It's nice to see her in this game, kind of like she's granting Yuri (Mop) her blessing on his adventure. It's also neat to know in hindsight that the voice he (and us) we hearing was hers all along. Koudelka did feel a little bit "sidelined" though, and was almost always a damsel in distress - which is kinda meh.

For (Piper)Margarete's confession, we get a great cutscene with a voiceover. Margarete confesses that she was planning on using Yuri(Mop) to benefit her nation. She has some good commentary about nation's pouring money into their military, like children "vying for the most power." She also... kind of confesses a crush on Yuri(Mop)? I'm not quite sure. They make jokes about Mop's face being "red' and Piper says "that was a bit too spicy" and then it's over. But I'm lowkey not even sure of what happened. I also still don't know what Piper(Margarete's) nationality is. It's not important, I'm simply curious.

While wondering around Rouen, I walk into a room and receive a letter from the acupuncture guy. The letter is from the girl who plays the erhu in Shanghai. She informs us of Kawashima's tragic death... Which I'm honestly kind of hurt by. Kawashima was called out of the room that she and Kato, the guy who was always following her around like a dog. The camera stays in the room with Kato, and out of sight we hear gunshots. He goes running, takes down the guards, and finds Kawashima dead on the ground. The animation for him turning her body over to hold her is WAY TOO GOOD to be on the PS2. Like, I'm obsessing over it a little bit.

I think Kawashima was such a well written character, and her death is such a shame. The Kawashima/Margarete fanfiction will live on in my head, though.

I fail the lottery for the gun that I could get for Piper/Margarete, and then I'm out of lottery tickets and so I lowkey give up.

Time to go fight the final boss(es)?

We go to the Nemeton Monastery, talk to Roger, and take a rest before getting on the float. The game then transitions to Alice waking up in the Graveyard. Time to find out if I did this right!

I'm a fan of the brave stance Alice takes before walking into the hall where she's being told she will die. I just like Alice :)

The executioner, named Atman, has a terrifying design. I'll have to include it here because holy shit. Atman asks Alice if she has any regrets "dying for that man," to which she replies: "No, I have no regrets."

Pop off, Alice.

Again, before the battle ensues, her animation shows her taking a deep breath before taking her fighting stance. I love her.

So, Atman uses Eradication and Alice dies, then wakes up and the game continues. Which means I will get the bad ending. I reload the save and make sure to examine the small gravestone as Alice before talking to the four masks and entering the room to fight Atman.

Mop still doesn't show up... So we're going to reload the save again and examine ALL the gravestones, including the one with Alice's name on it.

If you can't tell, I really want to leave this game on a good note, with the good ending specifically.

If the issue was that I didn't examine ALL the gravestones, I'm gonna riot.

I examine the gravestones, and each give us a snippet of inner-monologue Yuri(Mop) had with himself about Alice. It's pretty cute, and reveals to Alice what he thinks of her.

He still doesn't show up to help... Do I need to clear the malice beforehand?

OKAY - one final try? None of the guides say anything about clearing the malice, so I'm going to boot up my save, go to the graveyard and examine all the gravestones (including Alice's) as Mop, and then trigger the cutscene and do that again but as Alice, and then fight Atman and see if Mop comes to my rescue.

Before I can examine all the gravestones, though, I get the Level III soul of Lobo and then save again (I can't investigate the gravestone normally when there's an option to fight the fusion soul so I just fight it to get it over with).

So I save the game, go back to the Graveyard, investigate EVERYTHING, return to the Europe map, go to the Nemeton Monastery, talk to Roger, and initiate the nightmare sequence for Alice again.

Andddddddd.....

AND HERE COMES MOP!!!!

FUCKING HELL-

So, the malice level had nothing to do with it, I just needed to make sure that I'd inspected the gravestones as Mop during the current game sessions (saving and quitting, I'm guessing, make the game think that, on a new game session when loading a save, I haven't interacted with it).

Atman is surprised that Mop opened the door by himself, to which Mop says: "She's my woman. You're not takin' her. Never!"

God, I wish this was the canon ending to the game.

Time to fight Atman. The note for the guide I'm using ends off it's advice for this section with "take care," which I truly love. Also, the Eradication move on Alice has a semi-transparent flat PNG of her dead father spinning around 360 style in the background and I can't help but laugh.

I'm not feeling super confident about this fight, but I'm gonna keep pushing on. I'll need to buy more mana restoration items for my next attempt.

We're still holding on, but my Alice has gone berserk... I argue that Eradication should do next to no damage against Alice if she's berserk. She would also get EXP from the battle if the game wasn't stupid and didn't give EXP points to berserk characters at the end of battle. My berserk Alice was doing great... Until she used fucking cure on Atman...

It took a second, but I got him! Unfortunately, Alice didn't last long to earn that 50,000 EXP, but Mop at least got it. And I got the good ending. So, I'd argue all is well.

We get a cutscene!!! Alice confesses her feelings to Mop, and it's so stinking sweet. Also, she's British?! I guess that was told to us at the beginning at some point, when I think about it, but it's still funny that it surprised me. "Even if you don't put it into words, you're always teaching me exactly what love is. I'm so grateful that I met you." MY HEART.

I save, go back to the Graveyard, get the fancy new mask item while telling off all the masks (who are scared of Mop now!), and defeat another Level III fusion soul: Egil. I believe that means I now have three of five Level III fusion souls, but I don't have the items yet to unlock the fights for the Level III dark fusion soul or wind fusion soul. The fire fusion soul needs me to fight more monsters, and then get the item, whereas the dark fusion soul just needs the item. The light one was the first one I completed. And, of course, Alice's prior gravestone now just says "Atman, rest in peace..."

So, my work here is basically done.

I'm not going to get those extra fusion souls unless I feel like booting up the game at some other point in time.

I make it aboard the alien ship, and the new gun I've equipped Piper with is HUGE. It's the 12-Gauge, I believe, which reminds me of Requiem...

Did I mention the aliens last time?

We make it to the third floor of the ship and Mop kicks the wall, which triggers a seal that traps him and Halley behind it. The game asks that, out of the remaining characters, who I would like to control. I choose Piper and make my team up of her, Alice, and Lestat.

I'm curious of the game would let me go back down to Earth at this point with the teleporter, but I don't really feel like taking the extra steps to test it out, running into a random encounter, etc...

Speaking of encounters, we run into one! And poor Lestat is so underleveled, I can only imagine how much EXP he's going to walk away with... So, let's find out!

I wish there was a way to turn of fight animations, like in Pokémon. It gets a bit tiresome rewatching the same animations, over and over again. Both Alice and Lestat only level up one level from that encounter, but I have a feeling that Lestat will keep leveling up if I complete the battles without running away (which I only found out was an option during the Mask thing).

We head up more stairs until we find a triangle seal, with the game giving us two options upon examining it:

Touch it?

- Not yet.

- Yeah, let's cop a feel!

Whoever translated this game needs a good smack on the head. Unless it was like this in the Japanese version too, and the translator was only doing their job. In that case, they need a good smacking to the head. Jeeeez.

Touching the triangle seal releases Mop and Halley, who make their way back to the rest of the group. Along the way, I manage to level up Halley and also max out the level for the fire gravestone back in the Graveyard. Out of curiosity, though, I did try to teleport back to Earth and was greeted with this message: "So long as your friends remain behind, you cannot return."

Lovely!

With the group reunited, I accidentally run into a boss fight... without saving first... which is cool...

The monsters name is "Soul Block" and he looks spooky, but cool!

Turns out this bastard also has the move 'pulse,' which is gonna PISS ME OFF. It immediately kills Piper, leaving me with Mop and Alice. I attack with Mop using pulse and resurrect Piper using Alice. With a resurrected Piper, I pull out a bazooka and do 362 damage on the motherfucker, who then immediately uses pulse again.

For this fight, Piper becomes my item bitch to give more MP to Mop and Alice. Alice heals primarily, and Mop fights. Although, I pull out the bazooka when I can. I miss pulse twice, which makes me mad, but keep myself healthy enough to get the fight over with. It just takes a while, which means I have to keep an eye on SP, which means I have to make Piper an item bitch again... And so on.

I find out later into the fight, when I have no more MP in Mop, that the boss is immune to physical damage. Awesome!

And finally, after forever, I defeat the thing with all my party members intact and sane. They all earn 40,000 EXP and level up one level. Soul Block is defeated, and, in it's stead, we are rewarded with a save point (blue), a swap party member point (pink), and a teleporter (yellow).

The music in this room is really nice, so I save and then leave the game on while I update the website (this very blog!)

Tomorrow morning, we beat the game?

4/09/2026

New day, new boss fight.

I wonder around the alien ship and come across a boss named Hate. It does a lot of status effect stuff, which is frustrating because only Alice has a crucifix equipped - which protects her from all kinds of bullshit.

About 20 minutes in, I die. I kinda gave up at this point, but it still sucks. I'm going to redo the fight with a crucifix equipped on everyone, and I'm also going to try and find that lottery ticket so that I can get Piper's ultimate weapon.

The random encounters are kinda getting frustrating, also - especially since I just want to run from place to place unbothered.

I can't buy another crucifix at the strange machine, so I buy pocket watched and a type of bracelet instead. I do need to reequip the Flare Brooch for Mop after the fight, though, to keep the SP consumption low.

I also cannot find that lottery ticket so I give up - no ultimate weapon for Piper :(

I'm running on a bit of a tight schedule this morning - I have work until 11.30pm, so I chose to wake up at 8am instead of 5am (for sanity reasons) - so I'm just running away from all battles at this point.

It takes, like, 20-30 minutes to beat this boss. Alice is on her last SP, and on the next turn I manage to defeat him with Pulse. Everyone levels up!

I have to leave for a conference, so I put up the game. One more boss down, though, which is one boss closer to the finale!

Maybe tomorrow morning, I beat the game...?

4/13/2026

6.55am... The fight with Albert is finally over. He kept using holy chest and my SP for Mop was at 5, while Alice and Piper had already gone berserk. I knew he was low health based on his animation (and he had been for a while), so I took a chance and used Pulse on him. Luckily, it was the right move. For this final, final fight - I think I'm going to literally keep a notepad of how much damage I'm doing.

Albert takes us to the "throne of God" with the last of his power, and we are teleported to a plane... That looks exactly like a Judgement Ring!!!

God's design is super cool, love it very much. Preying mantis eyes and head and arms - SO COOL. Also love that I think everyone so far has referred to it as "god" under case, lmao.

7am, on the nose, this fight starts.

And at 7.35am, I die.

I'm pretty pissed, like super pissed, but I really want to beat this game TODAY. I'm DONE. Albert's fight pissed me off and I ran out of items despite having like 50 heals that heal you by 300hp and 20 mana recovers that heal you by 200. NOT ENOUGH. Selling that shit and buying extracts that do full recovery. Locating TWO lottery tickets - one to get the ultimate weapon for Piper and the other to get a crucifix for her. IM SO DONE. I have 324,826 in cash. NO ONE CAN STOP ME.

I loaded up the save where I did the hide and seek game (still beat that third mini boss) and I go back to Prague and NOW I have access to the Doll House.

So, we are going to level up some and get that third crucifix, maybe another lottery ticket, and hopefully get some cool spooks along the way.

I RANDOMLY INTERACTED WITH A TABLE AND FOUND A LOTTERY TICKET - in the room with the stuffed elk head on the wall, for those wondering. The table closest to the front of the room :3

I'm getting Piper's ultimate weapon after this bullshit.

When you encounter an enemy, the room where the battle takes place is the room with an elk on the wall - except, during battle, it's eyes glow red. Super cool!

I don't know where to go next after picking up the crank, so I head back to the graveyard to unlock the last fusion monsters I need.

Looks like I ended up doing all those side quests after all...

I get both the soul of Seravi and the soul of Forron using my Sandalphon + Pulse combo.

I then go through the option menu to see if I can turn off battle animations because, as cool as they are, I'm going insane. (I can't skip them, awesome).

I eventually get to the stupid ahh baby in the basement and fight it and it takes forever - I think it took somewhere between 15-20 turns, and I had to restore Alice's (and I think Piper's) sanity once - which isn't that crazy, but ughhh.

I manage to get the 10 Guage from the fake-nose man lottery in Rouen on probably my fifth or sixth try, and then it's revealed that the man wearing the fake-nose is Piper's father?? The game is just way too casual about it.

4/15/2026

Mop - Level 52, Piper - Level 48, Alice - Level 48

Everyone has pocket watch, crucifix, and Leonardo's Bear.

The first thing Albert does is immediately use Holy Chest, taking away 35 SP from Mop and preventing me from transforming into Sandalphon. I land a perfect Judgement Ring on each character when they use Pure Root on Mop, bringing him up 46 SP in one round but killing Alice. I fuse into Sandalphon, though, and use revive. Now we can start the fight.

According to a guide, Albert has 4000hp here. Shouldn't be too bad, considering how far I made it the other day in the final boss fight against god.

...Okay, just kidding - that 4000 was for the PREVIOUS Albert fight. This one has 6000. Got it. I noticed his animation hadn't started showing him flagging, so I was confused.

Albert uses Grace, giving him +999 health and Alice goes Berserk - she uses her ultimate MP move, Advent - and... it shows us her underwear? I was looking at my phone and looked up and I'm PRETTY SURE it shows us her underwear. I also didn't notice how much damage it did... But NOT because I was focused on her underwear. I looked away to type this down.

I've only had to use Arc twice so far, and every other time I've managed to use cute and be fine. Albert has done used !!! 3 times, but never on Mop. Woohoo!

The move Holy Chest can go fuck itself. I've had to use Arc again - and hopefully for the last time. It's not that it takes a lot of MP, I just am using it as an indicator oh how the fight is going.

FINALLY! My calculator got the -4000 mark, and Albert is dead. Piper was subject to another !!! move at the end, meaning we are entering the final battle with her at 1hp. I plan to maybe just let Alice die as well though, and then use Resurrect on all of them with Mop as Sandalphon - although he's at 30 MP left, so I'll need to boost up those numbers...

Everyone levels up from the fight, with Mop now at 53, Piper at 49, and Alice at 49.

The only major loss from this fight was time (I'm losing my patience :3) and SP recovery items (which I have plenty of because I entered the fight with 60 Pure Roots and basically only used Pure Seeds).

Albert takes us to god and... heals our dumbasses?? YAYYYYYYY

I noticed something neat! Lestat refers to God with a capital G, whereas Mop refers to hip with a lowercase g. Cool!

Here's the guide of the day, by the way.

12500 HP... I can do that!

The fight is already going much faster, but as I type this I hope I'm not speaking too soon. Alice primarily uses Arc, and I've used two silver hour glasses on Mop before using the third, fifth, and seventh key.

About 20ish minutes in and my calculator says I have him at about 2300 HP left... I'm not sure if that's right. It's very likely that I mistyped while inputing the damage from the attack key as Mop.

Of course god uses Time of Judgement right after I restore Mop's MP... After all, He doth know irony.

...

TIME OF JUDGEMENT AFTER I REPLENISH MP IS STUPID. THIS IS THE SECOND TIME.

I revive Piper with Mop and her MP doesn't replenish like I thought it would...

PLEASEEEEEE STOP USING TIME OF JUDEGMENT HOLY FUCKING SHIT.

"He's spamming!!! That's cheating!!!!"

I wonder if god has a weakness animation... Does it show its weakness?

Every time I get a perfect Judgement Ring execution with Piper using the bazooka, I call it "Perfect Bazooka!" in my head. Hehe.

My calculator says 187 HP left... And I only had one misinput that I already fixed by adding back that damage.

Now we are into the negatives on my calculator... -139...

Lmao - nerd used Time of Judgement when everyone was already low on MP HA!

I use one of my only two Mana Extracts and fully replenish Mop's MP. Then I heal everyone and use another on Alice.

PERFECT BAZOOKA WAS THE FINAL HIT!! The calculator reached -2198, so that's about the threshold of error I had.

The screen goes black and...

And...

THE FINAL CUTSCENE IS SO FUCKED OH MY GOD

MY GAME IS GLITCHING
MY GAME
OH GOD

OH NO

PLEASE LET ME SAVE

Okay. I'm marking the clock. It's 7.39am. I'm going to leave the game running to see what the fuck it wants to get and do. Because I am in refusal mode. Denial, even. I refuse to turn this game off after spending the amount of time I did getting the ending I wanted and beating that tough ahh final boss.

As specified at the beginning of this blog, I'm playing this on a Japanese PS2 with a FreeMcBoot card in slot one and my memory card in slot 2, with an ESR patched ISO of Shadow Hearts burned onto a DVD-R disc. There are several reasons why this cutscene might not be working. When I was making discs for the games I wanted to play, I made a European and North American copy of Persona 4. Both took almost an hour/over an hour to boot up. Hypothetically, if I just leave the disc running, it could just work?

I have class at 12pm. I have plenty of time to just go about my morning and wait on this thing; the only thing I'm worried about is corrupting the memory card, but even that is somewhat of a mild concern because how would the disc not loading a cutscene do that?

I will say that, on the main menu for the game, when you let it sit and it takes you to the demo video where you can watch footage of the game, there was one video that didn't work and froze my game. I'm guessing this is like that. That should've been the first sign... It's just unfortunate that it's happening again, right now, of all times.

Ugh

I'm gonna let the game stay on for a bit before I pull the plug.