It’s a bit of a stretch to call myself a Shining Hearts fan after all the things I said about it, but I didn’t exactly hate the game either. The bread-baking gimmick was great, so much so that I was inspired to bake my own. The result was more b-r-i-c-k than b-r-e-a-d, but the process was fun and the texture was…original. :-p

I also liked the battle system a lot. There were plenty of good ideas in there, enough to populate three or four JRPGs. It’s just that the enemies were too weak to force you to take advantage of the system. Shining Blade suffers from a similar problem, although the combat here is 100% different. It’s got this turn-based action (or is it action turn-based?) strategy combat thing going on. Sounds like a contradiction in terms but Sega does their best to make the system work. Short of giving it anyone worth to work against, that is. But that’s a discussion for a different day. Besides, it’s early days yet. I took some screenshots and have been playing for almost 15 hours, so I can explain if anyone’s interested.

Today, though, I want to try and puzzle out the story behind Shining Blade as it relates to Shining Hearts. It seems clear enough that Blade is a prequel that will eventually explain how Rick came to wash up on the island with amnesia in Shining Hearts. This is why neither Rick nor Neris ever regain their memories in that game, because that would spoil the plot of the prequel. The only thing that suggests that Hearts might have come first is the size of Shin, the little elf girl, and with the differences in character model, she could very well be the same age in both games.

The things that are confusing me – and that may become clear as I continue – are the following:

First, the three girls. At the beginning of Hearts, you pick either Neris, Amil or Airy to live with. You can’t have all three. In Shining Blade, though, you find out that Amil and Airy are dead, and Neris is almost certainly dead. This isn’t a spoiler; you’re told within the first two hours. If that’s the case, how can one of them be a playable character in Hearts?

I can think of three possible explanations. One, Rick is dead and Shining Hearts is all about his paradise. That would explain how he so conveniently washes up on an island that lets him bake bread and plant crops like he used to in his past. Option two, he’s been sent to an alternate world and Neris is an alternate Neris. Option three, Rick is alive, but Neris is dead and he’s interacting with her ghost/soul. It’s possible because in Shining Blade, Sakuya/Maxima has preserved the souls of Amil and Airy as “soul blades” that Rick can equip, so it’s not impossible that these souls got scattered around the world and Rick just happened to find one of them. I guess I’ll find out which is which by the end of the game.

Second question, what’s going on with Xiaomei (now known as Linlin), Alvin (now known as Alpheus) and Ranah in Shining Hearts? Has Ranah completely lost her memory as well? And her identity, since she doesn’t even have a sprite there? Meanwhile Xiaomei was just a thief/merchant in Hearts, but now she is revealed to be a long-lived cat spirit thingy who is the underling? friend? of Sakuya/Maxima. Is she, too, suffering from amnesia? Is she on the island to keep tabs on Rick and protect Pandora’s Box? Has she retired from her current position of Keeper of Very Important Knowledge to be Doled Out Sparingly as the Plot Requires? She was one of my favorite characters, so it bothers me that she could have had a hidden agenda all along.

The four reasons why people like Tony Taka’s art.

Third and final question, why the hard reset of Rick’s personality? In the past he was a kind village boy, then the empire killed his childhood friends and he went all CRAAWWWWLLLING IIIIN MY SKIIINN!! He’s angry, angsty, bitter, blames Rage for everything and yet is tsundere towards him (“S-stupid Rage, I’m not blushing because of you” etc.) One of my stated goals in Blade is to rehabilitate Rick and return him to the simple, happy guy he used to be. Since this is achieved in Hearts by basically wiping his memory clean, does this mean Rage failed? Do you get the Amnesia Ending if you fail to get Rick’s individual ending? Or maybe Rage succeeded but something else happened that turned Rick amnesiac anyway? Which therefore makes all time I’m spending building a relationship with Rick a waste of time? This is something I really wish I knew, because there’s still time to dump him and aim for Elmina/Xiaomei/Ryuna’s ending.

At this point, you might be wondering why I’m spending so much time puzzling over Shining Hearts when it’s Shining Blade that I’m playing now. It’s simple: there’s no room for puzzling in Shining Blade. There’s a Dark Dragon (yawn). There’s an Empire (double yawn). The Empire has invaded other kingdoms (triple yawn). The Empire wants to resurrect the Dark Dragon (yaaaw– my jaw hurts). Each game chapter has me visiting a new kingdom, helping them overthrow the local Empire minion and unlocking a new stage of the ultimate weapon that will defeat the dragon for good once he’s resurrected. Because you just know he’s going to get resurrected. There’s nothing to discuss.

That’s why I don’t think I’ll be posting too much about Shining Blade until I finish it. Barring any unexpected twists, interesting occurrences or an increase in battle challenge (my personal wish), there simply isn’t anything to talk about.

Related posts:

Shining Hearts – I like the idea, but… Shining Hearts – Much better now Shining Hearts – Glad it’s finally over Stuck in a rut