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Originally posted on cohost.org on July 3rd, 2023. This article mentions "chosts" which are posts on cohost. Updated March 23rd, 2024.

The Shadow Hearts series has captured my heart for a long time—and since there's recently been an exciting update to the series, I thought I'd write a post talking about why I love Shadow Hearts and why I still look to it as an influence, twenty-plus years later.

I'm going to give you a (mostly) spoiler-free longchost about why Shadow Hearts is so inspirational.

Read on.

What is Shadow Hearts?

Shadow Hearts is the name of a game series that came out for the Playstation 1 and 2, developed by Sacnoth and produced by Aruze Corp (now Universal Entertainment). It is a JRPG, and stood out because its unique gameplay and dark, gothic/cosmic horror storyline.

There are four games in the series:

CJ is a designer and indie dev. They write as a hobby. If you like this article, why not say hello in an email or buy them a coffee to support their work?