Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment

Although the game relies heavily on conventions and standards of an era long gone by, it’s still a load of fun. Experienced RPG gamers may view it as a short and easy way to pass the time until the next big thing comes along and takes up another eighty or so hours of their lives.

The disturbingly dwarf-sized characters may serve as an analogy for the game’s place among strategy RPGs: It’s shorter and uglier than most that have come before, but it’s also unique in a way that some will find charming.

Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment is a solid edition to the downloadable libraries of both the PSN and XBLA. The SRPG genre is not overly represented on either service and this addition is comprised of both quality and substance.

It's great to have the Vandal Hearts series back but this art style was a mistake. Truly, these characters look like ugly munchkins.

Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment is a very good options for genre fans looking for a tactic RPG title direct and entertaining.

Vandal Hearts is a nice PlayStation Network game with a pretty cool gameplay system, but the story and the audio are a bit poor and that’s a shame. If you like old school RPG’s, than Vandal Hearts is a nice game to pick up, but it has some issues.

This is a good game for someone who is really into turn-based RPG's. Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment offers hours of gameplay for a small price.

Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment offers exactly what you expect from it: a strategic role-playing game that is slightly flawed because of the archaic game design, but that still offers a decent gaming experience.

You get a lot of game for $15, but a ho-hum presentation and antiquated gameplay counterbalance the actual value of the package.

For those who have played the original titles and for anyone who likes a straight-forward tactical RPG, VH: FoJ is worth a look.

The game is certainly fun, but is also seems hamstrung as a turn-based strategy game due to its overly linear nature and lack of any true sense of story cohesion or character progression.

While this game is a little rough around the edges, what do you expect from an XBLA/PSN RPG game? If you like turn based, strategy type games and can overlook cartoony graphics, I suggest you pick this game up.

Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment revives an aged tactical role-playing game franchise in a decidedly formulaic fashion.

It's not very good, but good enough for a downloadable game and RPG' fans.

Although the game offers little in the way of innovation, Hijinx Studios has refined the traditional SRPG with great success. The fact that it has the words 'Vandal Hearts' in the title really doesn't do it any favours though; if this was a new IP, free from the shackles of the series and the scrutinising eyes of its fans, the game could have reached much greater heights.