Friday 4 August 2023

Texture Mods For Shadow Hearts Covenant And From The New World

 I had done a post a good while back

https://shadowheartsorigins.blogspot.com/2021/03/pcsx2-ex-mod-of-ps2-emulator-with.html

That someone done a mod of pcsx2 which added texture support,

The feature has been incorporated into the main pcsx2 so you can go the official route.

There are texture mods for many games including Shadow Hearts Covenant and Shadow Hearts From The New World. Unfortunately there isn't any texture mod for the first Shadow Hearts as the textures weren't completely dumped properly so they aren't in a readable state for pcsx2 once edited.

There is an issue though as since the feature was brought into the nightly/development so there have been changes and some of the earlier texture packs might not work in the latest version of pcsx2.

A solution is of course to get the last known working build for the texture mod but then that can bring an issue if there is bug that was fixed in a later version of pcsx2.

I do plan on trying Shadow Hearts Covenant hd texture hopefully very soon and maybe even with the godslayer difficulty mod.

Videos On Youtube Showcasing The Mods:

Shadow Hearts From The New World:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfeG5asZt2c

or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PR9JqSdVFI

Shadow Hearts Covenant:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrI-2eOQuKQ

or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpssu0Evrq4

or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYci-FNT_C4

Shadow Hearts Covenant Judgement Ring Glitch Finally Fixed PCSX2

Should be resolved now in PCSX2 v1.7.4254.

While it was improved but wasn't fixed before back in 2020 and even in 2022 where it became almost random I almost went through the entire first dungeon and it didn't happen until the first boss where I had a still from a previous cutscene or black screen. Another time it happened much more despite the same settings it even showed monsters that I had defeated, full black or grey screen so it was very random.

But it should now be fully fixed since version 1.7.4254
Personally haven't tested it yet but I plan on doing so as I had always wanted to fully replay shadow hearts covenant but was put off by the glitch.

There are also texture mods for the game and the difficulty mod so I definatly want to try out the newer version. Apparently they have also fixed some other minor bugs / configuration so therefore you don't need to adjust as much to enjoy the games.

Remember to try the latest nightly build of pcsx2 and as long as the bug wasn't reintroduced somehow it should be fixed and if you have issues try an older version.

Will update this post once I've tried.

Shadow Hearts PS2 Imbroglio Difficulty Mod Review

This mod brings  a fresh new experience for Shadow Hearts, if you wanted to play Shadow Hearts but wanted something kinda new then this is it.

You learn quickly that you always have to stay on your toes, a mistake can be costly at any point. 
The difficulty mod for the most part feels very fair and you feel responsible for what happens except maybe at the beginning where you could get game overs due to bad luck.

Pros:

To have difficulty mods is perfect for the SH series. It feels pretty professional.

My only real dislike for the series in general was that it can be too easy and this mod certainly fixes that for Shadow Hearts. From where stats etc.... to even what items or tactics used didn't overly matter (unless speed running/rushing through). But now it does on all levels: what fusion, items, formation, equipment and tactics everything matters now.

There was a slight learning curve from having beaten the game multiple times to having to adapt to this mod rather than using what was quick and easy normally.

It is a different style of playing, I was even using items like B. Tortoise Fang, Gold Hourglass and I even equipped the Flash Badge for a boss fight, things that  I never done before when playing the game normally. It's nice experimenting with items and equipment.
Elements feel more important, meaning fusions spells etc...
As mentioned everything now matters.

Boss fights are more entertaining in general, found them very enjoyable and it felt more rewarding when I beat them, probably the highlights of the mod.

Cons:

I got a game over in the "Plains" when I was ambushed and I didn't even get to have a turn.

Zhaoyang Village in some ways might've been he most unfair/cheap part as you can have battles prior to Zhuzen joining the party and getting ambushed are like auto game overs.

I might've got very unlucky with getting ambushed and back attacks. 
The enemies were getting 2 rounds of attacks before I could even respond sometimes even started a third.

I felt that battles in Zhaoyang was unwinnable without Zhuzen.
Once Zhuzen joined (I have never been so glad to see Zhuzen) and when I reached the recommended level for that area, while it was still challenging but it felt manageable and most importantly fair.

Weird thing is after Zhaoyang I rarely got ambushed and on the few times that I did they were more mangeable with an extra party member.

I felt some of the exp rewards was a bit unbalanced but I do understand what the creator was aiming for but it still felt a bit weird.

Conclusion:

With having played this mod it makes me wish for a mod to be in between normal game and this mod, it would have felt like a definitive edition of Shadow Hearts.

The mod overall I enjoyed it, the start was probably potentially the most frustrating depending on your luck but once you get Zhuzen and reach the recommended level for Zhaoyang you are in control and I really enjoyed it without the initial frustrations.

Shadow Hearts PS2 Lets Play With Imbroglio Difficulty Mod Status Update

Hello all I had beaten the mod a while back (in June 2020, late post sorry!!) 

There are multiple reasons why I hadn't posted any new videos on youtube.

Mainly I had issues with my editing software, also the recording malfunction at one point (although not impossible to get around it would just be time consuming). 

Another small part was while I never had high expectations for the views but it was disappointing. 

I was please at the start even with just 100 views, some likes and interaction with comments. 

But from there till the last video I done the views decreased with the last part not even past 10 views. 

While I was always going to play the mods no matter what because I am a huge Shadow Hearts fan but the time & effort for making the videos then with the decrease views it didn't make it a priority for me to edit and upload.

I wished I recorded my voice but I had static noise when I tried to do so and I didn't want to think too much while recording, I know that probably affected the views..

Lastly with the pandemic changed a lot of things. Work changed where I was doing a lot more travelling so I wasn't at home with my big pc heck even now I'm still not at home. 

I do hope to resume uploading at some point, I still have the files stored on my PC.

I might even try to join everything and upload one big video of the full playthrough.

Shadow Hearts Difficulty Mods

Shadow Hearts (Imbroglio)

http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/topic/953-shadow-hearts-ntsc-u-imbroglio-v13/

Shadow Hearts Covenant (Godslayer)

http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/topic/269-shadow-hearts-covenant-ntsc-godslayer-v650/

Shadow Hearts From The New World (Grace)

http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/topic/802-shadow-hearts-from-the-new-world-ntsc-grace-v25/

You need to have the original disc image of Shadow Hearts NTSC-U. Then patch that image with the file from the zip using 'ppf-o-matic' tool.

I personally played them on pcsx2 but I assume they would also work with any other method of playing a backup if shadow hearts work on whatever method like modded ps2 or ps3 etc...

Thursday 4 March 2021

PCSX2-EX a mod of a ps2 emulator with texture replacement by Topaz-Reality

PCSX2 is a great emulator, it is one that we all use to play many classic ps2 games and of course including the Shadow Hearts series.

While we all want a HD remaster/remake but sadly the likeliness of that are rather slim unless if Wildrose does a major hit or able to do some kind of a deal with Universal Entertainment.

We have seen a difficulty mod for the 3 Shadow Hearts games on ps2.

Now there are possibilities for texture mods. Which is something that I just found out recently while it has been something that apparently it had been in the works for about year but only since January this year that it is public.

Even though the project of the emulator (mod) itself is still early days and there are issues but this is potentially exciting and this is definitely and emulator to keep an eye on and see where it goes and what kind of doors it can open for texture mod projects.

Emulator is called PCSX2-EX which you can get: here

A video tutorial with a link to Topaz-Reality's discord: here

I have done a quick test on dumping textures:

Yuri Model Extracted From Shadow Hearts:


Karin Model Extracted From Shadow Hearts Covenant:


And not even just character models a lot of other things could potentially be edited like part of backgrounds etc... Shadow Hearts train background:



Compatibility Report

Unfortunately liked mentioned there are issues currently the first SH game doesn't dump everything and replacing textures causes issues. Covenant dumping seems to be perfect but certain images if replaced are broken including font (to what extent I don't know). FTNW terrain images if resized to a certain size or beyond will crash the game and with similar issues to Covenant.

Regardless of that I still find this really interesting and hope to see this grow and who knows what it can lead to for certain games like Shadow Hearts combining that with the likes of a difficulty mod could bring experiences that us fans crave for.

Reason for me posting this is spread this information across and hopefully picks up interest with plenty of Shadow Hearts fans out there who knows what can happen. Here's hoping!

Until next time, bye for now!