MS dates, prices Vandal Hearts XBLA

By Robert Purchese Published 12 January, 2010

Same day as Squenix's Death by Cube.

Konami's Xbox Live Arcade game Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgement will be released 20th January. A date for the PSN version hasn't been announced.

This nostalgic strategy RPG will be pricey at 1200 MSP (£10.20/€14).

Flames of Judgement's aimed as a prequel to Konami's PSone game Vandal Hearts from 1997. The story follows Tobias Martin who must gather followers to prevent his homeland of Sostegaria from war.

Konami's said to have been working hard on accessibility and presentation as well as installing multiple endings and deep character customisation.

An email from Microsoft also revealed a 20th January date for Death by Cube, Square Enix's top-down and bloody robot shooter. Cubes are the baddies and they zip towards your robot hero on a simplified battlefield. Multiplayer is given a special mention, although what form this will take we do not know.

Death by Cube will cost 800 MSP (£6.80/€9.60).

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • nikobe #1 2 years ago

    Ah Vandal Hearts was great, I still have it somewhere at home. The amount of hours I spent using the very boring healing glitch to get exp before tough battles.

  • Tio #2 2 years ago

    Vandal hearts , still the only game I finished and restarted immediately to try different class combinations . Fantastic game. Edge gave a 10 iirc (back in the day when that meant something)

  • iamian #3 2 years ago

    I think i'll probably end up picking this up. The original was great - I hope you still get the fountains of blood when you finish someone off!

  • Stoatboy #4 2 years ago

    The first game was awesome, and had bags of charm. Like Tio I immediately restarted to check out the alternate classes (and to find all the hidden objects I'd missed first go through).

    Hated the second game from the small amount of it I played - it seemed ugly, brown and broken.

    I played this new one briefly on PartnerNet last year. The big head art style's strange, but other than that I'm cautiously optimistic - it seemed like a bit of a return to form. Need to see more to confirm it though.

  • AHiFi #5 2 years ago

    Bloody brilliant game back in the day. Used to rent it from my local Global Video every now and then until I had completed it.

    Iamian - Ah the blood, brings back memories!

  • GamesConnoisseur #6 2 years ago

    This gen, MS been more successful at getting different franchises onto their xbox, signs of a maturity in the games market share? I never imagined this sort of game appearing on x360.

    Sure it ll pop up on PSN too and no one should be missing out on those sort of games!

  • retr0gamer #7 2 years ago

    hmm, another twin stick shooter who's only selling point was blood or a sequel to a strategy RPG that had blood as one of it'sselling points but was still a damn great game? Think I'll be going for vandal hearts.

  • erp #8 2 years ago

    The new Vandal Hearts looks very... Western.

  • Monkey_Puncher #9 2 years ago

    I remember reading a while back that Vandal Hearts is planned for XBLA and PSN.

    That Death by Cube looks like it could be and interesting little game, very odd style, especially coming from Square.

  • SlackMaster #10 2 years ago

    Vandal Hearts was a great game but like many other I didn't get on with the second game. The sequal had a horrible art style and broken gameplay.

    It's a bit pricey but if it's as good as the original and just as long, it'll be worth it.

  • s3y3 #11 2 years ago

    Does anyone now if they every released a vandal hearts on the DS? I remember it being promised then never turning up. Love my tactical RPGs on my DS.