Hey, I still play games!
Not wanting to sink a lot of time into Mana Khemia on Thursday, I stumbled across a perfectly legal copy of Vandal Hearts and thought "Well, I can at least see what it's like to get an idea for voting purposes."
And, my initial impressions were pretty good. Simple gameplay, but engaging enough that I played up to the pirate map in one sitting. Also, there's a PC named Grog Drinkwater. Why is this man not ranked?
Anyway, so after I got done laughing at the ridiculous voice of the narrator, I noticed that the plot seemed kinda sensible. Holy Empire gets corrupted, nobles start oppressing the working class. Logically, peasants rebel! However, unlike ever other peasant uprising in history which ends with "and the peasants were brutally suppressed", this group lucked out and got a magic-using tactician to lead them. Now, for the fun part. Many years later, it's the -Nobles- who are being illogically oppressed by the former working class leaders. Our antagonists are freedom fighters taken to their logical extreme. Kane seems like an overzealous kid out for revenge and has developed a taste for blood. Political intrigue is surrounding everything and Ash is stuck in the middle of it due to his 'treacherous father'.
Well, it seemed cool anyway. Then about 2 minutes after I had these thoughts, Dolf walks up to Kane and Kane says "Hu hu hu, I like you, you're almost as evil as me!"
...Way to drop the ball, Vandal Hearts.
Still, GROG DRINKWATER!!!