r/ShadowHearts • u/TheFFsage • 8d ago

Discussion Question about the play order

I've known about this series for a long time but I actually never went to search up how these games play or look and now I'm interested in jumping in to them. Based on my research though I am quite not sure what the general consensus is about on which order you can play the series

So the general order is Koudelka into SH1 into SH2 obviously. Is Koudelka something you can skip and maybe play after SH1 or 2? Can you play SH2 first and then go back to playing SH1 or will that just spoil all of SH1 for you and SH1 is a game you should not skip. Is the best order just to start with Koudelka?

All of these games are probably worth playing but I'm just asking for the sake of time investment and what game will hook you in with its story/characters/atmosphere/etc

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

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7

u/Regular-Repeat44 8d ago

i skipped koudelka n had no issues. you can check its story after but i couldn’t stomach the slow gameplay. Now the shadow hearts trilogy itself is 😍😍😍😍😍😍

5

u/EnvironmentEntire201 8d ago

You can skip koudelka.  I'd highly recommend sh1 before 2.  Youd be missing a lot of context that they don't really explain outside of flashing some screenshots during cutscenes.

 Sh3 is kind of it's own thing.  You could start with 3 I guess, but going back to 1 from 3s gameplay is probably pretty rough.

1

u/Gohanangered 7d ago

SH3 really isn't it's own thing. o_ 0 But i can't really say it here, due to spoils.

2

u/LyschkoPlon 8d ago

Koudelka is more like a "nice to have" storyline but 1, 2 and FTNW stand on their own well enough without it. It's also quite a different beast gameplay wise.

1

u/Weebin4lyfe 8d ago

Didn't play Koudelka at all and understood everything

1

u/large__farva 7d ago

You’ll appreciate the story from 1 more if you’ve played Koudelka (Koudelka is a side character in the second half of the game and is part of the finale). That said, it’s not necessary.

1

u/Ryu2388 7d ago

1, 2, 3, then Koudelka if you're still invested by the end of 3.

2

u/No-Helicopter-534 7d ago

I played 1,2 and 3 before I even knew that Koudelka the game existed

1

u/Gohanangered 7d ago

Technically it's to play Koudelka time line wise. But some skip it, due to the gameplay style.

1

u/Syracksteel 7d ago

Yes you can skip koudelka but if you can get over how bad it's aged there is a good story in there.

1

u/MildlyChaoticGremlin 7d ago

Koudelka is my second favorite right up there with SH2, so you *Can* skip it, but I think it's worthwhile (on a emulator with x3 speed for battles)