Vandal Hearts II/Gameplay

Vandal Hearts II takes place in the country of Natra and follows the story of Joshua from childhood until adulthood, focusing his progress through the civil war that tears his home country apart. The early stages of the game introduce the hero and his childhood companions and acts as a prologue to future events in the hero's adult life.

The adult stages of the game shows the country of Natra immersed in a civil war with both warring factions having foreign backers. Joshua's renegade band of outlaws gets drawn into a plot to create a third faction to end the war and restore peace.

World Map
The World Map shows the continent Rognant, where the game is set. The various places, such as villages or battlefields, are represented by colored dots, connected to each other with the available routes. Your position is represented by a pawn. To move from one place to another, you need to use the pen cursor. By moving it to a dot, the name of that place will be shown. To move to a certain place, you must position the cursor over it and press the confirm button. Your unit will move to that location if the path to it is clear. As you progress through the game, more and more locations and routes will become available. The color of the dots on the map indicates the type of place:


 * Red: An event will happen in this location. You need to head here to progress the plot. You will often have to fight, so better prepare accordingly.
 * Green: These are battlefields that you have already faced. You can still go back in and fight again to gain money and experience, collect any missed items, etc.
 * Blue: They are villages and towns. Upon entering, you can talk to people or head to the shop to make purchases.
 * Grey: Nothing happens at these points.
 * Yellow: These are the secret battlefields. To discover them you must necessarily find the relevant map, otherwise they will not appear.

Pressing psx: Start while on the world map will open the main menu, where the following options are available:
 * EQUIP: allows you to equip your characters with the various weapons, armor and items available
 * TRANSFER: allows you to transfer skills already acquired from one weapon to another
 * STATUS: allows you to check the detailed status of a specific character
 * WAREHOUSE: allows you to consult all items and equipment in your possession (not equipped)
 * SAVE: allows you to save the game or load a saved game
 * OPTIONS: allows you to change the game configurations

Towns
Towns and villages appear on the World Map as a blue dot. Inside them the following menu is always shown:
 * MOVE TO: allows you to move between places in the town. Generally, at least a shop and a tavern are always available. At the shop you can buy new equipment, even equipping it at the same time, or sell items that you no longer need. At the tavern you can instead talk to the patrons to learn information and better understand the development of the plot.
 * EQUIP: allows you to equip your characters with the various weapons, armor and items available
 * TRANSFER: allows you to transfer skills already acquired from one weapon to another
 * STATUS: allows you to check the detailed status of a specific character
 * WAREHOUSE: allows you to consult all items and equipment in your possession (not equipped)
 * DEPART: leave town and return to the World Map.

Combat
Combat in Vandal Hearts II is done using a new Dual-Turn System, stated as being an Active Time Battle system for Strategy RPGs. The dual turn system permits both the player and the computer to move one unit on the battlemap simultaneously. This system was criticised by IGN as being even more time-consuming than it needed to be.