Q: Why it has taken almost 10 years to get another Vandal Hearts game out.

A: Needless to say, 10 years is a long time in the game business, and in that time, much of the original Vandal Hearts team has moved on. But the games they created captivated many players, some of whom now work for Konami. Long story short, those of us within Konami who initially pitched Flames of Judgment had been waiting around as long as anyone for another Vandal Hearts game, and decided to do something about it.

Q: Will the story be in the same time line as the second Vandal Hearts or will it have its own story?

A: Flames of Judgment is a prequel to the original Vandal Hearts, set in the realm of Sostegaria's distant past.

Q: How is Vandal Hearts any different from all the other RPG

A: Part of what made the first game stand out, besides the blood sprays (and yes, those are back) and the strong story (also back), was its fast-paced and approachable gameplay. Character advancement was simple and easy to manage, but also flexible enough to offer the player many choices of party builds. Flames of Judgment takes that same approach and expands on it.

Q: Any new features was that put in this game?

A: In Flames of Judgment, the character advancement system is both highly robust and easy to use. Characters naturally and organically improve at whatever they do, and can level up at individual weapons, spells, and combat maneuvers, in addition to their core stats. Of course, not every character learns everything equally quickly, and each character has their own special trait to set them apart, but overall, you'll build up the characters you want just by playing them the way you want to, and without having to stop between every fight to wade through menu-juggling and number-crunching.

Other rarely-seen features include larger-than-life enemies, the ability to switch between weapons on the fly, and, of course, the series' trademark blood geysers.

Q: What was the decision process in making this game as a DLC and not a full game?

A: Several factors went into the decision to make the game downloadable. For one, it has been a long time since the last game; making it a downloadable game is a way of testing the waters. Two, there are very few RPGs, let alone tactical RPGs, on the downloadable market, and we saw a chance to remedy that. Third, fans of classic RPGs may not have as much time to commit to them these days as they used to; Flames of Judgment offers the full RPG experience in a more approachable format.

That said, Flames of Judgment is nearly as large as Vandal Hearts I. At 24 battle maps and 8-10 hours of gameplay (if you rush; more like 16 if you take your time), it's one of the biggest downloadable games out there, if not the biggest. And, if all goes well, it'll only be the beginning...

As we wait for Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment to drop for PSN and XBL the only burning question is left for us all to answer, will we like this Vandal Heart as much as we liked the first two Vandal Hearts. I want to thank Ryan Graff for taking the time to answer some of the questions we had for Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment.