RPGFans Patrick Gann lauded the storytelling and characters, but was disappointed by the game's "good" ending as it ran against the themes of both the game and the series. Famitsu noted that the game seemed to have solid production values. Massimilla though the environment and dungeon designs were repetitive, but praised the character designs as the strongest aspect of the game's visuals. Villoria similarly praised the character designs, and Dunham cited the graphics and CGI cutscenes as one of the game's strengths despite lacking higher resolution or widescreen support. Kalogeropoulos praised the CGI and real-time cutscenes, while Gann lauded the amount of effort put into the visual and stylistic presentation by Nautilus. The voice acting divided opinion; some gave praise, while others faulted it. In contrast, the music was met with a generally positive response. The gameplay was described by Famitsu simply as "an orthodox RPG", while Fahay commented that "the battle system remains just as strong and compelling as it was in Covenant". GamePro enjoyed the battle system, but found the Stellar upgrades underdeveloped and was extremely critical of puzzle designs. Massimilla enjoyed the combat options, but disliked both the dungeon design and the reliance of character progression on side quests. Villoria praised the breadth and depth of combat, but found the random encounters underwhelming compared to the scripted boss fights. Dunham enjoyed the additions and tweaks to the battle system, but faulted the dungeon design. Kalogeropoulos praised the battle system for encouraging player interaction in actions normally governed by chance in RPGs in addition to the variety of move types, but noted that the character growth system was geared more towards completionists than casual players. Gann lauded the game design, but noted that there were still weak parts of the overall design inherent to the Shadow Hearts series; like other reviewers, he criticised the dungeon design. Legacy Speaking in a later interview, Machida said that From the New World was not the true Shadow Hearts III, which would have continued the story of original protagonist Yuri Hyuga. His plan had been for Shadow Hearts III to follow Jinpachiro Hyuga and Kiheita Inugami, the respective fathers of Yuri and Covenant character Kurando Inugami. Ultimately, From the New World was the last Shadow Hearts title to be released; Nautilus was absorbed into Aruze in 2007 and ended video game production, ultimately ceasing to exist during corporate restructuring in 2009. Machida