group storm the Gate, fighting first Killer—whose death causes Lady to show emotion for the first time—then a Malice-mutated Gilbert. The party kill Lady, escaping before the Gate vanishes, and go their separate ways. After this point, two endings are unlocked. In the "Bad" ending, Shania is consumed by the Malice. In the "Good" ending, unlocked by obtaining an optional Fusion and maxing out Shania's powers, Shania is cleansed of Malice and works with Johnny at his agency. Development From the New World was developed by Nautilus (formerly known as Sacnoth), featuring the same production team that created Shadow Hearts and its sequel. The game was produced and directed by Takamusa Ohsawa, who previously served as art director for Covenant. The characters were designed by series artist Miyako Kato. The lead game designer was Takehiro Ishida, and the scenario was written by Toshiyuki Suzuki, with the story concept being provided by former director and scenario writer Matsuzo Machida. The game's production was completed on "an extremely tight schedule", presenting challenges to different team members caused by this. It was also stated that the production had a "more controlled system" compared to the previous two titles, leading to a tonal shift from the series earlier darker tone. The director was also replaced midway through production. By March 2005, the game was 60% complete. While previous Shadow Hearts titles were based on the Eurasian continent, From the New World moved to the Americas, giving the developers a fresh start. The new setting and characters allowed the team to create a beginner-friendly narrative which would attract a larger audience, with the story being a spin-off only loosely connected to the events of Shadow Hearts and Covenant. Rather than portraying a grand mythology, the narrative focused on individuals within the struggle created within the Shadow Hearts series. Despite its spin-off status, the team treated Johnny with the gravity of a mainline Shadow Hearts protagonist. While the series continued to use real locations, the team did not want to be too realistic, so added in anachronistic locations. Ishida, who had worked on the series since Covenant, was in charge of the battle system. It was based on the system used in Covenant, although new elements such as the stock gauge were added to increase strategy. The battle system expansions, which included the ability for enemies to use combo attacks, were done based on a combination