Vandal Hearts features a variety of characters who join the battle party throughout the course of the game.
- Every character fits into one of seven character classes
- Swordsman
- Armor
- Archer
- Hawknight
- Monk
- Mage
- Cleric
The strengths of each class are determined through a hierarchy similar to the hand game Rock, Paper, Scissors: melee fighters (such as Swordsmen and Armors) are most effective when fighting against Archers. Archers are most effective when fighting against airborne characters such as Hawknights. Hawknights are most effective when fighting against Swordsmen. The other three classes are magic-users: the Monk pairs healing magic with average physical strength, where the Mage specializes in attack magic, and the Cleric specializes in healing magic. In addition, Mages are also most effective against Armor. Most magic-using classes have weak defensive capabilities when compared to other classes in the game and most attacking magic spells are stronger against heavily armored opponents. Throughout the game you can also collect keys found by trading items, examining irregular patterns on the map, and even by talking to certain villagers in towns. Once these keys are collected you can then take them to the Dojo, with Ash having a key in his inventory he is then asked upon departure from the Dojo whether he'd like to take a trial. By completing these trials (there are 7 keys/prisms total) upon a later part in the game Ash Lambert is given the class of Vandalier.