I figure some additional detail here might be helpful:
Shadow Hearts is a video game series that follows a theme of humorous characters involved in grim gothic adventurers. The original setting was the early 1900s and it shares some qualities with Call of Cthulhu, except as a video game you activally combat, not investigate. The series uses anime and western styled presentation since it's made in Japan and set primarily in Europe.
The major recurring element in the series is the power of nasty things: Malice. Malice is all that is bad in the human soul and it makes people do mean things. It causes monsters to appear and can make humans degerate to wild savages. In the games, a massive release of stored Malice help to trigger the first world war.
This game will focus on those same themes; Malice, horror, and humor. Characters are encouraged to be strange and off the wall while being able to maintain an effective combat side. Powers should be linked thematically but they can still cover a very broad area.
The era is advancing, we'll be playing in the years towards the end of the first world war with Malice still unusually high.
