Review: Shining Force

[Jin]

Intro:
When thinking of ways to describe Sega’s strategy RPG, Shining Force, the first term that comes to mind is ‘cult classic’. Numerous people have never played this gem, and yet, almost all that have praise it. Therefor, I believe this term to be accurate. Although SF isn’t a direct sequel to anything, it did have a predecessor that went by the name of ‘Shining In The Darkness’. After playing the two games, it is obvious that they are nowhere near alike, but at the same time, they have similarities. The majority of these similarities revolve around the story. For example, the main villain of SF, Darksol, is also the same villain that graced SITD with his presence. To choose a slogan for SF, one must look to Alexander Keith and the beer name after him: “Those who like it, like it a lot.”

Story:
I’ll be honest regarding the story line: it won’t thrill you. At the time, the story probably wasn’t as cliché as it appears today. 1000 years ago, an ancient evil known as Dark Dragon was sealed away by the ancients. They entrusted the kingdom of Guardinia to watch over the key that, if used, would revive Dark Dragon. Naturally, after 1000 years, people forget things, as did the Guardinians. Although they didn’t know what they were protecting, they never once questioned their duty to guard the key. Eventually, to everyone’s surprise, the kingdom of Runefaust attacked Guardinia and stole the key. Under the influence of an evil being known as Darksol, Runefaust attempts to revive Dark Dragon and of course, only you can stop them. The protagonist, Max, was the prize swordsman of Guardinia before it was sacked. Before the attack, the King and his advisors had organized Max into a party known as the Shining Force and were sent to investigate Runefaust’s activities. After the attack, their new mission became clear: they had to stop Darksol from reviving Dark Dragon. Didn’t see that one coming did you?

Graphics:
The graphics of this game are difficult to discuss. The sprites are a tad simplistic (when compared to Final Fantasy or Shining Force 2), but are far from awful. The game has a much more cartoony feel than most other games in the genre. The backdrops are pretty basic as well. The water doesn’t even move, it just has pictures of little waves. The graphics really shine when actually attacking an enemy (or being attacked by one). The small, simple sprites become a work of pixelised art that really adds to the game's feel. These visual goodies more than make up for the faults.

Music:
There isn’t much to be said about the music in this game. Every single town you visit has the same tune playing. I do have to admit though, that music can get stuck in your head. There aren’t a great deal of sound effects in this game either. To summarize the music in SF, the word adequate comes to mind.

Gameplay:
Like most strategy RPGs, the gameplay consists of you moving your characters to various places on the battlefield when their turn begins. Once in the proper position, you may perform actions with these characters such as using items, holding your ground or attacking an enemy. Various terrain types affect your characters in different ways. A window in the top left corner of the screen shows your character’s ‘land effect’. The higher the land affect, the better your character can take hits. It should be noted however, that a higher land effect also decreases your character’s movement range. Part of the strategy includes using these terrain types to your advantage. As is to be expected in an RPG, your characters can gain experience by performing actions in battle. After 100 experience is gained, the character will level up and become stronger. Once your character reaches level 10, he or she may be promoted to a new class that is much stronger. A note: your character actually decreases in strength when he/she first gets promoted. It takes a few levels to get them back to speed, but when they do, they exceed their previous class by leaps and bounds. SF uses a chapter system to divide the game into 8 parts. There are 3 to 4 battles in each chapter, which doesn’t make for a particularly long game. One thing that sets SF apart from many other strategy RPGs, is the ability to walk around freely when not in combat. The only limitation on this is when you advance to the next chapter. In doing so, you will be unable to travel back to the places that you’ve visited in previous chapters. There are many characters available for use in this game, each with a class such as warrior or mage. The character limit for all battles is 12 characters, and yes, your leader must be one of these.

Overall:
Yes, this game has some flaws, all games do. The story is cliché and the sound and graphics are mediocre, but this game isn’t about any of those things. SF is about the gameplay, as are most strategy RPGs. The game won’t ever steal the spotlight (or rather, didn’t), but it must be commended for the role it played (is that a joke?) in gaming history. Along with Fire Emblem, SF was one of the first strategy RPGs around, and its fans couldn’t be prouder.

[T.G. Oskar]

As Jin posted on his review...not everybody has played it, but all that have simply love it. While at this moment it shows its age, Shining Force is always a good choice to play. While Sega isn't known for its plethora of RPGs, it had a couple of series that really showed the capability of the system and its programmers to make excellent games.

The most striking fact of the game is its battle system. The system's movement type reminisces of future tactical strategy RPGs movement styles. The game possesses a class system simple at heart: all characters have a certain class that reflects their personality (Dwarves become Fighters, Elves become Archers, Centaurs become Knights, erudite humans become Mages, and the like), which after a couple levels can be upgraded into stronger versions of the class. The AI is quite predictable, based upon "wave" styles of attack, in which weaker units are sent first, and stronger units do not move until the weaker units are defeated. Yet, outside the predictability, the game can reserve a few surprises. The touch of the programmers of changing the small sprites into larger, more developed images and animation makes the game fresh, and the battles less tedious that they usually are. SFs standards have inspired many of the recent game trends in battle system, and also keep a distance from its immediate competitor, Fire Emblem.

The storyline is rather cliché, yet still a good story. The story mixes bits of tragedy, comedy, and typical scenes from the genre, such as a villainous army stronger than any kingdom defeated by an evergrowing group of soldiers advancing against the capital. Yet, considering the time it was made, such storyline was acceptable. Furthermore, because of these and other games of that time, we perceive that storyline as cliché.

While it shows its age, the game still can offer good moments of gameplay. Old veterans will be entranced by moments of nostalgia, while some new gamers may enjoy a true classic of the genre.

[postalblowfish7]

shining force invented practically every convention of the strategic RPG. i was a huge sega kid growing up, wasn't even into final fantasy (i was so mad when square had the gull to release FFVIII the same day as the dreamcast >.<) - i just remember one of my friends had FFT, and i was so pissed off. "this is just a shining force rip off!" was my tag line at the time. of course (as you can tell by my posting on this forum) i've moved past company elitism and still stand strong with the shining force games. the sequel was even better, and the saturn version, shining force III, stands among my favorite rpgs of all time. a good review, but i think it deserves a better overall score for it being what it was when it was.

[Pacman]

I only played a little bit of this game. But it was fun.

[Earnest]

I love this game, it's like my 12th favourite ever. However I can't really split which I like more, Shining Force 2 or 1?

You'd be interested to know that IGN just named Shining Force 2 as the 55th best game of all time (I think it was 55 or 45?). Go and check, they're advertising the top 100 all over the website.

The storyline is simple and unconfusing. The promoting of characters is always fun. Players are always dying to see how different the new character looks.

The music is ok, SF2 having way better music. But yeah, this is definatley a good and underated game. I don't blame people for not knowing it though, it was an RPG on a Sega Megadrive, around the time Nintendo was at it's prime.

[Lucid]

I'm not a big fan of strategy RPGs, but I've played a bit of Shining Force CD for Sega CD and Shining Force III for Sega Saturn - both which I never beat.

I did play and beat Shining the Holy Ark numerous times though, mostly because it was a true RPG, and not a strategy RPG.
This is the one Shining Force game that I absolutely love.

[Jin]

What do you mean it isn't a "true RPG"? In the video game world, all RPGs require is gaining levels, increasing your stats and having a story line (although MMORPGs are pushing that). Action RPGs, Strategy RPGs, Turn Based RPGs, they're all RPGs. If we were to go by an original definition, then RPGs are pen and paper die rollers, not whatever you're thinking of.