Shining force

[kainemaxwell]

So ive played the sf series off and on in the past, but recently got the 3 games from sega classics on the google store. ive been really enjoying sf1 even though i suck at strat rpgs. up to the last fight in chapter 4 now and grinding some to start a few promotions.

[gbpxl]

I never really played them but I liked Phantasy Star a lot so I assume SF is good too

[bb_hood]

Shining Force 1 is good, however Shining Force 2 & Shining Force CD are really excellent games.
Those are the 2 SF games to check out.
And they are quite different from Phantasy Star... Shining Force is very much the better series.

[Aussie2B]

Phantasy Star and Shining Force have basically nothing in common, besides being RPGs published by Sega. I'm not a Phantasy Star fan, but I love the Shining Force series. The first one is my favorite, but basically all the 90s Shining Force games are excellent. The only Genesis game I like more than Shining Force is Monster World IV.

[Natty Bumppo]

Master of Monsters and Warsong for the Genesis are worth a look if you like the SF games.

[Edmond Dantes]

Note to self: play Warsong sometime (I have an import copy for the PC Engine but, ya know, that's in Japanese)

I beat Shining Force 1 for the first time like three years ago. It was quite a ride. Part of me is curious about the GBA version (whcih is a remake) but one thing i immediately dislike is the redone character designs. The deer-girl Kris suddenly looks like Link from Legend of Zelda and in general the deer-people all look more humanoid, which I assume is in an attempt to make them more marketable, but I prefer their more elongated snouts from the original.

It's a weird thing, I remember finding Shining Force 1 better than SF2 even though A) they have the same gameplay and B) SF2 easily has better music. Dunno why I would prefer one over the other. Maybe I was just burned out.

... and like people have said, Shining Force isn't anything like Phantasy Star. One is a strategy-RPG, the other is just an RPG. IT's weird though as Shining Force itself is technically a spinoff of Shining in the Darkness, which was Sega Does Wizardry (IE a first person Dungeon crawler), and apparently several Shining Not-Force games exist.

[Aussie2B]

Shining Force 2 is more polished, but there are enough differences between the two that it's not unusual to prefer the first, depending on which features you value more. I've come across a lot of people who prefer the first. I actually prefer the soundtrack of the first too.

[Natty Bumppo]

IMHO the best things that SF2 has over SF1 is that it has a lot more secrets to discover. (especially the special classes and the mithril weapons). And the chess battle is probably the first or second most challenging* battle in the series - if you defeat the whole army first before defeating the king.

*The competitor is that awesome museum battle in SFCD.

[Koa Zo]

and apparently several Shining Not-Force games exist.
Shining Soul II was my favorite. I wonder how many people ever actually got to play that fully multiplayer, I've gotta try to make that happen someday.

Of the main games, my intro was Shining Force CD. I don't think I'd played a strategy game of that sort up till that point. I don't think the game even interested me much at first. It was mainly for lack of any other software that I soon enough got addicted to SFCD. Played though that a number of times. Most battles iirc were ~30, the game has great pacing and is perfect for brief and predictable play sessions.
I later played the GBA remake which was perfectly enjoyable, and again has well paced battles.
SFIII part 1 was also a pleasure to play, and I'd like to one day go through all 3 parts, but in some ways I prefer the 16-bit style better. iirc there were also battle in the Saturn game that unexpectedly would suck me in for hours. Obviously I enjoyed playing it and stuck with it, but I remember being apprehensive to play it because I'd want to play for 30 minutes but get committed into a battle (or series of battles/events/cinemas) for hours.

[Edmond Dantes]

I completely forgot about Shining Force CD.

Funny thing...I've heard SFCD is a port/remake of the first two Game Gear SFs but with a brand-new third part to conclude the story... and then later a completely different part three was made for the Game Gear. So like, this is one Shining Force story that has two different endings depending on whether you play it on an obscure add-on or an obscure handheld.

Still better than Shining Force III where you need to resort to fan translations for the second and third parts.... and I don't see anyone making repro discs of those (I won't bother with burns because in my experience, burns barely ever work in real consoles and even when they do, they're buggy and have a chance of damaging the hardware. Pressed repros won't do that but it seems repros happen more often for carts than for discs)

I saw an interview once where the guy behind Shining Force was asked if Fire Emblem inspired him. IIRC he denied it and claimed he didn't like FE that much, something about "the tempo was all wrong." (He wasn't referring to the music... apparently the game just never "clicked" for him).

[Aussie2B]

I think it'd be a pretty huge coincidence if Shining Force wasn't at all inspired by Fire Emblem. I mean, just the amount of time that passed between the first Fire Emblem and Shining Force and the popularity of Fire Emblem in Japan makes it pretty much impossible for the staff to have not been exposed to Fire Emblem. Even if they didn't like Fire Emblem, I don't believe there's zero influence there. And it's not like it would say anything bad about Shining Force to have been influenced. I mean, there would've been no Fire Emblem without Dragon Warrior, for that matter. And there would be no Dragon Warrior without tabletop RPGs. So on and so forth. Literally every game is inspired by something else to some degree. I like Shining Force more than Fire Emblem myself, so it was a good evolution of the genre.

[Natty Bumppo]

Funny thing...I've heard SFCD is a port/remake of the first two Game Gear SFs but with a brand-new third part to conclude the story... and then later a completely different part three was made for the Game Gear. So like, this is one Shining Force story that has two different endings depending on whether you play it on an obscure add-on or an obscure handheld.


SFCD also has a fourth book - it is set in a museum where all of the figures of the bosses come to life and you get to fight them. (This only occurs if you find a hidden ticket during one of the battles.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXi6C19wg_0

[Nz17]

I'm a fan of Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya (https://www.mobygames.com/game/shining-force-the-sword-of-hajya) for the SEGA Game Gear. SEGA should release more of its Game Gear catalog for iOS and Android. The Game Gear games are already designed for portable play so they are good in small doses or large doses whereas some TV console games are more meant for longer play times.

SEGA, if you are listening, port Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya and Crystal Warriors (https://www.mobygames.com/game/crystal-warriors) to Android, please. I mean, OK, there are emulators, but it is nice to have official, convenient ways of playing games instead of relying on things like RetroArch (http://www.retroarch.com/).

[Edmond Dantes]

I think it'd be a pretty huge coincidence if Shining Force wasn't at all inspired by Fire Emblem. I mean, just the amount of time that passed between the first Fire Emblem and Shining Force and the popularity of Fire Emblem in Japan makes it pretty much impossible for the staff to have not been exposed to Fire Emblem. Even if they didn't like Fire Emblem, I don't believe there's zero influence there. And it's not like it would say anything bad about Shining Force to have been influenced. I mean, there would've been no Fire Emblem without Dragon Warrior, for that matter. And there would be no Dragon Warrior without tabletop RPGs. So on and so forth. Literally every game is inspired by something else to some degree. I like Shining Force more than Fire Emblem myself, so it was a good evolution of the genre.

Found the interview:

https://www.gamestm.co.uk/uncategorised/behind-the-scenes-shining-force/

Top of Page 2 is where he brings up Fire Emblem. It sounds like he really hated it, but who knows... he may have had reasons for denying any inspiration.

having played some FE just now, the main thing i notice is FE feels more like a wargame with RPG elements, whereas Shining Force feels more like an RPG that happens to have a wargame-like battle system. It might be a distinction without a difference tho.

I found another interview or set of questions and answers BTW, this more into lore territory (and thus possibly very spoilery):

https://www.shiningforcecentral.com/?p=studies&c=taguchi

[WulfeLuer]

I read that interview. I think it's an evolution of Sega's old party line of denying that anything Nintendo-related isn't garbage combined with "shut up about Fire Emblem, everybody asks about Fire Emblem" phrased politely. If he hates the "tempo" then he had some experience of it. Toss in some more insight of how Sega caught a case of the Suits and there you go, yet another angry dev.

In any case, SF has been on my radar for a while now. Is there any good ports floating around (including compilations) for PS2 or PS3?

[Aussie2B]

Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection on PS3 has the first two games, along with Shining in the Darkness.

I wish there was some modern compilation with Shining Force CD and Shining Force III.

[Tron 2.0]

Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection on PS3 has the first two games, along with Shining in the Darkness.

I wish there was some modern compilation with Shining Force CD and Shining Force III.
I all ways found it odd sega has never bother to re-release shining force cd for any thing be it digital or compilation.