Finally finished frickin' Shining Force 2

[fishsandwich]

Anyone come back to a game years and years later and beat it?

My journey is almost complete. All that remains is Shining Force 3.

About 8 years ago, I played a Shining Force game for the first time... SF3 for the Saturn. I thought I was doing well until I had my ass handed to me repeatedly in a battle I could not win. I gave up but saved the game on a cart and have been vexed ever since. It was my first strategy RPG and I had no idea what "leveling up" was. I sucked.

Fast forward to this year and Shining Force for the GBA (a remake of the first Shining Force.) I beat it several times and learned what the heck I was doing. I finished Shining Force CD (two enhanced Game Gear titles plus extra battles.) Last night I finally finished SF2 after weeks of playing and leveling up. Tiresome it was but finished I am.

Next stop: that damn Shining Force 3 game I abandoned all those years ago. I want to have a look at my sucky character stats from my original save. All that will remain after that will be the original SF on Genny (which isn't that big of a deal since I played the GBA remake) and the still untranslated SF: The Final Conflict for Game Gear. The other Shining Force games for the PS2 are a different style of gameplay and don't count. The last "Official" SF game was part 3 on the Saturn, released nearly 10 years ago.

Just thought I'd share.

[Blitzwing256]

when you beat 2 , did you leave the game on after the credits? if you leave it going for about 5 minutes you get an extra secret map to fight on.

[fishsandwich]

when you beat 2 , did you leave the game on after the credits? if you leave it going for about 5 minutes you get an extra secret map to fight on.

I did indeed... the final battle with all the boss characters. Easier than I expected.

[Zebbe]

While not a strategy-RPG, Shining in the Darkness - the cradle of the series - is a must buy. It has that special medieval/fantasy style you like with the Force games.

[Dark_Sol]

While not a strategy-RPG, Shining in the Darkness - the cradle of the series - is a must buy. It has that special medieval/fantasy style you like with the Force games.

This is my all-time favourite of all times. THis game has a charm.

[Little Samson]

I love the Shining Force games. Have fun!

[FantasiaWHT]

I've almost beaten SF3 myself, and I just played SF1 when it came out on VC. SF1 was much much easier than I remembered... probably because I didn't dink around with trying out different characters for different battles, but kept the same ones throughout. Kinda miss those insane level ups... +9 strength! +5 health! +7 defense!

SF3 is not growing on me too much... Without getting secret characters, you don't ever get to choose the makeup of your party! I'm on the last chapter and I still don't have reserve fighters. Also, the whole political/war/intrigue plot is way too Final Fantasy Tactics for me. Give me the great plots of SF1 and 2!

[crazyjackcsa]

SF3 Was my First Shining Force game. I actually started on Shining the Holy Ark and have moved on to Shining in the Darkness. I Dig Darkness, but it's hard to move backwards! If you don't have enough of the secret characters I think SF3 may be unbeatable when you get down to the last boss. It's also too bad we didn't get the rest of the series here in North America.

[Little Samson]

It's also too bad we didn't get the rest of the series here in North America.

I'll say. Imports are too daunting for me, so I'll probably never play the other two thirds of the game...

[coreycorey2000]

I've made it to the final battle in Shining Force 3. But nomatter what I do, I can not win. I think I might have to start fresh from the begining. I've beaten 1,2 and the GameGear one. I'm half way through Shining Force cd. What a great series!

[Neil Koch]

I've almost beaten SF3 myself, and I just played SF1 when it came out on VC. SF1 was much much easier than I remembered... probably because I didn't dink around with trying out different characters for different battles, but kept the same ones throughout. Kinda miss those insane level ups... +9 strength! +5 health! +7 defense!

The VC version seemed easy to me also, which was weird, because my characters hardly ever increased stats when they leveled up. A lot of times they would only get one point in one or two skills, and sometimes nothing at all :/

Still a great game though, and I normally don't get into RPG's at all. The only thing I don't like is the music, which gets incredibly annoying after about 15 minutes... but I guess that's what shuffle play on Winamp is for

[fishsandwich]

I put away the X'Eye last nite and SF2 and got out the Saturn and SF3. I found FOUR memory carts but finally found the OLD game with the save. I wasn't as bad as I thought back in the day but I can see why I kept losing... some of my characters are WAY underpowered and get killed with one hit. I never used AURA or BOOST. I never let underpowered characters take the kill... I just used whoever was closest and charged full steam ahead.

My biggest problem was my absolute refusal to retreat so I could replay a battle and level up. I suppose I was still thinking old school... once a level was finished, it was FINISHED. The idea of retreating when the battle was almost won was completely alien to me.

It's interesting to look back (8 years in this case) and see where you went wrong and how you have changed.

[Iron Draggon]

I've only finished the original Shining Force on the Genesis, despite the fact that I've owned it and Shining Force 2 and Shining Force CD and Shining Force GG ever since they first came out... I never bothered with Shining Force 3 though, cause I knew that they would never release all the games in the series here in the states, and I saw no point in owning one without owning all the others... same situation with Lord of the Rings on the SNES... I would like to own all the Japanese versions of Shining Force 3 someday though, even though I could never play them without learning Japanese...

[kainemaxwell]

I should replay this one these days too somewhere. Ended up being halfway through the game once on an emulator and lost my save files...

How's Shining Force Neo as an action rpg compare to the older titles?

[Soviet Conscript]

Anyone come back to a game years and years later and beat it?

8 years and i'm still working on Bards Tale (PC DOS)

probibly cause all i do is pick at it in spurts and when i do i mostly just mostly grind and level my guys. i'm only at the second dungeon but i swear one day i'm going to beat that damn game.

awhile back i came across my old GB and final fantasy adventure II cart. i hadn't played it for years and had last saved at the battle with Odin. i was shocked that my save was still there. i ended up beating it.

[FantasiaWHT]

How's Shining Force Neo as an action rpg compare to the older titles?

It's a virtual clone of Record of Lodoss War for the Dreamcast, if you've ever played that.