First-timer's impressions of Shining Force II. Not much detail, but it'll do, I hope.
There aren't many sequels where, within even so much as an hour of playing (and I've put in more than that), I felt more strongly than I do with SFII that they were improvements over their predecessor. I'm not sure exactly why, though I can think of possible reasons:
- Maybe it's because I'm big on game music and Shining Force's soundtrack annoyed me horribly and begun to grate on me whereas Shining Force II has excellent, catchy, and memorable music in the towns and on the world map and basically everywhere.
- Maybe it's because I'm big on convenience and SFII's text seems to move faster both inside battle and out. (Special note for anyone who might not know: you can press the main confirmation button on something other than a character in battles and set the text speed one step higher to get to its fastest!)
- Maybe it's because the pacing and leveling seems quicker--I don't remember getting this many gains of 49 experience in the original game (which would make some sense considering that in SFII unpromoted characters can head up as high as level 40). Could be wrong, I guess.
- Maybe it's because the overworld makes it play more like I'm going on an adventure and less like I'm being pulled forward on an adventure, which for me at least is a positive.
But whatever it is, or a combination of all these things, that feeling of improvement definitely comes across.
...And on a completely separate note,
are my favorite mythical creature. ♥ So happy to have one!