really, really buggy.
That's right! Tizoc and Inframan brought it to the attention of GAF that there was a mighty sale on Genesis and Mega Drive games a couple of weeks back. Delighted at my chance to delve for the first time into the world of classic Sega titles, I picked up (for the low, low price of two dollars) five games: Sonic CD, Phantasy Star IV, Ristar, Landstalker and yes, Shining Force II. What a bargain!!
Unusually, I felt like playing an RPG. Phantasy Star IV had rave reviews, but I only felt ready for a casual gaming experience - it's like not wanting to waste your first time watching Citizen Kane with low concentration lest you miss out on some of the rich complexities that are so constituent of the films beauty. So I decided Shining Force II would do. This game is also rated very highly but there was less of an air of devotion among the fan chatter online when I checked, which settled my senses.
I booted up the Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics Steam file and found myself in a strangely hodge-podge 3d household lounge environment. Had I been teleported to another World? A kind of shitty World with just the bare minimum of stuff to give the impression that people live here? Wow! There was a Genesis on the floor in front of the TV! Wow, if I clicked it would I - no, that's game settings. So I clicked on the TV and gots to playing.
Shining Force II starts with a neat cutscene of a mouse stealing some jewels out of a huge dungeon. That was cool but the game kept slowing down to a crawl and I felt instantly regretful of my purchase. Then hodgy100 kindly brought it to my attention that you can start the whole Sega emulator in basic mode which eradicated any sense of slowdown that I had been experiencing.
Once I got past the intro sequence, the game continued to draw me into its World with the file select screen being a conversation with a witch! Shortly thereafter I began my quest.
This game is cool. I've never played a strategy game before where you can walk around in traditional RPG mode between fights! I'd like to see more games use this idea. I think there's a Mario Tennis game which has a similar RPG thing between matches. It's a fun chance for World-building.
This game has charm. Check the Overworld music out. It reminds me of the Soul Calibur OST, actually - and that is another title just spewing with the sense of adventure that reacts with the brain like yeast and baking soda to make loaves and loaves of pure nostalgia. I can actually hear this track a lot without getting tired of it - and that's good because you hear it all the time in this game.
I find the writing in this game weird. In a lot of Japanese-to-English translated games, the characters speak in very black-and-white terms. You'll often walk up to an NPC and all they'll say is something like "you can buy loaves of bread at the market." This works in a lot of less story-driven games. It's fine in something like A Link to the Past, but Shining Force II has a much more interconnected plot - which is something I really like about this game. You're constantly gaining party members in an organic way - perhaps the King will tell his second-in-command to follow the gang and he'll join the party - situations like that. But for all this trouble to make the game feel alive, the characters can be prone to talking in a very stilted way. It doesn't necessarily bring the game down because it's obviously a product of its time, but I did take note of it. Not only that but the characterization seems pretty inconsistent, too. This great Wizard Sir Astral who serves as your teacher at the beginning of the game and has status among the Royals seems to have a pretty informal way of speaking even when addressing an entire army. It's really weird, but it's also fascinating to look at in some pseudo-historical context.
I was playing on easy and I greatly enjoyed the difficulty curve as somebody who doesn't usually think so strategically. I think there are a lot of components in this game that come together really well. To expand on the story-driven nature of this game, let me anecdotally mention that I played Advance Wars 2 for a while. I played Advance Wars 1 for an even shorter period of time then moved on because there wasn't enough context to the battles I was having. In the sequel there's a greater sense of threat and sweeping global stakes to be gleaned from the morsels of dialogue that occur before battles begin that helped to engage my emotional connection to the game. But it wasn't really enough and I found myself getting bored despite the core mechanics of the game being really solid.
In Shining Force II, the story really ties in to the battles that occur, so you get a greater sense of fighting for a reason. There's a definitive context to the things that occur, and a clear sense of progression that aids the story. Even watching your party grow from battle to battle as more members join the team aids in painting an epic scale for the player to enjoy.
Unfortunately the Sega Master System & Genesis Classics launcher is really buggy. It features save states, though you can also save in-game. After about 3 hours of on-and-off play across about a week I decided to save and quit to the in-game title. After that, I quit back to the launcher and state-saved the whole thing. To my dismay, the next time I opened my state-save, the in-game title screen showed I had no save data! It was all that fucking witch's fault! A few days later I begrudgingly renamed my character as Frein and started again. I remade my progress in about half the time! Must have gotten good at the game, little old me. I decided I would save in-game but never quit to title, and then save-state from there. Surely that ought to cover all my bases. However when I was quitting the game so that I could save-state from the launcher, it would often seize up on me and I'd have to force-quit and sometimes catch up on a little progress. Not the worst thing ever, but it eventually came to a T yesterday, where I had to force-quit, came back and all the data was wiped altogether! There was no record of any save-states at all.
If you want to play this game I'd recommend just using an emulator because this release is fucked like a loaf of bread!
Anyone else played this game or other entries in the Shining Force saga?
That's right! Tizoc and Inframan brought it to the attention of GAF that there was a mighty sale on Genesis and Mega Drive games a couple of weeks back. Delighted at my chance to delve for the first time into the world of classic Sega titles, I picked up (for the low, low price of two dollars) five games: Sonic CD, Phantasy Star IV, Ristar, Landstalker and yes, Shining Force II. What a bargain!!
Unusually, I felt like playing an RPG. Phantasy Star IV had rave reviews, but I only felt ready for a casual gaming experience - it's like not wanting to waste your first time watching Citizen Kane with low concentration lest you miss out on some of the rich complexities that are so constituent of the films beauty. So I decided Shining Force II would do. This game is also rated very highly but there was less of an air of devotion among the fan chatter online when I checked, which settled my senses.
I booted up the Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics Steam file and found myself in a strangely hodge-podge 3d household lounge environment. Had I been teleported to another World? A kind of shitty World with just the bare minimum of stuff to give the impression that people live here? Wow! There was a Genesis on the floor in front of the TV! Wow, if I clicked it would I - no, that's game settings. So I clicked on the TV and gots to playing.
Shining Force II starts with a neat cutscene of a mouse stealing some jewels out of a huge dungeon. That was cool but the game kept slowing down to a crawl and I felt instantly regretful of my purchase. Then hodgy100 kindly brought it to my attention that you can start the whole Sega emulator in basic mode which eradicated any sense of slowdown that I had been experiencing.
Once I got past the intro sequence, the game continued to draw me into its World with the file select screen being a conversation with a witch! Shortly thereafter I began my quest.
I would grow to hate this witch.
This game is cool. I've never played a strategy game before where you can walk around in traditional RPG mode between fights! I'd like to see more games use this idea. I think there's a Mario Tennis game which has a similar RPG thing between matches. It's a fun chance for World-building.
I'm not racist, but it was weird when I realised the main character's classmate from the beginning of the game was a centaur.
This game has charm. Check the Overworld music out. It reminds me of the Soul Calibur OST, actually - and that is another title just spewing with the sense of adventure that reacts with the brain like yeast and baking soda to make loaves and loaves of pure nostalgia. I can actually hear this track a lot without getting tired of it - and that's good because you hear it all the time in this game.
See the guy in the top-left? He's the centaur. You wouldn't know it till he turns left. I'm not racist, just saying!
I find the writing in this game weird. In a lot of Japanese-to-English translated games, the characters speak in very black-and-white terms. You'll often walk up to an NPC and all they'll say is something like "you can buy loaves of bread at the market." This works in a lot of less story-driven games. It's fine in something like A Link to the Past, but Shining Force II has a much more interconnected plot - which is something I really like about this game. You're constantly gaining party members in an organic way - perhaps the King will tell his second-in-command to follow the gang and he'll join the party - situations like that. But for all this trouble to make the game feel alive, the characters can be prone to talking in a very stilted way. It doesn't necessarily bring the game down because it's obviously a product of its time, but I did take note of it. Not only that but the characterization seems pretty inconsistent, too. This great Wizard Sir Astral who serves as your teacher at the beginning of the game and has status among the Royals seems to have a pretty informal way of speaking even when addressing an entire army. It's really weird, but it's also fascinating to look at in some pseudo-historical context.
I was playing on easy and I greatly enjoyed the difficulty curve as somebody who doesn't usually think so strategically. I think there are a lot of components in this game that come together really well. To expand on the story-driven nature of this game, let me anecdotally mention that I played Advance Wars 2 for a while. I played Advance Wars 1 for an even shorter period of time then moved on because there wasn't enough context to the battles I was having. In the sequel there's a greater sense of threat and sweeping global stakes to be gleaned from the morsels of dialogue that occur before battles begin that helped to engage my emotional connection to the game. But it wasn't really enough and I found myself getting bored despite the core mechanics of the game being really solid.
In Shining Force II, the story really ties in to the battles that occur, so you get a greater sense of fighting for a reason. There's a definitive context to the things that occur, and a clear sense of progression that aids the story. Even watching your party grow from battle to battle as more members join the team aids in painting an epic scale for the player to enjoy.
This is the last fight I ever fought.
Unfortunately the Sega Master System & Genesis Classics launcher is really buggy. It features save states, though you can also save in-game. After about 3 hours of on-and-off play across about a week I decided to save and quit to the in-game title. After that, I quit back to the launcher and state-saved the whole thing. To my dismay, the next time I opened my state-save, the in-game title screen showed I had no save data! It was all that fucking witch's fault! A few days later I begrudgingly renamed my character as Frein and started again. I remade my progress in about half the time! Must have gotten good at the game, little old me. I decided I would save in-game but never quit to title, and then save-state from there. Surely that ought to cover all my bases. However when I was quitting the game so that I could save-state from the launcher, it would often seize up on me and I'd have to force-quit and sometimes catch up on a little progress. Not the worst thing ever, but it eventually came to a T yesterday, where I had to force-quit, came back and all the data was wiped altogether! There was no record of any save-states at all.
If you want to play this game I'd recommend just using an emulator because this release is fucked like a loaf of bread!
Well, that ended up not being true...
Anyone else played this game or other entries in the Shining Force saga?
