Ive gotten moderator permission for this, so we are good to go there.
I am a frequent visitor of Shining Force Central, probably the most active, relatively, Shining Force community out there. Recently the owner of the site, Moogie, has launched what she dubs Phase IV of the Save Our Series campaign.
A few years back, she held other campaigns where she and other members of the community wrote letters to Sega and Camelot to sort of get them to rekindle their friendship to help revive the Shining Force line of games.
While it was met with positive responses from both companies, it didnt do too much for reviving the Shining Force series as it once was, but it is believed to have at least caused Sega to look at the Shining series again. Despite Sega focusing on the Shining series once more, instead of getting Shining Force IV or something similar, instead we got Shining Force Neo, Shining Force Exa, Shining Tears, Shining Wind, Shining Soul, Shining Soul II, Shining Hearts, and Shining Force Feather. Shining Force Feather was the closest to the classic Shining games we were going to get, but it never made it out in English, and most likely wont with the recent closure of Flight Plan.
I was going to make this topic a few days ago, but never got around to it, but after seeing the topic dealing with which series fans have been shafted the most and seeing how many people posted Shining Force, I can see an even bigger reason to post this.
NeoGAF seems to have a large number of Shining Force fans, probably more than the Shining Force Central. So, I believe this will be a wonderful place to start talking about the Shining Force: Save our Series campaign.
What is Shining Force?
Shining Force is a SRPG series that was first released in 1992 on the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive. It played similarly to Fire Emblem, except for the fact that it was no longer Player Turn/Enemy turn, but instead movement was based on a speed stat.
Since 1992, six Shining Force titles have been released (8 if you count the three scenarios of Shining Force III as separate games):
Shining Force - 1992
Shining Force II - 1994
Shining Force III: Scenarios 1 3 + Premium Disc - 1997 - 1998
Shining Force Gaiden - 1992
Shining Force: Sword of Hayja - 1993
Shining Force: Final Conflict - 1995; full English translation - 2005
Shining Force and Shining Force II have been released numerous times on either various Sega compilation discs, Wii Virtual Console, XBLA, and, for Shining Force, the iOS.
The Shining Force, and Shining series in general, games were made by the Takahashi brothers: Hiroyuki and Shujo. They would eventually go on to form Camelot Soft, who are best known now for Golden Sun and the Mario Tennis games.
In many interviews, Camelot has mentioned they are interested in trying to work more on the Shining series, but unfortunately, all of the rights are owned by Sega.
GamesTM has a great interview with Hiroyoki about his experience making the Shining series and about Segas general asshattery.
http://www.gamestm.co.uk/retro/behind-the-scenes-shining-force/
The Shining Force games had, and still have, a large cult following around the word, as I could tell by the thread that was just posted: Gamings Longest-Suffering Fanbase.
What is the campaign?
The campaign started in October of this year, shortly after gamesTM, a magazine in the UK, featured Shining Force III on the cover as part of their Top 100 games article.
For those who have not kept up with Sega and Camelots relationship, shortly before the release of Scenario 3 of Shining Force III, Sega stopped focusing on the games, instead to focus their attention on the Dreamcast. This left Camelot in an awkward position. They completed the scenarios and released them, and even rewarded those who purchased all three Scenarios with the Premium Disc. Unfortunately, due to Segas cock up, this had an effect on the companys relationship, and hidden within the code for the Premium Disc, the head of Camelot basically said they wouldnt work with Sega again.
However, there was a little ray of hope. For gamesTM to publish the Shining Force III art work, they had to approach Sega, who in turn, had to approach Camelot in order to obtain the materials. This allowed a small door to be open that could possibly blossom into a partnership once more.
Because of this, the Shining community has taken this small ray of hope and has decided to form a campaign that focuses on talking with Camelot directly.
All of this information you will find at the end of this post at the link.
The Purpose of the Campaign
The focus of Shining Force SOS is to show Camelot how much we love their original Shining series. Ultimately we hope this may encourage them to re-establish their relationship with Sega. We will also notify Sega and Nintendo of the bundle of love when it is sent on to Camelot and humbly ask that Sega consider reconnecting with Camelot.
Why start it now?
Not only are they starting it now because of that small ray of hope, but also the Shining Force series turns 20 on March 29, 2011. What better way to show Camelot love than to shower them with all support from the Shining community on the 20th birthday.
What you can do to help
Write a letter
A few people have already hand-written letters to send to Camelot. The purpose of the letters is to explain just how much the Shining Force games meant to you, or some special memory you had about them.
Share photos
This could be of your collection of games or any memorabilia you have.
Make a video
The campaign has set up a special YouTube channel for videos that will be sent to Camelot. As of now, about 20 videos have been posted.
I would like the state the main purpose of this campaign is to not so much get Camelot to remake Shining Force III or completely mend their relationship with Sega (At least not directly), but to show them just how much love their games still have and how many people still enjoy playing them. I know just recently I went through and played Shining Force again on my iPod Touch and have even started a new game on Shining Force III: Scenario 2 with the excellent translation patches that have been coming out recently.
So far, the campaign has raised money to have adverts in two UK based magazines:
GamesTM and RetroGamer. I might add, that the money for these two adverts was raised by the community members themselves and not from advertising of anything else.
Not only that, the campaign also has had people posting videos to their Youtube site:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ShiningForceSOS
A couple of my favorites:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ShiningForceSOS#p/a/21D351AEA112EE7E/0/zwqwMDKtB6w
http://www.youtube.com/user/ShiningForceSOS#p/c/21D351AEA112EE7E/13/pTAW2rLdieU
They also want people to write what the Shining Force series means to them.
Personally, it is one of my favorite series of games. Despite the newer entries, which I still play, Shining Force and Shining Force III will always be pretty awesome. Shining Force was one of the first RPGs I ever played, and I basically played it to death, and I still do. When I saw Shining Force II in Blockbuster one day, I snatched it up pretty quickly and went home to play it. I never beat it because of that frickin Wooden Panel that I never knew how to get, but I continued to rent the game several more times, despite never getting past that particular part. Several years later when I finally got on the internet, I came to realize that Shining Force III had been released several years earlier. Needless to say, I really wanted to play it, but didnt have a Saturn or the money to buy the game. However, just about four years ago, I finally managed to accrue enough money to buy a Saturn and the games from various people on Shining Force Central, and I spent a year going through and playing all three games.
I know you all are going to laugh at this and think it is pretty silly and ask Why do you think your series is more deserving as love and support than out series? Well, the answer is, it might not be. However, I do know that the series does deserve more love and with the recent undertaking of Shining Force Central to translate Shining Force III Scenario 2 and 3 into English (And German and French), the series has had a bit of a resurgence with its own fanbase.
Thanks everyone for reading!
http://sos.shiningforcecentral.com/
I am a frequent visitor of Shining Force Central, probably the most active, relatively, Shining Force community out there. Recently the owner of the site, Moogie, has launched what she dubs Phase IV of the Save Our Series campaign.
A few years back, she held other campaigns where she and other members of the community wrote letters to Sega and Camelot to sort of get them to rekindle their friendship to help revive the Shining Force line of games.
While it was met with positive responses from both companies, it didnt do too much for reviving the Shining Force series as it once was, but it is believed to have at least caused Sega to look at the Shining series again. Despite Sega focusing on the Shining series once more, instead of getting Shining Force IV or something similar, instead we got Shining Force Neo, Shining Force Exa, Shining Tears, Shining Wind, Shining Soul, Shining Soul II, Shining Hearts, and Shining Force Feather. Shining Force Feather was the closest to the classic Shining games we were going to get, but it never made it out in English, and most likely wont with the recent closure of Flight Plan.
I was going to make this topic a few days ago, but never got around to it, but after seeing the topic dealing with which series fans have been shafted the most and seeing how many people posted Shining Force, I can see an even bigger reason to post this.
NeoGAF seems to have a large number of Shining Force fans, probably more than the Shining Force Central. So, I believe this will be a wonderful place to start talking about the Shining Force: Save our Series campaign.
What is Shining Force?
Shining Force is a SRPG series that was first released in 1992 on the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive. It played similarly to Fire Emblem, except for the fact that it was no longer Player Turn/Enemy turn, but instead movement was based on a speed stat.
Since 1992, six Shining Force titles have been released (8 if you count the three scenarios of Shining Force III as separate games):
Shining Force - 1992
Shining Force II - 1994
Shining Force III: Scenarios 1 3 + Premium Disc - 1997 - 1998
Shining Force Gaiden - 1992
Shining Force: Sword of Hayja - 1993
Shining Force: Final Conflict - 1995; full English translation - 2005
Shining Force and Shining Force II have been released numerous times on either various Sega compilation discs, Wii Virtual Console, XBLA, and, for Shining Force, the iOS.
The Shining Force, and Shining series in general, games were made by the Takahashi brothers: Hiroyuki and Shujo. They would eventually go on to form Camelot Soft, who are best known now for Golden Sun and the Mario Tennis games.
In many interviews, Camelot has mentioned they are interested in trying to work more on the Shining series, but unfortunately, all of the rights are owned by Sega.
GamesTM has a great interview with Hiroyoki about his experience making the Shining series and about Segas general asshattery.
http://www.gamestm.co.uk/retro/behind-the-scenes-shining-force/
The Shining Force games had, and still have, a large cult following around the word, as I could tell by the thread that was just posted: Gamings Longest-Suffering Fanbase.
What is the campaign?
The campaign started in October of this year, shortly after gamesTM, a magazine in the UK, featured Shining Force III on the cover as part of their Top 100 games article.
For those who have not kept up with Sega and Camelots relationship, shortly before the release of Scenario 3 of Shining Force III, Sega stopped focusing on the games, instead to focus their attention on the Dreamcast. This left Camelot in an awkward position. They completed the scenarios and released them, and even rewarded those who purchased all three Scenarios with the Premium Disc. Unfortunately, due to Segas cock up, this had an effect on the companys relationship, and hidden within the code for the Premium Disc, the head of Camelot basically said they wouldnt work with Sega again.
However, there was a little ray of hope. For gamesTM to publish the Shining Force III art work, they had to approach Sega, who in turn, had to approach Camelot in order to obtain the materials. This allowed a small door to be open that could possibly blossom into a partnership once more.
Because of this, the Shining community has taken this small ray of hope and has decided to form a campaign that focuses on talking with Camelot directly.
All of this information you will find at the end of this post at the link.
The Purpose of the Campaign
The focus of Shining Force SOS is to show Camelot how much we love their original Shining series. Ultimately we hope this may encourage them to re-establish their relationship with Sega. We will also notify Sega and Nintendo of the bundle of love when it is sent on to Camelot and humbly ask that Sega consider reconnecting with Camelot.
Why start it now?
Not only are they starting it now because of that small ray of hope, but also the Shining Force series turns 20 on March 29, 2011. What better way to show Camelot love than to shower them with all support from the Shining community on the 20th birthday.
What you can do to help
Write a letter
A few people have already hand-written letters to send to Camelot. The purpose of the letters is to explain just how much the Shining Force games meant to you, or some special memory you had about them.
Share photos
This could be of your collection of games or any memorabilia you have.
Make a video
The campaign has set up a special YouTube channel for videos that will be sent to Camelot. As of now, about 20 videos have been posted.
I would like the state the main purpose of this campaign is to not so much get Camelot to remake Shining Force III or completely mend their relationship with Sega (At least not directly), but to show them just how much love their games still have and how many people still enjoy playing them. I know just recently I went through and played Shining Force again on my iPod Touch and have even started a new game on Shining Force III: Scenario 2 with the excellent translation patches that have been coming out recently.
So far, the campaign has raised money to have adverts in two UK based magazines:
GamesTM and RetroGamer. I might add, that the money for these two adverts was raised by the community members themselves and not from advertising of anything else.
Not only that, the campaign also has had people posting videos to their Youtube site:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ShiningForceSOS
A couple of my favorites:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ShiningForceSOS#p/a/21D351AEA112EE7E/0/zwqwMDKtB6w
http://www.youtube.com/user/ShiningForceSOS#p/c/21D351AEA112EE7E/13/pTAW2rLdieU
They also want people to write what the Shining Force series means to them.
Personally, it is one of my favorite series of games. Despite the newer entries, which I still play, Shining Force and Shining Force III will always be pretty awesome. Shining Force was one of the first RPGs I ever played, and I basically played it to death, and I still do. When I saw Shining Force II in Blockbuster one day, I snatched it up pretty quickly and went home to play it. I never beat it because of that frickin Wooden Panel that I never knew how to get, but I continued to rent the game several more times, despite never getting past that particular part. Several years later when I finally got on the internet, I came to realize that Shining Force III had been released several years earlier. Needless to say, I really wanted to play it, but didnt have a Saturn or the money to buy the game. However, just about four years ago, I finally managed to accrue enough money to buy a Saturn and the games from various people on Shining Force Central, and I spent a year going through and playing all three games.
I know you all are going to laugh at this and think it is pretty silly and ask Why do you think your series is more deserving as love and support than out series? Well, the answer is, it might not be. However, I do know that the series does deserve more love and with the recent undertaking of Shining Force Central to translate Shining Force III Scenario 2 and 3 into English (And German and French), the series has had a bit of a resurgence with its own fanbase.
Thanks everyone for reading!
http://sos.shiningforcecentral.com/
