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Shining Series Appreciation Thread
- Thread starter Fou-Lu
- Start date
IronicSonic
Member
Saturn's Shining Force 3 is great. GBA's Soul series is great aswell. I'm on the fence with Genesis/CD games. How they hold up?
Currently I'm on my third run of Valkyria Chronicles and I wish Shining Force 4 take some elements of it.
Currently I'm on my third run of Valkyria Chronicles and I wish Shining Force 4 take some elements of it.
LordGorchnik
Member
What was the SF game that came out on the DS quite a while ago. Had character designs by Noizi Ito? I remember most people hating it but I got about halfway through. Thought it was pretty fun.
Alex_Mexico
Member
Isn't this the SEGA series that started good, original and targeting a wider audience and eventually devolved into the wifu, anime, ecchi pandering that it is today? Because that Tony Taka character designer they've been using for the last decade or so isn't primarily known for his work on videogames, you know?
sixteen-bit
Member
Behold my arctic blast!
cireza
Member
Well, it seems that this is the case of most Japanese artists anyway. I recently learned that it was also the case of the artist who made Valkyria Chronicles characters. I mean, how could you even guess that ?
After replaying Shining Soul over the weekend I really wanna track down a copy of the sequel at some point!
Force
Force II
Force III Pt.1
In the Darkness
the Holy Ark
Wisdom
Force Neo
Soul
Are all the ones I've played to some degree. Never could get into the first person dungeon crawling pair though. And Neo sucked. The rest were all good to great. Loved this series. Shameful that Segac gave up on it in the west and in general. Totally shoulda been a Force II remake for GBA and Feather shoulda got localized at the very least.
Force
Force II
Force III Pt.1
In the Darkness
the Holy Ark
Wisdom
Force Neo
Soul
Are all the ones I've played to some degree. Never could get into the first person dungeon crawling pair though. And Neo sucked. The rest were all good to great. Loved this series. Shameful that Segac gave up on it in the west and in general. Totally shoulda been a Force II remake for GBA and Feather shoulda got localized at the very least.
I dunno whats questionable about its localization but its a great remake if ya ask me, an I love the original.
shark sandwich
tenuously links anime, pedophile and incels
My favorite class is..........the female monks in shining force 2 lol
They say Sarah was weak when you get her.....fuck those people.
She doing better damage then Chester the centaur early in the game for me.
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Monks in SF2 were badass and OP as hell. I remember they had one buff spell that could target your entire team, which made power leveling a breeze.
Laevateinn
Member
This is my absolute favorite series of all time. I play through all the force games at least once a year and the side games relatively common as well.
Shining Force was my first RPG. My mom got it from a pawn shop and it almost never left my genesis. It almost took me a year to beat. Inadvertently I was playing a Max only run. It wasn't until later that I figured out the mechanics.
I remember when 2 dropped and it was almost 100 dollars. I begged my mom for it every time we went to target. I asked for it for Christmas, my birthday, for everything but never owned it until I was an adult. I was able to play it via rental
and loved it. It was a bit too light hearted and I never liked the princess substory.
Camelot really took it to another place and I can understand why some people might not be into it. The whole story from Shining the Holy Ark to SF3 is masterful in my opinion. The dynamic between Aspia and the empire is what made me originally think about politics and had a profound impact on who I am today. Mechanically, the third games are perfect. No strategy game plays anywhere near as well in my opinion. I especially love the friendship system and wish there was a game that did that the same way released today.
It's really too bad that Camelot and Sega split. I would love a conclusion to the Galm and Julian storyline. We only got a teaser and it could have been amazing.
Shining Force was my first RPG. My mom got it from a pawn shop and it almost never left my genesis. It almost took me a year to beat. Inadvertently I was playing a Max only run. It wasn't until later that I figured out the mechanics.
I remember when 2 dropped and it was almost 100 dollars. I begged my mom for it every time we went to target. I asked for it for Christmas, my birthday, for everything but never owned it until I was an adult. I was able to play it via rental
and other means
Camelot really took it to another place and I can understand why some people might not be into it. The whole story from Shining the Holy Ark to SF3 is masterful in my opinion. The dynamic between Aspia and the empire is what made me originally think about politics and had a profound impact on who I am today. Mechanically, the third games are perfect. No strategy game plays anywhere near as well in my opinion. I especially love the friendship system and wish there was a game that did that the same way released today.
It's really too bad that Camelot and Sega split. I would love a conclusion to the Galm and Julian storyline. We only got a teaser and it could have been amazing.
Novel Mike
Member
The localization of the original game removed Max's backstory (he had amnesia) and there are a few translation/script errors like almost every RPG of that era but the storyline is 100% understandable in every way.
The remake gave Max back his backstory... and added onto it and it completely ruined the remake in my opinion, I think they were honestly trying to tie it together with Shining Force Neo and then gave up half way and then rushed out a different storyline after the fact but to be clear I don't know that for a fact just the way it felt.
The remake itself has its ups and downs, it fixes a few annoying thing about playing the original game (inventory management for example) but largely what it ends up adding is very questionable at best. It adds 3 new characters only one of which is actually given any character development and its very limited at that, all 3 also join right when you also get like 5 other characters and it just really over crowds your roster. One of the characters has a unique 'card' mechanic which does various things but the problem is that these effects are completely broken. SF wasn't a challenging game to begin with but the adds just make the entire game a joke. There is a rather unique system that every time you beat the game it gets harder but its just not that much fun playing through the game THAT many times. Granted I did do so back in the day and got to like... the 6th New game+ and it just became a chore to play more then anything else at that point.
The remake also completely botched several things, for some horrible reason they made Musashi and Hanzou join with you earlier and unprompted while already having very high stats making them SUUUUPER broken and just honestly not that fun to use. Then you have the character portraits which were altered and most look nothing like the original works and all have this really odd yellow background which is very distracting on several characters.
It just feels like the developers just kept adding and changing things to make it seem like it was some HUGE remake when it didn't need any of that and in the end they added so much several things slipped through the cracks like the portraits which I stated above but also the normal character sprites just don't look right on the world map, they are much to large and it can be hard to judge distance for spells/snipers because of it.
Pretty much for everything they added it created problems showing that they really just didn't seem to know what they were doing. They decided to give several characters backstories which you learn while using the characters in battle over the course of the game but it seems like after getting like 1/3rd of the cast done they realized this was a lot more work then they wanted to do and the rest of the cast just got random little character traits such as Gong talking about all the crap thats in his backpack instead of any actual story development.
It's not a terrible remake and some of the new stuff they added was cool (like mission bonuses when you complete missions under certain requirements) but for the most part there was just way to many problems for it to actually succeed the original in my eyes.
Mikey Jr.
Member
My favorite class is..........the female monks in shining force 2 lol
They say Sarah was weak when you get her.....fuck those people.
She doing better damage then Chester the centaur early in the game for me.
Yeah, she's good. But my battle plan always goes like this.
Group 1: Bowie, Slade, Peter
Group 2: Fucking everyone else
Seriously, Bowie, Slade and Peter could fuck up an entire map by themselves. Group 1 goes one way, group 2 goes another.
Laevateinn
Member
I hated Slade as a kid. He always died in one hit. Once I found out he became a fucking Ninja, my whole world changed. It's too bad mithril is such a pain in SF2. I always have those three, all of the monks and then whoever else I have room for. Nobody else matters really.
Admiral Snackbar
Member
100% agree.
Shining Force 1 and 2 have a real special place in my heart. Hell, I still use parts of their stories for D&D games on occasion.
Wonderful art, music and gameplay. I'll never forget opening Shining Force 2 on Christmas, slotting it in and immediately drinking the water they were doing laundry in out in front of your house. This slayed 9 year old me.
Mikey Jr.
Member
Yeah, at first slade sucks terribly. I barely used him. On my second playthrough, I tried Characters I never tried before. Yeah, once Slade cut an enemy in half and insta killed him, I knew I would never do another playthrough without him.
I love how in the beginning, Peter would just go ahead and do his thing. I'd be like "Yeah, ok peter, go ahead. Stupid bird is gonna get him self kil----and all the enemies are dead...."
Kiwi though. Man, tough to level up this asshole, and even in promotion, he still sucks ass. Stupid Kiwi.
Laevateinn
Member
I like to use the Penns sometimes in SF3. If you're patient, they are at least useable and can make your playthrough interesting. Kiwi on the other hand is just always at the edge of being useful. He's nice in the beginning though because his defense is insane but even when he's breathing fire it doesn't do much damage and is just not worth the trouble.
Mikey Jr.
Member
Jogurt on the other hand! Now there is a bad ass character.
Laws00
Member
See i've heard Slade is really really good I never used him.
But ya pretty much Peter was so fucking GOD LIKE. His movement/spacing on the map was crazy good not to mention his attack. I could hit something one time and almost kill it.
Slade takes to much work. Dies fast and has garbage attack early on until much further in the game then I'm usually willing ta put up with. AI Peter is a kill stealing jerk. Later in the game his power seems less impressive then it was earlier pre-promotion for whatever reason.
Booya_base
Member
Yeeees! Fantastic thread. One of my favourite all time series' it's incredible that one series has arguably the best tactical SRPGs (SF3) and first person dungeon crawler (Holy Ark). Loved all of them up to Shining Force 3 premium disc.
We're there any at all that came out later that were any good? I know Golden Sun is brill but that doesn't count.
We're there any at all that came out later that were any good? I know Golden Sun is brill but that doesn't count.
Aarglefarg
Member
Having direct unlimited walking controls anywhere within the area you can move in from the start of the turn is such a big feature for me. It is much better than selecting a square with a cursor and then moving there. I haven't noticed this style being used often.
Mikey Jr.
Member
Novel Mike
Member
It's a nice bonus but its not that good. Would rather have a weapon that boosted his Def. If anything honestly. Really wish his magic would have been better too instead of just being like between Blade/bolt spells in terms of damage.
Early Shining series has some great art, really miss the character designer...would be great to see their work with today's tech.
On that note, on Chapter 2 of Shining Force 1 now. I lost twice early on because of some stupid moves (and enemy double attacks occurring). Still wish RPGs from this era would give you item descriptions though. Unfortunately I dont have the manual, but dont really want to go scouring a faq either
At any rate, Gong is wrecking things, I thought Khris was an archer but was wrong, and is Nova some sort of dragon-guy?
Also whats with the hamster dude in chapter 1 that was near Gong's place? Says hes been waiting for me, but thats about it.
On that note, on Chapter 2 of Shining Force 1 now. I lost twice early on because of some stupid moves (and enemy double attacks occurring). Still wish RPGs from this era would give you item descriptions though. Unfortunately I dont have the manual, but dont really want to go scouring a faq either
At any rate, Gong is wrecking things, I thought Khris was an archer but was wrong, and is Nova some sort of dragon-guy?
Also whats with the hamster dude in chapter 1 that was near Gong's place? Says hes been waiting for me, but thats about it.
CrispyBoar
Banned
The early Shining Force games were the best, especially SF II.
It's too bad that there are no other Strategy RPG's similar to SF I-III in gameplay.
It's too bad that there are no other Strategy RPG's similar to SF I-III in gameplay.
Anyone else played through Shining In The Darkness lately? I went though about half of it recently. The mapping is great fun but the combat is super shallow. Fight. Heal. Fight. Heal. Very little strategy.
Enemy variety is also a bit boring. I don't mind the recoloured sprites but I wish their attacks were more interesting. My other complaint is that I got to the last of the trials and I've only met one boss-like creature in the dungeon: the Kaiser Crab. He's fun to fight the first few times and I kept hoping to run into other scary FOE-style beasties but nope
Enemy variety is also a bit boring. I don't mind the recoloured sprites but I wish their attacks were more interesting. My other complaint is that I got to the last of the trials and I've only met one boss-like creature in the dungeon: the Kaiser Crab. He's fun to fight the first few times and I kept hoping to run into other scary FOE-style beasties but nope
User123456
Member
Does Blade Arcus count?
I had no idea it was out on steam and I'm amazed at how good the game is. It went from unknown to near the top of my wishlist in minutes.
I had no idea it was out on steam and I'm amazed at how good the game is. It went from unknown to near the top of my wishlist in minutes.
Anyone else played through Shining In The Darkness lately? I went though about half of it recently. The mapping is great fun but the combat is super shallow. Fight. Heal. Fight. Heal. Very little strategy.
Enemy variety is also a bit boring. I don't mind the recoloured sprites but I wish their attacks were more interesting. My other complaint is that I got to the last of the trials and I've only met one boss-like creature in the dungeon: the Kaiser Crab. He's fun to fight the first few times and I kept hoping to run into other scary FOE-style beasties but nope
There's the evil wall and that turtle, but I...sadly gave up on it. The enemy variety and combat is what did me in too.
Monado Blade
Member
Anyone played Beyond the Beyond, the JRPG-that-wanted-to-be-a-Shining-game-on-PS1-but-couldn't?
Yep. SFCD is a remake of the first two Game Gear games which both takes place some time after SF1, and there's a third Japan-only Game Gear game (Final Conflict) that leads into SF2.
GungriffonEX
Member
The Shining series was my favorite until the Souls games. Loved the art and music.
Shining Force 3 scenario 2 was the first game I ever imported.
I was really hoping Sega would wise up and release a classic style Shining Force game after Fire Emblem was popular on the 3DS. I guess the series in too far gone. I did enjoy Neo and Exa at least.
Shining Force 3 scenario 2 was the first game I ever imported.
I was really hoping Sega would wise up and release a classic style Shining Force game after Fire Emblem was popular on the 3DS. I guess the series in too far gone. I did enjoy Neo and Exa at least.
cireza
Member
At which moment in the game do you get to see such picture ?I don't think it's that hard to guess:
Valkyria 1 character proportions and outfits have nothing special really. You can't guess the artist is specialized in hentai just playing the first game.
I'm actually part way into my first playthrough of Shining Force. I'm really enjoying it so far, especially with how fast paced movement and combat can be. Being able to move freely within your range is a very nice touch that I'm surprised isn't in more strategy games (I know Arc the Lad and some NIS games use it, but not sure which else).
My first Shining game was Shining in the Holy Ark back in January. It was a really unique game to get into, I really liked the character interactions and the plot was pretty weird. I'm also impressed at how varied the dungeon designs were. A major issue with the game was that it overstayed its welcome and I found myself needing to grind a lot.
Right afterwards I went back and finished Shining in the Darkness. I remember it being really short but sweet. The art style has aged surprisingly well and just like Shining Force and Ark, the music is incredible. Looking back, it's a game that definitely offers a lot less than Holy Ark, but I had more fun with it as a whole.
My first Shining game was Shining in the Holy Ark back in January. It was a really unique game to get into, I really liked the character interactions and the plot was pretty weird. I'm also impressed at how varied the dungeon designs were. A major issue with the game was that it overstayed its welcome and I found myself needing to grind a lot.
Right afterwards I went back and finished Shining in the Darkness. I remember it being really short but sweet. The art style has aged surprisingly well and just like Shining Force and Ark, the music is incredible. Looking back, it's a game that definitely offers a lot less than Holy Ark, but I had more fun with it as a whole.
Laws00
Member
those mithril weapons lol
Sir_Crocodile
Member
I LOVE the saturn shining games
-Wisdom is a very fun ARPG
-Holy Ark is a very fun first person JRPG
-3 S1,2,3,PD is the greatest SRPG ever made
GALM 4 LIFE
-Wisdom is a very fun ARPG
-Holy Ark is a very fun first person JRPG
-3 S1,2,3,PD is the greatest SRPG ever made
GALM 4 LIFE
Augemitbutter
Member
SF 1-3 +CD will forever be in my top 10 games. more people have to play CD. i hope we can get a rerelease one day.
holy ark is fun too. i just disliked the annoying puzzles near the end.
it's sad sega mismanaged this series. it could have been their FF.
holy ark is fun too. i just disliked the annoying puzzles near the end.
it's sad sega mismanaged this series. it could have been their FF.
Laevateinn
Member
I think the reason Shining Force is special is that the developers weren't trying to make a Fire Emblem or Sangokushi game. They were trying to make a Dragon Quest game with strategy elements.
If you find him later, he will join you. He's basically the game's mascot.
If you find him later, he will join you. He's basically the game's mascot.
In chapter 4, walk behind the priest.
a very cute dog
Member
When I was younger I LOVED Shining Soul II. Very fun ARPG, especially with a friend.
Novel Mike
Member
Do you have a source for that by chance?
Terra_Ex
Member
Loved the tactical rpg series and was very sad when then stopped making them to churn out action rpgs which simply don't measure up to the Force entries. I have a particular fondness for the second Force game, being one of the first rpgs I ever played and all.
Kiwi always annoyed me because as you say, even promoted he sucks, his damage output just never kept up with rest of the team and he's a chore to keep alive. Same thing usually happens for the centaurs & birdmen on my team actually, they just never keep up with the rest of the team damage wise and have to get substituted.
I always remember being disappointed that Astral didn't join up as a full party member at some point - another one of those adviser-type characters that the game talks up but never actually does anything all that noteworthy.
Yeah, my first time through I dropped Slade, but on subsequent playthroughs I invested the time to promote him and wow, he just wrecks everything.
Kiwi always annoyed me because as you say, even promoted he sucks, his damage output just never kept up with rest of the team and he's a chore to keep alive. Same thing usually happens for the centaurs & birdmen on my team actually, they just never keep up with the rest of the team damage wise and have to get substituted.
I always remember being disappointed that Astral didn't join up as a full party member at some point - another one of those adviser-type characters that the game talks up but never actually does anything all that noteworthy.