Shining Force

"A Ray of Light for an otherwise dismal system?"

At this point in time, we can notice that certain trends, once bright, shining beacons of capitalism, will all of a sudden fade to nothing, and be all but forgotten. With certain trends, (Read: Tamagotchi, Furbies, Hanson... etc.) this is indeed a very good thing. Some, in fact, even herald the death of the Sega Genesis as a step up for Sega in the gaming market. I, perhaps but one small voice in the video game scene, must disagree. Sega's Genesis, while not being the most stellar system ever, had certain points in its history that went so far as to completely redefine video gaming. Shining Force was, indeed one of these games.

Before the release of Shining Force, when someone mentioned the word "Strategy" in relation to gaming, what mainly came to mind was an ultra pumped up version of Risk. These games, as they were put out on mainly the NES, tended to be quite bland in their deliverance, and put no oomph behind them. The few games out there that had any relation to Strategy RPGs were ignored, and probably with good reason.

Shining Force, however, changed all that. During its day, the brightly colored sprites and chirpy midi sounds were top of the line, and remain, even to this day, a pleasantly upbeat change, when compared with the very dismal atmosphere of modern RPGs. The sound was not revolutionary either. It, at times, became annoying. However, this is but a minor hurdle for this game.

What set Shining Force apart, and did this very notably, was the introduction of the play system for what is now considered the standard for all strategy RPG-fare. Before this game, all RPGs in America were stuck in the standard set by Final Fantasy. Straight turn-based maps and tiny, frequent encounters were the norm, and most were content. Sega saw this. Taking ideas from the ignored strategy games of the NES and other systems, epic battle maps were introduced. Gone were the tiny, boring encounters that jaded you with gaming. Sega introduced a system where each character and monster was individually controlled, and guided around the battle maps to attack different monsters. Certain battles were indeed very difficult, and could even be called impossible if the strategy aspect of the game were to be ignored. This was also another pleasant change from what was normal at the time. Battles (usually) could not simply be won by fighting a whole bunch of little monsters and earning levels for a few hours. In fact, the whole concept of leveling became ridiculously hard at times, as random battles were completely eliminated.

In my opinion, the other aspect of Shining Force that made it such a shining (pun intended) example of a great--revolutionary, even--game, was its cast of characters. In RPGs up to Shining Force's release, there were a very small number, and even less variety of characters. Fighters and magic users were standard fare, and only slight variation existed. As well, character numbers in battles rarely exceeded 5, and the number involved in the plot was only slightly less scant. Shining Force introduced an epic cast of 30 characters, all with different personalities (though the game tended to depersonalize them), and different abilities. Game players gasped in awe at the concept of being able to use--brace yourself--12 characters in battle! Wow! This was just so unheard of that it was crazy enough to work. You had to plan your party carefully in order to fight the next battle correctly. Some characters could fly over large gaps in levels, and get you through much more rapidly. Powerful magic users were sometimes required, but they also required protection to keep them alive. This battle dynamic set up the standard for modern strategy games, and did it incredibly well.

As with any game, however, Shining Force is not flawless, and should never be considered to be so. One of the most glaring weak spots in this game is, in my opinion, its plot. Having experienced epic plots, such as Xenogears'-- plots that drew you in and made you feel everything that the characters did, really kept you enthralled with the game. Shining Force's plot, however, is incredibly standard fare. 'The big, evil, ancient dragon has awoken after 1000 years of sleep. Go kill it. Good heroes.' ... Well, gee. There's stellar innovation for ya. But, seeing as this game put gameplay above story, and seemed to make that a clear point, it is much more forgivable than it is with certain games. At the very least, the plot is decipherable (*Cough FFT*). As well, by modern standards, the characters are somewhat quirky. You don't particularly feel for them telling you the world could be destroyed when their bright eyes are staring at you, and they are still smiling very contentedly.

One final note--this game, when I first played it, was very hard. True, it couldn't have helped that this was the first real Strategy game I ever played, or that I was only 12, but on playing through it again recently, the game lost none of its challenge. What I tried to do at 12 with leveling, I play through at 17 with strategy, and the game is just as enthralling.

All in all, I must say that this is easily one of the best RPGs I have ever played. I give it a 9 out of 10, taking one point because of the plot aspect. It is easily the most stellar Strategy game to date, despite its antiquity. It is a must for any RPG fan who can get their hands on it--trust me, you will not regret paying extra for a now rare copy.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 02/22/01