Shining Force

"The best SRPG of all-time."

Introduction
I hadn't played Shining Force until late in the PSOnes life. I actually had never heard of it before and when my friend borrowed me hi massive collection of Mega Drive games, I sat down and played each of them one by one. Most of the games I turned off after about a minute or two because I found them quite boring, then I came to Shining Force. I actually didn't like this game until I had played Shining Force 2. I came back to this title I had ignored for quite a while and started to play.

Story 9/10
The story tells us about a young swordsman from the future called Max. After being washed up upon the shores of Guardiana, Max is found by Lowe- his new best friend- and is taken to the town of Guardiana to be helped. Upon his recovery Max discovers that he has lost his memory and has no recollection of his past. Soon he is trained head of knights Lord Varios to serve the king. Sometime later, Max is sent on a mission to some nearby ruins only to find that of the Runefaust army there. Soon Max becomes leader of a small band of warriors called the Shining Force and they all set out on a journey to thwart the vile plans of Runefaust.

The story is told much better in the GBA remake, but in the MD version, it lacks clarity. Who was Kain, what was the point of his existence? Who is Darksol? All these questions are not answered in the MD version, but for what it is, Shining Force tells a competent, although derivative story.

Gameplay 10/10
Shining Force is an SRPG with normal RPG elements. You can walk about and explore towns, villages, ruins and even the world maps. You can also go into people's homes and recruit characters to join your Shining Force.

You start out as Max- a special knight in training. When called upon by the king to search some nearby ruins, Max is given his own little army called the Shining Force that consists of five members, Tao- a mage, Luke- a dwarf, Ken- a Centaur Knight, Lowe- A priest in training, and Hans- an Archer. Shining Force offers a diverse range of characters and abilities. Bows can only fire diagonally or from range. Magic wielders have poor defence but their magical abilities are astonishing and later spells are fantastic. Healers are useful and then you have your up close melee fighters that deal huge chunks of damage to the enemy. The idea of the game is to pick the force you feel is right for you. Some characters have huge defence, others have great agility. Certain characters can move farther than others can in battle. There are a lot of characters to choose from and so you can customise your party of up to 12 fighters with the 30 or so that are available.

Battles take place on a variety of maps of different shapes and sizes. A map in particular that adds a little strategy into the mix is the Laser Eye battle map. There is a long stretch of walkway with the Laser Eye at the end, the laser eye counts down and lets rip a horrific blast once its timers hit zero. The blast kills HP of every character on the walkway in its view. This requires a good strategy to get around. The later levels also require neat little tactics to get about them.The object of most of the maps is to kill the main enemy, usually a boss style character at the other side of the battle map. In the first battle it's a Rune Knight and once killed all other enemies disappear and the battle is won.

In battle you move your characters based on speed about grid-like battlefields. Characters can only move a certain distance based on their movement number. Luke, for example, has a movement of 5, so he can move five grid spaces in any direction from where he is currently standing. If you come in contact with an enemy, a short battle sequence will commence and you will see your fighter battle it out with the enemy. Whoever attacks can only have one strike, sometimes two if you're lucky, and the enemy/yourself can sometimes counter blows. During battle whenever you take damage, the amount will be deducted from that characters max hp for the rest of the battle unless they are healed. Experience is also gained, and every time a character collects 100 experience points that character's level is raised by one including their stats and all. If all of your warriors are defeated in battle, you will end up in the last towns chapel with half you money being donated to the churches funds in return for your resurrection.

Weapons and rings also come into effect in this game. You need to buy the latest stock if you intend to deal protect yourself or deal any sort of real damage to the enemies in the next map. Some weapons also have a nice way of addition to them, like the heat axe which has the ability to cast blaze level 2 or an archers range may be expanded with certain bows. Some rings allow you to heal, others curse you which causes damage.

Of all the characters available, only a few join you by default through storyline events. So that means that many characters a miss-able. To get certain characters you need to fully explore your surroundings; check every inn, every castle block, search random background items that look bizarre. There are even two hidden characters available, can you find them?

Over all Shining Force has tons on offer with its 10 chapters of RPG goodness. If collecting characters through exploration is your bag (it has been done a million times more after Shining Force) and turn based srpgs are your thing. Then you cannot go too far with Shining Force.

Audio 8/10
The tunes here are very memorable and cool. Most towns have the same theme, but it never gets old. Battles though have different themes so you can rejoice. Ship battles, field battles, main boss battles, dungeon battles and later battles in the game all have different theme tunes so you will never get bored. Along with the music you have the odd sound though, like the magical twinkling sound a freeze spell when being used. You also have that annoying sound 16 bit games have when you are talking to another character. What is the point in putting an annoying noise when a character speaks to make it seem as if the character is talking. The sound as a whole is pretty good though.

Visuals 8/10
The little deformed sprites are all distinct and are cute; Lowe was my favorite. Battle maps are huge and full of detail, but also look as though the environments were squashed down and looks as though characters are actually travelling across a map more than the terrain they are actually supposed to be on. The enemy design is great, varied and just as cute as your parties sprites. Enemies consist of ghouls, bats, paladins, archers, Pegasus knights and many cool, but evil boss characters. Towns are huge with loads to see, you can go in every house- and every house is detailed- which was great, every dungeon and every castle. You can go just about anywhere. There is so much crammed into Shining Force.

Replay Value 8/10
Did you forget a character? Did you get to try out every character? If not them you will probably want to play through the game once more. I played through the title numerous times before I found all the characters available (including hidden). Shining Force is so much fun, too.

Conclusion
I loved Shining Force. I think that it was the best title of the 16 bit era with only Final Fantasy VI coming anywhere close. The game had loads on offer and gives you more that you would expect for a game of its time. There are loads of collect-able characters, loads of battles and loads of exploration. Shining Force is an exceptional title that deserves more praise than it is given.

Pros and Cons

+ Loads of battles and strategy
+ Tons of exploration and characters
+ Nice music and character design

- Story is poorly produced.
- The game could be a little longer.
- Some enemies later on in the game are stupidly weak.

If you liked this you may like

Shining Force 2
Shining Force 3
Fire Emblem Series
Feda
Little Master
Bahamut Lagoon

It may be possible that you would also like

Final Fantasy Tactics Series
Disgaea Series
Phantom Brave
Tactics Ogre

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/29/09

Game Release: Shining Force (EU, 07/05/93)