Shining Force

"A game that set the standards for many strategy-RPGs to come"

Max is a warrior-in-training in the city of Guardiana. He aspires to be as strong as the knights guarding the castle and his mentor, Varios. He soon gets to prove his mettle though by receiving an assignment from the king himself to go investigate the Gate of the Ancients. What will he discover there and what will it lead to? More importantly, will you give a damn to go through the game and find out?

Story 4/10-This has the typical evil-villain-trying-to-resurrect-even-more-evil-villain plot to it. There are a couple of twists thrown into it but it still follows this basic pattern. The characters that join you seem to get laryngitis as soon as they are recruited because you won't hear from them again story-wise. It doesn't hinder the game too much, seeing as how many strategy-RPGs suffer from a so-so story and characters anyway.

Graphics 8/10-While they don't push the system, the graphics are still nice to look at. Bright colors are few and far between in this game so instead, most of them look fairly dark. When walking around in cities or on the world map, characters are very deformed. However, when they attack/defend in battle, the scene shifts from the top-down deformed perspective into a more detailed portrayal of both enemy and ally. In addition, some of the spell effects look fairly nice for their time, especially the latter Bolt spells.

Sound 6/10-This game has very basic sound effects. Only different sounds in battle are physical and magical attacks. Nothing really of note here.

The soundtrack fairs better though. This game has many good battle themes, such as the world map music and fighting at the castle of Uranbatol. There is only one town music though for every city so little variety outside of battle.

Gameplay 9/10-Like most strategy-RPGs, the best part about the game isn't the story, it's the gameplay. As the leader of the Shining Force, you must go around the world recruiting new members and strengthening them through combat. Each character that joins has a class like Knight, Archer, or Mage. However, once you get an ally to level 10, you have the option to promote them into an even stronger version of that class. The main benefit of this is much more dramatic stat gains per level. The only disadvantage to promoting your characters is that their stats will go down a bit initially. It's up to the player on when they wish to promote them.

The battles themselves involve up to 12 of your characters. Battles are fought in various places, such as caverns, churches, and the world map. It is turn-based, based on each character's Speed statistic. Unlike some later strategy-RPGs like Final Fantasy Tactics, it does not matter which angle you attack the enemy from, just as long as you attack. The AI of the enemies is variable, ranging from retreating to take a more defensive position to blindly charging at you if they are close enough. For the most part, it is the latter option. Most battles are still at a moderate difficulty however. There are also a few different terrain types, such as Forests and Mountains, that hinder movement and increase defense somewhat. You have to decide whether or not to charge the enemy across the plain or go through rugged terrain and let the enemy come to you.

The game is separated into 8 chapters, with 3-5 battles per chapter. It is entirely linear, so don't expect any sidequests. In addition, once a chapter is completed, you can never return to the previous chapter's towns. If you want to recruit all the characters in the game, get them while available. In fact, recruiting optional characters is the only non-required thing that can be done in the game.

Overall 8/10-This game has many elements seen in latter strategy-RPGs but, compared to those, it loses some of it's grandeur. Still a fun game and worth buying if you can find it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/30/01, Updated 11/08/01