Shining Force

"I guess Domingo is reason enough for me to love this game."

Shining Force is one of these games I will never forget about. Back in 1993, I rented this game without really knowing anything about it and beat it in about a week. After that, I re-rented it so many times I can’t even remember the exact number. And I can still recall everything about it: all the 30 characters, all the battles, all enemies, all weapons and items and their locations etc. every little detail there is to be remembered. Whenever I think of my favorite games, Shining Force comes rushing to my mind.

But why? Why is this kinda unknown game one of my all-time favorites? Well, there’s something different, I really don’t know how to explain, about Shining Force that captured me ever since I played the first battles of this game. And since I am such a huge fan of the game and the series it spawned, I don’t know if I can be totally impartial towards it in this review. Heck, I’m not even try to be, since I’ve always loved this game, I’ve played it so many times and I will always look at it with and enormous and unavoidable feeling of nostalgia.

Well, in Shining Force you play the role of Max (or whatever other name you give him), a young man training to be a hero, living in the kingdom of Guardiana. When Runefaust, a far away kingdom, once an ally of Guardiana, unleashes war on neighboring countries, Max is selected to lead an army of young warriors that could have the chance of travelling across the world without attracting too much attention from the Runefaust armies and discover what’s behind these attacks. Although the story does develop towards the most cliché RPG story, that is, you must battle a fiend who wants to summon an ancient monster and take over the world, the storytelling is good enough to attract the player’s attention. The game is divided in chapters (there are eight in all), each taking place in a different part of the world, so that you can’t go back to places you have visited in a previous chapters once you advance, restringing the game a little bit. The ending of the game is one of the highlights, actually avoiding the traditional RPG ending and is most gratifying.

The cast is also something that deserves special mention. In Shining Force, there are 30 different controllable characters, and much more NPCs and villains that you meet during the game. Even if some characters look like and play each other (if they are of the same class), each one is well defined and has a personality of their own. Although it’s impossible to have a deep character development with so many different ones, most of them manage to have their own special touch, which really adds to the game. Anyway, some of the more important characters actually get developed a bit. Also, the 12-character party offers many combinations and possibilities, adding a lot of diversity to this game. Apart from that, the way of acquiring each ‘secret’ character is unique, making the search for them quite interesting.

Shining Force’s setting is, for the most part, classic, sword and sorcery fantasy RPG stuff, although it does add some unique and original creatures to the roster. Mainly towards the end of the game, the story calls upon the always ready excuse of an ancient civilization to introduce high-tech elements to the setting. But even with these elements thrown in, the classic feel prevails, making the setting quite conservative in that sense. But the unique elements give the game its own character.

The gameplay is where any really good game excels, and it’s obviously what makes Shining Force such a great game. The first strategy-RPG game I ever played and probably one of the first in console gaming, Shining Force is nonetheless one of the easiest games to learn to play ever. Each time a menu is opened, four options only are displayed. To make it more instinctive, each different action has its own symbol and, when selected, this symbol turns into an animation. I really can’t imagine anyone having problems to learn the game’s engine. And it’s amazing how such a simple gameplay can turn out to be one of the most thrilling games ever.

Like in any good strategy RPG, the battles are one of the game’s high points. It must be, since it takes most of the time you spend playing it. In Shining Force, there are no random battles and each one of them has a reason to be. Towards the end of the game all of them are crucial in the story. Basically, they consist in moving your units (up to twelve) across the map and defeating the enemy party or its leader, when there is one. When you perform an action in combat, a close of your character and his target is shown and there’s an animation for the move he makes. Each different character has different attacks, spells and so on, making the selection of your party an important aspect of the game. Also, special care must be taken towards the hero, since his death means automatic defeat for the whole party. I can’t seem to really explain how interesting the battles in this game can be with words. You must play to get the feel of it.

Another of the crucial unique and most interesting aspect of Shining Force’s gameplay is the promotion engine. When a character reaches level 10, he can be promoted to a different class, giving him an upgrade that may give him new abilities, new spells, allow him to equip new weapons and give him better attribute improvement upon leveling-up. The class to which the character is promoted depends on his previous class, so Knights become Paladins, Warriors become Gladiators and so on. Also, the character’s appearance and moves change, adding a welcome amount of detail to the game.

Some people may complain that Shining Force’s simplicity takes away from the game. That’s not completely untrue, since, for example, your characters can only have four different spells maximum, spells deal a more or less fixed amount of danger and they don’t get stronger as your mage levels up (only he gains more powerful ones) and there are no special abilities to characters except for attribute changes and magic-using. But what must be said is that this simplicity is also what makes this game such a fun experience. With a more complex engine, the whole feel of it might be ruined.

The graphics in Shining Force are definitely not the best thing about it, although it is rather well-done for its time. Overall, the designs aren’t anything really special, with some exceptions, but they have enough character of its own to charm most players. The characters do look odd sometimes when in the map and given the fact that this is how you view them most of the time, it does take away from the general impression the graphics make. The close-range graphics are really cool though and the attack and spell animations are pretty good too. Also, all main characters (and that means all controllable ones and important NPCs as well) have portraits that appear when they’re talking, an interesting addition at the time that is also pulled off really well, in traditional anime-like RPG fashion. The fact that all promoted characters change their design, combat animation and sometimes even potraits also adds to the overall graphic feel of the game. The background graphics are also good enough and don’t get in the way.

The music in Shining Force probably won’t impress most people, but I can’t help but love it. I know all the tunes by heart from playing it so much and, in my regard, it’s a really strong effort from composer Masahiko Yoshimura, improving quite a lot upon the preceding work for Shining in the Darkness (the first game of the Shining series) even if it maitains the same feel. The soundtrack tends to have the same classic fantasy feel of the game, making for a perfect match. The battle themes, which are the ones you’ll likely to hear the most, are great. The attack tune, even though good, is probably the one everyone will complain about, because it just plays too much, a problem that was solved in the sequel. Even though I really like Shining Force’s soundtrack, it must be said that here you won’t find the ambitious work of the likes of Nobuo Uematsu during the same era (this game is from 1991, the same year of Final Fantasy IV) and sometimes, there aren’t enough themes for the situations in the game. There’s nothing groundbreaking about the music in this game, I just find it to be quite exciting.

Well, I guess I love this game so much that all of its problems fall short in turning me off. I believe that the only thing that makes this game not an absolute classic is the fact that it was released for the Sega Genesis (since it was developed by Sega), a console that, although popular, was always second to the SNES in terms of sales. I guess most people now, used to FMVs, unbelievable graphical prowess, complex gameplay and astonishing sounds will be turned off by the game’s age. But if this review ever convinces one person to play the game to the end, it will have done its purpose. I guess the closing line can be no other than this: forget Final Fantasy Tactics, go play Shining Force, for Christ’s sake!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/27/02, Updated 05/19/03