Shining in the Darkness

"Now with 98% more dungeon crawl!"

I have to say something right off the bat. I hate mazes. I hate wandering around in some doggone maze of dimly lit rocks and underground hallways. So what does Shining in the Darkness give me? A game that consists of nothing but.

That isn't quite true because you can visit a castle or a town to talk to people, but you're in the same rotating first person perspective at all times. This game kicked off the popular Shining Force series of which I myself am I fan (how do I know? Dark Sol is the villain). How such games sprang from something like this is a mystery I will probably never solve, though.

Anyway, the plot. Princess Jessa of the kingdom of Thornwood left the castle to pray to her departed mother's spirit while accompanied by the knight Mordred, and neither ever came back. For some reason the local bigwigs think that they're in the nearby labyrinth, and as Mordred's son, you want to enter and look for your dad. Oh, and save the princess. *sigh* Yes, another one.

Every part of the labyrinth looks exactly like every other, and the place is HUGE. I knew this going in and I'm still wondering what ever enticed me into playing this game. Sorry, but I like more out of an RPG than walking around the same halls again and again and again.

Graphics-8/10
I will say this, for all my complaints about the game, it looks pretty good (except those damnable dungeon hallways...ugh!). The monsters are imaginative and nicely rendered for a game this old. The local tavern looks like a medieval version of the Star Wars bar.

Sound-4/10
Bland, bland, bland. And don't even ask me about that endless dungeon music.

Gameplay-3/10
There's barely any gameplay in this ''game.'' You walk down halls, you enter commands to kill some monsters or open a treasure chest, then do it a million more times with nothing to break up the monotony but more dungeon halls crawling with monsters.

The point of the labyrinth is it's a testing ground for knights and you and a party of your friends need to conquer its challenges and prove your worth as heroes before you can find the princess and lay the evil forces to rest. Great, would you mind not making the surroundings so huge and tedious, please? I think putting up with that to the end is the real test.

The characters are pretty annoying, too, especially that nimrod who runs the tavern. Vik, his name is. He tells you, ''Don't trust Pyra and Milo! They're up to no good!'' when they would and will die for you and your cause. Why does he say this stuff? What is it supposed to add? I don't know, and you can bet I'm not playing this game again to find out.

Overall-5/10
Thank you, Shining series, for giving us great sequels to forget about this boring game with its endless tunnels and annoying incidental characters. Shining in the Darkness is way too long to be confined to a single maze, and yet it is. But I'm going to go play Shining Force 2 and wipe this mess out of my mind.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 03/08/04