Shining in the Darkness

"Fun, charming, but it could've been so much more"

Shining in the Darkness is an old-school, first person dungeon crawler. This game was a bit of a throwback when it came out in 1991, and has a style with which newer RPGers will be unfamiliar. Dark Sol has kidnapped Princess Jessa and you are the only one fit to rescue her. You will navigate through 5 floors of a labyrinth in addition to undergoing trials of skill. Along the way, 3 party members will help you.

Shining in the Darkness starts off with a stunning presentation. With charming cutscenes for loading saves, sleeping, or visiting a priest, the game makes a great first impression. The menu interface is picture-based with cute animations and is easy to learn. The graphics are very smooth and colorful and story and town sequences take place with fantastically drawn cutscenes. These graphics were amazing for a 1991 Genesis game, and today their artistic beauty still shines. I believe that truly great graphics are more like a work of art, and a truly great-looking game will always be one.

Musically, Shining has scant few tunes, but the ones present are quite good. The town theme has a great amount of flavor. The dungeon themes, however, will get tiresome after a few hours of play. The tunes rarely change in the dungeon, and though they are good, more variety would've been appreciated. But this brings us on to the heart of the game.

Shining has an unoriginal though interesting story. It's the basic save princess plot, but all the game's characters have a separate identity, and the town area feels like a community. The translation is excellent and there is a good bit of humor. The cutscenes and dialogue combine for a well-presented plot. The game has an irresistible charm. A lot of detail was put into the presentation and the drawings, and it creates an excellent atmosphere. But if only they had focused more on this...

You will spend 90% of this journey in a dungeon. Enormous mazes will require you to make a map, or use an online map if you're like me. Random encounters take place in the labyrinth, and the battle system is pretty standard. No flashy commands, just Fight and Magic. The battles are fairly concise, the spell effects are pleasing, and the monsters well drawn.The battles, with their simplicity and brevity, have an addicting old-school feel. Unfortunately, the encounter rate is very annoying. Encounters will pervade the area at least every 10 seconds. Combined with the almost overwhelming size of dungeons, this can get quite old. You'll eventually end up pressing "fight" repeatedly, a terrible situation for RPGs. An automap would've been convenient, and dungeons could've been downsized to be more playable. There are too many occasions with annoying pits, traps surprise tough monsters in treasure chests, and a general feeling of disorientation. I don't want to constantly have to check my position on a map, and the lack of playability in the dungeons detracts from what is an otherwise a fun and simple game. The fighting, leveling up, and money gaining is so abundant that I eventually said, "that's enough!" The game is fun on the whole, but there's just too much dungeoning. The game will probably last around 20-40 hours if completed, so there's enough content for those who want it.

Shining in the Darkness is a very memorable RPG. The splendor of its charm and presentation cannot be matched. But as Bart Simpson would say, it can somewhat be like a milk dud: "sweet on the outside, poison on the inside." If Climax had added more towns and story scenes and downsized the dungeons, this would be an undisputed classic. Maybe the first-person dungeoning should 've been ditched for a top-down view. As it stands, Shining is archaic gameplay with a facelift. But if you want this type of game, here it is.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/12/05