"The Best Rpg Ever Made"

The Sega Saturn. Sega's red-headed stepchild. It came out in competion with the Playstation, with more power, better graphics, on board memory, and a Internet capability. But, the Saturn never really amounted to much. But there were a few gems hidden among the rubble, and one was Shining Force III, Sega's long time running Rpg. There has been a Shining Force on every Sega platform, starting with Shining In The Darkness.

Shining Force III has everything, a great story line, beautiful graphics, great sound, good control, and diverse characters.

Story - 10

The game starts you off, being introduced to Master Gabriel, who seems to be some all-knowing sage. His presence isnt really explained much, nor is it that important. As with all Shining Force games, he is just a man who starts off your adventure with a little bit of jumbled dialog to confuse you. You are then able to name three characters that are the leaders of the three different scenarios of the game. Unfortunatly only one of them made it to the US. Your main characters name is Sybnos, but you can name him as you wish. It starts off with a peace conference in a floating city, called Saraband. As Sybnos and his friend Dantares go out and explore the city, there is an attack. Saying anything else can give away to much of the story, but it is an extremly involving story.

Plus, if you are lucky enough to get all three scenarios, they live in the same environment, so rescue a man in one scenario, he may thank you, or attack you in the next.

Characters - 9.5

The game has ,I believe, 16 characters. You can carry up to 12 in your party. The problem is with the remaining 4, there isnt much use for them. If you do get all of the characters, you do get some extra options.

As with your main characters, they game does a beautiful job of attaching you to them.

Also, every character can learn up to three special attacks with a certain weapon class, which give you a good reason to continue playing the game.

A small problem is that you can make your characters extremly powerful fairly easily just by spending a small amount of time leveling them up, or searching for power ups.

Game Length - 10

The game has about 30 hours of gameplay. But that can easily be pushed to about 40 hours, with alot of exploration and leveling up.

But you will go through this game fairly quickly due to its addictiveness.

Items/Weapons - 10

There are a horendous amount of powerups, and weapons in the game.

As with Shining Force II, there is Large and Small Mithril, which let you make special weapons, and trinkets, to help.
Also included is Dark Matter, which is practically useless. It lets you make a cursed weapon. But you can usually make a profit on selling these items.

There are many diffrent weapon classes.
Swords for example have 3: Rapiers, Swords, and Blades. Each one has a diffrent set of special attacks you can learn, providing a reason to make a character good with several weapons.

Also, every character has access to a distance weapon. Dwarves can equip hand axes to throw, and swordsman can equip daggers, centaurs have spears, so on and so forth.
Some of the items do have kind of cheesy names, like a Happy Cookie, and a Ultra Lance, but thats just me nit picking.

Graphics - 9.5 /Sound - 9.5

The graphics are drop dead gorgeous. This game takes full advantage of the five 32 bit processors on board the Saturn. While exploring, you have a third person perspective, which you can rotate, and zoom in and out of.

In a battle, in traditional SF style, zooms to a full 3D cinematic battle sequence, with amazing graphics, and color.

Spell effects are jaw dropping, and some special attacks, such as Sybnos's Mirage Dance, will make you stare in awe, and wonder why the system didnt last longer.

But some special effects, such as the Elbessem Treasure Orb, are extremly bright flashes of light, which, while they look good, could almost cause a seizure, and they do hurt your eyes. Unfortunatly they use this kind of feature alot, and it does have kind of a damper things.

Sound is extremly well. Attacks and Spell effects sound beautiful, especially on surround sound.

The musical scores are good, and do well enhancing the mood of the game.

Unfrotunatly, there is a small presence of audio clipping. Sometimes, the music from a battle scene, will just keep on playing, until you beat the battle.

And alot of the voice acting is bad. Your main character is said to be the quiet type. After you hear him talk, youll understand. But this is only in battle scenes, and unless you cast alot of spells, it shouldnt bother you much.

Control - 9

Control is a little touchy at times, and it can be hard to search certain areas, but in battle scenes, its very easy to use, and there isnt really much you have to do, except walk around, and press C. Sometimes it can get hard to see things, or position yourself right, but other than that its just fine.

Overall 10

This is hands down the best game ever by Sega. Despite some minor flaws anyone can enjoy this game, even the Non-Rpg type, because there is alot of action in this game. While the battles can be long, you can always save in between, and come back when you like.

Rent/Buy - Buy

Buy this game. It will be hard to find, and cost about 50 - 60 dollars, but its worth every cent. And when it becomes a collectors item, you'll be glad to have it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/30/01, Updated 04/30/01