"The most overlooked and awesome strategy RPG ever!"

For all Sega fans: The Genisis was easily their best system followed by the Dreamcast, right? Wrong! Sega's best system is the Saturn. The Sega Saturn contains some of the most overlooked and awesome games ever made, Shining Force III is one of them. This game is another favorite of mine, and in some ways, it even is better than FFT.

What really sucks is the fact that us Americans got gypped. We only have the first scenario of the Shining Force III, while 3 scenarios were made in the game. This isn't so terrible, because the game we have is a complete one, but still, if you loved the game as much as I did, you'll want to see the next 2 chapters in the series. Damn you Sega!

Shining Force III has an awesome story, like all good strategy RPG's should have. It centers around the events of two feuding empires, the Destonia empire and the Aspinian empire. However, when a peace treaty is being held on the floating city of Saraband, there is an attack on the city by a group of monks, who have other plans for the two empires. When all comes too, them monks make an imposter of the Aspinian emperor and kidnap the Destonian emperor, sending the two feuding empires back to war. It's now up to you and your band of friends to thwart the war and stop the monks.

Graphically, Shining Force III is great. The graphics are quite good, and look good on the Saturn. While not up to the amazing graphics of Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining Force III still has excellent graphics.

Musically, Shining Force III is also excellent. Each tune sets the mood of the game excellently.

Shining Force III also has some excellent gameplay. When not in battle, you get to walk around with your group in towns, or level up on battlefields. The game is text heavy, but has an excellent story to tell, and with the great gameplay, it adds up to an excellent experience.

There are 30 battles in the game. While that may seem a bit short for a strategy RPG, the game is still pretty long, ranking in at about 40 hours. Each battle is fun, and easy to play. The battlefields are huge, and the characters aren't midgets like in normal strategy RPG's.

The game works on a turned based engine, with a few new things thrown in, one of them being the new friendship mode. If a character helps defend another character from an enemy attack, they develop a friendship. Now, when these two characters fight together, they can hit for more critical damage. This adds for more strategy for each battle.

There aren't really any noticeable flaws with the game. It's a great game that really deserves more credit from gamers. It's as good as FFT, hands down. This is my personal favorite Saturn game, and I really hope that one day, Sega will re-release it so that more people can play it. If you can actually find this game in a store (I wish you luck), get it. It's one of the most rewarding things you'll ever do for yourself.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/18/01, Updated 08/18/01