"God warrior of the kingdom"

It goes without saying that the Shining series is one of the greatest, longest-running RPG series ever, having spawned games of different formats and appeared in different generations of consoles. Of all the Shining games, the one that defined the series as a classic was the Shining Force games, strategy oriented RPGs that amazed many a Sega Genesis owner back in the beginning of the 90's. There were two games for the Genesis, absolute classics (easily among my favorite games of all times) and fantastic games to this day. The portable Game Gear also saw the release of three different Shining Force titles, there was one as well for the Sega CD (which was in fact a remake of two of the Game Gear games with additional missions). Since then, Sega released different Shining games for the Saturn, Shining Wisdom (an action RPG) and Shining the Holy Ark (a traditional RPG similar to the first Shining game, Shining in the Darkness). But what everyone wanted to know was: where was Shining Force.

When nobody had any more hope for such a game, since the Saturn was quickly fading away, destroyed by the Playstation, Sega announced the release of a new Shining Force. To be exact, three new Shining Forces, since the new game would be divided into three scenarios, one connected to the other, in which save data from one game would affect the next part and with each playing parallel to the other. The thought of it was enough to drive me crazy, but the Saturn's demise came too quickly, which made the game not only hard to find, but also making the next two parts be released in Japan only. Many years later, I finally get the game and, much to my surprise, it's actually a lot better than I thought it would be.

In Scenario one, you play the role of Synbios, hero of the Republic. Well, in the beginning of the story he isn't really much of a hero yet, but, as you can imagine, he will be. He is the son of one of the leaders of the Republic, which is a dissidence of the Empire. The game begins as a peace conference is about to take place between the two sides of an ongoing war (because the Empire wishes to reconquer the region of the Republic). However, the peace conference doesn't even take place because another force enters the stage: the monks of Bulzome. From there, the game turns into a classic war tragedy, with sequences of assassinations, betrayals, negotiations, rebellions, conquests and destruction from both sides, as well as the mystery of the monks. The plot is somewhat confusing at times, specially for those who don't like doing a lot of reading, but it's a really solid part of the game, with many twists and turns and a deep enough take on the ‘war' theme.

The interesting thing about the development of Synbios' story is that it intertwines with the stories of the other scenarios' main characters. During the game, you'll meet and interact with characters from the other parts of the Shining Force III saga, and the main character from the third part actually joins the party for a while. Apart from that, your actions in this game will affect the next game's play. For example, if you save a specific character during a battle, he will be available in the next game as a playable character. Special items that alter events in the following games are also available. If you're thinking this engine is somewhat useless to western players (since the next games are Japan only releases), it is still possible to load data from the English version into the Japanese games, and there are translations of the other games' scripts available on the internet.

In terms of setting, the game presents us an interesting torn-apart land. The war that rages on the different countries and the suffering of its people is what defines the game's setting and mood. Geographically, though, Shining Force III is a bit hard to decipher, since it doesn't offer us a map of the land and, sometimes, it is easy to get lost. This is heightened by the fact that the game is divided into chapters (there is a total of six) and, once you finish a chapter, you can't return to the places you've been before. One curious thing about this game is that it is a direct sequel for Shining the Holy Ark story-wise, but none of the places of that game are revisited here, although some key characters from the older game do make their appearance.

As far as gameplay goes, Shining Force III doesn't meddle much with the triumphant basic engine from past games in the series. Which means you still command your troops, up to twelve, on the map, in turn-based combat. The goal is to defeat all enemies or their leader, if there is one. The simplicity of the gameplay, which is what made the experience of playing the previous games so exciting, is untouched and, for that, playing this game is still a wonder. All commands and menus are accessed by the incredibly intuitive four-icon menu (which means every time you want to perform an action, a cross-like menu will open up, with each of its directions being a different option), a tradition in the Shining series, which makes this game's learning curve minimal. In battle, each character has simple commands like ‘attack', ‘item', ‘hold' and ‘magic' (if they can cast spells), but it still requires more strategy than many so-called strategy RPGs out there. Of course, you can still promote your characters when they reach a certain level, giving them a different class, better status improvements when leveling up and access to new weapons.

Obviously, new elements were added to the game this time around. First off is the friendship engine. Characters who fight alongside (attacking the same monsters or healing themselves) will develop different friendship levels. These levels will grant special benefits for these characters when they are side-by-side, and the benefit varies depending on the characters' classes. So, standing by a warrior friend will increase the character's defense, but by an archer friend increases their critical hit chance. Speaking of which, critical hits were also developed further. Each different class may equip different kinds of weapons (the main character, for example, may equip swords, blades and rapiers). By using each different weapon, the character increases his affinity with that type of weapon, and learns new special techniques, which are the critical hits. These specials may also have special effects, such as inflicting status changes or healing some HP. The most devastating specials can be obtained by equipping specific strong weapons you may find by the end of the game. Another thing that some special weapons offer is magic. Each magic-using character can learn three different spells by leveling up an the fourth is attained by equipping certain weapons. The most devastating attack spells in the game, summons, can only be obtained through weapons.

However, the most exciting aspect of this game's gameplay has to be diversity. If you will, in fact, spend most of you time in battles (some of which can be really long), the developers were keen enough to invest in variety for each fight. So, you have battles in which you must prevent innocent refugees from being killed by solders, prevent certain characters from being killed, even not attack certain enemies so that they will be available afterwards. Also, there's a lot of creativity in enemy design, since some of your foes (specially towards the end of the game) will play like no one before them has. Of course, not all battles are completely creative and there are some that are pretty basic ‘attack the enemy' stuff, but there is an overall attention to diversity of battles that really add to the game overall.

There is also a nice deal of side stuff to look for in this game. Apart from the ‘secret' characters (although most of them are pretty easy to get), you can also do things that will get you secret characters in the next scenarios. By the end of the game, a blacksmith will be accessible so that you'll be able to forge special weapons for your characters. Also, in each chapter of the game there's a secret map that you can find which will grant you access to ruins (always located in a certain battlefield of that chapter) where you can find some special rare items. Although when compared to other RPGs it may seem that there is few side quests to take, the great thing about it is definitely looking for the actions that affect the other scenarios.

One interesting thing about the game, that will probably displease fans of the more RPG-oriented gameplay of Shining Force II, is the division of the game in chapters. There are six chapters in all and, when you complete one, you don't have access to the places you have visited previously. This gives the game a linearity that RPG fanatics will probably hate, even if you still can do town exploring and talking to NPCs. On the other hand, it makes Shining Force III much closer to the original game than to the second. In general, there are many elements that make this game similar to the original, such as the aforementioned use of chapters, promoting at level 10 and so on. Which is not a bad thing, since the first game is a classic to this day.

Another great thing about the game is the challenge. Well, it isn't really a hard game, since you do have resources that make your life incredibly easier, such as saving during combat whenever you want and leveling up possibilities. Leveling up, however, isn't as easy as it seems, because enemies give you experience based on your level and, if you level is too high, you receive ridiculous amounts of experience for killing an enemy. Anyway, the first chapters in the game are pretty easy, but the last battles can become a true challenge if you don't plan your actions well. Good strategies and balanced leveling up for all the characters is a requirement if you want to finish the game. Also the diversity of the battles also increase the challenge, since by the end of the game there will always be surprises for the player. It is true that sometimes the battles can be really frustrating, sometimes forcing you to do it all over again, because you didn't know about this ‘surprise'. But it is also true that the game justifies the tag of strategy RPG.

If in terms of concept and gameplay Shining Force III is a definite masterpiece, its few flaws come from technical aspects. First off, the graphics are similar to Shining the Holy Ark (and also to the more recent Golden Sun), so anyone who has played that game will feel at home here. While designs for characters and monsters are pretty solid, their in-game graphics aren't really exciting. The overhead view graphics are somewhat disappointing in that regard. Apart from that, the characters' animations are very limited, which makes the cut-scenes tiring sometimes. It could be said that the cut-scenes are true to Shining Force tradition, with a lot of head nods during dialogues, which may bring some nostalgia to old series fans, but more diversity would be welcome in this respect. The ‘action' graphics, when some characters does something during battle, however, are great, and showcase the limits of the Saturn's 3D potential. One detail that disappointed me in the beginning was that the promoted characters' attacks didn't change animations in relation to the previous class (as in the previous games), but the vast array of special attacks available for each character more than make up for it. However, character designs don't change much when promoted (except perhaps Julian), which is kinda disappointing to me.

In terms of sounds, it's not exactly a lack of quality that disappoints me. The soundtrack was done by Motoi Sakuraba, who has worked on Shining the Holy Ark and the similarities in style and samples are obvious. The quality of the tracks is excellent and this is the first Shining Force game with a good diversity of tracks, varied enough to cover the various different emotions and situations you face while playing it. There are plenty of stand out material here and the main theme is truly epic and one of the most memorable song in here. The thing that bugs me is that the songs fell kinda out of place for a Shining game. While they fit the situations of the game, they simply don't have a ‘Shining' feel. Before Shining the Holy Ark, the series has a distinct musical feel and I feel that this is somewhat ruined now, except for some tunes such as the main theme (which recalls the wonderful Shining Force II main theme) and the Bulzome sect theme. Anyway, this is probably a very personal feeling that most people will not even pay attention to. The fact is, the songs are really strong, but don't feel Shining enough for me.

The true weakness of the game's sound department is, as usual, voice acting. The interesting thing about it is that acting in this game is very limited, only used for casting spells and special attacks, but it still manages to irritate. The game probably sports some of the most pathetic voice acting in gaming history, only made worse by the fact that the sound quality of the voice recordings is abysmal. Synbios voice is probably the most stupid of them all, which is pretty weird, since he is the main character. It just seems that the developers randomly chose people that were passing by the street to record these voices. Thankfully, its presence is very limited so that it doesn't get too annoying or prevent players from having fun with the game.

Anyway, these minor flaws don't prevent Shining Force III from being one of the greatest games I've ever played in my entire life. The incredibly exciting gameplay of the previous games has been spiced up with enough new elements so that playing it will feel familiar as well as invigorating. It is true that there are some elements that prevent me from loving it as much as the other games (even though this was probably never going to happen), but the surprising thing is they kept the feel of playing a Shining Force game intact. While some players will be frustrated by the fact that the game doesn't really have an ending (since it is just the first part in one huge game), but it's undeniable that playing it is probably one of the best thing you could do with your Saturn. I love it, and I'm surprised that I love it as much as I do. Masterpiece.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/02/04