Shining Force CD

"Battle, buy equipment, battle, buy equipment, ... where's the fun of exploring?"

Introduction

If you see Shining Force on the internet you think hmm cool game it's about exploring, going into cities buying things and go out to battle...but not this time, it's more like fight, fight, fight, fight...too bad....

Gameplay 6.8/10

Like I said in the introduction you can't explore towns or large overworlds like in Shining Force One or Two, nope. Every time after a battle you'll end up in a screen you can walk from left to right. The save point (church), the next battle and the shop, and that's it for exploring. The only thing that makes me give a 6.8 is the battle system, the Shining Force series have one of the best rts battle system, you can have up to 12 characters on the battle field. The battles are turn based, each character can do an amount of steps within a flashing area. There is the ground effect like if you walk on mountains your movement area will be less big (unless you're a bird or a pegasus). The best place to walk is the road. 99% of the game is just fight, fight, fight. Oh yes, before I forget it, there are 3 "books" in the Shining Force CD Library. Three different stories (not too different, they link in someway to each other).

Story 4/10

There are 3 stories in this game, 3 books, each book is linked to the others. The story isn't too great because you can't gather info with other people in towns.

Graphics / Sound 8.5/10

The graphics are the same as in SF One & Two, pretty good. In the intro movie you'll have speech but that's it nothing more. The characters change sprites after they're promoted and when you go into battle in a one - on - one fight you'll see your character cast a spell or hit the enemy with is sword or spear or whatever he or she is holding as a weapon.

Play Time & Replay Ability 6/10

It doesn't take that long to beat all battles, there aren't new things to do when you've beat the game, it doesn't have a multi player so a 6 would be fair.

Overall 7/10

NOT a Shining Force worthy game, if you collect al Shining Games you should buy it else you just ignore it and think it never existed. The game should have been a lot more fun when you have the ability of exploring maps and dungeons, cites and other cool stuff, take chests and so on, .... to bad.

Rent or Buy? Just think that this game never existed and skip to the other Shining Games.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/27/04