Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon

"A good strategy game for beginners."

Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon is a strategy-RPG which was porter over for the Gameboy Advance. I never had the chance to play the original myself, but if I understand correctly it was a big hit on the Genesis.

Story: 7/10

The story is fairly good, but you've seen it before. Your basically fighting a "once peaceful kingdom gone bad," and no one is quite sure why they are acting so violently. You take on the character of Max, a boy rescued on a beach, who has conveniently developed amnesia (which they needed to throw in to make the story a surprise). Pretty standard. As you progress throughout the game you will make ALOT of friends, many which will join your party to fight with you (also, most of them have a side-story to tell you in your headquarter building).

The story is split into 8 chapters, and usually includes an epilogue at the end.

Gameplay: 8/10

As the title says, I really do think this game is designed for beginners. For example, in another popular SRPG (Strategy-RPG), Fire Emblem, if your characters die in battle, they are gone for good. This prompts the player to think of what they're about to do a little bit more carefully. In Shining Force, if your character dies, they are only out of that one battle and can be brought back at any time afterwards. Even if Max dies, you'll just find yourself at the nearest church with all your experience points (even the ones you got by dying) intact.

Ok, with that out of the way, let's look at the real meat of the gameplay. As I said, this is a strategy-rpg in which players must move around on the field of battle (divided into squares) and engage their enemies. Your units will consist of many different types, ranging from melee specialists to magicians, and from knights to archers, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. You must be careful when you attack, though, as you may get counter-attacked afterwards. As you fight you'll gain experience and level up when you reach 100 experience points. When you level up, you will randomly gain status increases (though sometimes you won't gain anything). Each character can also be "promoted" to a different, upgraded class. This will allow them to equip better weapons and items, as well as gain more levels.

The gameplay is similar to many other tactical titles available, and is rather simplistic in nature. Of course it is fun to see your characters level up as you defeat enemies, but you may find yourself longing for a more challenging game.

Graphics: 7/10

The graphics are very good. Everyone seems to be marching in place wherever you go, though (I guess their all hyper-active). There is definitely an anime look to everything in the game. The battlefields are rather bland, as every tree and mountain looks the same. The enemies are also re-used quite a bit. Other than that, everything is pretty good here.

Music & Sound Effects: 6/10

I'm pretty sure there are around 4 tracks for the battle music. One for your character attacking, one for one of your promoted characters attacking, the regular battle music, and the "evil guy" attacking music. Not alot of variety here. The music is good, though I only really remember the save screen music (which is a gentle piano piece). The sound effects are decent. Exactly what you would expect, which isn't bad.

Re-playability: 6/10

Since this is a port of the Genesis game, there are some extra's that I know weren't in the Genesis title. I know that the three characters you play as in the epilogue are new playable characters, and one of them uses cards to attack. These cards are obtained by listening to certain people talk in the game, and using certain people to deal deathblows throughout the game. There are also a couple of items you can only equip by doing certain things or collecting all the cards. Overall, these extras are pretty unimpressive, especially if you don't use the card character. Nice try, Sega.

Overall: 7/10

Overall, an average tactical RPG. Good for beginners, with a decent story, but there are alot of other games out there that you could be playing. Have fun and keep playing! Later...

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/17/07