Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon

"A great Gameboy Game, but I suggest the original"

For those of you who have played Shining Force on the SEGA Genesis, there will be a separate section at the end to tell you what you want to know. For the rest of us, let's start at the beginning:

Strategy RPG games have been classic games for years. There were two rival factions in the beginning: Sega and Nintendo. Nintendo had Fire Emblem on the NES, and Sega had Shining Force.

Both games were fantastic, and with their introduction to the Game Boy Advanced, a new generation gets to enjoy them.

Blah, blah, blah... ANY ways, this is a remake of the Shining Force on the Sega Genesis released so many years ago. It has the game play, it has the story, it has the characters... I personally thought the original was better, but that doesn't make this game any less good.

Battle System
As this was a strategy RPG, battle system is the main focus.
Fire Emblem and Shining Force share a similar battle system. Battles take place on a map, where your units occupy one space and the enemy occupies another. You move your characters (turns are based on speed, which means unlike FE, you and the enemy alternate in attacks) and attack the enemy. The game then shifts to a sideways view with very nice graphic design, and you attack your foe.

Simple enough, isn't it? You deal with movement range and attack range. Some differences between FE and SF are:

1)Turns aren't "You move, they move. You move, they move." Instead, you could move 2, and then they move their entire fleet, and you move the remaining few. It's based on speed.

2) Characters that die can be revived in this game. While it's never a good idea to kill someone off, you won't be punished eternally for the mistake.

3) Battles are not auto-saved, so for those of you who want to abuse level ups, it's much easier in this game.

4) Weapons DO NOT have durability. Wizards have normal weapons and an MP amount, just like all other RPG games (except Fire Emblem, of course)

Outside of Battle
Battles are one-time only things. There are no random battles in this game. Fortunately, it's better than Fire Emblem (before 8) in that you do things outside of battle. You talk to people; you deal with events and Easter eggs. You get to choose where you go, as a matter of fact! It's much nicer than the FE style of mission-to-mission. Beyond that... yea, there isn't much to the game. Walk from place to place and make events happen, and then fight.

Character
You get all kinds of characters- Domingo the Squid, Zylo the wolf man, Bleu the dragon, Amon the bird woman, and of course your run-of-the-mill centaurs, dwarves and humans. They're all well developed using a story technique; as you finish parts of the game, characters will slowly reveal things to you about their lives and pasts. Every character gets a nice story and background.

Story
The main story is simple: Stop the enemy from raising an evil dragon that will conquer the earth. The story doesn't waver, and the only plot twist in the game is your typical backstab plot twist (You won't know who's backstabbing until you get there, regardless of what you might suspect.) The fun (to me) was in the smaller sub-stories for each character. Everyone was properly developed, and you got to know everyone.

CHANGES
Now, if you didn't read anything above, it's because you played this on the Genesis. Here's what's changed- they've redone several art designs for the worse, and they've introduced 3 new characters. One is a souped-up Vicar who can thrash everyone else, while one is a sweet bug zapper (I kid you not- he's a bug who uses lightning).

The big change was Mawlock and cards. Throughout the game, you get cards of different characters that you have, and cards of various enemies. Mawlock utilizes these cards, and can either transform in to said character, or create a duplicate of him. While it sounds cool, it really drags the game down and takes up too much story space for comfort. It drains from the original story and focuses on some lousy cards...

That aside, I must say it's a great game that you ought to try. Who knows? Even if you've never liked these kinds of games before, SF has the ability to pull in lots of new RPG lovers, regardless of their background

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/06/05