Shining Force IV

[Grayfox]

[RedCydranth]

Shining Force was one of the greatest games made for the Genesis. Recently I've realy gotten back into it and I am loving it. I have the game on emulation (sue me, I did buy them originnaly and did own them) and I love playing through it. I have a hack savestate someone over at SFC made a long while back that allows you to start the game with every character in the game already recruited and at level 1 unpromoted, except those that come promoted like Domingo.

However that is not all that is done with this savestate, it is made so that you can only have one person in the army besides Max (who has been made an archer, given over 100 HP and MP and has no weapon). This is to allow you to "Solo" the game with any character. I have completed a Balbaroy Solo and its indeed very challenging.

If anyone wants to try out the Soloing let me know and I'll send them the original savestate.

So, those who played the Shining Force games, who were your favorite characters and why?

In SF1 I loved Balbaroy, Bleu, Domingo, Kokichi, Arthur and Anri. Anri was my primary mage, Arthur was the most dominant knight overall and I liked the cut of his jib. Kokichi rocked because he had flight and strength. Domingo was cool because he flew around casting freeze on everyone evil, but isn't as good as Anri. Defensive god though. Bleu, who hates a dragon? Balbaroy is a personal favorite because he's wicked cool looking and he totally is better than Amon. And he flies.

Shining Force 2 was cool because they ditched the chapters but still made the game flow well. The characters that jump out at me as great were Peter, Slade, May, Gerhalt, Karna and Elric. Peter was cool because he has strong, flew and had major HP. Slade was a ninja, you never say you dislike ninjas (I liked Hanzou in 1 but I didn't mention him), May was cool because she was a centaur archer, better than the knights all around IMO. Gerhalt rocked in the ability to kill opponents. He was stronger than anticipated on my first playthrough. Normally powerhouses aren't so discreet. Same with Karna, if you promote her to MasterMonk she is an offensive god. Better than Sheela or Sarah. I like Elric because he looks cool and he's sniper. Anyone who promoted him to Brass Gunner needs to die.

So, who do you love in Shining Force?
_________________
I'm sorry and I apologize are the same thing.
Except at a funeral.

Fantasy Football (NFL) Sign Ups in Sports Forum!

[John Layfield]

[Hawk Thanatos]

Shining Force:
Earnest: Didn't you know that having a scar makes you a God?
Balboroy: You just can't argue with an attack like this:


Shining Force II:
Bowie as a HERO: He has cool hair.
Slade: Despite sucking when you first get him you can't imagine my shock when he a) became a Ninja and b) got magic!
Luke: I like this guy cause he's the underdog, always in Peter's shadow.
May: An archer that I actually liked, twas indeed a miracle.
Sarah as a MMNK: She looks cool, she kicks ass and she heals, what more do you need?

Shining Force CD: I'm only up to Chapter 2 of the first book but:
Claude: The Bird Battler in my avatar/sig (except green armour). I rest my case.
Stock: A cool name. Being a centaur with a giant crossbow helps too.

And I haven't started the second book yet so it'll have to wait.

[RedCydranth]

What I loved was in SF2 there were 2 vigor balls so you could use Sheela, Sarah and Karna as MMNKs and just house the enemies with them and Peter. And Hawk, that is one of my favorite enemies. The Torch Eyes were sweet.
_________________
I'm sorry and I apologize are the same thing.
Except at a funeral.

Fantasy Football (NFL) Sign Ups in Sports Forum!

[Sac]

I'm a fan of the Shining Force series as well, but I have zero interest in Neo, being that it's an action RPG instead of a traditonal shining force game. Shame the franchise is going to waste.

Ya know, I think somebody should show a copy of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance to Sega's Neo team, so that they see what a shining force game SHOULD be.
_________________
You must show no mercy-
Nor have any belief whatsoever
in how others judge you-
For your greatness will
silence them all
-Warrior Wisdom

[RedCydranth]

I completely agree with you there Sac. I own Shining Force NEO and it is a fun game but it by far is not a Shining Force game. Its similarities are few and far between. The main character is named Max, who has a masked brother named Cain who is of course evil. And there is a robot named Adam. that is about it. There are centaurs and birdmen too, but its no big deal. And there are dog people (Cantaul/Kyantall I beleive is the name or something similar to that) which is what Alef and Khris were in the original.

The game is fun but monotonous as you fight off literally hundreds of monsters at a time. You mash the X button more than you actually play the game.

Here's the main problem with why there hasn't been a good Shining Force game since 3 (which was on a defunct system and I'll end up not playing it of eventually gtting a rom or something). The team that created Shining Force separated from Sega and renamed themselves Camelot. The same people who made Golden Sun and Mario Tennis. If you play Golden Sun you'll see a HUGE similarity in the way text is displayed and choices are selected. Since Camelot became its own entity, Sega was able to keep the rights to the Shining Force name, but not recreate the greatness of their strategy RPG. Not that they really gave it much of a shot though.

My big problem with how Sega has handled the Shining Series is that they've made side games with the Shining name but they have absolutely nothing to do with one another. Shinbing Force, Shining Tears and the Shining Souls have nothing to do with eachother even though they're supposedly all part of the same series. Shining Force Neo is good but it has no connection to the original three and the gaidens.

If they were to get a team of game programmers together, give them all copies of Shining Force 1 and 2 and tell them, we want you to make a game a lot like these, I think they could do it. I can easly create a relevant storyline, characters and everything, and I did before when I was a big active member at Shining Force Central. It is not that difficult. Even if it is in less than X-Box graphics, we don't care. Look at Nippon Ichi's graphics or Final Fantasy Tactics's graphics. Those are just fine for a strategy RPG. Just as long as it is a decent strategy RPG with a plethora of characters to create your Shining Force with.

Atlus has worked with Shining Force 1 on the game boy advance and that game was fine. They added a card feature which I didn't like but I didn't have to use it which was nice. I liked the new characters too, Zuika and Narsha were useful and Mawlock wouldn't have been bad had he not been so card dependant. They tweaked the game and switched where you got Hanzou and Musashi, which was nifty. I think Atlus could make a fine Strat RPG if they sat down ad tried it out. They made Rhapsody, which is involved with the Nippon Ichi series of games like Disgaea and Phantom Brave. All wonderful strategy RPGs. So a new Shining Force that goes to its roots IS possible, its just not probabe, unfortunately.
_________________
I'm sorry and I apologize are the same thing.
Except at a funeral.

Fantasy Football (NFL) Sign Ups in Sports Forum!

[Hawk Thanatos]

Sega seems to want to try different things with the series, but the re-release of the original Shining Force is certainly encouraging, Neo however is not.

At least there are alot of Shining games released to keep us occupied!

Dungeon Crawlers:
Shining in the Darkness, Genesis (1991)
Shining the Holy Ark, Saturn (1996)

Stratgy RPGs:
Shining Force, Genesis (1991)
Shining Force Gaiden, Game Gear (Japan Only, 1992)
Shining Force Gaiden II: Sword of Hajya, Game Gear (Japan, 1993) - Was this released in America?
Shining Force II: Seal of the Ancients, Genesis (1994)
Shining Force CD, Sega CD (1995)
Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict, Game Gear (Japan Only, 1995) - Has now been translated by SFC
Shining Force III, Saturn (1998)
Shining Force III: Episode 2, (Japan Only, April 1998)
Shining Force III: Episode 3, (Japan Only, Sept. 1998)
Shining Force III: Premium Disc, (Japan Only, Dec. 1998)
Shining Force: Resurrection of Dark Dragon, Game Boy Advance (2004)

Action...RPGs
Shining Wisdom, Saturn (1996)
Shining Soul, Game Boy Advance (2003)
Shining Soul II, Game Boy Advance (2004)
Shining Tears, Playstation 2 (2004)
Shining Force NEO, Playstation 2 (2005)