Does Shining in the Darkness Shine Bright in 2025?

​

Does Shining in the Darkness (SITD) shine bright today? I went into this not knowing anything about the shining series, learning this it the first one. I love trpgs and so will definitely check out other entries in this series, as others here on rgt have recommended ^_^ However, unlike the trpgs that would immediately follow (Force I and II on genesis, and Gaiden series on the GameGear), SITD is a first person turn based dungeon crawler (FPTBDC). This is a genre I really have no experience with, so it was quite the experience O_o

SITD plays as a first person turn based dungeon crawler. Wander the labyrinth, deal with traps, pitfalls and fight monsters at every turn. Try not to get lost!​

This game has wonderful charm, yet at the same time was a source of frustration and does have flaws. Perhaps this is due to the minimum budget and limited staff as producer/writer Hiroyuki Takahashi recounted in an interview [1]. This is backed up by how short the credits are (only 11 individuals when I play back my recording) which is about half of the credits of Final Fantasy 4 (a much more ambitious rpg in scale) which came out the same year. Why do I bring up ff4 which is NOT a FPTBDC? It's a contemporary rpg of the time, just for comparison. Of course, it is hard to judge based on credits the total number that worked on a game, but it is claimed [2] the core dev team for FF4 was only 14, so it seems both games were under similar budget/staff constraints which I found interesting.

If you want to have fun, look up guides and maps. Don't think that makes this game easy though...​

I will just say it outright for any interested in trying this: if you want to have any fun, you will need a guide and maps. I made extensive use of the maps you can find on gamefaqs [3] by the incredible Cyrus917 and mostly followed the guide [4] by Marak. This review assumes that you will make use of such resources. Does this make the game too easy? Fuck no! This game still requires a lot of determination, will still take you plenty of time (33 hours for me and I also used savestates XD), and I think guides make it even more fun! Just wanted to throw that out there because I can see gamers going in blind, and chucking this game out the window in frustration >_< Unless you are super hardcore and want to pull out the pencils and graph paper for the full experience, take advantage of that it is 2025 and stand on the shoulder of giants.

I'll break down the atmosphere (graphics, story, music etc.), gameplay mechanics, and the experience of Shining in the Darkness.

Atmosphere​

I really like the artistic design of the game. The graphics are bright and colorful: I like the town and dungeons! All the monster designs are great, although many designs are recycled/recolored, but that didn't bother me: encounters had enough variety for me. Not much more to say about visuals/graphics: I loved them!

I love the art and graphics: they have incredible charm! Despite being in a labyrinth, everything is bright, colorful and fun!​

The story is as simple as it gets: your primary task is to rescue the princess and there is a bad guy called Dark Sol that you gotta beat up. Your father has already set out, so you are intending to check on him too. I saw complaints about how "basic" the story was, but I wasn't disappointed by the story at all: sometimes less is more, and this game is a great example of that. In town, you meet a collection of locals you can talk to, and it is lots of fun talking/interacting with everyone.

It's always fun returning to town to see what everyone has to say as you progress. Don't expect what they say to be that helpful in practice, but it is still fun.

It is a little disappointing that your party member Milo pretty much contributes nothing to the story (I don't think he ever interacts beyond the initial meeting?), but Pyra
makes up for that with some memorable and fun moments.
​

I find the music very good which was another complaint from other commentary of this game I found. Yes, it is probably the weakest point of the atmosphere, but that isn't the fault of the composer, imo. It's because the locations do not have much variety and you are crawling the same locations a lot, so that is probably why many can find the music "repetitive". I looked at the full music scores for SITD and FF4 on youtube to compare and FF4 is only twice the length... When you factor in how much larger in scope FF4 is compared to SITD, I think that is a sufficient amount of tunes for the length of this rpg. The composition and sfx, while simple, never become annoying and I think that only adds to the charm!

Gameplay​

This is where the game continues to "shine" for me. Really nothing to complain about as far as combat goes. All the mechanics are nice and simple. Again, let this be a lesson to developers: sometimes less is more! You have buffs/debuff spells (slow and sleep are more effective than they seem) and offensive spells, and it is not hard to learn what works best for certain encounters. This makes wandering around killing stuff plenty fun, and you have to manage your mp for each trip into the labyrinth.

Protip: before casting a spell, you can use left/right to change the spell level. Offensive spells I usually maxed, but healing and buffs/debuffs
need more care to avoid wasting mp and have other effects based on level.​

You have limited inventory, yes, but that simplicity helps this game: it doesn't become a menu hell. I can see how some would complain of the limited inventory, but you are given just enough space for what you need; you are expected to be wise with your choice of items for each trip. For example, you should realize that healing magic is the way to go and there is no reason to buy healing items after you get your magic users, aside from the stat healing items. Unfortunately though, you will need a guide to know what items do (there is a spell to identify items, but I found it pretty useless), unless you want to spend lots of trial/error time.

Thanks Milo, that was a great help asshole. I'll go look up what this item does on gamefaqs...​

Experience​

As already mentioned, there are relatively few locations which is a letdown. The game takes place with a main hub with only 3 locations. The labyrinth is were you go to spend most your time, the town to restock, and the castle to progress the story as you go through the labyrinth.

The main "hub" of travel for the game. You can only select: castle, town and labyrinth.​

Yes, the game is grindy at the beginning (you are forced to kill slimes before you can venture very far on your own), and when you get your party members they start at lvl 1... However, from there on, I never felt I was needing to grind levels. The reason for that is because the encounter rate is meant to exhaust your party to the point you need to leave (HAVE AN ANGEL FEATHER TO WARP OUT AT ALL TIMES) and return: incrementally pushing further and further. This is where I deduct points. When I say "incremental" I MEAN incremental. Clearly the game is padding the lack of locations with an excessive encounter rate and difficulty, making you painfully slowly progress through the labyrinth. You get an item later to help you teleport WITHIN the upper labyrinth floors, but the way it works is not a huge windfall, but is very helpful.

You will buy lots of these. They let you warp out of the labyrinth. Ignore how smug the item shop woman acts, she knows how much you
need them because you keep getting your ass kicked >_<​

As repetitive as progression got, there was something comfy about the experience O_o It's hard to explain, and maybe just me? It's frustrating at times, but the game has a great balance of frustration and reward. The difficulty never becomes insurmountable! This game does not have a skill barrier. Enough determination is all you need! And that is what I like. Enough planning for each dungeon trip and you will be fine.

Plan your trips so you are always getting some good equipment each excursion and you should be good!
Always have an angel feather, buy/sell (and later craft with ore) to keep your equipment optimized.​

In closing, you NEED a guide for this game imo, and with a guide and modern conveniences (gamefaqs and savestates) it was lots of fun and I enjoyed myself. I feel I had the fun the developers wanted this game to be, but without a guide/map I feel this would frustrate most gamers beyond belief. This makes it hard to review O_o Hm, I will go with a flawed classic (see scale below). I am not an expert of FPTBDC but this feels unique, and its charm won me over. I did a cursory look at other FPTBDC's and this seems the most accessible of any of this genre: other entries look like excessive menu hell. This game is challenging, but never feels overwhelming or boring. With a guide, it's a blast. It will piss you off, but if you go in with enough determination/preparation it will keep you playing and you will succeed!

My Rubric​

Citations and Nostalgia Society Love!​

Completed this game during the month of September for Nostalgia Society: shout out and love to everyone from the thread! Maybe I went too easy on this game rating because of such good company ^_^

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shining_in_the_Darkness
[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_IV
[3]https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/genesis/586454-shining-in-the-darkness/faqs
[4]https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/genesis/586454-shining-in-the-darkness/faqs/33234

 

[NotReallyHere]

I'll always have a soft spot for this one! As someone who started off this genre with the NES Wizardry titles, I found SITD to be much more welcoming - and much, much easier to complete

One thing I don't think Sega gets enough credit for during this era is their translation / localization work. Compare the text and dialogue in this game with, say, Final Fantasy II on the SNES. Or, if you want to stick with Sega, even Phantasy Star II from a few years earlier. They came a very long way in a short amount of time, and this game, the Shining Force titles, and Phantasy Star IV had some remarkable translation work that even feels fresh and professional today.

To me, that makes this game easier to approach in 2025 than anything else

 

[diapered]

To me, that makes this game easier to approach in 2025 than anything else

I'm glad I wasn't crazy calling it accessible/approachable, for the genre! This is not a genre I know a lot about, but from looking at other similar games they mostly seem more complicated. Nothing wrong with that (I like menus and micromanaging, depends on the game), but that's what I think makes this one stand out as a retro classic; I loved how equipment/item/party management was very simple. However, it is a hard game to pick up and play for most nevertheless, so that was one thing I did deduct for

One thing I don't think Sega gets enough credit for during this era is their translation / localization work. Compare the text and dialogue in this game with, say, Final Fantasy II on the SNES. Or, if you want to stick with Sega, even Phantasy Star II from a few years earlier. They came a very long way in a short amount of time, and this game, the Shining Force titles, and Phantasy Star IV had some remarkable translation work that even feels fresh and professional today.

I love to learn history like that, thanks! That's cool how hard Sega was working on localization for this one.

 

[Segadude113]

grew up playing Scarab of Ra, it was maze like. The thing about the game though is you can't go back once you go through the door to each level and it's randomly generated. So it's like floors in a dungeon. There's no backtracking allowed and you can only heal with what you find along the way. That's Scarab of Ra. Meanwhile Shining in The Darkness has RPG battles and party members to back you up and you can leave at any time and sleep in an INN or revive fallen members, stock up on supplies, ect. I know the two games have nothing to do with each other, but they feel similar to me. :)

 

[_Lorenzo_]

Good review, I totally agree with you about the music...I still find it really charming even today. Back when I played it, GF obviously didn’t exist, so you had to make your own maps, and that was a real pain. Luckily, I had two friends with me, so it was doable. Nowadays I wouldn’t commit to a game like that anymore (because of age and limited free time), since, as you rightly pointed out, it’s not an easy game. But determination is definitely the key quality you need to play it (like with many others vg of that era).

 

[Kamako]

Another excellent write-up dude.

This game is such a hard sell to modern gamers in concept, I think. So it's pretty miraculous that it still managed to deliver 35~40 hours of (mostly) solid entertainment.

One opinion on which we may differ slightly is the music. I did enjoy every song, but I can't deny that the battle theme did grate on me slightly by the time I was reaching the endgame (a couple of notes were just a little too shrill for my tastes).

I'd say the hardest part of the game was easily the item management. It felt like I was playing medieval Resident Evil at times.

All in all I had a great time, and I'm glad you did too. Onwards to the next!

 

[Dany28]

Nice Retro game.

 

[Nelson2001 Nelson2001]

I've played it once and it's good to be an RPG with elements of Dungeon Crawler especially for the first game of the Shining saga before the Franchise became popular for the Shining Force later which are completely Strategy games very similar to the Fire Emblem Saga and by the way your review is very good .

 

[diapered]

grew up playing Scarab of Ra, it was maze like. The thing about the game though is you can't go back once you go through the door to each level and it's randomly generated. So it's like floors in a dungeon. There's no backtracking allowed and you can only heal with what you find along the way. That's Scarab of Ra. Meanwhile Shining in The Darkness has RPG battles and party members to back you up and you can leave at any time and sleep in an INN or revive fallen members, stock up on supplies, ect. I know the two games have nothing to do with each other, but they feel similar to me. :)

That sounds like an absolutely brutal dungeon crawler. That is why I give SITD a lot of credit: it's hard, but the devs give you lots of mechanics to help you out, like you mentioned inn, healing etc. I just looked up Scarab and yea, that looks rough/complicated to play through, based on the screenshots O_o

One opinion on which we may differ slightly is the music. I did enjoy every song, but I can't deny that the battle theme did grate on me slightly by the time I was reaching the endgame (a couple of notes were just a little too shrill for my tastes).

Yea, that's fair. Maybe since I played this with plenty of drinks it gave me more tolerance for the composition lol I saw music was a complaint from other commentary. But I as always humming along, and I ended up liking it overall, but yea, the composer definitely made full use of the high pitch register for the genesis sound chip

 

[Rez78]

Loved on my beloved Sega Mega Drive!

 

[Joule Caster]

Fun fact: The clerk who runs the weapon shop in the town is none other than Gillius Thunderhead, one of the main characters of Sega's fellow IP Golden Axe.

 

[Perkin_Warbeck]

I kind of love the artwork in this game but I think Shining the Holy Ark might be a little bit more my speed. Just a little bit more modern with quality of life features.

 

[JimNakajima]

Nice review! I actually recently downloaded this game because the Shining series (among many others) has been on my to-do list for a while, as I'm a huge Fire Emblem fan. Of course, SITD is a dungeon crawler, rather than an SRPG, so that's kind of a moot point. Good thing I'm also a big fan of classic Megami Tensei!

As for SITD itself, I really love the art style on display here. The colors have that classic Genesis flare; reminds me a lot of Wonder Boy in Monster World in particular. The world map also stands out because it screams "adventure." Sure, it may only have 3 locations, but their prominence makes you want to see what they're about! And, like you said, sometimes less is more. I do always wonder what could lie beyond what we see, though. The gameplay looks like a ton of fun as well! I love old "clunky" games, they have a certain charm about them (I've deemed this "rustic peak") that just draws me in. Can't wait to check this, and the following Shining games out.

Speaking of Megami Tensei, I feel that SMT1, or maybe even MT2 may have been a more apt comparison than FF4. I understand you went with FF4 because it came out the same year as SITD, whereas MT2 and SMT1 released a year prior/later respectively, but I'd say both are much closer in gameplay, since they're both first person dungeon crawlers. Then again, from the cursory glance I did at SMT1 and MT2's development, I couldn't find any concrete numbers. So for the sake of comparing strict dev count, I do get why you went with FF4. Regardless, I enjoyed reading your review, it got me even more interested in a series I already wanted to play!

 

[I am lod10]

Cresci jogando Scarab of Ra, era como um labirinto. O problema do jogo é que você não pode voltar depois de passar pela porta de cada nível e ele é gerado aleatoriamente. Então é como andares em uma masmorra. Não é permitido voltar atrás e você só pode se curar com o que encontrar ao longo do caminho. Isso é Scarab of Ra. Enquanto isso, Shining in The Darkness tem batalhas de RPG e membros do grupo para te apoiar e você pode sair a qualquer momento e dormir em uma pousada ou reviver membros caídos, estocar suprimentos, etc. Eu sei que os dois jogos não têm nada a ver um com o outro, mas eles parecem semelhantes para mim. :)

EiHey friend, it's me. I lost my account. Send this message to the moderator to help me with level 4, please.If you see I stopped posting that's why I was an idiot who forgot

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 2:46 PM

Outro excelente artigo, cara.

Acho que o conceito deste jogo é tão difícil de convencer os jogadores modernos. Então é um milagre que ele ainda tenha conseguido entregar de 35 a 40 horas de entretenimento (na maior parte) sólido.

Uma opinião sobre a qual podemos divergir um pouco é a música. Gostei de todas as músicas, mas não posso negar que o tema da batalha me irritou um pouco quando cheguei ao final do jogo (algumas notas estavam um pouco estridentes demais para o meu gosto).

Eu diria que a parte mais difícil do jogo foi facilmente o gerenciamento de itens. Às vezes, parecia que eu estava jogando Resident Evil medieval.

No geral, me diverti muito e fico feliz que você também tenha se divertido. Até a próxima!

EiHey friend, it's me, lo 10. You are a moderator. Help me reach level 4. I lost my account. Help me.

 

[diapered]

I kind of love the artwork in this game but I think Shining the Holy Ark might be a little bit more my speed. Just a little bit more modern with quality of life features.

Someone recommended that one when I made a pfp about how I was playing this. It does look interesting and I am planning to try it out. Saw one of the screenshots has a map. Nice! That is quite a convenience after this one

Nice review! I actually recently downloaded this game because the Shining series (among many others) has been on my to-do list for a while, as I'm a huge Fire Emblem fan. Of course, SITD is a dungeon crawler, rather than an SRPG, so that's kind of a moot point. Good thing I'm also a big fan of classic Megami Tensei!

As for SITD itself, I really love the art style on display here. The colors have that classic Genesis flare; reminds me a lot of Wonder Boy in Monster World in particular. The world map also stands out because it screams "adventure." Sure, it may only have 3 locations, but their prominence makes you want to see what they're about! And, like you said, sometimes less is more. I do always wonder what could lie beyond what we see, though. The gameplay looks like a ton of fun as well! I love old "clunky" games, they have a certain charm about them (I've deemed this "rustic peak") that just draws me in. Can't wait to check this, and the following Shining games out.

Speaking of Megami Tensei, I feel that SMT1, or maybe even MT2 may have been a more apt comparison than FF4. I understand you went with FF4 because it came out the same year as SITD, whereas MT2 and SMT1 released a year prior/later respectively, but I'd say both are much closer in gameplay, since they're both first person dungeon crawlers. Then again, from the cursory glance I did at SMT1 and MT2's development, I couldn't find any concrete numbers. So for the sake of comparing strict dev count, I do get why you went with FF4. Regardless, I enjoyed reading your review, it got me even more interested in a series I already wanted to play!

Problem is I have never played the Tensei games (but since I am now looking for more games like this, I do plan to try them, they look good). You're right, those would have been good to compare for gameplay. The comparison with FF4 was more for just historical context: to give a more well known game as an example so others have an idea of what expectations (well, highest expectations I guess as FF4 is probably one of the best rpgs of the year lol) gamers may have had for an rpg at the time. Also, looking at the list of games, that was one I was very familiar with