Shining Force fans?

[DragonMals]

Watched the GBA Remake of second game on Genesis (Shining Force I, not Shining Force II, iirc the first game wasn't even called Shining Force) and listened a lot to the GBA and the Genesis' soundtrack.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

This franchise is cooked, but at least there's a fan translated full Shining Force 3, since SEGA wanna be COWARDS

Post automatically merged: Mar 22, 2025

Watched the GBA Remake of second game on Genesis (Shining Force I, not Shining Force II, iirc the first game wasn't even called Shining Force) and listened a lot to the GBA and the Genesis' soundtrack.

You would be correct, the first is Shining in the Darkness

 

[DanCalibur]

I think I read somewhere that Shining Wisdom was intended to be a genesis game until they kind of had to rush production to meet demands for Saturn adventure rpgs upon the systems release

That makes sense, there's no other reason for the whole control scheeme to use only 3 buttons.

 

[Captain Murphy]

I also happened to play a spin-off on gba called, "Shining Soul". It's action-based with rpg elements. I found it pretty fun! Need to finish it sometime!

 

[UnDubious]

I didn't like the first Shining Soul because I found it too basic at the time but the sequel expanded on everything and ended up being pretty good. Most surprising thing about those games is they were co-developed by Grasshopper, Suda51's company. You'd never think that playing them.

I liked one of the PS2 Shining ARPGs too, let's see... Shining Force EXA. It's a pretty solid action RPG, especially the action part. Reuses a lot of elements from Record of Lodoss War on the Dreamcast, which was a great hack-n-slash by the same developer (Neverland). It's not that the random Shining games after SFIII are all bad necessarily, some are decent. But they really are completely different. Just like I had a good time with Phantasy Star Portable but it has absolutely nothing to do with the Genesis Phantasy Star games.

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

Shining Force was my introduction to tactical games/SRPGs and I have a lot of love for SF2. Unfortunately, SEGA turned the Shining series into some bland, basic as fuck hack and slash RPGs. It really killed the appeal of the series for me. I doubt they will decide to turn back the clock and bring the grid based combat for some reason.

 

[Note]

Glad to see this thread on here. The Shining series is actually my favorite RPG series, and it's really a shame Sega never released a Shining Force sequel on the Dreamcast. Would've been great to see SF4 or a SF3 collection on their last console.

As for my favorite game in the series, I'd have to go with Shining Force 2. The graphics and soundtrack are top tier for a Genesis game, IMO. Also, the storyline's great and has a memorable cast of characters. My friends and I put a ton of time into the game back in the day, and would take turns playing the battles. Good times. Shining Force 3 is also great and has some iconic moments, but I still give SF2 the edge.

Shining the Holy Ark is also impressive, and I wasn't much of a fan of dungeon crawlers, but that game changed that for me. Highly recommend it as well. There are also some interesting graphical elements and animations seen in STHA that resemble effects in Golden Sun.

In regards to Camelot (formerly Sonic Software Planning), they are now an exclusive developer for Nintendo, working on their sports games. The last games they made were Mario Tennis Aces and Mario Golf Super Rush. It's a shame they aren't actively working on any RPGs, as I enjoyed the first two Golden Sun games as well.

I'm still hoping we'll see the series come back to life at some point, in a manner that respects the original Shining Force games. Fingers crossed.

 

[sun0wl]

I'm very slowly playing through SF3 (dealing with those gd refugees lol) but every time I play it, I am reminded how blessed we are to live in the timeline in which it's been (masterfully) fan translated. Fun tactical game with some neat maps and mechanics/tactical "puzzles" (yes even the refugee one), and the world and narrative are neat. Camelot aesthetics + Motoi Sakuraba and hilarious English voice clips ala Star Ocean are just the icing on the cake. Needless to say, I do also wish they'd revisit the series' (tactical) roots.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I should do In the Darkness sometimes, I liked the dungeon crawling aspect.

And I really like the Gelfling/Kyantol/Centaur species

Is it me or the clothes reminds me of Phantasy Star's? They're both JRPGs

 

[mini pancake]

It's a good game

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I should do In the Darkness sometimes, I liked the dungeon crawling aspect.

And I really like the Gelfling/Kyantol/Centaur species

View attachment 47017View attachment 47018

Is it me or the clothes reminds me of Phantasy Star's? They're both JRPGs

No, I'm absolutely not a furry thank you.
Jokes aside I do enjoy the series' art style and how it evolved between 1/2 and 3.

Also weren't Gelflings from Dark Crystal? Thus why they changed their name to Kyantol/Centaur (despite not being four-legged).

Maybe it's a translation issue

On the other hand I'm sad that this franchise couldn't be as big as Fire Emblem nor got the same care as Sakura Wars nor Valkyria Chronicles, how come?

In my (humble) opinion they should remake In the Darkness first with a minimap

 

[Disyoko92]

No kidding? I love them all, CD included but I usually don't hear people preferring one over two. Are in these in lieu of storyline considerations? Sf2 did feel a bit lacking in terms of the lore but it was serviceable at least and the gameplay improvements, pacing, exploration and soundtrack felt like vast improvements

There is no question that Shining Force 2 is better than the first one. Anyway, all the games are enjoyable if you are a fan of tactical RPGS, I cherish all of them. The thing is, they created a unique system that in my opinion is more attractive and superior to the Fire Emblem titles of those times.

 

[Raud]

I like Shining Force, the originals, EXA, the PSP Shining that have a gameplay similar of Valkyrie Chronicles, Shining Force Feather too.
It needs to come back, if it returns in a presentation like the first ones it will be a blast!

 

[YoshifreakZX]

I remember playing and really enjoying Shining Force II years back and then I suddenly just stopped playing.
Backlog moment.