Shining Force: Cheap Fire Emblem Takeoff, or Unknown Relic?

I believe I have mentioned a game known as "Shining Force" to most of you.  It's an old strategy game from the Sega Genesis that is unknown to many, but loved by those who know it.



I probably should go ahead and explain the title before I begin.  There are MANY, and I mean MANY similarities between both Shining Force and Fire Emblem, and I will show them as I go through my explanation of the game.

First, let's start with how I found this game.  This game actually goes WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY back for me, probably around age 7 or 8.  We obtained a game (I don't remember how) known as the "Sega Smash Pack".  It had many classic games from the original Sega Genesis, and Shining Force was one of them.  I fell in love with it the first time I played.  Even as a child, I loved to challenge my brain, and mixing  it with adventure was an opportunity I just couldn't pass up!  Unfortunately, Sega Smash Pack messed up shortly after we bought it, and after about 10 minutes of playing, it would instantly shut down.  Thanks to that, I never got very far in that game.  Eventually, we scrapped the old Windows 98, and Shining Force disappeared into the abyss...

Very recently, I obtained a Sega Dreamcast, what I believe to be Sega's last system.  I was browsing around for games when, sure enough, I saw it!  Sega Smash Pack for the Sega Dreamcast!  I remember the excitement I felt when I saw that game.  Sure enough, along with many other childhood favorites, was Shining Force.  It was the first game I played, and over the course of a couple months, I have almost beat the game, loving it the whole way through.

But enough about the past, let's get to the review.  The gameplay is what I call a mix of Final Fantasy and Fire Emblem.  The combat system and leveling system works almost EXACTLY as Fire Emblem does.  You move in squares across the battle field, have a range of squares, and the stats are somewhat random generated when you level.  



But it does have some differences.  First of all, if a party member dies, they're not lost forever.  You can pay a little bit of gold and revive them.  I actually like this difference because every character has personality. I'll get into that a little later.  Also, the weapon system is different.  Weapons never break, and spells use MP instead of books. Once again, I actually like this much more.

The weapons mostly work the same.  Bows have more range, and so on.  However, the magic is actually quite different.  Instead of buying more spell books, your spells gain levels as you progress through the game.  Not only does it get stronger, but THE AMOUNT OF SQUARES HIT INCREASES!!!   This makes magic SO much more fun, as you can obliterate multiple enemies with one spell!  They cost more MP as you get further in levels, but you can choose to use any level of the spell that you've learned, so you can use the weaker versions if you need to conserve MP.

THIS is where the REAL similarities begin.  Units can PROMOTE in this game.  Yeah, so what?  Well, they can promote anywhere from level 10-20.   Sound familiar?  Not only that, but 20 is ALSO the max level!  Also, there is a character from this game...known as Ken.  Those of you who know Ken from Fire Emblem know that he's strong, but he gets almost NO Exp from fights, stealing it from others.  Well guess what?  So is the Ken in THIS game!

Now to the characters.  This is one of the coolest factors about this game.  EVERY character has an amazingly different personality, and all of them are full of it.  From serious and revenge-bent, to funny and silly, to courageous and strong!  Although there are over 30 character in the game total, you can only have about 10 of them in use.  It's almost sad that you can't use every character.  I'M sad.


That is YOU in the game.  Yes, you.  You are the main character of the game, and you get to name yourself and everything.  HE LOOKS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!

The story in this game is a serious, somewhat dark, and yet adventurous one.  I find playing this game has quite a similar feel to watching Lord of the Rings.  A bunch of warriors on a quest with one goal: to stop the evil rising in the world.  From the day your group receives the name "The Shining Force", you know that much awaits ahead.  Many characters die in this game, good and bad, and it has some very depressing moments.





The music in this game is really well made, despite being old video game music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0-wnu45uZY&feature=channel&list=UL


Sadly, the series no longer exists.  The company still makes games with "Shining" in the title, and are part of the series, but realistically have no ties to the old games.  But I personally believe that the series lives on...through Fire Emblem.  Despite the fact that Fire Emblem came out first, the old games were actually A LOT different from the ones out now, combat-wise and all.  Not only that, but those were Japanese only games.  This series came out in America from the get-go.  Perhaps this was one of the reasons Fire Emblem was brought to us.  Either way, I still love this series, and personally can't wait until I beat the game, and get the second game.  If you have the capabilities, I certainly would suggest you play it.  You won't regret it.

Until next time!