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Yea I always avoided the first Shining game just because of the FP view. I like the 2 Force games on the Genesis and so far Force CD looks more of the same so I'm good. I know they're not the most complicated strategy games around but I don't want to sell them short either. Not having to constantly crunch numbers for stats gives a person more time to focus on battles. I never played Disgae but I played Phantom Brave and really liked it. Especially in PB because if I remember right you level up weapons instead of people and the weapons are random stuff you pick up like rocks or tree branches. Still with those types of games I find myself more concerned with leveling things and wind up burning myself out before getting too far in the story. The Force games and Fire Emblem on the GC, the only FE game I played and own, are more up my alley for strategy games. I focus more on the battles with little grinding so I actually manage to finish them.

I might go back and try the first Shining game just because it interests me more and more as time goes on but I have to get through SF CD first. And then I'll probably play the second Force game again just because.

I like all the Shining games on Saturn. Holy Arc, Wisdom and Force III but holy shit Shining Force III is amazing! What a fantastic game! Yet to play a FE game I like as much as SFIII.

funk_Farmer wrote:I might go back and try the first Shining game just because it interests me more and more as time goes on but I have to get through SF CD first. And then I'll probably play the second Force game again just because.

Shining in the Darkness is quite good. I think it hits just the right balance for a first person dungeon crawler when it would have been easy to go with the Wizardry cut-your-bollocks-off difficulty. And all the little Shining-isms will definitely get you right in the nostalgia.

@Reprise

thanks that was very informative, I don't want to carry the discussion even further as it will be out way out of line of this thread's main topic.

I love Shining Force II and III (scenario 1 - I haven't tried the other two scenarios), but haven't tried many other Shining or Shining Force games. The first person dungeon crawlers, Shining in the Darkness and Shining the Holy Ark don't look like games I would like too much. I think it's the first person view that puts me off, but I do want to try them some time, especially Shining the Holy Ark.

Reprise wrote:I love Shining Force II and III (scenario 1 - I haven't tried the other two scenarios), but haven't tried many other Shining or Shining Force games. The first person dungeon crawlers, Shining in the Darkness and Shining the Holy Ark don't look like games I would like too much. I think it's the first person view that puts me off, but I do want to try them some time, especially Shining the Holy Ark.

Of the ones to play, Holy Ark is the one. It is set in the same universe and shining force 3 and is a prequel to that series of games. It has a lot of quality of life improvements that a lot of dungeon crawlers didn't have at the time and the pixie system it uses is actually a lot of fun and encourages exploration in a big way.

For those that don't know, you can find pixies hiding in the environments and, depending on the type they will attack enemies as they enter the battle field based on what direction those enemies come from. It is hugely helpful in succeeding and is fun to try and find.

So much Shining love. I recently read a review for Shining the Holy Ark and it does sound good. I just don't have any way to play Saturn games. Living in the sticks I've only actually seen three Saturns in my entire life. I should try getting a Saturn emulator to work again. I heard some guy recently made a break through in Saturn hardware so that's promising.

I know the series continued on into the ps2 era but those games seem way more anime inspired and I just never got into them. I love the art style of the old Shining games. Back in the day when box art looked Frank Frazetta inspired. The characters are actually pretty memorable and I think they cover every type of humanoid race thing there is.

I feel like the series really goes downhill once you get past Shining Force III (I haven't tried Wisdom yet so I don't know how it holds up). The two Soul games were decent but forgettable, but that was also when Camelot stopped working on the series and switched over to Nintendo, and it shows.

MrPopo wrote:(I haven't tried Wisdom yet so I don't know how it holds up).

I have Wisdom. I haven't played it since I was a kid, but I remember finding it pretty mediocre though. It's a lazy Zelda clone, with slightly awkward and weird combat, poor graphics and is just pretty linear and straight forward. It's not terrible by any means, it just doesn't really excel at anything. It just... exists.. I guess.

funk_Farmer wrote:So much Shining love. I recently read a review for Shining the Holy Ark and it does sound good. I just don't have any way to play Saturn games. Living in the sticks I've only actually seen three Saturns in my entire life. I should try getting a Saturn emulator to work again. I heard some guy recently made a break through in Saturn hardware so that's promising.

I know the series continued on into the ps2 era but those games seem way more anime inspired and I just never got into them. I love the art style of the old Shining games. Back in the day when box art looked Frank Frazetta inspired. The characters are actually pretty memorable and I think they cover every type of humanoid race thing there is.

Definitely look into emulation for the Saturn. It has greatly improved and is my all time favorite system. You have the best bomberman game, shining force 3 is a great and there is a fan translation for the unreleased 2 episodes of it, you have dragon force which is a killer strategy game with infinite replay value... I could go on forever about it.

But you are absolutely right on the character design of the shining force games. I enjoy 1 over 2s character design, it really boils down to preference... they are both great. How is the Sega CD shining game treating you so far? It is ports of the game gear games and I have to play them at some point!