Shining Force 1

I'd like to start off by saying that for the breakdown, I have added 'Reviewers Tilt' (Thanks to Ice_Man_Ash for explaining this to me), Inovation, and Total Score. I have added Reviewers Tilt for this review, because i feel this game isn't as good as i'd like it to be, or thought it was, and to review it honestly and truthfully, would give it a pretty bad score, plus Shining Force was the game that launched my RPG career, so i gotta give it a little more credit. I added Inovation, because, don't you just get tired of games that send a band of about eight people to save the world from ultimate destruction by some king? (*hint hint* Tales of Destiny, Lufia, and the games I'm reviewing at this moment). And don't you just love games that send you on a unique quest with unique battles and unique magic/weapons/armor? (*hint hint* Suikoden, Parasite Eve, Final Fantasy Tactics). Anyway, on with Shining Force. This game is for the Sega Genesis (this system had decent RPGs...) and was my first RPG ever! (Unless you count the Zelda games for the NES an rpg..... but I don't). Correct me if I'm wrong (serioiusly, do that, i hate printing false information), but this was also the first strategy/rpg ever made.

The story line is simple enough, get the legendary sword and save the world. The story is divided into 8 chapters, each consisting of around 4 battles. The characters, man, they did a terrible job with the character development. None of them talk except when you recruit them or when you speak to them in your h.q., but they are unique. The music, i'm sorry, but the music SUCKED!! Still, the game is fun.

The story line is this: A man named Darksol, whom you know nothing about, and never learn anything about, such as where he came from and how he got so powerful, is trying to summon the ancient evil known as Dark Dragon, which was sealed off by the Ancients (I wonder if Aeris is afilliated with them...heh) thousands of years earlier. Your quest is to stop him and find the legendary sword, the Chaos Breaker. How many times have we heard *this* story? However, the ending is unique...in a way.

The music and graphics, what can I say? They sucked! The music reminded me of a MIDI file, while the graphics weren't even good for 16-bit standards. Sigh...is there anything that can redeem one of my favorite games?

YES! The gameplay! Precious, precious gameplay! With unique classes and races, such as mages, priests, swordsmen, warriors (i promise! they get unique!) guys who fly around on bicycles, sky warriors, steam knights, centaurs, dwarves, elves, and archers, this gives you a great array of characters to form your battle team with. There are over 30 characters to choose from, and you can have 12 in your party for each battle, any 12 you want (except the hero, you always have to use him). And you don't have to worry about any armor, just weapons, that can be a good thing, or a bad thing, up to you.

NO! Please! Not character development! NOOOOOOO!! I've NEVER seen worse character development in all my life!!! You walk up to sombody "Hey, wanna join my team?" "Sure." And they never say anything more informative than that. The freakin towns people talk more than them! I think all your team mates have some sort of speech impairment.

Well, come on! It's actually a very good game! Play it.....NOW!!!

Shining Force 2

I've decided to review these in the same review, because they're sooo similar. The gameplay is the same in every way possible, same classes and races, basically the same story, same crappy ass music.

The story this time is, you have to get the legendary sword, save the world from Zeon, the devil king, AND rescue a princess! Hear that! This time you rescue a princess!! (Sarcasm).

The character development is somewhat better, but only for some guys such as Peter, Astral, and Lemon. (Who would name their son Lemon!?) Everything else is basically same. It could be argued that this is better than the first, and most people think so. But not me, I'll always like the first one better. Why? Because this game is childish as hell! And by the way, I'm lowering the inovation since its basically a clone of the first.

Black's Reviews
Shining Force Reviews


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