The Shining Series

Katchem_ash

I am currently playing Shining Tears, after a very confusing and deviod of story telling game (which was advertised to me as a Prince of Persia Type game which I own and enjoy) called God of War, I started on the next game in the back log.

Its a pretty good game and it has a brilliant story line thats particularlly awesome. I like Xion and most of the cast and plus the Mako is spunky. However this game is not given many good reviews and cretainly the entire series seem to be received with a "meh".

Granted that Shining Tears has GBA graphic sprites, which I don't find bad and they are quite good, but why didn't people show much love to it? Is there something I am not picking up that others have? XPLay for one deamed this the worst game ever, but I don't see any deatils regarding why this was called that. I haven't played Shining Force Neo or Shining Force EXA (which just came out) so I can't comment on those, but the Shining Tears gets a thumbs up from me.

InitialDK

Well I'm not that fond of the recent Shining games as I usually get preoccupied with other dungeon crawlers I enjoy more.

Another reason, which may also taint the opinion of others, is that when I was a kid the Shining Force games were some of my favorite SRPGs before I even knew what SRPG was. These new games are nothing like those and while they should be judged on their own merits I just start thinking about the Force games and how I'd rather be playing those.

Suriko

I keep meaning to play this, due in large part (...only) because of the neat intro movie and Tony Taka's artwork for it. I, too, have heard many bad things about it, which is partly the reason I haven't tried it yet.

mrots

I'd like to know about Shining Force III for Saturn if anyone has played it.

cooljammer00

The only thing I know about Shining Tears was that XPlay skit where they compared Shining Tears to Resident Evil 4.

SteevL

I should check out all these newfangled Shining games, even if they probably won't hold a candle to my memories of the original Shining Force. The art for Shining Tears looks nice.

It appears that it got mostly mediocre reviews, but it also appears to have lots of mindless hacking and slashing, which can be fun.

mrots wrote: »

I'd like to know about Shining Force III for Saturn if anyone has played it.

It's pretty damn good, although I only played through half of the US-released game. I think it'd look kind of ugly graphically these days since it was rather primitive 3D. We only got 1/3rd of the Shining Force III story in the US, which is a shame.

mrots

Ugly isn't a problem at all if the gameplay is good. I can still appreciate solid 32 bit graphics.

UncleSporky

I want another Shining SRPG so bad. Either that or another first person dungeon crawler ala Shining in the Darkness! That was the best of all the crawlers in that vein back in the day, such great art...

bsjezz

SteevL wrote: »

I should check out all these newfangled Shining games, even if they probably won't hold a candle to my memories of the original Shining Force.

Shining Force? Pah, newbie! I remember huddling around the TV, playing my Uncle's brand new Megadrive with Shining In the Darkness plugged in. It's almost certainly the first RPG I ever played, and it started a lifetime romance. Trawling those dungeons, with the same music over and over that I can still remember - DUN dundun DUN dundun DUN dundun DUN - good times.

edit: heh that wiki page is terrible. "It has a feel of many of the older RPG's that made their debuts in the 80's and therefore it can feel rather old." Wow, that's bold criticism right there.

SteevL

bsjezz wrote: »

SteevL wrote: »

I should check out all these newfangled Shining games, even if they probably won't hold a candle to my memories of the original Shining Force.

Shining Force? Pah, newbie! I remember huddling around the TV, playing my Uncle's brand new Megadrive with Shining In the Darkness plugged in. It's almost certainly the first RPG I ever played, and it started a lifetime romance. Trawling those dungeons, with the same music over and over that I can still remember - DUN dundun DUN dundun DUN dundun DUN - good times.

Yeah, to be honest, that was actually the first Shining Game I played too. And -- you're going to kill me -- I didn't like it. In fact, I almost didn't give Shining Force a chance because of Shining in the Darkness. I honestly don't remember what I didn't like about it anymore. I was 13 or so when I played it at a friend's house. I think I'd had my fill of first-person dungeon RPGs at that point.

UncleSporky

bsjezz wrote: »

edit: heh that wiki page is terrible. "It has a feel of many of the older RPG's that made their debuts in the 80's and therefore it can feel rather old." Wow, that's bold criticism right there.

It doesn't feel old at all. So many games like it weren't even animated, you'd turn and the walls would all shift instantly, so disorienting. The screen wasn't cluttered with stats and information all the time either like some of the other old ones (Might and Magic, Bard's Tale IIRC). It had good writing for what little story there was and was certainly more interesting than a lot of its contemporaries.

cj iwakura

mrots wrote: »

I'd like to know about Shining Force III for Saturn if anyone has played it.

It's a Strategy RPG, but only a third of a whole. They didn't localize the whole game.

Strange, but that's how the story goes. It's really good, though.

bsjezz

SteevL wrote: »

Yeah, to be honest, that was actually the first Shining Game I played too. And -- you're going to kill me -- I didn't like it. In fact, I almost didn't give Shining Force a chance because of Shining in the Darkness. I honestly don't remember what I didn't like about it anymore. I was 13 or so when I played it at a friend's house. I think I'd had my fill of first-person dungeon RPGs at that point.

I was just a kid (9, 10?), I liked it because it looked pretty and it was really easy to get a grasp of - you go to town, you buy stuff then you hit the dungeons. Plus there was a guy called Milo, and Milo was a name dear to my heart in those days for one or two reasons.

Shining Force II, however, in my mind is the best console RPG before FFVII.

mrots

cj iwakura wrote:

mrots wrote:

I'd like to know about Shining Force III for Saturn if anyone has played it.

It's a Strategy RPG, but only a third of a whole. They didn't localize the whole game.

Strange, but that's how the story goes. It's really good, though.

is it worth the asking price on ebay is what I really want to know. I just bought Panzer Dragoon Saga on a whim and don't regret it in the slightest

cj iwakura

mrots wrote: »

cj iwakura wrote:

mrots wrote:

I'd like to know about Shining Force III for Saturn if anyone has played it.

It's a Strategy RPG, but only a third of a whole. They didn't localize the whole game.

Strange, but that's how the story goes. It's really good, though.

is it worth the asking price on ebay is what I really want to know. I just bought Panzer Dragoon Saga on a whim and don't regret it in the slightest

That depends on what they're asking. $60 or less, if you're really into SRPGs, sure. I wouldn't personally, but if you're really into the genre, I can't see why not.

I think Panzer Dragoon Saga's overrated myself, so I'm probably not the right one to ask on that.

Brainleech

mrots wrote: »

I'd like to know about Shining Force III for Saturn if anyone has played it.

I played part one of the english one and was quite upset/disapointed you could not get the other two parts in the US in english.