Shining Force
| Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention | |
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| Developer(s) | Climax Entertainment Sonic! Software Planning, Amusement Vision (Game Boy Advance port) |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Platform(s) | Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console, iOS |
| Release date(s) | Genesis
June 8, 2004 Virtual Console iOS July 29, 2010 |
| Genre(s) | Tactical role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E Apple: 9+ |
| Media/distribution | 12 megabit cartridge |
Shining Force, known as Shining Force: Kamigami no Isan (シャイニング・フォース 神々の遺産) in Japan, and otherwise known as Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention, is a 1992 turn-based strategy role-playing video game for the Mega Drive/Genesis console. While primarily a traditional fantasy-themed game, it contains some steampunk elements.
The game has been repeatedly re-released: in Sega Smash Pack 2 for the Dreamcast and Microsoft Windows, in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3,[4] and as a standalone game for the Wii Virtual Console. Additionally, in 2004 a remake was released for the Game Boy Advance under the title Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon and in 2010 the game was released for iOS.
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[edit] Gameplay
Shining Force is a turn-based tactical RPG. Battles take place in square grids, and each unit occupies one square. Each unit can move up to a fixed amount of squares along the battlefield, determined by its Move statistic. Depending on its location relative to enemies and to allies, a unit can also perform one action: attack, cast a spell, use an item, or search the area. Some commands, such as equipping or dropping items, don't count as actions. The order of turns is determined by the unit's agility score and a random seed.
As is most common for the RPG genre, units become stronger by fighting enemies or by performing other actions in battle, such as healing allies. These actions give the units experience points (EXP.), which allow them to gain levels.
In Shining Force, each allied unit is represented by a character with his or her own background and personality, much like in the Fire Emblem series. Although there are no "generic" units, except on the enemy side, most characters contribute little or nothing to the plot upon joining the player army.
Each allied unit also has a class, which defines a set of abilities for that unit and determines the spells and equipment they have access to. A unit can be promoted to another class at any level between 10 or 20. Upon promotion the character's level resets to 1 and statistics are reduced by a fixed amount, although they begin higher if the character had been promoted at a higher level.
Battle goals for the player are fairly simple: kill all enemies, kill the enemies' leader, or advance to a town or landmark. The enemy side wins if they kill the player's leader, Max, or if the player chooses to escape the battle by casting Egress. Even if the player army is defeated, the player can recover allies and retry the battle. The Force keeps any experience that is obtained, regardless of the battle's outcome. Thus, there is no Game Over, and the player's army gets stronger even upon its defeat, although Max's death results in the player losing half of their money.
Most games in the Shining Force series (with the exceptions of Shining Force CD, all three Game Gear games, all five cell phone games, the Shining Force III premium disc, the Shining Force for Palm Pilot game, and Shining Force Feather) also possess an exploration mode that occurs outside of battle. This gameplay mode is essentially a Japanese-style traditional RPG game, along the lines of Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, although there are no labyrinths and few puzzles to solve. In this mode, the player's army is represented by Max, who is able to walk around, interact with people, find treasure, buy equipment and items, outfit the army, and choose which of the army's members will be used in battle.
[edit] Story
The game opens in the Kingdom of Guardiana, in the land of Rune. The silent protagonist, Max, is sent on a mission to prevent the evil Darksol, who commands the hordes of Runefaust, from opening the Shining Path and resurrecting Dark Dragon. Along the way, Max recruits a number of allies to join the Shining Force. Opposing the Shining Force are foes such as Kane and King Ramladu, who were both corrupted by Darksol.[5]
The storyline is expanded in the Game Boy Advance remake. A second plot line, which follows Narsha, the Princess of Runefaust, has been added to the game as epilogues to its early chapters. The second plot eventually merges with the original plot line when Narsha is united with the Shining Force and joins with her allies, Zuika and Mawlock, who had helped her escape Runefaust and find the Shining Force.[6]
[edit] Shining Series continuity
Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention begins the saga of Guardiana that is continued in Shining Force Gaiden. It tells how Anri became Queen of Guardiana, and relates the adventures of the young Lowe, Ken, Lug (mistranslated in English versions of Shining Force I as "Luke"[7]), Hans, and Domingo before they went on to sire the heroes of Shining Force Gaiden and/or aid them in their struggle against Woldol. Tao, the sister of Wendy, also appears in Shining Force I.
Shining Force I also tells how Max and Adam's blood feud with Mishaela began, giving rise to the events of Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict. Kane and Elliot appear as major characters, and the game shows how each one met his end. (It should be noted, however, that neither of their sons make any appearance in Shining Force I, nor is any hint of their existence given.)[5]
[edit] Translation issues
The English translation of Shining Force has perhaps the most confusing errors and omissions of any translated game in the Shining series save the Working Designs translation of Shining Wisdom. Most notably, the backstory of Max, the protagonist of the game, is entirely left out. The original Japanese script tells that Max has amnesia and was found washed up on the beach by Lowe, who subsequently came to be his best friend.[8] Later, it is revealed that Max is in fact the brother of Lord Kane of Runefaust. All these plot points were lost in the official translation.[5] In the official translation Kane still expresses horror that Darksol forced him to fight Max, but without any explanation why.[5]
Numerous lesser errors and omissions occur. For instance, the character Lug is mistranslated as "Luke", which confused gamers when both the correct translation of Lug's name and a completely different character named Luke appeared in Shining Force CD.[9] One character's name is translated as "Kane" in some parts of the game and as "Cain" in others. Also, the spell "Demon Breath" is mistranslated as "Demon Blaze"; though Demon Breath appears in all seven Shining games on the Mega Drive, Game Gear, and Mega-CD, Shining Force I is the only one where it is mistranslated.
The remake, Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon received a considerably more accurate English translation. However, since the remake itself contains additions to the plot which contradict the original story,[6] it is not an authentic translation of the original Shining Force.
[edit] Development
Despite being the sequel to the successful Shining in the Darkness, Sega allotted only a minimal budget to the development of Shining Force.[10]
Contrary to popular assumption, Shining Force was not influenced by archetypal Tactical RPG Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Tsurugi. In fact, when asked about the game, lead Shining Force developer Hiroyuki Takahashi remarked "The tempo of that title was so bad that it wasn't something I even wanted to play."[10] Takahashi recalled that Shining Force was chiefly inspired by Dragon Quest. Asking himself how he and the rest of the development team could "take the battles from Dragon Quest and make them more fun", he drew inspiration from an obscure Japanese PC game called Silver Ghost, "a simulation action type of game where you had to direct, oversee and command multiple characters."[10]
[edit] Shining series
While the game is the first in chronological order in the Shining series, it is the second game released in the series, of which the first game released is Shining in the Darkness. Though Shining Force retained many elements from its predecessor, such as the distinctive menu system, the gameplay is drastically different. Shining in the Darkness is a dungeon crawler in first-person perspective, while Shining Force is a strategy RPG. The Shining series flips between many gameplay styles: returning to first person dungeon crawler for Shining the Holy Ark; adopting Legend of Zelda mechanics for Shining Wisdom; and the Shining Soul games being inspired by Diablo, for instance.
[edit] Remake
The game was remade in 2004 for the Game Boy Advance under the title Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon. The changes included expanded plot, new playable characters, increasing difficulty level (starting considerably low, but increasing whenever the player finishes the game and begins a new play), and some tweaks in the gameplay (including the use of "cards" in battle). The game has also had a rerelease for the iOS line: The iPhone, The iPod Touch, and the iPad.
[edit] References
- ^ Release data, GameFAQs. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
- ^ European version release info, GameFAQs.com.
- ^ Virtual Console release info, GameFAQs.com
- ^ Review for Xbox 360 version of Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, IGN.
- ^ a b c d Complete script for the original translation of Shining Force, Shining Force Central.
- ^ a b Complete script for Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon, Shining Force Central.
- ^ Character name translations
- ^ Shining Force re-translation
- ^ Complete script for Shining Force CD, Shining Force Central.
- ^ a b c Behind The Scenes - Shining Force
[edit] External links
- Shining Force on The Shining Wiki
- A Large Collection of Shining Force Sprites on The Spriters Resource
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