About Shining Force
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People tend to assume that Shining Force was inspired by Nintendo's Fire Emblem. It's tempting to think that since they're both strategy RPGs with battle encounter animations. But yet, this is not true! Hiroyuki Takahashi (the producer & designer of Shining Force) 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.” 
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I want to highlight a couple of these. Shining Force Classics is a neat bundle that includes Shining Force 1, Shining Force 2, and Shining in the Darkness. Sega Genesis Classics is a very generous collection that contains over 50 games! It has every major Genesis RPG. The emulator it uses is my favorite 'collections emulator' so far. It has rewind, fast forward, screen filters, save states, 'quick access' save states, and you can turn the background solid black (I hate it when game collections surround the screen with decorative borders). |
History
Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention
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 In ages long forgotten... light fought Darkness for control of the world. Dark Dragon led the evil hordes of Darkness. The Ancients fought back with the Powers of Light. Dark Dragon was defeated and cast into another dimension...  the Lord of Darkness vowed to return in 1,000 years. Time passed, and Dark Dragon was forgotten by all. Ten centuries of peace ruled the land of Rune. Until the kingdom of Runefaust brought war and defeat to Rune. Hordes of evil creatures ravaged every land. Here and there, strongholds of Good still held out... awaiting a hero who could wield the Power of Light! |
Prelude Story
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An encounter in the first battle
You control your very own army across vast battlefields. The battles take place on flat terrain. Most of the time you fight on land and other times you fight in temples or caves. Your job is to command your army to defeat the enemy army. You start with six soldiers and by the end of the game you end up with nearly 30. An awesome cinematic sequence is displayed when you encounter an enemy. Your army and enemy armies are made up of knights, wizards, warriors, and archers. Not all of them are human; there are centaurs, birdmen, dragons, wolfmen, robots, half-breeds, and other strange-looking creatures. Each character has their strengths and weaknesses. Your characters can be promoted, making them able to wield stronger weapons and have stronger attacks. Also when they are promoted, they look different and attack in different ways. I talk more about the battle system in Tips & Strategy. |
Battle System
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To help explain why/how Shining Force is so awesome, I want to highlight context from the time of its release. Starting in the 80s and ending in the late 90s, this was the time when anime was closest to Dungeons & Dragons inspired high fantasy. In Japan, many anime and videogames were all about wizards and warriors. This was when anime such as Slayers, Record of the Lodoss War, and Bastard were released (all very awesome). Shining Force was a product of this time. There's a charm when your battle party consists of humans and non-humans, with classes ranging from warrior classes to magic-based classes. Shining Force fulfills all of our wants with high fantasy. Shining Force is one of those timeless RPG classics that I keep coming back to. I swear, I've beaten it over 50 times. Every time Shining Force gets re-released on something, it's another excuse for me to replay it yet again. Even today, the graphics and animation are gorgeous and competitive against pixel-based indie games. As I mentioned in History, I think the Sega Genesis Classics collection released in 2018 is an excellent way to experience Shining Force on modern systems. Its emulator is almost as feature-rich as a fan-made emulator. The emulators offered in other official collections (i.e. Nintendo Switch Online, Collection of Mana, Castlevania Collection, etc.) offer limited features.
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My Opinion
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I have so many memories with Shining Force. My best friend was the one who introduced me to the Shining Force series. One day he rented Shining Force 2. At the time I was anti-Sega and a loyal Nintendo fan. He told me how awesome the game was, especially the animated battle sequences. I came over and played the first battle. I was making fun of the game the whole time, saying how dumb the graphics are just to get back at him (we always had Nintendo and Sega fights trying to prove which one is better). About a year later I bought my first Genesis from my brother's friend for like $30 (US) with Sonic the Hedgehog 2. This is when I started becoming a Sega fan. I eventually bought Shining Force 2 used from the mail. I played it over and over and loved it very much. I thought about getting Shining Force 1 but I had the thought in my head that it would be dumb since the first part of a game series always less quality. Then one day I found Shining Force 1 in the game section of a video rental store and looked behind the box. I was amazed at the graphics! So then I decided I must get it! I bought it used through the mail. I enjoyed playing this game so much! I remember how awesome I thought the battle sequence music was. It's still awesome to this day! And I loved the song that played in the third battle. At first, I equally liked Shining Force 1 and 2. But over time, I grew to like Shining Force 1 more because the graphics are cooler and it has a better variety for characters to choose from. Wow... this game is so good. It's so fun and the graphics are amazing. Even though the music is made up of is old Genesis-style tunes, it's still really good compared to other Genesis at the time. |
