![]() I suppose it’s comparable to the different paths you can take in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, except this was a cohesive overarching story rather than splintered into what-ifs. This wasn’t just a game, but an epic intertwining trilogy that was quite unlike anything else at the time. However – as much as I enjoy Shining Force and the not-dated-too-well vibe of Shining Force 2 – the series’ real crowning achievement was Shining Force 3. Shining Force 3 was undoubedtly a series high point. If you played Shining Force when it came the Mega Drive/Genesis library as part of the Switch Online Expansion Pack (with the original game part of the line-up at launch), you'd have noticed that its 16-bit pixel art still holds up very well compared to its dated predecessor, and also featured a larger world where you can freely roam in between battles. The follow-up was simply a bigger, better sequel, with its protagonist having the much cooler official name of Bowie (sorry, Max). It wasn't until the sequel – predictably called Shining Force 2 – that I'd see this kind of gameplay system again. For a fairly rudimentary RPG, it had a lot of depth. Shining Force also wasn’t limited to just battles: you could engage in other RPG fare, too, like exploring towns on foot, talking to NPCs, and visiting shops to buy new gear and supplies. There’s the way the action would transition from the top-down grids with fairly simple pixel sprites to more cinematic battle illustrations of your characters making their attack, which were more dramatic to look at. Shining Force also had better presentation than Fire Emblem – at least in the beginning. You can't argue with these immaculate vibes. Unlike in Fire Emblem, you weren’t getting to move all your characters in one go before waiting for the enemy to take their turn – and so an opponent countering was an exception rather than the norm. That, and battles were also more like typical RPGs where characters’ turns were determined by their speed. Namely, Shining Force didn’t have the same merciless permadeath as its Nintendo rival. While Shining Force was pretty much Sega’s answer to Fire Emblem, the two series were also quite different from each other in some key areas. The series evolved quickly, but the older games hold up better. Yes, levelling up characters, promoting their classes, upgrading their gear it all sounds pretty basic stuff now, but this strategic kind of play was an eye-opener to me as I was slowly learning more about what games could be. ![]() I recall, initially, leaving my leader (canonically named Max) in the back and just letting the others get on with it as his attacks were weak and you’d lose the battle if he died.īut then I realised I could have my stronger characters weaken enemies so he could swoop in to finish them off and net the most XP, eventually become a stronger character. Compared to adventure games like Zelda, you weren’t particularly powerful but you could command your companions across different battle grids, taking your turns to surround the enemy and attack like a much fancier chessboard. Here’s a game where you begin as a humble swordsman who becomes a leader of an expanding force of warriors. Safe to say, though, after renting it from a local video store, it quickly left an impression on me. ![]() Hopefully it won't be long until Fire Emblem, once again, appears in a best games of the month list.īack when my knowledge of role-playing games was extremely limited and I was only playing because of the draw I felt to elves, centaur knights, and other fantasy tropes, Shining Force was essentially my introduction to the RPG genre – and to the idea of games being much longer form than the quick arcade thrills of Sonic or Streets of Rage that I was used to. Yep, that's right the same studio behind the Golden Sun series. However, for those of us in the West who fancied overhead wargaming in a fantasy setting, you could do worse than check out the just as good (and slightly more overlooked) Shining Force.ĭebuting on the Mega Drive/Genesis, the series was created by first-party studio Sonic! Software Planning (who is often credited as Team Sonic – not at all confusing for Sonic Team), a company which later split from Sega and rebranded as Camelot. Fire Emblem may well have been one of the first, and most famous, tactical RPGs, despite the fact there would be over a decade between the series Japanese and international releases.
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