Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict
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| Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict | |
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| Developer(s) |  Camelot Software Planning |
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| Genre(s) | Tactical role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | Game Gear |
| Media | cartridge |
Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict, also known as Shining Force Gaiden III, is a 1995 tactical role-playing game for the Sega Game Gear console, and is both a sequel to the original Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention, and a prequel to Shining Force II: Ancient Sealing. It was released after both games, with the intention of connecting their plots. Despite its name, it is not story-related to Shining Force Gaiden (1992) or Shining Force Gaiden 2 (1994), also released for Game Gear.
Unlike its antecessors, the game was never released outside Japan. English patches have been created by fans for players who cannot speak Japanese.
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[edit] Gameplay
Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict gameplay is similar to its antecessors, and is considered to be relatively simple compared to other tactical RPGs. Battles take place in square grids, and each unit occupies 1 square. Units can belong to one of 2 sides: allies (controlled by the player) or enemies (controlled by the computer AI).
The gameplay is turn-based; each unit can both move and perform one action (attack, use a spell, use an item) on its turn. Some commands such as equipping or dropping items don't count as actions. The order of the turns is determined by the unit's agility score. Units can use offensive actions (such as attacking or using a BLAZE spell) only on units belonging to other side, and they can use support actions (such as using a HEAL spell or a medical herb item) only on units beloging to the same side.
Like most video game RPGs, units can become stronger by fighting enemies and performing some actions. Those give the units experience points (EXP.), which allow them to gain levels. Unlike some other strategy RPGs such as Tactics Ogre or Final Fantasy Tactics, on Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict only ally units can gain experience points.
In Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict, each ally unit is represented by a character with its own background and personality, much like the Fire Emblem series. There are no "generic" units, except on the enemy side. Like what happens on most RPGs with a large cast of characters, however, many of these characters are poorly developed and give little or no contribution to the plot.
Each ally unit also have a class, which defines a set of abilities for that unit. Once a unit reaches level 10, it can advance to another class, called "promotion". A unit can be promoted at any level between 10 or 20; the longer you wait to promote a unit, the stronger it will be after being promoted. Some characters don't have promotions, so they may be considered pre-promoted. These units tend to be significantly weaker than those promoted at level 20.
Battle goals for the player (ally side) are fairly simple: either kill all enemies, or kill the enemies' leader. The enemy side wins when they manage to kill your leader, Ian, or when you choose to escape the battle. Even if you escape or have your leader killed, however, you can recover your allies and fight the same enemy again. Since you always carry the EXP. and money gained, regardless of the battle outcome, the game is considerably easier than most strategy RPGs, since there is no Game Over, and most of time, your army gets stronger even if your side is defeated.
Unlike other games from the series, Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict doesn't possess an exploration mode besides the regular battle mode. Between battles, you are only able to perform a few actions, such as buy/sell things or set your battle party.
[edit] Story
The world of Shining Force is a Medieval fantasy scenario populated by humans, centaurs, dwarves, birdmen, and many other races. Gods and devils walk among mortals.
The story begins with Max, the leader of the Shining Force from the first Shining Force game (it is speculated that he had access to a means of unnatural long life, bridging his existence in his first appearance to this game), chasing the witch Mishaela (servant of the presumably dead villain Darksol, from the same game). One of Max's companions, the robot Adam, is injured during the chase; Max's party then stops to help the robot, and only Max and his companion Ridion continue the chase.
Unfortunately, Max and Ridion never came back from the chase. To find him, Adam gathers a new Shining Force, naming as leader a boy named Ian. Ian and his companions start their journey, and the unexpected awaits them...
[edit] Characters
The following is a list of the more significant characters in the game.
Ian: The main character of the game, he is a stereotype Shining Force leader in every sense - he is a male human wielding a sword, he doesn't say anything (even being technically the "leader" of your party), and he can use the BOLT and EGRESS spells.
Max: The former leader of the Shining Force. A great hero who once fought and defeated the evil wizard Darksol and his awakened monster, Dark Dragon. After Darksol's demise, he formed a new party and continued to fight evil, now following the track of Darksol's former servant, Mishaela. He disappeared when chasing Mishaela, and the first goal of the new Shining Force is to find him. Since he is also a Shining Force leader, his abilities are similar to Ian's.
Adam: A robot who came from the past to serve and fight alongside Max. He was badly injured when Max's group fought Mishaela's group on Parmecia, and became unable to fight. However, he is important as an advisor do Ian (note that Shining Force leaders always have an advisor - Max had Nova, Bowie had Sir Astral, and so on).
King Galam: The righteous King Galam rules the kingdom with the same name. He gives Ian the legendary sword wielded by Max to fight evil, the Chaos Breaker. In honour of Ian's victory, he later renames the sword as "Force Sword", which is wielded by Bowie on Shining Force II.
Mishaela: The evil witch Mishaela, former servant of Darksol, was defeated by the Shining Force on the first Shining Force game, but she mysteriously returned. Her plans are still unknown, but it's certain that she is involved in the disappearance of Max. She a is cunning, malicious and arrogant woman, with formidable magical ability.
Odd Eye: A blind warrior in the service of a devil named Zeon (from Shining Force II). Zeon was a great enemy of Darksol, so Odd Eye joins the Shining Force for a while to help them to defeat Mishaela. He wields a sword and possesses an attack called Odd Eye Beam, shooting rays by opening his blind eyes.
[edit] Characters' families
Some characters from Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict have blood relationship with characters from this game and other games from the series:
SF1 - Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention
SF2 - Shining Force II: Ancient Sealing
Mephisto is Darksol's (SF1) son.
Ian is Kane's (SF1) son (thus Max's nephew), and possibly Bowie's (SF2) father.
Eric is Elliot's (SF1) son.
Hawel is Chaz's (SF2) father and Kazin's (SF2) teacher.
