Shining Force series

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Shining Force is a series of fantasy console games developed by Sega.

Contents

[edit] The Strategy Titles

In the strategy games of the series (Shining Force, Shining Force Gaiden, Shining Force Gaiden 2, Shining Force II, Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict, Shining Force CD (a remake of Shining Force Gaiden and Shining Force Gaiden II with more features and extra battles) and Shining Force III), the player generally takes charge of a hero, very often a mute one, who ultimately has a goal of defeating the evil that is plaguing the earth at the time. Along the way the hero meets many characters that "Join the Shining Force" (The name of the hero's army), however the games limit the number of characters who can enter any one battle at a time, therefore causing the player to decide which characters fight, and which do not. The number of forces allowed into battle is usually 12.

While the flagship games of the series may be strategy RPG's, they are very different from many other games that share the genre. First of all, the player is only in control of unique troops, there are no generic footmen, archers, or cavalry. This is a trait also indicative of the Fire Emblem series. Because of this, the player is generally in control of a much smaller number of characters, often twelve, rather than sometimes over a hundred in some games such as Langrisser. There is also no such thing as character creation as there is for some other games such as Nippon Ichi titles like Disgaea and La Pucelle Tactics, or the more popular Final Fantasy Tactics.

[edit] The Dungeon Crawler Titles

For the dungeon crawler titles of the series (Shining in the Darkness and Shining the Holy Ark), the player takes control of a much smaller team. Battles work very similarly to those of Dragon Quest, Mother, and the fellow Sega RPG series Phantasy Star, in that they are first person and the player is placed in a position where the hero and team mates would be. Shining in the Darkness is the first game in the Shining series, as it is sometimes called, and is a very simple labyrinth exploration game, with a simplified non explorable town and world map, where choices are made through the use of a cursor system. The much later game, Shining the Holy Ark for the Sega Saturn, was released immediately prior to Shining Force III, and while it is also a dungeon crawler, it features far expanded exploribility over the first title of the series.

[edit] The "Action RPG" Titles

The third broad category of Shining games is the "action RPG" set of titles. This incoporates: Shining Wisdom, Shining Soul, Shining Soul II, Shining Force Neo and Shining Tears. Aside from Sega Saturn's Shining Wisdom, the trend of action RPG's has been a recent development, with four out of the five most recent Shining titles fitting into the genre, and the fifth being a remake of Shining Force. Some argue these to be the weakest titles in the series, and those with the least in common with the original games. Many fans and fan sites, largely Shining Force Central, have openly expressed disappointment in how long it has been since a strategy based Shining game has been released, and with the newest PS2 title Shining Wind on its way, there is some doubt if the strategy element will be incorporated again.

[edit] Dispute Over Canon

Many of the fans of the series consider that the most "pure" incarnations are the strategy games, if only for the reason that they are the games that drew most fans to the series. Despite Shining in the Darkness being the first arguable game in the series, many fans would contest that it starts with Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention. As the series has progressed, debatably beyond Shining Force III, it has been met with disappointment from both fans and press alike, with very limited critical and financial success. Because of the questionable quality of these games, they are often not thought of as canon by many fans, and in addition are not considered part of the Shining series at all, limiting it to the strategy incarnations.

Most of the strategy incarnations of the game are related in some ways. Oftentimes they reference each other (frequently during discussion about the Greater Devils), or characters are carried over. Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict, and Shining Force II are arguably two of the most related games, having both characters and locations strongly in common, such as the character Hawel, a playable mage in Final Conflict, and Kazin's mentor in Shining Force II. On the same note, Final Conflict is also strongly related to the first Shining Force game, both sharing the character Max. Final Conflict is very largly viewed as a sort of missing link between Shining Force and Shining Force II. The final non-remake strategy game released, Shining Force III, can also be connected through a prominent character in Shining Force, Princess (and later Queen) Anri, who is also a cross over in Shining Force Gaiden. The most notable connections between the strategy and non-strategy incarnations can be found between Shining Wisdom and Shining Force II and between Shining the Holy Ark and Shining Force III. In Shining Wisdom, the elf-cleric Sarah and elf-mage Kazim make an important appearance doing a supporting role in the story and connecting it with Shinning Force II. In Shining the Holy Ark, one of the main characters of Shining Force III, Julian, is just a child, whose father is killed by Galm. This serves as a segue into his motivation for becoming a Mercenary, leaving Enrich, and joining the main group in Shining Force III Scenario 1, which would, through a series of dramatic events lead to him being one of the focal characters in Scenario 3.

[edit] The Games

This is a full list of Shining games, ignoring disputes over canon.

A comic strip loosely based on the series was featured in Sonic the Comic.

Sega has hinted that there may be more Shining titles in development right now.

[edit] External links

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Shining Force video games
Shining Force • II • Gaiden • CD • III • Neo • EXA
Shining in the Darkness • Shining Wisdom • Shining the Holy Ark • Shining Tears • Shining Soul • Shining Soul II
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