The Wonder Years 8.13.08: Week 68 - Shining Force

Posted by Owain J. Brimfield on 08.14.2008

A game with a legacy of great intention.

Welcome to the column where all gamers of a certain age come to wallow in 16-bit nostalgia. I'm your host, Owain J. Brimfield, and I'll be discussing some of the hidden gems and instant classics of gaming's golden era. Some of these games may crop up in downloadable form at some point, some may be consigned to the annals of history. Either way, they're worth tracking down if you missed them first time round, or replaying if you were lucky enough to catch them. Let's take a trip to:

SHINING FORCE

(Sega, Genesis, 1993)

We're moving off our tangent over the past few weeks of taking in some of the lesser-known company mascot games (funny how they always seem to be platformers, but I guess that's the default template in the Generico-Mat ^TM machine that turns those things out) and turning our attention to a game that was originally subtitled The Legacy of Great Intention, which seems like it was pretty much setting itself up for undershooting people's expectations. Nonetheless, Shining Force went one to become one of the more influential turn-based RPGs of the 90s, and inspired several re-releases as well as something in the region of a dozen sequels. Developed in part by Sonic Software (not to be confused with the Sonic Team that worked on the spiky one's eponymous platformers, and oddly enough the company that went on to become Nintendo affiliate Camelot, fact fans), the game lies somewhere between the Fire Emblem and Tactics Ogre tentpoles, which can only be a good thing really.

As with any good RPG, the game kicks off with some guff of a plotline revolving around a silent protagonist (Max, in this case), sent on a mission to protect the land of Guardiana from the wants and desires of bad guy Darksol, who's intent on resurrecting a mythical beastie named the Dark Dragon, who with a name like that is probably going to cause untold destruction or something along those lines. Anyways, Max finds himself advancing in his quest and recruiting numerous allies, who come to call themselves the 'Shining Force', which is more than likely where the game gets its name from [I'm just guessing, though]. The game is told in a series of chapters (eight in all), which is a nice touch to break up the linear progression of the story from Max's beginnings to his army's eventual conquering (if you're good enough of course) of Darksol's kingdom of Runefaust, and also means that some areas can't be revisited, which would be a tad annoying if you want to level up were it not for a curious gameplay factor I'll touch on in a second.

Being a turn-based game, it's obvious that the battles are going to be the focus of Shining Force, and as it happens they do take up the majority of the game. Thankfully though, there's no randomization in place, with each fight actually contributing logically to the flow of the game. Everything is kept remarkably simple - your own party goes up against the enemy and each fighter can both move and perform one action (attack, cast spell, use item etc.) per turn, with the ultimate goal being the defeat either of the whole enemy party or simply its leader. However, the odd element here is the fact that Max's army has the option to escape, whereupon you can regroup and simply begin the battle again. This also plays into the game's experience system - EXP points are never lost. It all makes for a curious experience, pardon the pun, as not only is the game simple but its pretty easy.

However, with a potential party of up to twelve and around thirty different characters to control, each with their distinct identity and combat animations and the capacity for 'promotion' after reaching level 10 (the game only allows you to level up to 20), it may be straightforward but it's rarely dull. The game also draws in some steampunk elements later on in the story to enliven its otherwise rather non-radical fantasy setting, which makes for a nice change of pace. Graphically, the close-ups are designed rather neatly, with some swanky portraits for each ally character and some impressive battle screens, although the main map view is a tad cumbersome. It's also going to be hard to get the battle music out of your head, as although the game's soundtrack is generally decent, they somehow managed to pick the most average piece of music as the one that's going to be played the most. Irritating, but eventually you'll learn to tune it out as your dirty dozen takes on Darksol's hordes.

As mentioned previously, it's pretty darn easy to get hold of Shining Force these days - a revamped version was released on the Gameboy Advance in 2004 under the moniker Resurrection of the Dark Dragon, and the original is available for download on the Wii's Virtual Console. Given the abundance of Final Fantasy Tactics games seemingly doing the rounds these days, it's beneficial to take a trip back to the early days of the tactical RPG genre and see how Shining Force does things; you might find, in fact, that not a whole lot has changed since the game laid down the template (there's a reason it's the most successful among its peers). And while you're downloading/buying the game, spare a thought for me, as I'll be fixing my Marshall which gave out earlier this evening. Typical, as it prevents me from writing a satisfying denouement to this article. Ah well, lesson learned.

Shining Force trivia

• The game is a prequel to the somewhat mediocre first-person dungeoner Shining in the Darkness, and a more appalling name for a game I have not come across this month.
  
• There was a gap of almost 18 months between the title's Japanese release and its arrival on European shores, typical of many Eastern games in those days.
  
• Besides the VC and GBA releases, Shining Force has also been seen on the Dreamcast and the PC as part of the Sega Smash Pack.
  

The Videosphere

Let's take a look at this week's video highlight of Shining Force in action, in a nice compilation that does an especially good job of showing off the lovely font the game used, which I always found a lot easier to use than the small and chunky fonts of other RPGs. A minor point I suppose, but hey, I'm pedantic like that.




Reactions and interactions

A few comments on last week's look at Alfred Chicken, surprising given its obscurity:

Posted by: Rod Oracheski

"Kind of makes even the worst of today's game storylines look like Shakespeare."

It's certainly no Metal Gear Solid. Or even Super Monkey Ball.

Posted by: dra

"Well done on getting in the Ed the Duck and Gordon the Gopher reference."

I'm exceedingly glad someone caught that.

Posted by: JLAJRC

"I actually do remember Aero. Never played the game, but I remember him being advertised a lot in game magazines and comic books.

I don't remember Alfred Chicken at all, though."

Poor Alfred. It looks as though he hasn't been as fondly remembered by the gaming community as he'd have wished. The value, kids, of creating a memorable company mascot rather than simply anthropomorphising the first animal that comes to mind.


General indulgences

Every week in this section I'll endeavor to provide you, the faithful readers, with a fascinating insight into the various forms of entertainment currently dominating my spare time.

This week, I have been mostly enjoying:

Stuntman: Ignition on the 360, which I'm only playing because my nephew wants me to sell his copy on eBay and I needed some bumf to write. I might end up just copying the spiel from Amazon, though.

Commando, the old Arnie flick which I fiiiinally got round to buying this weekend. Probably the best source of Ahnuld one-liners outside of The Running Man, and with boggle-eyed Aussie Vernon Wells as the bad guy to boot. Classic.

There's Hope by Marco Sfogli; not a great album but he's a super-talented guitarist and deserves more exposure than he currently gets.

and Sky Multi-room which we finally got installed today, and now means my girlfriend can spend hours in our room watching shit like Rikki Lake instead of watching it downstairs. I really need to start pulling on the pants in this relationship.


And finally…

Thanks for reading folks; as always, reader feedback and suggestions are welcome. Next week I'm off on a business trip to our nation's great capital, so I'll be absent next Thursday but back the following week. Until then - keep it real, keep it retro.