Shining the Holy Ark (Saturn) Playthrough [1 of 2]
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ม.ค. 2025
- A playthrough of Sega's 1997 role-playing game for the Sega Saturn, Shining the Holy Ark.
This video is part one of a two-part playthrough, showing from the beginning through the battle with Rilix. You can find part two at • Shining the Holy Ark (...
Shining in the Darkness, a first-person RPG for the Sega Genesis, kicked off the Shining series back in 1991. It was fairly popular, but after striking gold with Shining Force, five years would pass before Camelot (then known as Sonic Software Planning) would return to the Shining OG's design blueprint with Shining the Holy Ark.
Shining the Holy Ark starts off quite unlike any other RPG I've ever played. A group of mercenaries have followed a renegade ninja deep into a mine, and just as they're catching up with him, an alien spacecraft crashes through the ceiling. Everyone is critically injured in the accident and the aliens take possession of their bodies to heal them, but since this is an RPG, evil is afoot and these events end up setting in motion the wheels of fate.
Such a bizarre premise. I love it.
Since it's a dungeon crawler, the story rarely takes center stage, but the plot does a great job at driving the game forward at a pitch-perfect pace - a massive improvement over Shining in the Darkness's. In fact, Shining the Holy Ark improves on its predecessor in pretty much every way imaginable.
Instead of Darkness's single town and dungeon, Holy Ark's adventure spans an entire continent filled with several unique areas to explore and NPCs to chat with.
The battles come fast and often, but they move quickly and are balanced in that, so long as you're thorough in your exploration, grinding for levels isn't necessary most of the time. It'll certainly ease a few of the harder battles, but if you aren't running from fights, there won't be any ridiculous difficulty spikes that'll stop you cold in your tracks.
You'll eventually end up with eight people in your party, and you can swap them out mid-fight without penalty. This means that you always have access to everyone's abilities. I generally find that Arthur, Melody, Basso, and Doyle make for a well-rounded enough of a party to make swapping unnecessary, but it is a really handy option if you like to experiment or if you find yourself taking a nasty beating.
There are faeries hidden throughout the world that remind me of the djinn in Golden Sun. Any that you've recruited can be summoned at the beginning of a battle for an initial strike. The advantages they provide make them well worth searching for.
Something else that reminds me of Golden Sun (and the GBA Mario sports games) is the fantastic presentation. The framerate struggles a bit in the last couple of dungeons, but the prerendered CGI sprites are well animated and memorably designed, and it's always fun to see which creepy enemy is going to appear next. The music is classic Motoi Sakuraba throughout, and the sound effects are punchy and clear.
Shining the Holy Ark is an excellent RPG, and it's friendlier and more accessible than just about any other first-person dungeon crawler that I've played without being a total push-over. Tile-based dungeon crawlers were pretty old-fashioned by the late 90s, but this one really nailed it. If not for Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining the Holy Ark would be my favorite RPG on the Sega Saturn.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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![Shining the Holy Ark (Saturn) Playthrough [2 of 2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/JwKTVLuy-yc/mqdefault.jpg)
![Shining the Holy Ark (Saturn) Playthrough [2 of 2]](/img/tr.png)
This game was so ahead of its time. I'm honestly shocked by how well it has aged!
I only played platformers before this game came out. Sega Saturn Magazine released a guide for this game every month including maps and I saved up every penny for it.
I was 12 when it was released. I'm 40 now. I still think this game is brilliant!
Bro! TH-cam algorithm deserves a lot of credit. I've been watching video about my old consoles, NED, Saturn and Dreamcast and this popped up. The name was familiar and as soon as i pressed played i was overwhelmed by a wave of pleasant memories. This game has been given to me by a good friend of mine that i haven't seen for over 10 years for my 18th birthday. I played this a lot and it really was one of the best games i ever had. Why i had completely forgotten about it is something i can't really explain. Now the not so fun part: I never got to finish the game. I now remember getting stuck on a tower thing that needed some sort of code to unlock. I had to find the proper order of some stuff or something. I got stuck in it for MONTHS. Friends came over and all and we never got to get over this. Not many people had consoles around at the time and i never played the game again once i quit. I am sure i will now find out and realize how stupid i was. Thank you for the memories. This game was brilliant. I might even try to get a hold on my friend to see whats up with him. Thanks for the memories that took me back a couple of decades.
This right here is one of the best games Camelot ever made.
Damn! Camelot… that’s so interesting. Love Mario golf and Tennis, plus golden sun is apparently amazing.. that’s fascinating
I really enjoyed it on the Saturn and finished it 2 times since then. The Shining Force III trilogy is the apex of the Shining series.
STHA has a few issues that brings it down a bit, encounter rate is a bit exaggerated and monsters share the same grunts across the bestiary, the sounds are annoying and gets old really fast.
With that, the game has a unique atmosphere and I like its art direction and soundtrack as well.
So Sonic Software Planning is Camelot? 😅
Disagreed
@@jonnyblanka it's actually Camelot that made The Holy Ark and Shining Force III, Camelot alone made those games, they often don't get credited in SEGA games
One of my favorite RPGs of all time! The level design in this game was just fantastic. The pixie system was fun and kept you on your toes during dungeon exploration. Still to this day, I've never seen a dungeon crawler like it. It's also got that Camelot warmth that is dearly missed. 😊
Yeah, I totally agree with you. There's so much personality inherent in just about every aspect and it plays so well.
Camelot thankfully haven't thrown in the towel, they seem to be stuck making Mario sports games (I can't complain because I friggin' _loved_ Mario Tennis 64). At least they're not dead! Still wondering if they'll ever bring that _Golden Sun DS_ game West for the Switch, though. Never got to buy it back when it was released back around 2010 and I think that's the last we've seen for releases in that series.
1:35:34 - Wow! Very few Saturn did transparency, but this game did! Awesome to see! This game's town graphics are really charming and colorful too! I love it!
I’ve been looking for this game for forever! I was starting to think I dreamt it. I was looking everywhere on top 100 lists of different consoles but missed the Sega Saturn. I remember playing this at my friend’s house decades ago when I was probably around 10 and could only vaguely remember the characters and opening scenes. Finally found it.
So much nostalgia with this gem of a game. Appreciate y'all uploading this awesome find for viewers to enjoy too!
Pretty impressed with this title. At the time, Sega was not known for its rpgs on its systems. They were there, but didnt get much coverage because they were primarily known for being all about the sports titles.
Unfortunately the Saturn got its breaks beaten off when the PS1 dropped.
Thank you for posting content like this, making people like me more aware of what i missed when i was younger, and feeding into my retro collecting addiction lol.
Check Shining Force as well. There is Shining Force I and II for Genesis and Shining Force III for Saturn, although only the 1 Part of III got released outside Japan
The dungeon design is magnificent and full of surprises. I cannot recommend this game enough.
I love the 2 frame menu animations in this game. It's so retro, so sega, so JRPG. Perfection.
Woah!!! I had no idea that Shining in the Darkness had a direct sequel!
That was always one of my favorite Sega Genesis games... I may have to check this one out!
Not so much a sequel as a followup to the gameplay styling. :)
its like you just uncovered an unreleased golden sun prototype and its glorious
I mean, you should take a look at Shining Force 3.
@@blackdragoncyrusYes. SF3 is a great game, but StHK and GS have more in common with each other. SF3 is a completely different type of game, being tactical rpg.
8:20 - Rodi
1:34:18 - Wraith
7:30:29 - Tail Viper
7:40:20 - Tail Viper 2
7:54:36 - Tail Viper 3
7:56:10 - Head Viper
9:30:20 - Witch
10:06:13 - Evil Spirits
10:12:11 - Rilix + Evil Spirits
Awesome, thanks!
This is one of my favorite games. I loved this so much ib my teenage years.
I love the graphics and the game style it was very unique and it’s own way in the 1990s
Wow how did I miss that this was posted 2 months ago. Anyway one of the best games on the saturn for sure and a great follow up to shining in the darkness on the genesis/Mega drive. Time to watch part 2. Hope to see more shining force games played on this channel in the future.
Never heard of this game. But it reminds me a lot of Golden Sun, which was amazing.
This and Shining Force III were all made by the same developer of Golden Sun
This game deserves recognition for being quite influential…I’ll bet it inspired many devs working today.
The music composer of this game also did the soundtrack for the Dark Souls trilogy. He is amazing!
I really recomend listening to his Valkyrie Profile, Star Ocean or Golden Sun OSTs. They are really diverse in music style and amazing
Motoi Sakuraba
42:35-- "KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!"... Sorry, I couldn't resist.
I find it very cool how pretty much everything, including the battles, are in Arthur's POV
The presentation and musical score remind me so much of Golden Sun, a game that I absolutely cherished in its heyday. Wonder how it would’ve fared had it been developed for a home console? Probably something like this.
I came here to watch this video because I was just watching a review of Golden Sun and said, this reminds of me of Shining Holy Ark.
One of my best childhood video games. Maybe not the most original but the music was so beautiful !
What a banger soundtrack
Thinking of giving this a try. I got burnt out playing the first 2 parts of SF3 and need to recover before starting part 3.
I was coasting on this game, even getting hidden pixies, until that dam floating wheel chair hag Rilix fight. Hit an impasse there, that was years ago and I think my Sega Saturn RAM battery drained and lost my save and Albert Odyssey I was over half game into ughhh(I converted 4M into PsuedoSaturn while back so lost external memory, just recently bought another to keep as memory backup).
Motoi Sakuraba soundtracks are so good, you can hear it's him despite playing this for the first time.
He got this distinct style to it. This Golden Sun-ish flavour you know.
I have to say this is probably my favorite rpg on the Sega Saturn. The rotating floor area on the one shrine later in the game took me forever to finally get past. Fortunately I bought most of my Saturn games when they first came out at retail before they were at the high prices some of them are at now.
After this Saturn rpg some of my other favorites on the system are: Shining Force 3, Albert Odyssey and Magic Knight Rayearth.
A few of the other Saturn rpg's I have but don't care for as much are: Dragon Force, Panzer Dragoon Saga, and Legend of Oasis (I actually liked Beyond Oasis on the Genesis more than the Saturn sequel).
This was a really good game for the times
Played it back in 1997 on my Saturn. 26 years later the game's battle theme composed by Motoi Sakuraba is still my ringtone.
the graphics are perfect
Playing through this right now. I've played the first 23% a few times but I'm about 50% done now. Such a beast of a game, it's so damn unique in its style, total gem.
I'm obsessed with Camelot's low poly style for this game and for Golden Sun. I wish I could find the rips for these models T_T
I'm no expert, but it almost looks like these are rendered models that were then stretched or pixilated to lose the shiny/ out of place aesthetic that rendered models often had at the time.
I grew up with the 8 bit and 16 bit Shining Force games. My cousin had a Sega Saturn but we never played this game, it kind of reminds me of FromSoftware's "King's Field" games on PS1 except it's got classic turn-based battles.
Hard to believe this game is only 149MB in .chd format!
Top 10 rpg of all time.
Man... so much nostalgia here...hey, can you do a Dragon Force playthrough? Nice gameplay!
I tried playing this game a couple months ago since I loved the shining force series and i managed to trudge through shining in the darkness. There are many improvements to the first shining in the darkness but i had to stop because it's such a slog sometimes. I dropped it around the Rilix and the evil spirits fight, It's such a ridiculous difficulty spike.
Waiting for part 2!
Perfect game. TO bad no such games are made anymore.
Unbelievable video.
Damn, just when i was settling in to watch dragon quest 7.
Guess itll have to wait!🙂
Are you actually recording from a Saturn or are you using an emulator?
I have been trying to play it with SSF but the performance is lacking. It slows and sounds a bit wwrong
It's emulated through Mednafen.
Arthur: Wait a minute... then who is that?!
1:53
Akane: That's Riju they were nearby come from the gerudo at tears of the kingdom.
17:52
Rodi: that's lighting the sage. She is the legend!
- Arthur, Shining and tears of the kingdom meets riju lighting the sage.
Very tough game, I had to grind out levels in each dungeon until the enemies became trivial and buy up all the best gear to stand any chance against the bosses. The difficulty spikes at certain points are insane. Never got the hang of pixies either which didn't help. Recommend following a guide if playing now as unless you stop and check every tile in every direction you will never get all the pixies or treasure.
Damn this game is fcking dope as hell!
A lot of presentation. I wonder how this game would look on a vr headset.
wow its almost same golden sun game series?🧐
You can definitely see the groundwork for Golden Sun being laid here, huh?
A 10 hours video is just part 1?! How long is this game?
It took me just shy of 20 hours to finish.
JRPGs are always pretty long
20 hours on an old school rpg is about average if you know all the ins and outs along with decent pacing so youre not constantly level grinding.
Sega really needs to publish a Sega Collection with their Saturn releases and some QoL changes. But I fear they lost most of the codes of those games.
Never got to play this, a remake or remaster would be nice if not a port to modern consoles
Esta muy el juego necesita un remake los combates,personaje, enemigos y aliados
Yo creo ninja hombre lobo está enamorado con Melody
Man...I wish the Saturn wasn't such a pain to emulate. 😅
It isn't at all and hasn't been for years! Try using an emulator called mednafen.
HOLY SHIT GOLDEN SUN on Sega?! 😂
Golden sun❤
mercenaries. SHINING FORCE2
Golden Sun
SO...DARK HERESY. FOR ALL!..RPG
nice Nintendo
Sega does nothing with these IPs, we could literally remake this with slightly different character models down to the story and they wouldn't care
There’s a logo dedicated to sonic himself?! Is this game itself takes place in one of the sonic multiverse zones?! 😂
Maybe not Sonic, but it is part of the same universe that Shining Force 3 takes place in.
Wow "Golden Sun" was clearly heavily inspired by this game that's utterly disgusting!. Shame on you Nintendo.
The same company that made this also made Golden Sun.
@@NintendoComplete Oh ok