Shining Force series, and especially SF2, is the perfect distillation of JRPG and Strategy. The combat isn't overwhelming but still challenging and rewarding. Fun story, great characters, big world. The thing that always set SF from other SRPGs is the exploration. I LOVE walking around towns and world maps, finding secrets and getting a break from combat and menus. It makes the world feel ALIVE, unlike nearly every other SRPG, where you just go from board to board. This is a year old vid, so maybe you have already, but if not, play all 3 scenarios of SF3. While it is strictly linear like SF1, the entire saga is massive, w/ epic battles and a lot of political intrigue, secrets. No spoilers except the final battle includes all 3 of your parties from each game. And players eventually get 2 promotions, not just 1. The fan English translation is better than anything Sega would've done and Saturn emulation is excellent nowadays. Do it!
@@radicaldreamersteve5743I’d really love to play other tactical rpg’s, as I’m not very familiar with the genre, but everyone keeps telling me SF2 is the best one, so I guess I’m f’ed! 😂
The best game ever made and it will one day be the greatest cinematic universe ever. Gerhalt. Zynk. Chester. Jaha. Etc all with their own standalone movies
hahahaha this made me laugh. I would love to see a SF movie focused on the bird men though. That would be awesome. For me personally, I feel like SF makes for the better game, Phantasy Star would probably make for the better movie.
That power leveling in the fairy woods is a job in itself with all the protect rings you collect. It took me almost a week to get to max level of 40 sheesh, but good thing I had the characters to boost the team. Slade became my favorite equipped him with one of the best swords in the game.
The Saturn trilogy is the best game in the series bearing Shining in it, by a mile. I remember playing SF2 a lot in a friends Pentium III PC a lot too, and the first one I mostly played its remake in a GBA emulator in the mid 00's.
August 7, 2022, I am playing this game right now as we speak. I've been playing this game for 25 years. Current game, I'm back at Grans, just beat Odd Eye! Main guy is level 32, but my A team is mid-20s so I'll probably have to do the Tower a few times.
I'm down to Zeon, main guy is level 45, rest of the A Team is level 32- 34, so I'm no longer getting more than 1 point for any of them. I will probably run everyone up another 3 levels before I finish Zeon off. I believe in overkill! My idea of warfare is using 1000 Armored Divisions against a tribe of 50 pygmies Spears.
Happy to hear someone say that SF2 his the best trpg ever :). Generaly ppl ever speak about FFta/Bahamut Laggon (Square fan's) or Fire Emblem (Nintendo fan's) for the poor soul than don't know about Sega's game, while other tend to speak about SF1/3. Even if i really like SF1/3, those 2 game are too much serious/dark for me. And has you said in the vid, in addition to his good story and chara, SF2 have a lot of good point technically and artistically (game play, sound, graphic,...), making him my fav trpg (and mayby my fav game). About a new SF game... have you heard about Shining Force : Heroes of Light and Darkness ? There's pros and cons, but the trailer hipped me a little (something that didn't happen for year's). Yoh, "Karna ? Slade ? The unamed kentaurus princess ? ... Too much chara to decide my fav one."
Yohann, glad you love the game! While I absolutely love FFTA and Fire Emblem, I always thought Shining Force was just more accessible and fun to pick up and play. FFTA has a lot of grinding and FE always has a mediocre story, Shining Force sits somewhere in the middle. I actually love SF3's story, but I can see why some people would find it too front and center for an SF game, and it was definitely more serious. I did hear about the new mobile game. I will probably give it a try, but I would love to see Sega feel confident enough to make something for consoles. Karna is definitely OP with the aura spell, and Slade has always been one of my favorites. As you said, too many great characters. Cheers!
I'm doing a playthrough with Kiwi and Skreech just for kicks and giggles. Kiwi's really not too terrible if you protect him from casters or only go after casters for the killing blow, and Skreech, well, he's maybe on par with Luke, maybe a hair below him in stats, but I've never disliked Luke like most people do. I'm currently on the battle right before the prism flowers and Kiwi's up to 34 HP, he's getting there!
It's still a great game I come back and play every one or two years. It was designed in such a way to really push the bright spriteful colours and animations of the system. At the same time the developers had a way to really create moods in the game through the chip and midi music or sounds of the mega-drive that impressed me what it could do over the SNES. Call it nostalgia or damn good game design, this game just hits so many of the right notes even today. With the mega-drive mini 2 on the horizon hopefully more people can appreciate Shining Force CD when it comes out too.
Search all the mountains if your patient (for those who dont know this)..... You may be surprised on what all you find out there. There is roughly one thing to find, on every outdoor section. Sometimes more, and you will be glad you did near end game. Yes. Even after leaving the very first town. Its a litte tedious, but worth it. Behind certain buildings, cracks in the floor, and odd spots as well.
heh heh, the thing about shining force games is that you get level up boost very randomly so you can choose the best level up if you have the patience, that's how I made the weak and low hp characters to have a decent amount of hp and in the main character case a decent amount of mp, so Kiwi is not so vulnerable not even the centaur girl May that she is a competent archer but her low hp makes her very vulnerable but as I say, getting the right level up fixes that, but you may find frustrating how many tries you need to get the right level up boost.
I have so much nostalgia for that game that I once seriously considered doing a fan remake of it. In fact, on my channel, I have videos of towns I created years ago.
Thanks for the kind words! Just an FYI, more videos are coming! I've totally changed careers, and I've moved back to the U.S., so please be patient, but rest assured more are on the way!
This game, as with all shining games, is dear to my heart. I loved the big open world, the multiple promotion choices, the case of villain demons that you eventually caught up with. The story arc with Oddeye is also something that doesn't get it's full due. I legit felt bad when we had to kill him. My one disappointment with the game was the music. It's good, and I think it works for this game, but it always seemed to feel muted/lacked the oomph and as such wasn't as memorable to me as the soundtrack of SF1 and Shining in the Darkness.
My favorite is Shining force 3 (All scenarios and bonus disk)....For the longest time, I had NO IDEA what was said in parts 2 and 3, as I had the import and I STILL played the whole thing through at least 4 times..... But when I finally played the fan translation, I have to say its got to be one of the best SRPGs ever made on ANY console in its entirety. Why the hell developers, in this "age of nostalgia and remakes" hasnt remade these masterpieces (Shining force all parts/And even shining in the Darkness and Shining the Holy Ark) with modern graphics, EVEN if all they did was that-fixed the dated graphics and left the rest in its original state, it would be a huge seller and an instant classic. But for whatever reason, they keep popping out these garbage "action" shining games. What a waste......
Glad you enjoyed it! I started this file before I ever planned on recording footage and do not like silent protagonists. I beat SF1 using that crass name and carried it over.
Shining Force 2 I agree - def better than the first. Peter would have been so much cooler though if he could cast magic spells. It would also make him more unique since he would be the only flying character with magic like Domingo in the first game (who also makes an appearance in Shining Force CD) Maybe that would make him too overpowered but they could fix that easily by lowering his normal attack power.
As great as Shining Force 2 was at the time, Growlanser eventually took what it did and did it even better(Growlanser 1, 3 and 4 have fully explorable worlds plus heavy political plots and even full blown dating sim elements that actually influence the ending and the battles throughout the game). Growlanser completely perfected the blending of RPG and SRPG and the real time strategy combat is more fun than the more basic turn based strategy combat with very limited options. Without Shining Force I don’t think Growlanser would have existed though.
@@westonmeyer3110 Thanks for the input. I really need to try Growlanser, and Growlanser Generations on PS2 (first two games?) is on my list of games to try. I will only slightly push back and say that the charm of Shining Force for me is, in part, the simplicity. Shining Force 2 is just so pick up and play compared to many games in the genre, even with the exploration elements added. Shining Force 3 has a much deeper story that is also more political in nature, though the ending cannot be altered as far as I know. Maybe this is just nostalgia talking for me, but Shining Force 2 always feels cozy to play, and I do feel like the simplicity could be seen as a strength or a weakness.
@@radicaldreamersteve5743 Growlanser Generations is actually Growlanser 2 and 3. Unfortunately Growlanser 1 was never localized despite being arguably the best one in the series. Growlanser 4 is great though and it was finally localized for the PSP. Edit: I also didn’t mean to belittle Shining Force. I definitely understand the appeal of simplicity as my favorite game series is Dragon Quest. Personally though I need a little bit more as far as gameplay goes for my SRPGs. It’s fine for Dragon Quest to have basic attack and defense commands because battles go by quickly but when you are fighting 20 minute battles on a grid it gets really stale to have units with no differential abilities, and basically just a couple different ways to use the “attack” command for every single “class”. It was great that Shining Soul showed that SRPGs don’t have to be just anime chess but the gameplay in the battles clearly suffered because the creator didn’t like SRPGs and the limited town exploration even in Shining Soul 2 doesn’t make up for it imo.
If there are any indie developers runnbing around reading these comments, I'd be interested in a game that would mash up elements of this game and Dragon Age: Origins.
@@midniteghost89 for sure. It was one of the earlier videos, and I don't typically make super long videos, though I do have one longer series planned. I hope I at least spoke accurately about the game and encouraged people to try it, or maybe even replay it. One of my favorite Genesis games.
I'd say I mostly agree. Shining Force was awesome. I was a SNES owner and I had a friend with a Genesis... while I preferred the SNES on most issues, I do agree that Shining Force gave the players an experience that you just couldn't find on the SNES. They were both great, but the second one was even better. Many strategy games felt a lot more confined like you were being rushed from one battle to the next, but Shining Force felt both like a complete JRPG and a strategy RPG at the same time. Golden Sun games were also excellent, but I've got to admit that the Shining Series seem to have lost their way. I saw Shining Resonance on sale a while back, and I have no interest in that. Somewhere along the way they became increasingly girly games (in my opinion) and the female characters seem oversexualized. I love to play RPG games with my daughters, but I can't bring myself to play a game like that around them... or around anyone else for that matter. Bring me back some Shining Force. Get back to what made the series great... and less of what made it irrelevant.
@@TVans-vs3gn Yup. I have already played several of the older Final Fantasy games with them. I haven't played 9 with them yet but would like to do so. We have played Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross and they loved them. Also Suikoden 1. I don't have Suikoden 2, but I might pick up the remasters on the Nintendo Switch that are coming out soon.
@@Jeremyb2023 That's awesome! Suikoden 1 was great but Suikoden 2 was just on another level for me. Might even be ths greatest RPG of all time. Will pick up the remasters as well for sure!
@@TVans-vs3gn I played Suikoden once a LONG time ago. I remember it being much better than the first as well... one of the best of all time... Too bad it became so expensive! Hopefully the remasters won't be too expensive.
I played and am almost finished with this game for the first time ever in 2023 and I take issue with the idea that this game is "very accessible" , "easy to pick up" . This might be nostalgia and familiarity talking . The game is actually very , very opaque , especially coming from Fire Emblem games . Nothing is explained at all . There's no explanation about what items do , or how to promote characters , what classes do , or even what spells do , or changing weapons mid-battle , etc . There is also no way to know how much damage your characters will do (even ball park , will it be 35 or 7 , who knows ?) , no idea which person will go next , etc . There doesn't seem to be any concept of the Fire Emblem "weapon triangle" , so it's unclear what advantages any one character has over another other than raw stats . And worst of all , the story "puzzles" are totally random . One such puzzle is that you have to talk to an NPC twice in succession in order to progress the story , when no other NPC in the game ever has multiple lines of dialog . Another such puzzle is the woods where you finish a battle in the woods , then explore and find nothing , but then have to exit the woods and re-enter then to trigger a character showing up there . This might not be so bad , however NPCs never clue you as to what you should be doing next or even where to look , and you cannot replay old dialog which explains what the current objective is . And since you can go anywhere in the world freely , there are multiple opportunities to get totally lost back-tracking through the world when the game requires you to do a specific non-intuitive thing that breaks all of the conventions so far . On the positive side , I like what it was trying to do , and the story is great ! I imagine that future playthroughs will be much better since once you know , you know , but I would caution against advertising this as "accessible" or "easy to pick up" as it requires out of game materials , such as item / character guides (and perhaps even a walkthrough) at minimum , and is missing some crucial battlefield information with witch to strategize engagements like other tatical RPGs .
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I am on my phone so sorry if there are typos. I think the word "accessible" is a little vague and might depend on what aspects of the game we are talking about. Shining Force 2 has battles they are quite easy to understand and there is very little penalty for dying, meaning that you can never truly be stuck on a battle since you will eventually level up enough to beat it. I assume you have likely played other FE games, and therefore understand the others a little easier. However, FE games have permadeath, which can be frustrating to new SRPG players, though I agree the mechanics are simple enough. I do like your point on battle order in Shining Force. You are absolutely right that you do not know which character will go next, which I suppose could be seen as a frustration, thoigh I think it is really just a different take on the genre that I personally did not find to adversely affect me as long as I did not make moves like leaving a mage isolated on the battlefield near enemeies. I would also add that defense is more even in SF games for better or worse, whereas in FE, a single shot from an arrow can take out a Pegasus knight. I had to restart way more in classic FE games, which is fine, but they can be quite difficult, even on normal settings. SF is one of the only series to ever offer full exploration in an sRPG. This would certainly be more complicated than the menu systems in most other sRPGs, and there can be cryptic moments, but I don't think the cryptic nature of the game was ever as bad as something like Phanasy Star 2 or 80s RPGs.That said, you make all valid points here, and talking to NPCs to advance the plot is an archaic implement in of itself. SF2 is a 30-ish year old game now, so I think it is a given that it will be less accessible than most modern RPGs, and I agree with that, but I also think the game is quite easy to pick up and play, and you don't need to learn a lot of complicated systems (like Disega) or grind a bunch (like FFT). I agree on the item explanations fully. This made me quit Phanasy Star 4. All the spells and items have weird names and no explanations to the point where you need to literally just use them and hope for the best. At least they had fairly standard names in SF2.
![[UNCUT] The Loyal Pin ปิ่นภักดิ์ EP.15 (3/4)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/IVwR87OH0_A/mqdefault.jpg)
Shining Force series, and especially SF2, is the perfect distillation of JRPG and Strategy. The combat isn't overwhelming but still challenging and rewarding. Fun story, great characters, big world. The thing that always set SF from other SRPGs is the exploration. I LOVE walking around towns and world maps, finding secrets and getting a break from combat and menus. It makes the world feel ALIVE, unlike nearly every other SRPG, where you just go from board to board.
This is a year old vid, so maybe you have already, but if not, play all 3 scenarios of SF3. While it is strictly linear like SF1, the entire saga is massive, w/ epic battles and a lot of political intrigue, secrets. No spoilers except the final battle includes all 3 of your parties from each game. And players eventually get 2 promotions, not just 1. The fan English translation is better than anything Sega would've done and Saturn emulation is excellent nowadays. Do it!
You should play Growlanser games, they are even deeper into both of the SRPG elements and the RPG exploration.
I played and beat this game for the first time ever in 2022. Never played a strategy rpg before. And I loved it! What a gem. 🔥
ah welcome! nice!
If you havent yet look into the fire emblem games. Way back when i got my 3ds i searched “games like shining force” and those came up. Pretty similar
Congrats on beating it, and glad you liked it! I highly recommend Shining Force 3 as well.
@@radicaldreamersteve5743I’d really love to play other tactical rpg’s, as I’m not very familiar with the genre, but everyone keeps telling me SF2 is the best one, so I guess I’m f’ed! 😂
@@simoxyz8630 I guess SF2 is my favorite, but SF3 has a superior story and three scenarios. It is right behind SF2, and arguably better, imo.
I didn’t find this game until I was an adult, I adored the 1st as a teen, but I really enjoyed it.
Slade is my favorite character.
The best game ever made and it will one day be the greatest cinematic universe ever. Gerhalt. Zynk. Chester. Jaha. Etc all with their own standalone movies
hahahaha this made me laugh. I would love to see a SF movie focused on the bird men though. That would be awesome.
For me personally, I feel like SF makes for the better game, Phantasy Star would probably make for the better movie.
That power leveling in the fairy woods is a job in itself with all the protect rings you collect. It took me almost a week to get to max level of 40 sheesh, but good thing I had the characters to boost the team. Slade became my favorite equipped him with one of the best swords in the game.
This was my first strategy game. My uncle handed down his Genesis with a box of games.
Awesome man! You started with a gem on a great console.
ah so it's no problem to jump right into SF2 without having completed SF1? I'm bummed my save file for SF1 is stuck on a 1.6M formatted diskette!
The Saturn trilogy is the best game in the series bearing Shining in it, by a mile. I remember playing SF2 a lot in a friends Pentium III PC a lot too, and the first one I mostly played its remake in a GBA emulator in the mid 00's.
August 7, 2022, I am playing this game right now as we speak. I've been playing this game for 25 years. Current game, I'm back at Grans, just beat Odd Eye! Main guy is level 32, but my A team is mid-20s so I'll probably have to do the Tower a few times.
Sweet! Enjoy the latter half of the game. Some tough encounters there!
I'm down to Zeon, main guy is level 45, rest of the A Team is level 32- 34, so I'm no longer getting more than 1 point for any of them. I will probably run everyone up another 3 levels before I finish Zeon off. I believe in overkill! My idea of warfare is using 1000 Armored Divisions against a tribe of 50 pygmies Spears.
shining force is my all time favourit game!! right now I play Part 3 Szenario 2
Happy to hear someone say that SF2 his the best trpg ever :). Generaly ppl ever speak about FFta/Bahamut Laggon (Square fan's) or Fire Emblem (Nintendo fan's) for the poor soul than don't know about Sega's game, while other tend to speak about SF1/3. Even if i really like SF1/3, those 2 game are too much serious/dark for me.
And has you said in the vid, in addition to his good story and chara, SF2 have a lot of good point technically and artistically (game play, sound, graphic,...), making him my fav trpg (and mayby my fav game).
About a new SF game... have you heard about Shining Force : Heroes of Light and Darkness ? There's pros and cons, but the trailer hipped me a little (something that didn't happen for year's).
Yoh, "Karna ? Slade ? The unamed kentaurus princess ? ... Too much chara to decide my fav one."
Yohann, glad you love the game! While I absolutely love FFTA and Fire Emblem, I always thought Shining Force was just more accessible and fun to pick up and play. FFTA has a lot of grinding and FE always has a mediocre story, Shining Force sits somewhere in the middle.
I actually love SF3's story, but I can see why some people would find it too front and center for an SF game, and it was definitely more serious.
I did hear about the new mobile game. I will probably give it a try, but I would love to see Sega feel confident enough to make something for consoles.
Karna is definitely OP with the aura spell, and Slade has always been one of my favorites. As you said, too many great characters.
Cheers!
I'm doing a playthrough with Kiwi and Skreech just for kicks and giggles. Kiwi's really not too terrible if you protect him from casters or only go after casters for the killing blow, and Skreech, well, he's maybe on par with Luke, maybe a hair below him in stats, but I've never disliked Luke like most people do. I'm currently on the battle right before the prism flowers and Kiwi's up to 34 HP, he's getting there!
Oh, and Kiwi's had the power ring the entire time, to be fair.
It's still a great game I come back and play every one or two years. It was designed in such a way to really push the bright spriteful colours and animations of the system. At the same time the developers had a way to really create moods in the game through the chip and midi music or sounds of the mega-drive that impressed me what it could do over the SNES. Call it nostalgia or damn good game design, this game just hits so many of the right notes even today.
With the mega-drive mini 2 on the horizon hopefully more people can appreciate Shining Force CD when it comes out too.
man shining 2 needs a remake like they did for the first one im playing the shining 3 on saturn right now
just found your channel today. Love it bro. I hope you stick around and keep moving forward. I love your style and content
Search all the mountains if your patient (for those who dont know this).....
You may be surprised on what all you find out there. There is roughly one thing to find, on every outdoor section. Sometimes more, and you will be glad you did near end game. Yes. Even after leaving the very first town. Its a litte tedious, but worth it.
Behind certain buildings, cracks in the floor, and odd spots as well.
Are you talking about deposits of Mythril?
I won't be surprised. I bet it's more mythril lol
@@luisreyes1963 yeah.
Man this game was my fav growing up
It reminds me a lot of Pools off Radiance. It is also a tactical game with a lot of exploration, and it's older. The maps were very primitive, though.
heh heh, the thing about shining force games is that you get level up boost very randomly so you can choose the best level up if you have the patience, that's how I made the weak and low hp characters to have a decent amount of hp and in the main character case a decent amount of mp, so Kiwi is not so vulnerable not even the centaur girl May that she is a competent archer but her low hp makes her very vulnerable but as I say, getting the right level up fixes that, but you may find frustrating how many tries you need to get the right level up boost.
I have so much nostalgia for that game that I once seriously considered doing a fan remake of it.
In fact, on my channel, I have videos of towns I created years ago.
I played this when it first came out. It’s still one of my favorite games
I concur about the fan base wanting another shinning force style game! Not the other styles. We want another Force style entry in the series.
Happy to see this. I still like the original a bit better, but it was the game that got me into rpgs.
Great video. I just beat the game about a month ago and I want to play it again 😎
Thanks, J5. I am sure you will have many more SF2 journeys in the future. You are the biggest SF2 fan I know, and possibly on the planet.
Impressive review. You should be a few thousand subscribers. Well you got me!
Thanks for the kind words! Just an FYI, more videos are coming! I've totally changed careers, and I've moved back to the U.S., so please be patient, but rest assured more are on the way!
This game, as with all shining games, is dear to my heart. I loved the big open world, the multiple promotion choices, the case of villain demons that you eventually caught up with. The story arc with Oddeye is also something that doesn't get it's full due. I legit felt bad when we had to kill him.
My one disappointment with the game was the music. It's good, and I think it works for this game, but it always seemed to feel muted/lacked the oomph and as such wasn't as memorable to me as the soundtrack of SF1 and Shining in the Darkness.
My favorite is Shining force 3 (All scenarios and bonus disk)....For the longest time, I had NO IDEA what was said in parts 2 and 3, as I had the import and I STILL played the whole thing through at least 4 times..... But when I finally played the fan translation, I have to say its got to be one of the best SRPGs ever made on ANY console in its entirety.
Why the hell developers, in this "age of nostalgia and remakes" hasnt remade these masterpieces (Shining force all parts/And even shining in the Darkness and Shining the Holy Ark) with modern graphics, EVEN if all they did was that-fixed the dated graphics and left the rest in its original state, it would be a huge seller and an instant classic. But for whatever reason, they keep popping out these garbage "action" shining games. What a waste......
@@MidnightBlackandVictoria I recommend Unicorn Overlord, its strategy RPG published by Sega.
Great video
Aside from the crass name you gave Bowie, this was an informative video about Shining Force 2.
Glad you enjoyed it! I started this file before I ever planned on recording footage and do not like silent protagonists. I beat SF1 using that crass name and carried it over.
I was planning on getting shining force: sword of hajya is that good too
Shining Force 2 I agree - def better than the first. Peter would have been so much cooler though if he could cast magic spells. It would also make him more unique since he would be the only flying character with magic like Domingo in the first game (who also makes an appearance in Shining Force CD) Maybe that would make him too overpowered but they could fix that easily by lowering his normal attack power.
As great as Shining Force 2 was at the time, Growlanser eventually took what it did and did it even better(Growlanser 1, 3 and 4 have fully explorable worlds plus heavy political plots and even full blown dating sim elements that actually influence the ending and the battles throughout the game).
Growlanser completely perfected the blending of RPG and SRPG and the real time strategy combat is more fun than the more basic turn based strategy combat with very limited options.
Without Shining Force I don’t think Growlanser would have existed though.
@@westonmeyer3110 Thanks for the input. I really need to try Growlanser, and Growlanser Generations on PS2 (first two games?) is on my list of games to try.
I will only slightly push back and say that the charm of Shining Force for me is, in part, the simplicity. Shining Force 2 is just so pick up and play compared to many games in the genre, even with the exploration elements added. Shining Force 3 has a much deeper story that is also more political in nature, though the ending cannot be altered as far as I know. Maybe this is just nostalgia talking for me, but Shining Force 2 always feels cozy to play, and I do feel like the simplicity could be seen as a strength or a weakness.
@@radicaldreamersteve5743
Growlanser Generations is actually Growlanser 2 and 3. Unfortunately Growlanser 1 was never localized despite being arguably the best one in the series.
Growlanser 4 is great though and it was finally localized for the PSP.
Edit: I also didn’t mean to belittle Shining Force. I definitely understand the appeal of simplicity as my favorite game series is Dragon Quest. Personally though I need a little bit more as far as gameplay goes for my SRPGs. It’s fine for Dragon Quest to have basic attack and defense commands because battles go by quickly but when you are fighting 20 minute battles on a grid it gets really stale to have units with no differential abilities, and basically just a couple different ways to use the “attack” command for every single “class”. It was great that Shining Soul showed that SRPGs don’t have to be just anime chess but the gameplay in the battles clearly suffered because the creator didn’t like SRPGs and the limited town exploration even in Shining Soul 2 doesn’t make up for it imo.
My favorite rpg of all time, followed by balder gate 2 and the original dragon age.
Agreed..
If there are any indie developers runnbing around reading these comments, I'd be interested in a game that would mash up elements of this game and Dragon Age: Origins.
Anyone who feels the desire to skip these gorgeous animations has no soul
Great video but i feel like theres so much more to be said than this! Took sf1 and made it better in every fricken way! The Genesis at its best!
@@midniteghost89 for sure. It was one of the earlier videos, and I don't typically make super long videos, though I do have one longer series planned. I hope I at least spoke accurately about the game and encouraged people to try it, or maybe even replay it. One of my favorite Genesis games.
I'd say I mostly agree. Shining Force was awesome. I was a SNES owner and I had a friend with a Genesis... while I preferred the SNES on most issues, I do agree that Shining Force gave the players an experience that you just couldn't find on the SNES. They were both great, but the second one was even better. Many strategy games felt a lot more confined like you were being rushed from one battle to the next, but Shining Force felt both like a complete JRPG and a strategy RPG at the same time. Golden Sun games were also excellent, but I've got to admit that the Shining Series seem to have lost their way. I saw Shining Resonance on sale a while back, and I have no interest in that. Somewhere along the way they became increasingly girly games (in my opinion) and the female characters seem oversexualized. I love to play RPG games with my daughters, but I can't bring myself to play a game like that around them... or around anyone else for that matter. Bring me back some Shining Force. Get back to what made the series great... and less of what made it irrelevant.
Great RPGs to play with your daughter would probably be Final Fantasy IX, Chrono Trigger or Suikoden 2.
@@TVans-vs3gn Yup. I have already played several of the older Final Fantasy games with them. I haven't played 9 with them yet but would like to do so. We have played Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross and they loved them. Also Suikoden 1. I don't have Suikoden 2, but I might pick up the remasters on the Nintendo Switch that are coming out soon.
@@Jeremyb2023 That's awesome! Suikoden 1 was great but Suikoden 2 was just on another level for me. Might even be ths greatest RPG of all time. Will pick up the remasters as well for sure!
@@TVans-vs3gn I played Suikoden once a LONG time ago. I remember it being much better than the first as well... one of the best of all time... Too bad it became so expensive! Hopefully the remasters won't be too expensive.
@@Jeremyb2023 I recommend Unicorn Overlord, its strategy RPG published by Sega.
Its not Vicr. It's Viceroy!
Slade is the main man!
The reason why this game exists.
I'm not gonna lie I have never been zeon to this day.
I always stop playing before the final battle.
It's a long ahh game.
I played and am almost finished with this game for the first time ever in 2023 and I take issue with the idea that this game is "very accessible" , "easy to pick up" . This might be nostalgia and familiarity talking . The game is actually very , very opaque , especially coming from Fire Emblem games . Nothing is explained at all . There's no explanation about what items do , or how to promote characters , what classes do , or even what spells do , or changing weapons mid-battle , etc . There is also no way to know how much damage your characters will do (even ball park , will it be 35 or 7 , who knows ?) , no idea which person will go next , etc . There doesn't seem to be any concept of the Fire Emblem "weapon triangle" , so it's unclear what advantages any one character has over another other than raw stats .
And worst of all , the story "puzzles" are totally random . One such puzzle is that you have to talk to an NPC twice in succession in order to progress the story , when no other NPC in the game ever has multiple lines of dialog . Another such puzzle is the woods where you finish a battle in the woods , then explore and find nothing , but then have to exit the woods and re-enter then to trigger a character showing up there . This might not be so bad , however NPCs never clue you as to what you should be doing next or even where to look , and you cannot replay old dialog which explains what the current objective is . And since you can go anywhere in the world freely , there are multiple opportunities to get totally lost back-tracking through the world when the game requires you to do a specific non-intuitive thing that breaks all of the conventions so far .
On the positive side , I like what it was trying to do , and the story is great ! I imagine that future playthroughs will be much better since once you know , you know , but I would caution against advertising this as "accessible" or "easy to pick up" as it requires out of game materials , such as item / character guides (and perhaps even a walkthrough) at minimum , and is missing some crucial battlefield information with witch to strategize engagements like other tatical RPGs .
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I am on my phone so sorry if there are typos.
I think the word "accessible" is a little vague and might depend on what aspects of the game we are talking about. Shining Force 2 has battles they are quite easy to understand and there is very little penalty for dying, meaning that you can never truly be stuck on a battle since you will eventually level up enough to beat it.
I assume you have likely played other FE games, and therefore understand the others a little easier. However, FE games have permadeath, which can be frustrating to new SRPG players, though I agree the mechanics are simple enough. I do like your point on battle order in Shining Force. You are absolutely right that you do not know which character will go next, which I suppose could be seen as a frustration, thoigh I think it is really just a different take on the genre that I personally did not find to adversely affect me as long as I did not make moves like leaving a mage isolated on the battlefield near enemeies. I would also add that defense is more even in SF games for better or worse, whereas in FE, a single shot from an arrow can take out a Pegasus knight. I had to restart way more in classic FE games, which is fine, but they can be quite difficult, even on normal settings.
SF is one of the only series to ever offer full exploration in an sRPG. This would certainly be more complicated than the menu systems in most other sRPGs, and there can be cryptic moments, but I don't think the cryptic nature of the game was ever as bad as something like Phanasy Star 2 or 80s RPGs.That said, you make all valid points here, and talking to NPCs to advance the plot is an archaic implement in of itself.
SF2 is a 30-ish year old game now, so I think it is a given that it will be less accessible than most modern RPGs, and I agree with that, but I also think the game is quite easy to pick up and play, and you don't need to learn a lot of complicated systems (like Disega) or grind a bunch (like FFT).
I agree on the item explanations fully. This made me quit Phanasy Star 4. All the spells and items have weird names and no explanations to the point where you need to literally just use them and hope for the best. At least they had fairly standard names in SF2.
Damage is your attack minus their defense plus a very small random modifier. I've never had a problem figuring out approximate damage in SF games
My favorite was always Sorcerer Kazin o3o I also totally shipped him with Bowie, since I was kid. Boooo, no Sarah for you. xD