I learned how to read just to understand what was happening in Shining Force I and II back when I was like 6 or so. As a result, I was a very strong reader in school, so thanks SEGA! Needless to say, I am very passionate about this series. Great synopsis!
Hello there! I'm from the future year of 2022 and I am sorry to say that we are still waiting for this fabled Shining force 4... 😞😞😞 😋 Great video by the way!!
The fact that you didn't insult Shining in the Darkness earned you a subscribe. It was the game that got me into RPGs and I've never thought anything but good about it. The newer Shining games seem to be nothing but fan service emulations of whatever is popular.
loved shining in the darkness and both shining force 1 and 2. the first rpg my brother and i played was dragon warrior on the nes. this brings back great memories
why do i keep running into people claiming Shinning Force 3 is the pinnacle of the series? Shinning Force 2 was the pinnacle, 3 was the start of its decline. (I'm saying this as a huge Shinning Force 3 fan, but facts are facts.)
Great video about one of my favourite series. Given the anime and Nep memes, I’m surprised there’s no love at least for the post-Camelot Tony Taka involved games like Tears and Resonance.
They'll re-release or remix Shining Force 1 a dozen times, and don't get me wrong it was my first rpg and I love it, but people have been begging for SF3 forever. I didn't even know that SFCD was the Gaidens with polish. I need to find them now. But seriously, why does Sega hate its own catalogue so much? It acknowledges that 12 games exist, tops.
I actually really love the Shining games both old and new, I especially enjoy Shining Force EXA on PS2 and the new Shining Resonance Refrain is a super enjoyable action RPG, and they definitely have their own magic, but they definitely don't feel like they're in the same series as the old games. That isn't bad thing, they're just different. I would absolutely love Camelot making a new game, though. Just like 2D and 3D Mario or Sonic being able to coexist at the same time, I could definitely see classic and modern Shining being able to do the same, especially since SEGA has kept Shining Force 1 and 2 available on almost every console since the PS2
SF2 is still one of the greatest tactical RPGs ever created. Supposedly they are wanting to make a Shining Force 4 and I hope they do, but I truly hope that they go back to their roots and do a top down pixel art, with the anime style cutscenes. SF1 and SF2 still hold up in the graphics department, because of how incredible their sprite/art work was, and with modern audiences embracing indie and pixel art games, I think it'll be an absolute hit.
Shining Force II is one of my all-time favourite video games from my childhood and even after I discovered D&D and CRPGs since then. When you discover the western influences and Dragon Quest that inspired Shining Force, you appreciate it just as much.
Shining Force 2 is one of the first games I ever remember owning as a kid. I've owned it multiple times (Ill never let you outta my sight again!) and Im drawn to play it yearly. Its been two and a half decades and it still brings joy to my heart to watch Slade and his goons enter the temple upon start-up. What a magical series. Heres hoping we get 4! Great vid!
@@erbritoloko and SF1 as well....kane and dark sol were really great villains and the chapters made sense and were nicely directed in terms of dramaturgy and plot development. Also SF1 had by far the best end, i like a bittersweet ending more than a flat one happy end also it was more heroic..... would love to see all villains back from sf1 +sf2.
@@zeusapollo6504 true but i fall in love with sf2 since min 1... Unlucky we wont have a good project like that ever again.. rol nowadays is so shit.. i just feel cool ninokuni
I owned all the shining force titles that we got here in the 🇺🇸 accept for the sega cd version.. The 3rd for the saturn had a unique buddy system that let your characters gain bonuses if you used them in close proximity to one another in multiple battles. It made your favorites far more personal..
I just started playing the first 1 when I realized I had a huge Sega game collection on steam I bought who knows when. I am very surprised how good of a game it is right from the start. I definitely plan to play 2 & 3 when I'm done
Actually Mephisto (Dark Soul) in Shining in the Darkness and Dark Soul in Shining Force are the same character according to Yoshitaka Tamaki (the main character designer for both games) that drew/wrote the Shining & the Darkness manga "Doom Blade" featured in Megadrive Fan magazine published in Japan.... "Thornwood" was originall named "the Stormsong Kingdom", and Runefaust Kingdom was mentioned in the manga and it's revealed that Dark Soul is the reborn Mephisto.. and the seer Otrant (whom is in Shining Force) makes an appearance, as well as Chris the gelfling/"Cantor" from Sf I.
I love the GBA version of Shining Force remake, it has the most complete stories for the game. Graphically is greatly improved, you consider on this game review too, I was hope Shining Force ll will have the same remake. Thanks.
There has been a "Shining Force II Tribute" (you can search it with that name) in development for years, which is a fanmade remake. I don't know how much is qlready developed, but it looks quite stunning and I believe it has a demo
I just found your channel while searching for shining force stuff. Really like the presentation. Hope your channel blows up soon as there is always room for retro gaming channels.
12:50 Someone probably already mentioned it but if I recall correctly these character references remain in the PAL English release because Sega had the rights for the character names and Working Designs weren't able to use them, but Sega created their own translation for the PAL release and naturally were able to keep the character names.
Shining Force III: Scenario 3 doesn't start right at the end of both previous scenarios. In fact, it's first battle on the ship happens simultaneously around chapter 4 from the previous discs. Now, let's consider what happens in the real 3D battle scenes. These three scenarios feature many more diverse characters and weapons with 4 specials each, not to mention new magics and the brilliant effects/designs. Taking into account the very limited arsenal and character variety from the 8 and 16-bit entries, with very few frames of animation. Then you, who barely know anything about the third game blatantly states how these scenes didn't pass the test of time? Shining Force III marks the end of an era for RPGs and I agree with what you said, following "Shining" games are disappointing, to say the least. They barely resembles previous entries, be that the dungeon-crawlers or tactical RPG games, and the art direction of the characters are another step down. All this makes some of us appreciate even more what was released from 1985 up to 2000, as it's obvious that a huge shift happened from this point forward. Not a fan of these anime shots as I don't get what they add to the review. As for Sonic Mania being the best classic Sonic game, no, it can't touch Sonic 3&K, Mania is a great homage to the classic era, but it's not original, nor it takes itself as a true sequel in any way, just fan service and little more.
Shining in the Darkness, believe it or not, is my fav Shining game. I love the dungeon crawler thing rather than the battles for sf 1 and on. Close behind it though it SF2, that game did everything right beyond all the other shining force games. I also loved Shining the holy ark for the dungeon crawler thing, but not as much as Shining in the darkness
Wow, this was a great video! I call myself a fan, but I never knew about the Gaiden/game gear games, as I only played 1/2 and feather. I learned a lot from this. Thanks for the upload!
Ps started playing Kaiden tonight on an emulator. Pretty basic but is good to play something new yet familiar. Thanks again for the overview. I didn't know many of those versions existed.
I still have Shining Force and my Sega, but I also have it on steam. I've only played Shining Force and Shining Force 2 , and I have both Golden Sun games for GBA, and they look and play great especially with an IPS screen. I love these games, but I had no idea there was that many.
Shining force 2 is like, the apex of gaming for me. I didn't get a chance to play shining force III until about a year ago. While I love it, it's just not shining force 2. Anytime I see a tactics game, I get excited then immediately disappointed because it's obviously not going to be shining force. There is just something about the simplicity about it that has left a itch I am eternally struggling to scratch. One day! God speed, great video.
Hell. Yes. This was really well done. I love the 16 bit era games so much I’ve bought them on every platform they’ve been rereleased on (even got it on my phone). Fingers crossed for SF 4!
My favorite game. I'm glad someone is covering it.I am doing a playthrough of the shining force remake if you are interested in joining me on the journey.
I thought only only my friends and i loved these games but if you look at best selling games on the Genesis Shining Force I & II are two of the best selling games. That kind of makes it even more strange they haven't made one in 20 years
I didn't know how the other Shining games fit together - Force got dropped into my lap when it released and it was "Woah! This game is extremely well fleshed out for a first release!"
I played the shit out of the Shining series back in the 90's including shining in the darkness (which was an amazing dungeon crawler). Found Shining resonance refrain in 2018, saw it was part of the shining series, bought it completely excited thinking it was a comeback game, and stopped playing it after about 20 minutes when I realized it was a shining game in name only.
Out of all the Shining games, esp from the OG series, I'd have to say that Shining Force 2 is my absolute favorite, probably because it's the first Shining game that I beat by myself with very little help from my grandpa (who introduced me to rpgs in the first place). I spent so many years playing Shining Force 2 over and over again, while Shining Force 1 has my most favorite character out of the whole series (Bleu), Shining Force 2 has the better story and it has my favorite OTP (One True Pairing), Sarah and Bowie even tho Bowie/Sarah didn't happen canonically since Bowie ended up with someone else because how popular fairy tale endings are...
I thought trying to import someone was the best one, I didn't even know there was truly a shining poor 3… I'm gonna have to play it. Shouting force 1 and 2 are some of my favorite games of all time Still to this day
I know you scoffed at "demon" getting reinterpreted as "Vandal" in Holy Ark but I personally think that's a great change. It feels immediately less generic and adds a huge amount of personality - Vandals vs. Innovators, destruction vs. creation. At first I agreed with you that the basic plot structure of a Shining game - resurrecting an ancient evil - seems incredibly repetitive, but as I was listening to your video a new thought occurred to me, that it might be smarter than we give it credit: Are we in the real world really so different? People have been trying the revive the Roman Empire as the pinnacle of civilisation for the past 2000 years right up to the present day - even the Founding Fathers of the USA wanted to believe that they were the Enlightenment restoration of SPQR with big acts of political theatre like Washington resigning his commission so he'd look like Cincinnatus, and in the 20th century the EU was founded by the Treaty of Rome. The Shining games being about last bitter remnants or dreamers who've forgotten the old evils trying to bring back their terrible greatness, with the devils in the games remembering all the horrors that real-life history smooths over (people want Rome back, but the Romans were also pretty brutal slavers...) feels like a more meaningful commentary.
Shining Force,Shining Force 2 & Shining Force 3 part1(being unable to read Japanese I nvr got parts2&3 on import)are three of my all time favourite RPGs!
Shining Force 1 and 2 should have been the bedrock of grid based RPGs but sadly it was ignored and the series turned into trash. I always played with the main group plus Gort, Zylo, Bleu, Anri,, Diane, and eventually Hanzou and Musashi. At least the first Shining Force didn't want to resurrect the devil, just Dark Dragon, which is ostensibly worse.
I love the original Shining Force the most. I still need to finish RotDD (I need every last drop of lore I can get). I played Shining Force on "Sega Smash Pack 2" when I was four. Didn't see Shining Force II until the Genesis Classics pack came out on PS3 in 2009. I enjoyed it, but I hated the lack of apparent connection to the original Shining Force (at this point I wasn't aware of the existence of the Gaiden games, particularly Final Conflict). Also that ending left me feeling really bad for Sarah as a character. Before I ever saw SF2 though, I played through about half of Shining Force Neo. That game was HARD as a kid, but I thought it was an interesting sort of 'reboot' of the original Shining Force. I liked the characters, despite the game having the most abysmal English voice acting I've ever heard. I had always heard rumors that there had been a Shining Force III, but I never found any way to play it. To this day I've never seen an emulation or fan translation of that game.
Yo was the sega smash pack on PC?? Pretty sure I got it as a kid and its how I found out about Shining Force and Comix Zone, I was heavy into both games
Shining Force 1 honestly is my favorite, I thought the story line was cool, at least it blew my mind as a kid, it also got a great remake on the GameBoy Advance. 2 and 3 were good, also it was surprising, but the later Shining EXE games were actually fun action RPGs
I'm currently playing Shining Resonance Refrain and I'm enjoying it a lot. It is my first entry in the series though. Just bumped into your video while trying to find out more about the series. After seeing your video I understand your frustrations for the direction the series has been taking over the last decade. I guess you have some bias (and emotional attachment) due to your previous experiences with the older games, it is complicated. I would just say that, as someone else said before in the comments, you should just see these new games as different. That's why none of them are called Shining Force IV after all. =) You can surely enjoy them if you don't bring so many expectations upfront.
If they do a Shining Force 4 I would hope that we would also get a type of anthology collection of at least the Shining Force games. I imagine that now they could put all the games on one blu ray disc. Shining Force and Shining Force 2 are 2 of my all time favorite games and I go back to them almost once a year. This is an age now where we see all kinds of remakes and secondary releases. A collection disc wouldn't be that out of the question I would hope. Then again all the licensing that would go in to it would be a headache I'm sure. Not to mention the fact that I would want them to also fix the translations and I feel like they wouldn't want to put that much work into it. Anyway I have talked about Shining Force on my channel as well multiple times and I enjoyed what you did here. It even gave me a new topic. The time I bough Shining Force Neo...……… Sad day.th-cam.com/video/OoH1jeAvLaQ/w-d-xo.html
I love it! Though I wish they'd just translate them all from shining force 3,put it on em consoles and... Maybe give it that octopath HD/2D treatment???
I only very recently ended up checking out the Shining series (I played Shining Soul at some point as a kid and didn't like it, which probably was the reason I always avoided the other games) and holy hell are they great fun - Both the DRPGs as well as the TRPGs manage to take genres that have always struggled with pacing and make them feel super breezy and approachable. (Mind you, I love both of those genres, but still) Shame to hear that the later games won't be able to live up to this standard... Luckily I'm only halway through Holy Ark at this point and haven't even started Shining Force 2 yet (still on CD) so I've got plenty to go yet!
Lemme explain. Shining Force and it's sequels kind of made Shining in The Darkness no longer canon. I heard that In The Darkness Darksol was Force Darksol's son, but Shining Force reboots it and turns the series into a franchise. I look at Darkness as a pilot of sorts and Force kicks off the main series.
You do Neo and especially Exa a disservice. Neo was basically an AU retelling of 1 and was decent if you mute the voice acting. Exa was a great game on its own that had a lot of the hallmarks of a Shining game. Exa is IMO a true Shining sequel. ...now neither of them should have been *Force* games, but thats a different discussion.
Man I've love to be able to play Shining Force CD. Sure I could emulator it, but I'd rather be able to play it on my Switch or something. Shinning Force 2 will always be my favorite Genesis game.
I personally think removing the towns from garden was a real mistake. The big advantage of such places is they help colour the world and provide a breather from combat Its partly why ff13 felt so monotonous.
I bought Shining Tears back in like 2005 or something like that and was definitely disappointed. Would love to see some new entries in this series from the original creators, and/or even a remake of Shining Force 3 with a full translation for us in the west!
Have all the regular games, none of the "others" I have all 3 SF3 games, 3.1-USA,3.2 and 3.3 JPN. All 3 do work together to make a complete story. Translation from SF Central helps,
After Shining Force 3, other than Shining Soul 1 and 2, the rest is quite literally a Waifu Simulator. Camelot went on their way to do Golden Sun which is also an amazing Franchise, but man... I really wish we got more games like Shining Force.
Makes me curious and want to actually jump into this series. Though as far as Sjrpg are concerned I mostly loved FFT and it's predecessor the Ogre Battle series. Though I am late on this new but have you heard about that new shining force? Heroes of Light and Darkness? It's not based on the modern Era of SF but the classic Era.
My favourite shining game is shining force: legacy of great intention, but after watching this I'm considering giving the gaiden titles a play (I haven't played them yet)
Nice video, i stopped after Shining Force 2, still during the 90ies. I bougth the mega drive only because of 2 games namely shining force 1 and dune 2.(had no pc back then). The graphic art was lovely and made me buy this, never would i have imagined how nice the combat system and story was done. And i think, while way smaller as a game as part 2 it got a better story and execution and pace. SF2 had more fillers, but a better music score. As for SF3, dunno why force polygons when there are nicely animated sprites graphics...makes no sense in a rpg tbs anyways and does not age well.(hence, no wonder FF7 needed a remaster, its a good game with horrible polygons, made for old TVs)
Shining didn't start as an SRPG and at this point it's only a footnote in the series history. Sega systems were never the most popular and most people's first exposure to the series was with Shining Soul or Shining Force Neo or Shining Force EXA. And now after almost 20 years of Japan only titles the young weebs first is now Shining Resonance Refrain. Sonic,Shining,Sakura Wars and Phantasy Star all have very separate eras of fandom and the OG fans are most likely the smallest.
I learned how to read just to understand what was happening in Shining Force I and II back when I was like 6 or so. As a result, I was a very strong reader in school, so thanks SEGA! Needless to say, I am very passionate about this series. Great synopsis!
Shining Force I and II were the reason because I learnt English when I was 12 yo or so XD
I love hearing things like this. Ocarina of time is how I got my little brother reading.
That's crazy! I had the same experience when I first tried shining force 2 on Sega channel .
Woe thought I was the only one awesome
Hello there! I'm from the future year of 2022 and I am sorry to say that we are still waiting for this fabled Shining force 4... 😞😞😞
😋 Great video by the way!!
The fact that you didn't insult Shining in the Darkness earned you a subscribe. It was the game that got me into RPGs and I've never thought anything but good about it. The newer Shining games seem to be nothing but fan service emulations of whatever is popular.
Shining The Holy Ark was inspired by it. Play it!
loved shining in the darkness and both shining force 1 and 2. the first rpg my brother and i played was dragon warrior on the nes. this brings back great memories
I don't understand how anyone can come at Shining in the Darkness.
It was awesome
The fact that people insult that game baffles me. I absolutely love it.
@rainehappy7097 and perfected it. SthA is awesome. The dungeon design is great. The only bad part is when it ends (could be a bit longer).
Shining Force 1 & 2 are included in Sega Gensis Classics on Xbox One, that's what brought me here.
Shining force is the game that introduced me to turn based stratagy games and i loved the genre ever since
why do i keep running into people claiming Shinning Force 3 is the pinnacle of the series? Shinning Force 2 was the pinnacle, 3 was the start of its decline. (I'm saying this as a huge Shinning Force 3 fan, but facts are facts.)
Great video about one of my favourite series. Given the anime and Nep memes, I’m surprised there’s no love at least for the post-Camelot Tony Taka involved games like Tears and Resonance.
They'll re-release or remix Shining Force 1 a dozen times, and don't get me wrong it was my first rpg and I love it, but people have been begging for SF3 forever. I didn't even know that SFCD was the Gaidens with polish. I need to find them now. But seriously, why does Sega hate its own catalogue so much? It acknowledges that 12 games exist, tops.
I actually really love the Shining games both old and new, I especially enjoy Shining Force EXA on PS2 and the new Shining Resonance Refrain is a super enjoyable action RPG, and they definitely have their own magic, but they definitely don't feel like they're in the same series as the old games. That isn't bad thing, they're just different.
I would absolutely love Camelot making a new game, though. Just like 2D and 3D Mario or Sonic being able to coexist at the same time, I could definitely see classic and modern Shining being able to do the same, especially since SEGA has kept Shining Force 1 and 2 available on almost every console since the PS2
SF2 is still one of the greatest tactical RPGs ever created. Supposedly they are wanting to make a Shining Force 4 and I hope they do, but I truly hope that they go back to their roots and do a top down pixel art, with the anime style cutscenes. SF1 and SF2 still hold up in the graphics department, because of how incredible their sprite/art work was, and with modern audiences embracing indie and pixel art games, I think it'll be an absolute hit.
The sprites look like dogshit in 64 bits lol
Shining Force II is one of my all-time favourite video games from my childhood and even after I discovered D&D and CRPGs since then. When you discover the western influences and Dragon Quest that inspired Shining Force, you appreciate it just as much.
Thank you! Shining Force us one of my top 10 all time fav games. Played it ENDLESS back in mid 1990s.....
I also loved shining force 2 and its music always takes me back in time
Shining Resonance was one of my favorite games back in High School, but I'd love to see a new game go back to the series' roots
I recommend Unicorn Overlord, its strategy RPG published by Sega.
@@orangeslash1667I just seen it at Walmart maybe I should have picked it up
Shining Force 2 is one of the first games I ever remember owning as a kid. I've owned it multiple times (Ill never let you outta my sight again!) and Im drawn to play it yearly. Its been two and a half decades and it still brings joy to my heart to watch Slade and his goons enter the temple upon start-up. What a magical series. Heres hoping we get 4! Great vid!
same here bro.. would be perfect if some fan decide to make a good continue to sf2
@@erbritoloko and SF1 as well....kane and dark sol were really great villains and the chapters made sense and were nicely directed in terms of dramaturgy and plot development. Also SF1 had by far the best end, i like a bittersweet ending more than a flat one happy end also it was more heroic..... would love to see all villains back from sf1 +sf2.
@@zeusapollo6504 true but i fall in love with sf2 since min 1... Unlucky we wont have a good project like that ever again.. rol nowadays is so shit.. i just feel cool ninokuni
I feel like shining force … reborn today with a new story and game… would do sooooooo well.
A most excellent series.
Fond memories of these from my childhood.
Thank you for the nostalgic history lesson in your epic voice.
My favorite shining games are shining force and shining force 2
Me 2, but those are the only ones i played. :D
Wow very bold statement
@@BrandonWilliams-wf6hg Thanks
I owned all the shining force titles that we got here in the 🇺🇸 accept for the sega cd version.. The 3rd for the saturn had a unique buddy system that let your characters gain bonuses if you used them in close proximity to one another in multiple battles. It made your favorites far more personal..
I just started playing the first 1 when I realized I had a huge Sega game collection on steam I bought who knows when. I am very surprised how good of a game it is right from the start. I definitely plan to play 2 & 3 when I'm done
such a great series , i only ever played the shining force games , but man those were the days , awesome memories =]
What a great video. Very watchable "D
ahhh, shining force 2 OST was a banger.... till now.
"Three master monks" Amen brother.
Actually Mephisto (Dark Soul) in Shining in the Darkness and Dark Soul in Shining Force are the same character according to Yoshitaka Tamaki (the main character designer for both games) that drew/wrote the Shining & the Darkness manga "Doom Blade" featured in Megadrive Fan magazine published in Japan.... "Thornwood" was originall named "the Stormsong Kingdom", and Runefaust Kingdom was mentioned in the manga and it's revealed that Dark Soul is the reborn Mephisto.. and the seer Otrant (whom is in Shining Force) makes an appearance, as well as Chris the gelfling/"Cantor" from Sf I.
Isn't it stated to be the son of Darksol and Mishaela, and the game is set after sf2?
@@NeutralAtJSP I think so
@@angelbast3rd133 yeah I love the Tamaki art and direction, beautiful style but they're not the same in game
I love the GBA version of Shining Force remake, it has the most complete stories for the game. Graphically is greatly improved, you consider on this game review too, I was hope Shining Force ll will have the same remake. Thanks.
After playing Gba shinning force, I am eagerly waiting for the shinning force 2 remake to this day.
There has been a "Shining Force II Tribute" (you can search it with that name) in development for years, which is a fanmade remake. I don't know how much is qlready developed, but it looks quite stunning and I believe it has a demo
@ Gary, yes!
@@mikeythapa5950 I recommend Unicorn Overlord, its strategy RPG published by Sega.
Damn, now I gotta go back and play this later on today. My childhood was dope and I miss it.
I just found your channel while searching for shining force stuff. Really like the presentation. Hope your channel blows up soon as there is always room for retro gaming channels.
12:50 Someone probably already mentioned it but if I recall correctly these character references remain in the PAL English release because Sega had the rights for the character names and Working Designs weren't able to use them, but Sega created their own translation for the PAL release and naturally were able to keep the character names.
Shining Force III: Scenario 3 doesn't start right at the end of both previous scenarios. In fact, it's first battle on the ship happens simultaneously around chapter 4 from the previous discs.
Now, let's consider what happens in the real 3D battle scenes. These three scenarios feature many more diverse characters and weapons with 4 specials each, not to mention new magics and the brilliant effects/designs. Taking into account the very limited arsenal and character variety from the 8 and 16-bit entries, with very few frames of animation. Then you, who barely know anything about the third game blatantly states how these scenes didn't pass the test of time?
Shining Force III marks the end of an era for RPGs and I agree with what you said, following "Shining" games are disappointing, to say the least. They barely resembles previous entries, be that the dungeon-crawlers or tactical RPG games, and the art direction of the characters are another step down. All this makes some of us appreciate even more what was released from 1985 up to 2000, as it's obvious that a huge shift happened from this point forward.
Not a fan of these anime shots as I don't get what they add to the review.
As for Sonic Mania being the best classic Sonic game, no, it can't touch Sonic 3&K, Mania is a great homage to the classic era, but it's not original, nor it takes itself as a true sequel in any way, just fan service and little more.
Shining in the Darkness, believe it or not, is my fav Shining game. I love the dungeon crawler thing rather than the battles for sf 1 and on. Close behind it though it SF2, that game did everything right beyond all the other shining force games. I also loved Shining the holy ark for the dungeon crawler thing, but not as much as Shining in the darkness
Thank you very much for this video that is only 17 minutes and 50 seconds long.
Wow, this was a great video! I call myself a fan, but I never knew about the Gaiden/game gear games, as I only played 1/2 and feather. I learned a lot from this. Thanks for the upload!
Thanks so much for your video. Shining force 2 is the best game. My favourite for 30 years. Hopefully a retro remake happens.
Ps started playing Kaiden tonight on an emulator. Pretty basic but is good to play something new yet familiar. Thanks again for the overview. I didn't know many of those versions existed.
@@WillBloodfarm I recommend Unicorn Overlord, its strategy RPG published by Sega.
I need shinning force to continue.... I need more games
I recommend Unicorn Overlord, its strategy RPG published by Sega.
I still have Shining Force and my Sega, but I also have it on steam. I've only played Shining Force and Shining Force 2 , and I have both Golden Sun games for GBA, and they look and play great especially with an IPS screen. I love these games, but I had no idea there was that many.
Great video. I agree that SFII is one of the greatest games of all time. It's a shame that Sega have forgotten about this game now.
At 2:19 is that the dwarf from Golden axe
Shining force 2 is like, the apex of gaming for me. I didn't get a chance to play shining force III until about a year ago. While I love it, it's just not shining force 2. Anytime I see a tactics game, I get excited then immediately disappointed because it's obviously not going to be shining force. There is just something about the simplicity about it that has left a itch I am eternally struggling to scratch. One day! God speed, great video.
Totally agree!
Hell. Yes.
This was really well done. I love the 16 bit era games so much I’ve bought them on every platform they’ve been rereleased on (even got it on my phone).
Fingers crossed for SF 4!
My favorite game. I'm glad someone is covering it.I am doing a playthrough of the shining force remake if you are interested in joining me on the journey.
I thought only only my friends and i loved these games but if you look at best selling games on the Genesis Shining Force I & II are two of the best selling games. That kind of makes it even more strange they haven't made one in 20 years
I didn't know how the other Shining games fit together - Force got dropped into my lap when it released and it was "Woah! This game is extremely well fleshed out for a first release!"
My favorite shining game is shining the holy Ark and Shining Force 3 but I own the Japanese version and I love playing them
Me too
I played the shit out of the Shining series back in the 90's including shining in the darkness (which was an amazing dungeon crawler). Found Shining resonance refrain in 2018, saw it was part of the shining series, bought it completely excited thinking it was a comeback game, and stopped playing it after about 20 minutes when I realized it was a shining game in name only.
"Let's make Mario sperts games!"
"Let's put 'Shining' on every game title!"
T_T
Gba port may be "unremarkable" and the camera may be a bit zoomed in at times,but it's for sure the best definitive way to play SF1.
I had 3 of the games. A great video here!
Love these old games! I think I have an xbox compilation of them somewhere...
Out of all the Shining games, esp from the OG series, I'd have to say that Shining Force 2 is my absolute favorite, probably because it's the first Shining game that I beat by myself with very little help from my grandpa (who introduced me to rpgs in the first place). I spent so many years playing Shining Force 2 over and over again, while Shining Force 1 has my most favorite character out of the whole series (Bleu), Shining Force 2 has the better story and it has my favorite OTP (One True Pairing), Sarah and Bowie even tho Bowie/Sarah didn't happen canonically since Bowie ended up with someone else because how popular fairy tale endings are...
My favorite Shining game is Shining Force II.
I thought trying to import someone was the best one, I didn't even know there was truly a shining poor 3… I'm gonna have to play it. Shouting force 1 and 2 are some of my favorite games of all time Still to this day
I know you scoffed at "demon" getting reinterpreted as "Vandal" in Holy Ark but I personally think that's a great change. It feels immediately less generic and adds a huge amount of personality - Vandals vs. Innovators, destruction vs. creation.
At first I agreed with you that the basic plot structure of a Shining game - resurrecting an ancient evil - seems incredibly repetitive, but as I was listening to your video a new thought occurred to me, that it might be smarter than we give it credit: Are we in the real world really so different? People have been trying the revive the Roman Empire as the pinnacle of civilisation for the past 2000 years right up to the present day - even the Founding Fathers of the USA wanted to believe that they were the Enlightenment restoration of SPQR with big acts of political theatre like Washington resigning his commission so he'd look like Cincinnatus, and in the 20th century the EU was founded by the Treaty of Rome. The Shining games being about last bitter remnants or dreamers who've forgotten the old evils trying to bring back their terrible greatness, with the devils in the games remembering all the horrors that real-life history smooths over (people want Rome back, but the Romans were also pretty brutal slavers...) feels like a more meaningful commentary.
Shining Force,Shining Force 2 & Shining Force 3 part1(being unable to read Japanese I nvr got parts2&3 on import)are three of my all time favourite RPGs!
This guy needs more subs.
Great video - happy to subscribe
I actually liked how they kept continuity in the Genesis / GameGear / SCD titles.
I agree with you with 'sf2 potentially my favorite game of all time....' Haven't completed a game multiple times pass. This one
Shining Force 1 and 2 should have been the bedrock of grid based RPGs but sadly it was ignored and the series turned into trash. I always played with the main group plus Gort, Zylo, Bleu, Anri,, Diane, and eventually Hanzou and Musashi. At least the first Shining Force didn't want to resurrect the devil, just Dark Dragon, which is ostensibly worse.
I love the original Shining Force the most. I still need to finish RotDD (I need every last drop of lore I can get). I played Shining Force on "Sega Smash Pack 2" when I was four.
Didn't see Shining Force II until the Genesis Classics pack came out on PS3 in 2009. I enjoyed it, but I hated the lack of apparent connection to the original Shining Force (at this point I wasn't aware of the existence of the Gaiden games, particularly Final Conflict). Also that ending left me feeling really bad for Sarah as a character.
Before I ever saw SF2 though, I played through about half of Shining Force Neo. That game was HARD as a kid, but I thought it was an interesting sort of 'reboot' of the original Shining Force. I liked the characters, despite the game having the most abysmal English voice acting I've ever heard.
I had always heard rumors that there had been a Shining Force III, but I never found any way to play it. To this day I've never seen an emulation or fan translation of that game.
Yo was the sega smash pack on PC?? Pretty sure I got it as a kid and its how I found out about Shining Force and Comix Zone, I was heavy into both games
If Shining Force II ever gets a remake, take my money or even take double of my money . Best game ever made.
When you are from Cyprus and the Cyprus flag pops in the video. :O
Shining Force 1 honestly is my favorite, I thought the story line was cool, at least it blew my mind as a kid, it also got a great remake on the GameBoy Advance. 2 and 3 were good, also it was surprising, but the later Shining EXE games were actually fun action RPGs
I'm currently playing Shining Resonance Refrain and I'm enjoying it a lot. It is my first entry in the series though. Just bumped into your video while trying to find out more about the series.
After seeing your video I understand your frustrations for the direction the series has been taking over the last decade.
I guess you have some bias (and emotional attachment) due to your previous experiences with the older games, it is complicated. I would just say that, as someone else said before in the comments, you should just see these new games as different. That's why none of them are called Shining Force IV after all. =)
You can surely enjoy them if you don't bring so many expectations upfront.
SRPGs is a footnote in the series' history he's just having an old man moment.
I've been craving shining force 3 for a replay but can't remember all the secret item locations aha
Jumesyn website
If they do a Shining Force 4 I would hope that we would also get a type of anthology collection of at least the Shining Force games. I imagine that now they could put all the games on one blu ray disc. Shining Force and Shining Force 2 are 2 of my all time favorite games and I go back to them almost once a year. This is an age now where we see all kinds of remakes and secondary releases. A collection disc wouldn't be that out of the question I would hope. Then again all the licensing that would go in to it would be a headache I'm sure. Not to mention the fact that I would want them to also fix the translations and I feel like they wouldn't want to put that much work into it. Anyway I have talked about Shining Force on my channel as well multiple times and I enjoyed what you did here. It even gave me a new topic. The time I bough Shining Force Neo...……… Sad day.th-cam.com/video/OoH1jeAvLaQ/w-d-xo.html
They definitely could, they could fit a full remake of sf1 2 and 3 on a single bluray easily
@@NeutralAtJSP I recommend Unicorn Overlord, its strategy RPG published by Sega.
Still waiting their SF4... we don't have to loose the hope
I recommend Unicorn Overlord, its strategy RPG published by Sega.
I’m weird, my favorite shining games are the game gear entries.
My favorite shining games are shining soul 1 and 2
I love it!
Though I wish they'd just translate them all from shining force 3,put it on em consoles and... Maybe give it that octopath HD/2D treatment???
GBA Shining Force ROTDD "unremarkable". Bro you obviously never played the game. It's well received and possibly the best game in series.
I only very recently ended up checking out the Shining series (I played Shining Soul at some point as a kid and didn't like it, which probably was the reason I always avoided the other games) and holy hell are they great fun - Both the DRPGs as well as the TRPGs manage to take genres that have always struggled with pacing and make them feel super breezy and approachable. (Mind you, I love both of those genres, but still)
Shame to hear that the later games won't be able to live up to this standard... Luckily I'm only halway through Holy Ark at this point and haven't even started Shining Force 2 yet (still on CD) so I've got plenty to go yet!
Wait, it's a different Darksol? How do we know this? Great video, btw.
Lemme explain. Shining Force and it's sequels kind of made Shining in The Darkness no longer canon. I heard that In The Darkness Darksol was Force Darksol's son, but Shining Force reboots it and turns the series into a franchise. I look at Darkness as a pilot of sorts and Force kicks off the main series.
can we get some shining force refrain love? i think the combat and the weapon system is really innovative. Id love to see a full blown sequel.
SF2 was my favoriate of all - but I did like the Golden Sun games. I think you put it best as them being 'spiritual sucessors.'
You do Neo and especially Exa a disservice. Neo was basically an AU retelling of 1 and was decent if you mute the voice acting. Exa was a great game on its own that had a lot of the hallmarks of a Shining game. Exa is IMO a true Shining sequel.
...now neither of them should have been *Force* games, but thats a different discussion.
Man I've love to be able to play Shining Force CD. Sure I could emulator it, but I'd rather be able to play it on my Switch or something. Shinning Force 2 will always be my favorite Genesis game.
No love for shining soul 1 and 2? One of my favorite gba action rpgs
Shining the holy ark is a great name
I personally think removing the towns from garden was a real mistake. The big advantage of such places is they help colour the world and provide a breather from combat Its partly why ff13 felt so monotonous.
I bought Shining Tears back in like 2005 or something like that and was definitely disappointed. Would love to see some new entries in this series from the original creators, and/or even a remake of Shining Force 3 with a full translation for us in the west!
Camelot has been a Nintendo subsidiary for 20 years...
@@Chelaxim I recommend Unicorn Overlord, its strategy RPG published by Sega.
THREE. MASTER. MONKS.
Yes😍
Have all the regular games, none of the "others" I have all 3 SF3 games, 3.1-USA,3.2 and 3.3 JPN. All 3 do work together to make a complete story. Translation from SF Central helps,
After Shining Force 3, other than Shining Soul 1 and 2, the rest is quite literally a Waifu Simulator.
Camelot went on their way to do Golden Sun which is also an amazing Franchise, but man... I really wish we got more games like Shining Force.
Makes me curious and want to actually jump into this series. Though as far as Sjrpg are concerned I mostly loved FFT and it's predecessor the Ogre Battle series. Though I am late on this new but have you heard about that new shining force? Heroes of Light and Darkness? It's not based on the modern Era of SF but the classic Era.
They should first try to do remakes of the classics to test the waters, and interest more people in the franchise. Also cute cat!
I see you on every Shining Force video comment section, you are everywhere haha :D
Shining Force II let's gooooooooooooooooooo.
So, any update on that Shining Force 4?
My favourite shining game is shining force: legacy of great intention, but after watching this I'm considering giving the gaiden titles a play (I haven't played them yet)
They're good games. Play em
I only found Shining Force, Shining Force CD and Shining Force II worth playing...
Play Shining the Holy Ark and Shining Force 3. At par with SFII as the best games in the series.
Agreed
Golden Sun is the successor to Beyond The Beyond. I will argue that to the death! 😂
mednafen emulates the saturn pretty well. looks like my real one. to some degree. saturns are only like $80 though.
I love this game, only that. The best game
I may be in the minority but I love the story of shining force 1 more than 2.
I would love a full SF3 remake
I recommend Unicorn Overlord, its strategy RPG published by Sega.
Just here to tell you there's a fan translation and patch for all the SF3 games. And I'll only play SF4 if Camelot does it
Nice video, i stopped after Shining Force 2, still during the 90ies. I bougth the mega drive only because of 2 games namely shining force 1 and dune 2.(had no pc back then). The graphic art was lovely and made me buy this, never would i have imagined how nice the combat system and story was done. And i think, while way smaller as a game as part 2 it got a better story and execution and pace. SF2 had more fillers, but a better music score. As for SF3, dunno why force polygons when there are nicely animated sprites graphics...makes no sense in a rpg tbs anyways and does not age well.(hence, no wonder FF7 needed a remaster, its a good game with horrible polygons, made for old TVs)
The greatest RPG series ever created.
Sadly they succumbed to the pressure to go 3D and that is when it lost all its charm.
3D sucks for RPGs.
Shining didn't start as an SRPG and at this point it's only a footnote in the series history. Sega systems were never the most popular and most people's first exposure to the series was with Shining Soul or Shining Force Neo or Shining Force EXA. And now after almost 20 years of Japan only titles the young weebs first is now Shining Resonance Refrain.
Sonic,Shining,Sakura Wars and Phantasy Star all have very separate eras of fandom and the OG fans are most likely the smallest.