Genesis - Shining Force Review

Overview

Shining Force is in my opinion one of the greatest RPG's around for Sega Megadrive. It has all the elements for a good RPG, good storyline, action and awesome graphics.

I highly recommend you get this now even if you do not like RPG's.

Gameplay & interface 9.5/10
Gameplay is one word, awesome. You get to have a maximum of 12 units (including yourself) per battle. If you have more than 12 people in the Shining Force you can choose which 11 to use (you can not swap yourself, you have to lead). Not only that but the variety of items and characters you will eventually find makes the game very addictive.

As in all RPG's each character/unit has his or her strength's and weaknesses.

For example the knights/centaurs have greater movement than normal units.

However they have greatly reduced mobility in hilly or forest terrain.

Unfortunately the gameplay and equality gets skewered later on when you find certain characters extremely useless later on like archers and that some of the new characters that join the Force are quite useless.

Interface for Shining Force is easy to use and understand, just remember that the B button is cancel.

Storyline 5/5
The storyline for this is well, unoriginal and has been done over and over again but seems to suit the game very well and gives it the potential to become a great game which it is. Basically it is about this person called Dark Sol who wants to awaken Dark Dragon (how...original) who will then conquer the world (like I said, original).

You play a youth being trained by Guardiana's main lord(a centaur) who trains all the knights (also centaurs) but most which look down on you because you are a human. Guardiana is one of the cities which was founded to ensure that Dark Dragon stays sealed and asleep. Unfortunately the seal is attacked and so is Guardiana about to be. So the king sends you to slip past the enemy defences and stop the seal from being opened. While you are away, Guardiana is attacked but manages to stop the assault although it is now devastated. One of Dark Sol's minions kills the king and the lord, so you must set off to stop Dark Sol from reawakening Dark Dragon.

Graphics 5/5
Graphics are extremely well done and bright. You may find the graphics slightly cartoonish but for those of you who prefer "chunky" heroes fear not, when the characters get promoted they exchange their "cute" armour for really fearsome looking armour. As for the battle scene graphics they look awesome especially when you cast high-level destructive spells.

Level design 4.5/5
Of course, there are not really levels, but rather each area is a chapter and each chapter has several battles. All of which are quite well done and hold sufficient interest so you do not feel tired after the battle but exhilarated. It gets slightly tedious after a while in the middle of the game but picks up after a while with the introduction of more powerful enemies.

Music & Sound 5/5
Certainly one of the better music scores for Sega Genesis/Megadrive Shining Force not only has adrenaline pumping music but fitting sound effects. Without question, Shining Force gets the thumbs up in the music and sound department.

For

Good gameplay and fun battle system.

Against
Gets slightly tedious partway through the game.