Shining Force (Genesis) review "Shining Force was one of the first games to take full advantage of the Tile system for strategy RPGs. Later seen in games such as Advance Wars(GBA) and Final Fantasy Tactics(Playstation), the tile system didn't change much, if at all, which says that they certainly did something right. "

Shining Force

Introduction

The first game to be released in the Shining series, and the rest are not one bit less. Shining Force was also one of the first games to take full advantage of the Tile system for strategy RPGs. Later seen in games such as Advance Wars(GBA) and Final Fantasy Tactics(Playstation), the tile system didn't change much, if at all, which says that they certainly did something right.

Gameplay

The gameplay for this game is outstanding. With a enormous battlefields, dozens of classes, promotions, items, spells and all that there, this game drips with strategy. With each class having different ways of attacking, and different angles to do it in. With 20 units on your side, and as many as the Enemy wants on their side, a balanced team is key. And the battles aren't random, and theres ''run'' command. You must fight your battles, and if you want to run, you have to run all the way back to the starting point. And when you return to the battle, all of the enemies will have respawned.
Gameplay, for revolutionizing the RPG strategy genre, gets a happy 10/10.

Story

Ok, to be blunt, the story is kind of stale. The big bad monster wakes up after a 1000 year sleep and is going to destroy all living things.. How many times have we heard this story..
But, Since it was a very early game and this wasn't done much at that time, In adition to other elements, I think that Story can have a 6/10.

Music and Sound

Music is very nice, and will often have you humming along with it. It varies from battle to battle, ranging from slower soft classical in places like Cathedrals, or more harder music in the other places. Sound is also very nice, the attack sounds and spells are nice, especially for its time. Sound, scores in at an 8/10.

Graphics

So, here we are at Graphics for a game made in 1993. The backgrounds are lush and beautiful, and the attack cut scenes are extremely nice for a game of its time. The unit portraits are also very nice, which sadly only appear when a character decides to talk, fortunantly, they talk alot. But, that may also cause other players to lose intrest during the long talk scenes. 9/10

I wont go into detail with Replayability, because its hard to score. You know the storyline, and it will always occur the same. but the Strategy element will always be there.

Overall. 9/10
Very good game. Outstanding for its time, and for our current time. Definently worth the buy if you can find it, but since it came out in 1993 it might take some searching.

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