Shining Force

n/a

Shining Force
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Climax Entertainment, Sonic! Software Planning
Genre: RPG
ESRB PEGI USK

Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention, also simply known as Shining Force is a turn-based tactical role-playing game released in 1992 published by Sega for the Mega Drive and the first of the tactical Shining Force series. Its development was a conjoined effort between the independent studio Climax Entertainment and Sonic! Software Planning, a Sega second party that was formed to create the previous Shining game, Shining in the Darkness. It was rereleased several times for other systems and was remade in 2004 by Amusement Vision, renamed Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon. Other media associated with this game include an encyclopedia, several game guides, two soundtrack releases, a manga series (3 volumes) and The Curse of Zeon, a six part story published in Sonic the Comic (issues #73-78).

Game Development

Sonic! Software Planning, better known as Camelot later on, was a second party division of Sega that was formed to create Shining in the Darkness. Hiroyuki Takahashi, was the director and continued for many consequent games, including Shining Force. Takahashi believed that most RPGs of the time only focused on telling an interesting story instead of engaging battles and gameplay, and he wanted to challenge that notion.

Shining Force was inspired by a relatively obscure Japanese PC game called Silver Ghost, as Takahashi believed that it had several gimmicks that made tactical simulation games interesting. The battle system of Silver Ghost consisted in real time actions and a multi-character system, where the player controlled the leader of a force and attacked enemies by running into them, as the rest of the force followed and engaged in combat with anything that comes close to them. Takahashi borrowed this multi-character system and mixed it the the tiled chess-like movement of units typical of tactical RPGs.

Gameplay

Playing Modes

Exploration Field

Shining Force features exploration fields like any standard RPG, with objectives such as picking up information or interacting with citizens. While strolling throughthe various towns and villages the force is represented by the force leader Max. There are four types of actions he can perform, by pressing and/or for confirmation and for cancel.

• TALK - While standing close to someone, it will start a conversation.
• MAGIC - Accesses magic. Mostly useless while in these fields.
• SEARCH - Searches while standing close to peculiar areas or objects. If the area or object don't have anything attached to it, nothing will be found.
• ITEM - Accesses the inventory, the D-Pad highlits the item. Each unit can carry one equipped weapon, along with four unsorted items of any type.
  • USE - Uses a selected item.
  • GIVE - Switches items around.
  • DROP - Discards a selected item.
  • EQUIP - Equip or take off a weapon.

There are three basic places that exist in most exploration fields. Shop Talking to the seller will allow buying items and weapons for the force.

• BUY - Displays the standard item and weapons list.
• SELL - Sells something from your inventory. Naturally, the selling price is always lower than the buying one.
• REPAIR - Repairs a broken item.
• DEALS - Accesses special items on sale.

Church Talking to the priest functions will allow healing the force, upgrading an unit or saving the game.

• RAISE: Revives killed units from your forces.
• CURE: Cures status ailments for a sum of money.
• PROMOTE: Once a character achieves level +10, it can be promoted to a different class, which will give them a number of advantages.
• SAVE: Saves the game exacly as it stands.

Headquarters The Headquarters is where the force assembles.

• ADVICE: Nova will give his useful advice for the upcoming battle.
• ITEM: Accesses the inventory.
• STATUS: Access each unit's status windows.
• JOIN: Choose your active party, as only twelve can take part in one battle at one time.

Battle Field

Shining Force also features battle fields, where the player moves the characters in turns across the scenario overlaid with a square grid, which can be seen as somewhat similar to chess. Battles are gained by either destroying every enemy, the Boss (which defeats all others) or move outside of the battle field map and some bonus' items are given if specific goals are met. Battles are lost if the leader of the force dies and the the game will switch back to the last accessible priest, losing half the Gold it was carrying. Pressing or will access the battle menu.

• ATTACK - Attacks an enemy if he's in range, which depends from the kind of weapon the unit has equipped.
• MAGIC - Accesses magic, if the unit knows it.
• ITEM - Accesses the inventory. Using DROP or EQUIP doesn't require a turn.
• STAY - Holds position without any kind of active action.

Pressing the button will make a white highliter box appear around the unit. Moving it to any unit and pressing or will access the character's stat windows. The latter has the extra of displaying their movement for the next turn. Pressing in an empty slot will access the Gme Command Options.

• MAP - Access the battlefield map, displaying the location of the force in green and the enemies in red.
• QUIT - Saves and quits the game.
• MESSAGE - Disables battle messages (level-ups and special items are still displayed).
• SPEED - Changes the text speed.

Pressing will make the white highlit return to the unit which is supposed to move.

Characters

The force is composed by various warriors, which will join at various locations of the game, some with specific tasks that need to be completed to access them. There are thirty characters in Shining Force.

Stats

Each character has their own set of stats, according to their class and which makes them skillfull in certain areas while weak in others. EXP is given by attacking enemies, using support or healing magic, or using items, and they'll gain levels accordingly. Like it was mentioned before, once an unit hits level +10, he or she can be promoted to an upgraded class, which will reset their level to 1 but will boost their stats as well.

Stat		Description
LV	Level	The current level, earning EXP will increase it.
HP	Health Points	Amount of life points.
AT	Attack	Amount of attack power.
DF	Defence	Amount of defence power.
AG	Agility	Attached to turn position (the higher agility, the sooner the unit moves).
MV	Movement	Amount of squares the unit can move (not directly linked).

The character's class determines what weapons they can equip or the spells they can have or will learn. There are nine types of weapons, not all within a type can be equipped by all, and fifteen types of spells, eight offensive and seven defensive, which use certain MP points to be cast.

Music

The Music was composed by Masahiko Yoshimura while the Sound Effects were programmed by Dogen Shibuya and Enzan Shibuya. For the 2004 remake, the composed switched to Naofumi Tsuruyama and Takuya Hanaoka. Two soundtracks were released.

• Shining Force Special Sound CD
• Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon OST

Credits

Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention

• Game Design: Hiroyuki Takahashi
• Scenario: Masaki Wachi, Yoshitaka Tamaki, Hiroyuki Takahashi
• Subscript: Masaki Wachi, Kenji Orimo, Haruki Kodera, Hiroyuki Takahashi
• Scenario Assistant: Ritsuko Hisasue, Tadashi Iwase
• Programmers: Yasuhiro Taguchi, Yoshinori Tagawa, "Okochama" Naitoh, Haruki Kodera
• Technical Support: Masumi Takimoto, Kiyoaki Matsumoto
• Character Design by: Yoshitaka Tamaki
• Graphics Directed by: Hidehiro Yoshida, Yoshitaka Tamaki
• Graphic Design: Hidehiro Yoshida, Yoshitaka Tamaki, Ryushiro Miyazaki, 1610. Nakashima, Hirotada Kakusaka, Mizuho Mochizuki, Yojiro Hirashita, Ryutaro Ishimatu
• Music Composed by: Masahiko Yoshimura
• Sound Effects: Dogen Shibuya, Enzan Shibuya
• Special Thanks to: Naoki Aoki, Kotaro Hayashida, Shiro Tsuchiya
• Directed by: Yasuhiro Taguchi, Kenji Orimo
• Promotion Directed by: Shinya Nishigaki
• Produced by: Hiroyuki Takahashi
• Created by: Sonic Co., Ltd.; Climax Co., Ltd.
• Presented by: Sega Enterprises, Ltd.

Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon

• Director: Keigo Kobayashi
• Planner: Akihiko Sato
• Programmer: Kiego Kobayashi, Kiyoaki Matsumoto, Takeshi Iwatani, Shinichi Kurokawa, Shinya Okazaki
• Graphic Designer: Kazuo Tsutsui, Seiji Hasuko, Katsuyuki Takanashi, Hirotada Kakusaka
• Graphic Designer: Shunsuke Kawano, Takaya Yoshida, Kiyotaka Motoyoshi, Hisae Kondou
• Music & Sound COmpose: Naofumi Tsuruyama, Takuya Hanaoka, Ippei Amano
• Story: Masaki Wachi
• Character Design, Yoshitaka Tamaki
• Project Manager: Shimpei Harada
• Special Thanks: Tadashi Tazeaki, Tsuyoshi Sawada, Satoshi Imai, Toyohisa Hiwatari
• Special Thanks: Yoshitsugu Natsume, Yasushi Nagumo, Masahiro Tanaka
• Special Thanks: Mizuho Sugimori, Kouji Sugimori, Shinobu Shindo, Emi Yamane
• Producer: Youichi Shimosato
• Executive Producer: Hisao Oguchi, Toshihiro Hagoshi, Kan Naitoh

Physical Scans

• 

  US Cover

• 

  US Cart

• 

  EU Cover