Shining Force

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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

Characters

The force is made by various warriors, which will join at various locations of the game, some with specific tasks that need to be completed to access them. Every character has their class and Races (Shining Force)#Shining Force)race, which determinates their stats, accessories and weapons that can be equipped, and magic that can be learnt. There are thirty characters in Shining Force: Max, Luke, Ken, Tao, Hanz, Lowe, Gort, Gong, Jogurt, Mae, Khris, Anri, Arthur, Balbaroy, Amon, Diane, Zylo, Pelle, Kokichi, Vankar, Guntz, Domingo, Earnest, Lyle, Bleu, Musashi, Alef, Torasu, Adam and Hanzou.

• There are seven Stats (Shining Force) in Shining Force: LV (level), HP (health points), MP (magic points), AT (attack power), DF (defence power), AG (agility, which determines their place in each turn), and MV (movement, which determines the amount of squares they are allowed each turn).
  • EXP is given by attacking enemies, using offensive, support or healing magic, or using items. The characters will gain levels accordingly and all their stats except MV are raised randomly. What stats each character is awarded more and less often is easy to pinpoint however. Because of the random nature of the level ups, many characters' performance changes from playthrough to playthrough. Like so, all characters have their independent strong and weak points, which make them unique even amongst the same types of units.
  • 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.
• Each character can carry up to four items of any kind, along with an accessory and a weapon equipped.
  • There are several items in Shining Force. Amongst them, the most important are Items (Shining Force)#Healing items) healing (related to stat restoring) and boosting (related to permanent stat increase).
  • There are only one type of accessories, rings and five main classes of weapons: Arrows and Launched Weapons (arrows, shells and shots), Axes, Polearms (not named) (lances, halberds and spears), Staves and Magical Weapons (Rods, Staves and Sticks) and Swords (katanas and swords). These can be equipped by everyone which shares a class, and has the objective of raising stats. Some have spells when used (though there's a chance they'll break).
• There are fifteen types of spells, eight offensive (Blaze, Freeze, Bolt, Desoul, Dispel, Muddle, Slow and Sleep) and seven defensive (Heal, Aura, Detox, Shield, Boost, Quick and Egress), which use certain MP points to be cast. Some can hit just one ally / enemy while others have an area of effect, and can hit several allies / enemies in a cross shape formation.

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 through the 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 but is mostly useless while in these fields.
• SEARCH - Searches while standing close to peculiar areas or objects. If the area or object doesn’t have anything attached to it, nothing will be found.
• ITEM - Accesses the inventory, the D-Pad highlights the item. Each character can carry one equipped weapon, along with four unsorted items or weapons.
  • 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 (Items and Weapons)
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.

Abbey Talking to the priest will allow healing the force, upgrading an character or saving the game.

• RAISE: Revives characters that were killed battle.
• CURE: Cures status ailments for a sum of money.
• PROMOTE: Once a character achieves level +10, he or she can be promoted to a different class, which will give them many advantages.
• SAVE: Saves the game exactly 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 character'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 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 character has equipped.
• MAGIC - Accesses magic, if the character 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 highlighter box appear around the character. Moving it to any character 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 Game 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 highlight return to the character which is supposed to move.

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

Also Released On

System	Game	Region	Date	Developer	Publisher
PC (1st release)	Sega Archives from USA Vol 3	Japan	1999
	Sega Smash Pack 2	US	2000		Activision
	Sega's Greatest Hits Vol 2	Europe			(unknown) (1st edition) Hasbro (2nd edition)
PC (2nd release)	Sonic Action 4 Pack	US	2001		Activision
PC (3rd release)	Sega Smash Pack 2	US	2000
PC (4th release)	Sega Smash Pack: Twin Pack	US	2002		Activision
Dreamcast	Sega Smash Pack	US	2001-05-02	Sega
GameBoy Advance	Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon (remake)	Europe	2004-04-30	Amusement Vision	THQ
		USA	2004-06-08		Atlus USA
		Japan	2004-08		SOJ
Wii (Virtual Console)	Shining Force (stand alone game, 800 points)	Japan	2007-07-10	Climax Entertainment, Sonic! Software Planning	Sega
		US	2007-07-23
		Europe	2007-08-03
PS3 / Xbox 360	Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection	US	2009-02-10	Backbone Entertainment	Sega
		Europe	2009-02-20
		AUS	2009-02-26

• The first release of the game for the Mega Drive was also released in the Asia and Brazil territories, by Sega of Japan and Tectoy respectively

Technical Information (Genesis)

ROM Size: 2MB
Sound Engine: Cube
Graphics: Unknown

Physical Scans

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  US cover

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  US cart

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  EU cover

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  JP cover