Shining Force

n/a

Shining Force
System(s): Sega Mega Drive, iOS devices
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Climax Entertainment, Sonic Co.
Sound driver: Cube
Genre: RPG (JP box), Simulation (Sega of Japan master list)
ESRB PEGI USK

Shining Force, known as Shining Force: Kamigami no Isan (シャイニング・フォース 神々の遺産) in Japan, and otherwise known as Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention, 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 series. Its development was a conjoined effort between the independent studio Climax Entertainment and Sonic Co., 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, but this title is not considered to be canon to the series even though the story in common between the two titles seems to be more accurate than the original translation. Other media associated with this game include an encyclopedia, several game guides, a soundtrack release, a manga series (3 volumes) and The Curse of Zeon, a six part story published in Sonic the Comic (issues #73-78).

Game Development

Consumer Development Studio #4 (Sega CD4) was a division of Sega, which was reformed and changed their name to Sonic Co. with the objective of creating a new RPG series for the company. Hiroyuki and Shugo Takahashi were programmers at Climax Entertainment who were recruited to work under the new founded section, albeit independently from Sega.

The team was small, with only four people. Not helping matters in the slightest, Sega gave the team the bare minimum of funding offered to non in-house developers. The Takahashi brothers then asked their former colleagues at Climax to help out with technical support, making the project a conjoined effort between the two teams.

Shining in the Darkness was a success and a sequel of some sorts was instantly demanded, though Sega still gave the team the minimum funding once again. Takahashi believed that most RPGs of the time only focused on telling an interesting story while treating battles and the coupled system as a tacked on extra, and he wanted to challenge that notion, making a game with an engaging battle system for once.

Shining Force was inspired by a relatively obscure Japanese PC 1988 game called Silver Ghost. 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 had worked on Dragon Quest previously, and had wondered how the battle system could be improved. Silver Ghost and the tiled chess-like movement of units typical of tactical RPGs provided the answer, as it introduced the concepts of distance and range.

Story

Chapter 1 - Runefaust Invasion

Max is a young swordsman who trains under the wing of Lord Varios, in the Kingdom of Guardiana. One day, the King informs them that the Gate of the Ancients, a place Guardiana has watched over for centuries, might have been reached by the forces of Runefaust. Max accepts the King’s plea to leave with a small force assembled by the adviser Nova to stop their antics and they are successful, but as the commander of Runefaust’ troops dies, he laughs at them, as Lord Kane from Runefaust should be invading Guardiana by now. Max quickly returns to Guardiana, just in time watch Varios being killed by Kane and then leaving. The King, also heavily wounded, reveals that the Gate can only be opened with a key, and instructs Max to find it before Runefaust and to discover the motivations behind their actions. The King also dies and Mae, distraught by her father Varios’ death, joins the force.

Max heads to the Kingdom of Alterone, which is an ally of Guardiana and lies close to the northwest. There, he finds that the King was threatened about his Kingdom’s safeness by Kane and is thrown to prison. Max is saved by Khris and the force heads back to the castle to talk with the King, which begs forgiveness and excuses himself about being under Kane’s power. He gives Max a last advice, a hint to a secret passage and to head to Rindo and then Manarina as there’s someone there that can help him.

Chapter 2 - Spirit of the Holy Spring

The Force reaches Rindo, to find that Kane has bought all the ships and has sailed away. There is only one ship left, which belongs to the Mayor, who doesn’t allow them to have it.

Defeated, the Force takes the advice of Alterone’s King and heads off to Manarina, which has an Arcane College where the best mages are trained, and where Anri, the Guardiana King’s daughter, is studying magic. There, Max finds Anri and tells her about her father and Guardiana. After some denial and some moments alone, Anri joins the Force. Max then speaks to Otrant, which informs the Force that to get the key to the Gate of the Ancients before Runefaust, they need to retrieve the Orb of Light from the Cavern of Darkness. The Force does so and when they return with the object, Otrant tells them they should use it on the Pool of the Ancients, which is tied with the Gate somehow. Max uses the Orb, and the Spirit of the Holy Spring tells Max that the Legacy of the Ancients is an evil being that has been sealed away for 1,000 years and someone called Darksol is searching for the key to unlock that seal.

The Force returns to Rindo, where they find that the Mayor’s grandson is missing. They head towards the place he was last seen in, the new Circus. The Force enters and is surprised by an horde of monsters. After defeating them and saving the child, the Mayor gives them his ship in gratitude. The Force is ready to set sail but then they are greeted by Mishaela, a witch of some sorts who burns the ship down. The Force returns to the Mayor, to ask for more advice. He tells them the other town with ships nearby is Uranbatol, which is to the northeast. Since it’s a long way, he tells them to stop at Shade Abbey first. There Force meets two bird warriors, Balbaroy and Amon, and they’re all caught up in a battle by Darksol. After being victorious, the two birdmen take them to Butstoke.

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 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 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 or defensive 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 a 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 healing items (related to stat restoring while on battles mostly) and boosting items (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.

Portrait	Description
	Luke is a valuable warrior, especially early on, as one of the first members to join the party in Guardiana. His movement is unaffected by mountains and forests, and his attack power is great. He gets a decent amount of HP and good defense, making him a great frontliner. Class: WARR --> GLDR Magic Spells: None
	Ken is the first knight picked up in Guardiana, and very good during the early stages of the game. Later in the game, his noted stat becomes HP, as he gets loads and loads of hit points. He does have a fair attack and defense growth; however, as better knights are recruited, Ken will become overshadowed by their stronger stat growth overall. Class: KNT --> PLDN Magic Spells: None
	Although Tao is the first mage acquired in the game, she is useful throughout the game. Her Blaze spell, when fully maxed out, becomes extremely powerful. Along with that, she learns Boost (at a very late level though), which increases a unit's attack power. As is the case with most spellcasters, Tao suffers from low HP and defense growth; keep her protected in battle or else she'll fall to enemy attacks quickly. Class: MAGE --> WIZD Magic Spells: Blaze/Blaze 2/Blaze 3/Blaze 4, Sleep, Dispel, Boost
	Hans, the first archer who joins in Guardiana, does have his advantages in battle. Early in the game, his arrows are valuable for dealing damage from far away. Eventually though, Hans will become significantly overpowered by the various other ranged units who join the force. Class: ACHR --> BWMS Magic Spells: None
	Lowe appears very early in the game, tagging along with the first members leaving from Guardiana. At first, his healing spells go a long way in keeping your party members alive through the early missions, but becomes less useful as more powerful healers join the party. Class: HEAL --> VICR Magic Spells: Cure/Cure 2/Cure 3/Cure 4, Slow, Detox, Quick
	Gong, found sitting on a tree stump near a cabin outside Guardiana, is a cross between a fighter and a healer. He can master the Heal spell and learn Aura. Although his spells aren't incredible, Gong redeems himself with a good attack growth. In battles, he can both engage the enemy and heal the party whenever necessary. After promotion, Gong becomes very powerful. Class: MONK --> MMNK Magic Spells: Heal/Heal 2/Heal 3/Heal 4, Aura
	Jogurt is a quirky little hamster-like creature. The player can pick him/her/it up in Pao on the first visit by checking the building at the town's upper-left corner. Jogurt's stats never change, meaning he can only deal 1 HP damage at most in battle. However, if Jogurt manages to kill an enemy, a Jogurt Ring will appear in the inventory. Any character equipped with a Jogurt Ring will be transformed into a Jogurt in battle. The Jogurt Ring doesn't affect stats or abilities in any way; it's just a neat little novelty item.
	Domingo is a powerful flying squid-type creature obtained by taking the Domingo Egg from the laboratory in Mararina. Giving the egg to one of the men in the Pao item shop will result in the egg being incubated and Domingo being hatched. Domingo is easily the best spellcaster in the game. Freeze, once completely mastered, can devastate enemies with its ice damage. Furthermore, Domingo's HP and defense trumps the other spellcasters. Class: MGCR Magic Spells: Freeze/Freeze 2/Freeze 3/Freeze 4, Muddle, Desoul, Boost
	When Musashi first joins the party in Prompt, he will already be fully promoted in his final state. Once he has been fully leveled up, his prowess will truly shine in battle. Fitted with high attack and defense, Musashi can cut down enemies without taking much damage himself. The only problem with Musashi is his unfortunate lack of mobility and speed. Class: SMR Magic Spells: None
	Alef is a wizard from Prompt who joins the party in the Tower of the Ancients along with Torasu. She is a Bolt specialist who is also competent in Blaze and Freeze. Her physical stats are slightly below Anri's, but her magic is a bit better. Unfortunately, Alef suffers from low HP and defense. Class: MAGE --> WIZD Magic Spells: Blaze/Blaze 2, Freeze/Freeze 2, Bolt/Bolt 2/Bolt 3/Bolt 4, Desoul
	Torasu is a priest from Prompt who joins the part in the Tower of the Ancients along with Alef. He is the definitive healer for a number of reason; not only does he master Heal, but he is the only character in the game to master Aura 4, which heals every single party member on the battlefield. He is slow to level up, however. Class: HEAL --> VICR Magic Spells: Heal/Heal 2/Heal 3/Heal 4, Aura/Aura 2/Aura 3/Aura 4, Detox, Shield
	Adam is a robot who joins the party in the lost civilization of Metapha, where he leads the group to Chaos, who has been reprogrammed by Darksol to carry out his evil designs. Unfortunately, Adam's orders do nothing to turn him. Adam joins at level 9 and has poor mobility but strong attack and defense growth attributes. Class: RBT --> CYBG Magic Spells: None
	Hanzou joins your party very late in the game; upon arriving in Runefaust, examine a bush with a yellow flower to find him. Hanzou is one of the most useful fighters in the game. After a few level-ups, his stats grow rapidly, turning him into quite a deadly ninja indeed. Class: NINJ Magic Spells: Dispel, Sleep, Shield, Desoul

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. The buttons and/or are used to access menus and to confirm actions and is to return on the menu or for cancelling options.

Exploration Field Menu

• TALK - While standing close to someone, it will start a conversation.
• MAGIC - Accesses magic but is mostly useless while in these fields.
• SEARCH - Searches the area where Max is turned to. 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.

Recurrent Locations

Shop Menu (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 Menu

Talking to a priest will allow curing or reviving the force, upgrading a character's class or saving the game.

• SAVE: Saves the game exactly as it stands.
• 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.
• RAISE: Revives characters that were killed in battle.

Headquarters Menu

The Headquarters is where the force assembles. It has three rooms, a vestibule of some sort, where talking to Nova will access the Headquarters Menu, a red carpet room, where the active force waits ready to march, and a bar to the back, which serves as a common room for the reserves.

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

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. As an extra, 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 the Force was carrying.

Battle Menu

Pressing or will access the battle menu. All of the options except Stay will enter a fight screen animation. Pressing START will hide the status windows, both while idle on the battle field or while in a fight screen animation.

• ATTACK - Attacks an enemy if he's in range, which depends from the kind of weapon the character has equipped. Characters can fail their attacks and sometimes they can attack twice.
• MAGIC - Accesses magic, if the character knows it, according to Shining (Strategy Titles)#Range and Targeting|range and targeting]].
• ITEM - Accesses the inventory. Using DROP or EQUIP doesn't require a turn.
• STAY - Holds position without any kind of active action.

Game Command Options Menu

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.

• Shining Force Special Sound CD

Production Credits

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.

Also Released On

System	Game	Region	Date	Developer	Publisher
PC (1st release)	Sega Archives from USA Vol.3	Japan	2000-09-23
	Sega Smash Pack 2	US	2000		Activision
	Sega's Greatest Hits Vol 2	Europe	2000		(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
Game Boy 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	Sega Mega Drive Ultimate 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

Manuals

• JP Manual ^(info) ()

Physical Scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source Mega Force (FR) 95 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 91 Player One (FR) 94 Power Play (DE) 89 Power Unlimited (NL) 89

	92
Based on 5 reviews

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 70 Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 78 Console Mania (IT) 89 Digitiser (UK) PAL 90 Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1 (RU) 70 Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide (UK) 91 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 73 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 78 Gamers (DE) 87 Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J 80 Joypad (FR) PAL 92 Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J 85 Mega (UK) PAL 92 Megablast (DE) 77 Mega Force (FR) 95 Mega Fun (DE) NTSC-U 87 MegaTech (UK) PAL 90 Mean Machines Sega (UK) PAL 90 Player One (FR) 94 Play Time (DE) PAL 90 Power Up! (UK) 92 Power Play (DE) 89 Power Unlimited (NL) 89 Sega Magazin (DE) 86 Sega Power (UK) PAL 89 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-J 92 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 92 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 93 Sega Zone (UK) PAL 86 Sega Force (SE) 84 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 88 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 85 Video Games (DE) 88

	86
Based on 33 reviews

Shining Force

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, EU
Cover

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, Asia
Cover

External Links

• Official website on Sega.com
• Shining Force on Apple.com
• Shining Force Central, SFC Guide, Guide 2, Gamefaqs (complementary data)
• Game Development: Interview with Hiroyuki Takahashi Developers' History Article Silver Ghost