Shining in the Darkness

n/a

NTSC-U/PAL NTSC-J
Shining in the Darkness
System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Virtual Console, Steam
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega, Climax Entertainment M2
Genre: RPG
Number of players: 1
Official in-game languages: 日本語 English Português
Release Date RRP Code JP 1991-03-29 ¥8,7008,700 G-5506 US 1991-09 $79.9579.95 1310 EU 1991 1310 UK 1991-10 £49.9949.99 1310 BR 1997-09 041260 AS 199x JP ▼ 2007-06-12 700pts700 US ▼ 2007-08-13 800pts800 EU ▼ 2007-09-07 800pts800 AU ▼ 2007-09 800pts800 US ▼ 2011-01-26 $2.992.99 71161 EU ▼ 2011-01-26 €2.492.49 71161 DE ▼ 2011-01-26 €2.492.49 71161 UK ▼ 2011-01-26 £1.991.99 71161 AU ▼ 2011-01-26 $3.493.49 71161 US ▼ 2019-02-01 $0.990.99 71161 EU ▼ 2019-02-01 €0.990.99 71161 DE ▼ 2019-02-01 €0.990.99 71161 UK ▼ 2019-02-01 £0.790.79 71161 AU ▼ 2019-02-01 $1.351.35 71161 US ▼ 2019-02-01 $0.990.99 71161 EU ▼ 2019-02-01 €0.990.99 71161 DE ▼ 2019-02-01 €0.990.99 71161 UK ▼ 2019-02-01 £0.790.79 71161 AU ▼ 2019-02-01 $1.351.35 71161

Shining in the Darkness, called Shining and the Darkness (シャイニング＆ザ・ダクネス) in Japan, is a 1991 game by Sega and Climax Entertainment for the Sega Mega Drive. It is the first game in Sega's Shining series. Unlike most of the other games in the franchise, it is a 3D dungeon crawler RPG.

Story

Map

You are the son of Mortred, a warrior who was last seen near a dungeon known as the Labyrinth in the Kingdom of Thornwood with Princess Jessa. King Drake summons you to go find her, but just as that is about to happen, the evil Dark Sol appears and offers a ransom: Mortred and the Princess for the kingdom.

It is now up to you to rescue the two, defeat Dark Sol, and save the kingdom.

Gameplay

Dungeon and battle

Status screens

The game is a first-person dungeon crawler. It takes place in three areas: the Castle, the Town, and the Labyrinth. The Castle contains the King and his Court, and it is where plot progression usually takes place. The Town contains shops where the player can buy weapons, armor, and items, save the game, heal or revive in the church, and talk to townsfolk. In the Castle and Town, use and to navigate and or to interact. The Labyrinth is the game's dungeon and where all the battles take place.

The Labyrinth is a 3D maze. moves forward, and turn, and moves backward. or opens an icon-based menu that allows the player to search the area, manage items, or check the status of members of the party. dismisses menus. Enemy encounters happen randomly throughout the Labyrinth. Battles are turn-based and conducted through a similar menu. Characters gain experience and gold from defeating enemies. After earning enough experience, they gain levels that increase their statistics. Statistics include:

• IQ: The character's intelligence, which affects the character's resistance to enemy magic and the damage of his or her spells.
• Speed: Determines how often the character gets a turn in combat.
• Luck: The probability that the character will strike a critical hit. Also the character's immunity to ailments such as poison.
• Attack: The character's attack strength, which is augmented by weapons.
• Defense: The character's defensive strength, which is augmented by armor pieces.

If the main character dies in battle, the player is taken back to the church in the town with half the gold. If another character dies, he or she can be revived at the church in town.

The player is initially alone but gains two additional party members early in the game. Additionally, the dungeon contains three characters in need of rescue. Rescuing any or all of the three is optional, and the story changes depending on whether or not the player locates and returns each of these characters to safety.

The Labyrinth has five levels. After completing the four Trials of the Ancients (Strength, Wisdom, Courage and Truth) in the first level, the player gains access to the remaining levels of the Labyrinth, called the Labyrinth Proper.

Characters

	Main Character
	The main character is named by the player. Unlike the protagonists of the Shining Force name, he has no default name if the player chooses not enter a name, though he is called "Hiro" in the game data before his name is replaced by the player's name. He is a knight and cannot use magic. He has the highest strength and hit points but the lowest intelligence, speed, and defense. He has the ability to try to run from an encounter.
	Milo Brax
	Milo is a healer who learns defensive and support spells. He has the highest luck. Magic spells Spell Level Acquired 1 2 3 4 Heal Initially learned Level 7 Level 21 Level 29 Vision Level 3 — — — Detox Level 5 Level 15 — — Blast Level 9 Level 17 Level 23 Level 32 Quick Level 12 Level 18 — — Burst Level 14 Level 20 Level 27 Level 34 Screen Level 16 Level 25 — — Revive Level 20 Level 37 — — Desoul Level 23 Level 33 — —
	Pyra Myst
	Pyra is a mage who learns powerful offensive spells. She has low attack power but high speed and defense. She can be equipped with whips, which hit multiple targets in one turn, or staves, which are higher power but can only attack one enemy at a time. Magic spells Spell Level Acquired 1 2 3 4 View Initially learned — — — Slow Initially learned Level 14 — — Blaze Level 2 Level 8 Level 18 Level 31 Sleep Level 4 Level 17 — — Freeze Level 6 Level 13 Level 24 Level 35 Heal Level 8 Level 22 — — Egress Level 12 — — — Bolt Level 15 Level 27 Level 36 Level 44 Muddle Level 17 Level 42 — — Peace Level 19 — — — Boost Level 22 Level 34 — —

History

Development

Shining in the Darkness was a joint venture developed by Sega's newly founded Sonic Co. and a team at Climax Entertainment, headed by Hiroyuki Takahashi, a rising star in the world of RPG development. Takahashi was seen as a good fit for the project because of his previous involvement in Enix's popular Dragon Quest series. However, corporate reasoning gave Shining and the Darkness a minimal development budget and a small four-man team, meaning that Climax was responsible for the bulk of the game's development.

“	Because we were on such a tight budget, apart from the programming and graphics, I did nearly all of the work on Shining in the Darkness. I suppose the basic concept behind Darkness was "realism." I thought it would be exciting if the player could actually travel to a fantasy world and walk around, exploring old houses, dungeons and other places. It was in essence a continuation of the sense of excitement you'd get from moving through the dungeons in older games such as Wizardry. By "reality," I'm not talking about true realism – I mean the feeling that you really are progressing through actual houses and dungeons, and the same thing applied to the battles.	„
— Hiroyuki Takahashi

Nevertheless, Shining in the Darkness was a success for the company and led to other entries in the Shining franchise, most notably the next game, Shining Force.

Versions

Localised names

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English	Shining in the Darkness	Shining in the Darkness
English (US)	Shining in the Darkness	Shining in the Darkness
Japanese	シャイニング＆ザ・ダクネス	Shining and the Darkness

Production credits

• Written and Produced by: Hiroyuki Takahashi
• Special Effects: Yasuhiro Taguchi
• Assistant Director: Yoshinori Tagawa, Bob Timbello
• Artwork and Design: Hidehiro Yoshida
• Outline and Storyboards: Yoshitaka Tamaki
• Music: Masahiko Yoshimura
• Visual Support: Ryutaro Ishimatsu
• Technical Support: Haruki Kodera
• Director: Kan Naitoh
• Special Thanks: Media Mixture, Mad Cap
• Executive Producer: Sega Enterprises
• Created by: Climax

• Japanese cover artist: Yoshitaka Tamaki

Source:

Sega TV Game Genga Gallery

File:Sega TV Game Genga Gallery.pdf

Digital manuals

• 

  Steam manual

Magazine articles

Main article: Shining in the Darkness/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Mega Drive print advert in Computer & Video Games (UK) #120: "November 1991" (1991-10-15)

Ad with quotes from Hiroyuki Takahashi and Kan Naitoh in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1991-03: "March 1991" (1991-02-08)
also published in:

• Mega Drive Fan (JP) #14: "March 1991" (1991-02-08)

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1991-04: "April 1991" (1991-03-08)
also published in:

• Mega Drive Fan (JP) #15: "April 1991" (1991-03-08)

Advertisement on bottom half of page in Mega Drive Fan (JP) #16: "May 1991" (1991-04-08)

Artwork

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Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 70 Ação Games (BR) NTSC-U (BR) 80 Aktueller Software Markt (DE) 80 Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 83 Consoles + (FR) 68 Console XS (UK) PAL 93 Cool Gamer (RU) 50 Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 8 (RU) 80 Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide (UK) 69 Games-X (UK) NTSC-J 91 Games-X (UK) 80 Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J 90 Joypad (FR) 93 Joystick (FR) 91 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) 75 Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J 86 Mega (UK) PAL 89 Mega Force (FR) PAL 95 MegaTech (UK) 72 Mean Machines (UK) PAL 69 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 72 Player One (FR) 89 Play Time (DE) 75 Power Play (DE) 85 Sega Power (UK) NTSC-J 100 Sega Power (UK) PAL 92 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 93 Sega Pro (UK) 90 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 88 Sega Force (UK) PAL 90 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 79 Super Gaming (US) 50 Tilt (FR) 85 Tricks Gold (RU) 85 VideoGames & Computer Entertainment (US) 80 Video Games (DE) 85

	82
Based on 36 reviews

Shining in the Darkness

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual PCB

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart Manual PCB

Mega Drive, BR
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, AS†

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 4d2785bc MD5 522b689a1b2f0ea8578fa9d888554b82 SHA-1 4e10c90199d6edd2030a4ba1c42c7c166bf309ec	1MB	1991-07	Cartridge (US/EU)
✔	CRC32 496af51c MD5 380741cee5ff1c89498270d45af7521a SHA-1 c09ff5bcee1a29a48c65be4ad584708b85ca549b	1MB	1991-03	Cartridge (JP)
✔	CRC32 3ee2bbc4 MD5 5bdb8286d071ec744df1ef92529156d5 SHA-1 08c6e884d48329c45d9f090aeea03efd4c1918c0	1MB	1997-06	Cartridge (BR)

External links

• Sega of Japan Virtual Console pages: Mega Drive
• Nintendo catalogue pages: US, UK, AU
• Shining in the Darkness on Steam