Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon review
May 31, 2016 16:57:40 GMT
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Post by Pimpjira on May 31, 2016 16:57:40 GMT
Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon is a great strategy title for the Game Boy Advance. It is still fun now even though the game is over 20 years old, and even this remake is over a decade old now. Shining Force was a great SRPG on the Sega Genesis and is one of the earlier games in the genre aside from Fire Emblem that started on the Famicom(NES). The GBA version is a well done remake that brings a number of additions to the Genesis original. New characters, battles, and improved visuals have been added to the remake along with some more extras.
Shining Force on the GBA as stated comes with a number of improvements but it stays true to the original so it still feels like a 1993 game, much in the way that Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon on the Nintendo DS still in large part feels like an NES game. If you aren't into older SRPG/JRPGs than you can probably take a pass on this one. But if enjoy other 16-bit era JRPGs I would say that this is worth checking out. This review is for the GBA remake but it also applies to the original version that is on a lot more platforms. It can be found on Wii Virtual Console, Steam, Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for PS3/360, and I'm pretty sure mobile as well.
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For anyone that played the original but not the remake the first thing that will be noticed is the graphics. The visuals had been given a nice upgrade from the Genesis version which doesn't look bad but the colors in that are a bit on the muddy and dark side. And to me at least(I've heard mixed views on this) the new character portraits look better. I haven't played the games back to back so I really can't recall how different the music might be, the music in Shining Force for me isn't that memorable anyway, it's fitting but doesn't stand out. Overall the presentation is pretty good. Atlus did a fine job localizing the games as well, it's been a while but I do not recall any typos in the text and the writing is well done.
The story isn't very deep and it is kinda cliche(revolves around the main character having amnesia) but it does have good characters and writing. Another difference to note here from the original is that Max, the main character does speak in the version where he was silent in the Genesis version. A lot of enjoyment though comes from recruiting all the characters in the game. They don't all make much of an impact on the story but you can talk to them in the hideout to find out their back stories and get a better feel of their personality. Recruiting everyone can take some work as you need to talk to everyone as it is quite easy to miss out on gaining a new ally.
Unlike other popular SRPGs like Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics you may walk around town and go to shops, talk to townspeople, etc more like in standard JRPGs. So recruiting most of the characters is done during that time, and not during battle. Each of your allies are useful in different ways as there are plenty of classes. You have the usual warriors, archers, mages, etc. And they can all promote as they get stronger. In quite a bit of ways the game has some similarties to Fire Emblem, down to the closeups during the attack phases. Glancing at a walkthrough now and then would possibly be for the best, even early on some of them are really missable.
The game is divided up in chapters that consist of getting your party ready and going into battle. The battles aren't incredibly deep but they are rewarding and can be fun. As usual with the genre the battles are grid based and armies take turns attacking each other. Turns are SPD based so characters take turns in order based on their stats akin to FFT, not Fire Emblem.There isn't a lot in the way of optional battles but if having trouble battles can be escaped from and players will keep the earned experience from the battle to come back and retry. This you'll have to do a lot if you want to max your characters but otherwise you shouldn't have to do it to often. Another reason to start a battle over might be to get a reward because in every battle there is a bonus reward if a certain condition is met which is stated at the start, such as win a battle in 10 turns.
When your allies fall in battle they won't die forever but reviving them is costly so you still want to try to keep them all alive. Equipment can be expensive to come by so you might want to hold on to all the money that you can. The difficulty is fairly average though, so unless new to the genre there isn't too much to worry about. I'd say it's a bit easier than the Fire Emblem games(with permadeath on in regards to the 3DS titles). If there is anything to really complain about is that some of the maps are too large which makes for too much time just spent moving characters around but it isn't much of an issue.
Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon is a very entertaining title, especially if you love SRPGs. The game has an average length but you'll probably miss out on some stuff the first play though and there is a new game+ option so there is plenty of replayability to keep you going for a while(or better yet maybe go on to the sequels). The main series as a whole can be recommended(as well as Shining the Holy Ark on the Saturn for dungeon crawler fans, it's one of the best) but the spin-offs vary in quality and most are not very good. Sega doesn't seem to care about bringing the new Shining games over anyway. It would be really nice if the series could make a comeback, although the developer of the game has been with Nintendo for some time now. Camelot(originally Sonic Software Planning) has been up to making Golden Sun and Mario sports titles mostly.
I suppose I will go ahead and give a rating:
4.5/5
If you expect more complexity in your SRPGs maybe knock off half a point.
Shining Force on the GBA as stated comes with a number of improvements but it stays true to the original so it still feels like a 1993 game, much in the way that Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon on the Nintendo DS still in large part feels like an NES game. If you aren't into older SRPG/JRPGs than you can probably take a pass on this one. But if enjoy other 16-bit era JRPGs I would say that this is worth checking out. This review is for the GBA remake but it also applies to the original version that is on a lot more platforms. It can be found on Wii Virtual Console, Steam, Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for PS3/360, and I'm pretty sure mobile as well.
For anyone that played the original but not the remake the first thing that will be noticed is the graphics. The visuals had been given a nice upgrade from the Genesis version which doesn't look bad but the colors in that are a bit on the muddy and dark side. And to me at least(I've heard mixed views on this) the new character portraits look better. I haven't played the games back to back so I really can't recall how different the music might be, the music in Shining Force for me isn't that memorable anyway, it's fitting but doesn't stand out. Overall the presentation is pretty good. Atlus did a fine job localizing the games as well, it's been a while but I do not recall any typos in the text and the writing is well done.
The story isn't very deep and it is kinda cliche(revolves around the main character having amnesia) but it does have good characters and writing. Another difference to note here from the original is that Max, the main character does speak in the version where he was silent in the Genesis version. A lot of enjoyment though comes from recruiting all the characters in the game. They don't all make much of an impact on the story but you can talk to them in the hideout to find out their back stories and get a better feel of their personality. Recruiting everyone can take some work as you need to talk to everyone as it is quite easy to miss out on gaining a new ally.
Unlike other popular SRPGs like Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics you may walk around town and go to shops, talk to townspeople, etc more like in standard JRPGs. So recruiting most of the characters is done during that time, and not during battle. Each of your allies are useful in different ways as there are plenty of classes. You have the usual warriors, archers, mages, etc. And they can all promote as they get stronger. In quite a bit of ways the game has some similarties to Fire Emblem, down to the closeups during the attack phases. Glancing at a walkthrough now and then would possibly be for the best, even early on some of them are really missable.
The game is divided up in chapters that consist of getting your party ready and going into battle. The battles aren't incredibly deep but they are rewarding and can be fun. As usual with the genre the battles are grid based and armies take turns attacking each other. Turns are SPD based so characters take turns in order based on their stats akin to FFT, not Fire Emblem.There isn't a lot in the way of optional battles but if having trouble battles can be escaped from and players will keep the earned experience from the battle to come back and retry. This you'll have to do a lot if you want to max your characters but otherwise you shouldn't have to do it to often. Another reason to start a battle over might be to get a reward because in every battle there is a bonus reward if a certain condition is met which is stated at the start, such as win a battle in 10 turns.
When your allies fall in battle they won't die forever but reviving them is costly so you still want to try to keep them all alive. Equipment can be expensive to come by so you might want to hold on to all the money that you can. The difficulty is fairly average though, so unless new to the genre there isn't too much to worry about. I'd say it's a bit easier than the Fire Emblem games(with permadeath on in regards to the 3DS titles). If there is anything to really complain about is that some of the maps are too large which makes for too much time just spent moving characters around but it isn't much of an issue.
Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon is a very entertaining title, especially if you love SRPGs. The game has an average length but you'll probably miss out on some stuff the first play though and there is a new game+ option so there is plenty of replayability to keep you going for a while(or better yet maybe go on to the sequels). The main series as a whole can be recommended(as well as Shining the Holy Ark on the Saturn for dungeon crawler fans, it's one of the best) but the spin-offs vary in quality and most are not very good. Sega doesn't seem to care about bringing the new Shining games over anyway. It would be really nice if the series could make a comeback, although the developer of the game has been with Nintendo for some time now. Camelot(originally Sonic Software Planning) has been up to making Golden Sun and Mario sports titles mostly.
I suppose I will go ahead and give a rating:
4.5/5
If you expect more complexity in your SRPGs maybe knock off half a point.
