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Overview
Shining Force III
Prologue
Long a neutral haven for commerce, the peaceful floating city of Saraband lies trapped between the mighty rival kingdoms of the Republic and the Empire. In recent years sinister cults of masked monks, Byzantine political machination, and strange and ancient magic have threatened to disrupt the delicate neutrality that this thriving city-state has always striven to maintain. Now, with the abduction of the Emperor from within the very walls of Saraband, the diplomatic crisis seems desitined to explode into armed conflict. In desperation to prevent this quiet capital from becoming embroiled in a regrettable and profitless war, the call has gone out for a force of young warriors to stem the growing tide of unrest, a force dedicated to preserving peace in a dark age - a Shining Force.
Case Description
The Shining Series Returns
The Emperor has been kidnapped and the Republic has been framed for the crime. Now Empire and Republic seem headed for war. Gather up to 27 controllable characters and explore a detailed 3D polygonal world as you attempt to save the peace.
Launch into tactical combat so refined that you can even take terrain effects and friendships between characters into account. Cast powerful magicks and blow your mind with the astounding visuals. Shining Force III is a triumph of role-playing adventure.
- Savor over 40 hours of in-depth gameplay.
- Enter a powerful story that will pull you in and never let go.
- Master detailed tactical combat - you can even use terrain, special abilities and more to your advantage during a fight.
- Rotate the camera at will to view lush 3D polygonal landscapes.
- Control up to 12 characters at once.
1-player | 3D Controller Support | 223 Blocks Memory
| Released: August 1998 (NTSC)
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Impressions (Click to open and close)
First Impressions
18 August 2008
Shining Force III is quite a unique title by today's standards. The originals literally defined the Genesis (or Mega Drive if you prefer) as a platform for quality strategy role-playing. You couldn't get it on Super NES and that made it all the sweeter for staunch Sega fanatics. Shining Force II was actually my very first RPG. It was 1998 and I was almost 14 years old. The only games I had really played were the Sonic titles (I owned all of them) and obscure, niche games. I had no clue what RPG meant, but the guy who sold the game to me told me it's a long game. Boy, did I really not have a clue! It took me 80 hours to beat it the first time, then I played it again in 50, and then yet again in 30--all in a row. What bliss!
But let's talk Shining Force III. Could it possibly hold up to my nostalgic memories of the great Shining Force II? Though the game was fragmented into three parts telling one side three times of the same story, for which we only received one of outside Japan, it's very impressionable. As mentioned earlier, strategy RPGs are hard to come by nowadays and this one is quite expensive for a retro title.
The game has a flow like this: lots of dialog -> exploring a town -> fighting a battle or two -> rinse and repeat. I'm just starting on Chapter 4 (out of 6 total) and the game hasn't really strayed from this pattern, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The dialog is somewhat poorly written and toned down to accommodate younger players, which doesn't really make a lot of sense seeing as how only a few thousand copies were pressed and only die-hard Sega fans were bound to pick it up. Dialog aside, the story is quite interesting thanks to interesting characters.
If you're lucky enough to be one of those with a 3D controller (Sega's answer to Nintendo 64's analog entry), you can move Synbios around everywhere with precise movements. You can also rename Synbios if you wanted to--I called him Kousuke--I like the name. The game is definitely best when it comes to battles. They feel just like they used to, except now they're in 3D. Somehow, Camelot (yes, they did Golden Sun later on) managed to make the battle sequences load just as fast as their cartridge prequel cousins, a true feat for a low-speed CD-ROM era.
The game is definitely holding up, but is it worth the $70-$90 price it fetches on eBay? Keep checking back for more impressions, more media, and continued coverage on this enchanting title.
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Final Impressions
23 August 2008
Since I last posted impressions of Shining Force III, I've made it all the way to the last battle where I'm currently stuck. It's a pretty difficult one, but if you die, everybody keeps their levels and you can just restock with all the gold you earned from the enemies defeated previously (which is to say a lot of gold).
I mentioned last time that the dialog was poor, but it did get better. The main problem was all of the uninteresting political talk about royal egos (literally). However, I still stand by my comment that it seems to be toned down for a younger audience despite its teen rating--questionable, seeing as there is no blood or swearing.
One thing that I remembered about playing Shining Force is that these games make me feel good about myself. If you've played a Shining Force title developed by Camelot, you probably know what I'm talking about. There's just something about its chess-like nature mixed with manga-inspired art and colors that really gets me excited to battle. I've not played any of the recent PS2 Shining Force games, but they don't really look anything like these old ones and are not even developed by Camelot. Sega of Japan, are you reading this? Bring Camelot back to Shining Force!
On the last couple of notes for these final, pre-review impressions, I'd like to point out that I thought Shining Force III was going to be a relatively short experience (such as it has seemed), but my timer has already passed 40 hours. No doubt some of those hours leaving the game sitting on while I make updates on SRP, but 40 nonetheless! And finally, forcibly making me use my underdeveloped B-team to fight a whole squad makes me want to cry. I'll tell you about more about that during the review.
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Stay tuned and check back daily during August '08 for updates on our celebrating Shining Force III's tenth anniversary.
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