Shining (series)
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Shining is a series of fantasy console games developed by Sega. The series can be thought of as Sega's main venture into the fantasy genre. The first game, Shining in the Darkness can be compared to the early Might and Magic games or the Wizardry series, in that the game is a 3D dungeon crawler with randomly encountered, turn-based battles. The next game released in the series was Shining Force, which can be compared to the Fire Emblem series, especially Shining Force's contemporary titles in the series, because of its turn-based strategy style with battle scenes acted out with sprites. Other spin-offs include Shining Soul, which can be considered a Roguelike.
It can be argued that the Shining series started as an attempt by Sega to cover all of its bases on their consoles as far as the unusual gameplay genres, because it emulated styles that Nintendo and other developers pioneered. Over time though, the series has found a following and has carved its own niche, as there are newer releases not found on Sega consoles.
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[edit] Dungeon crawler titles
In the dungeon crawler titles of the series (Shining in the Darkness and Shining the Holy Ark), the player takes control of a much smaller team. Battles work very similarly to those of Dragon Quest, Mother, and the fellow Sega RPG series Phantasy Star, in that they are first person and the player is placed in a position where the hero and team mates would be. Shining in the Darkness is the first game in the Shining series, and is a very simple labyrinth exploration game, with a simplified non explorable town and world map, where choices are made through the use of a cursor system. The much later game, Shining the Holy Ark for the Sega Saturn, was released immediately prior to Shining Force III, and while it is also a dungeon crawler, it features far expanded exploribility over the first title of the series.
[edit] Strategy titles
For the strategy games of the series (Shining Force, Shining Force Gaiden, Shining Force Gaiden 2, Shining Force II, Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict, Shining Force CD [a remake of Shining Force Gaiden and Shining Force Gaiden II with more features and extra battles] and Shining Force III), the player generally takes charge of a hero who ultimately has a goal of defeating the evil that is plaguing the earth at the time. Along the way the hero meets many characters who "join the Shining Force" (the name of the hero's army). The games limit the number of characters who can enter any one battle at a time, generally to about a dozen. The player is only in control of unique troops, there are no generic footmen, archers, or cavalry. Because of this, the player is generally in control of a much smaller number of characters, often twelve, rather than sometimes over a hundred in some games such as Langrisser.
[edit] Action RPG titles
The third broad category of Shining games is the "action RPG" set of titles. This incoporates: Shining Wisdom, Shining Soul, Shining Soul II, Shining Force Neo, Shining Tears, Shining Force EXA and the recently released Shining Wind.
[edit] Connections between games
Most of the strategy incarnations of the game are related in some ways. Often they reference each other (frequently during discussion about the Greater Devils), or characters are carried over. Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict, and Shining Force II are arguably two of the most related games, having both characters and locations strongly in common, such as the character Hawel, a playable mage in Final Conflict, and Kazin's mentor in Shining Force II. On the same note, Final Conflict is also strongly related to the first Shining Force game, both sharing the character Max. Final Conflict is very largly viewed as a sort of missing link between Shining Force and Shining Force II. The final non-remake strategy game released, Shining Force III, can also be connected through a prominent character in Shining Force, Princess (and later Queen) Anri, who is also a cross over in Shining Force Gaiden. The most notable connections between the strategy and non-strategy incarnations can be found between Shining Wisdom and Shining Force II and between Shining the Holy Ark and Shining Force III. In Shining Wisdom, the elf-cleric Sarah and elf-mage Kazin make an important appearance doing a supporting role in the story and connecting it with Shinning Force II. In Shining the Holy Ark, one of the main characters of Shining Force III, Julian, is just a child, whose father disappears in Galm's Mansion. He blames Galm for his father's death and this serves as a segue into his motivation for becoming a Mercenary, leaving Enrich, and joining the main group in Shining Force III Scenario 1, which would, through a series of dramatic events lead to him being one of the focal characters in Scenario 3.
[edit] The Games
This is a full list of Shining games:
| Date of Release |
Title | System | Notes |
| 1991 | Shining in the Darkness | Sega Genesis | |
| 1992 | Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention | Sega Genesis | |
| 1992 | Shining Force Gaiden | Sega Game Gear | Released in America and Europe as part of Shining Force CD |
| 1994 | Shining Force Gaiden 2 | Sega Game Gear | Released in the US as Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya |
| 1994 | Shining Force II: Ancient Sealing | Sega Genesis | |
| 1995 | Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict | Sega Game Gear | Never officially released in America, however fan translations are available. |
| 1995 | Shining Force CD | Sega CD | Contains the first two Game Gear games plus two bonuses. |
| 1996 | Shining Wisdom | Sega Saturn | |
| 1997 | Shining the Holy Ark | Sega Saturn | |
| 1998 | Shining Force III | Sega Saturn | The game was divided into three scenarios, only the first was available in America or Europe. |
| 2003 | Shining Soul | Game Boy Advance | |
| 2004 | Shining Soul II | Game Boy Advance | |
| 2004 | Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon | Game Boy Advance | An enhanced remake of Shining Force. |
| 2004 | Shining Tears | PlayStation 2 | |
| 2005 | Shining Force Neo | PlayStation 2 | |
| 2005 | Shining Road to the Force | Japanese mobile phones | The first non-remake strategy Shining game in over seven years. |
| 2005 | Shining Force Chronicle I | Japanese mobile phones | Remake of Shining Force Gaiden |
| 2005 | Shining Force Chronicle II | Japanese mobile phones | Remake of Shining Force Gaiden 2 |
| 2006 | Shining Force Chronicle III | Japanese mobile phones | Remake of Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict |
| 2006 | Shining Road II | Japanese mobile phones | |
| March 20, 2007 | Shining Force EXA | Playstation 2 | |
| May 17, 2007 | Shining Wind | Playstation 2 | Thus far unreleased outside of Japan |
| January 2008 | Shining Wind X | Japanese mobile phones |
[edit] External links
- Shining-world.jp - SEGA's Shining series portal site
- Shining Force Central - A Comprehensive Resource for the Shining series
- Home of Classic RPGs Information not only about Shining Force
- History of: The Shining series Sega-16.com's retrospective of the franchise.
- Shining Force series at MobyGames
- The Shining Source - A site for people who want to develop Shining Force style games.
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