By Paul Breeden
For me and my friends Shining Force for the Sega Genesis was it. The end all
be all. Don’t get me wrong we still loved the classics, but this game was special. This
was game was the topic of all the inside jokes. Even now you’ll still catch an occasional
“force reference”. For those who’ve never played it, let me explain. Shining Force
started out with the premise of all your standard RPG’s. You’re a punk kid named Max
from a small village with a King, a priest, and a shit storm in their very near future. And
of course Max (you) are the only one who can save the world. So what do you do? You
set out on a badass epic adventure! What else?
Okay, this is where it gets good. What if that along the way of that epic
adventure you join forces with Knights, Elves, Dwarves, Centaurs, a dragon, a monk,
Werewolves, a robot, a fox lady, and God-damn bird people. Now that’s a force! A
shining Force! Now you set forth to stop an evil army of Demons, Trolls, Goblins, a
crazy ass robot eye that shoots lasers, and to top it all of a badass three headed
Dragon. Now pair all that awesome shit with one of the most solid, addictive, strategic
battle systems for the time. Since then plenty of games have used variations of the
Shining Force battle system. Games such as Final Fantasy Tactics and more recently
Vandal Hearts: Flames of Justice on xbox live arcade.
In all my years of gaming i have never met a single person who didn’t like
Shining Force. If you’ve never played any of the Shining Force games and you’ve got
some free time on your hands check it out. All three of the original games were recently
included on a compilation game Sonics Ultimate Genesis Collection. My only advise
would be to stay as far away from Shining in the Darkness as possible. It was the first
game of the series and to say it was a giant hunk of dog turd would be an
understatement. If you have played Shining Force then you know what i’m talking
about and i’m going to assume you have that hate for Pelle saved somewhere in you’re
heart. Jogurt for President 2012.
