Get the candles out; Sega’s legendary turn-based strategy RPG is 30 today! To celebrate, we think Sega should capitalize on the tactical RPG renaissance, led by Square Enix’s fantastic Triangle Strategy, do the right thing, and release everything in the series that’s currently Japan-only worldwide. Shining Force is a classic of its genre, and a long-running Sega franchise, but there are plenty of titles in the series across a variety of different genres that never made it outside of Japan, including a couple of key sequels.
As Shining Force is older than me, your humble writer. I have no shame in admitting that I never played the Genesis classic until it was released on Wii Virtual Console. I’ve been a fan of the turn-based strategy RPG genre since I played Fire Emblem on the GBA, but few have stuck with me as Shining Force has.
Shining Force was one of the first digital games I bought with my own money. I was taken in by the combination of Fire Emblem style battles coupled with the Final Fantasy-like exploration. Shining Force was the first game I played that took the more traditional elements of JRPGs and mixed them with tactical battles. It blew me away.
Where Shining Force, ahem, shines brightest is in its battles. There is no player turn and enemy turn like so many of its peers. Instead, turn order is based on each unit’s agility stat and, at times, random selection. It’s different, but makes the game stand out as unique in a heavy-populated genre.
The brilliant sprite art, the fantastic soundtrack, and memorable cast of characters all stick with you long after you’ve stopped that dastardly Kane and Dark Dragon. Shining Force tells a story that you’ve probably already played, but it does so with charm. The characters are lifted from the deepest of deep fantasy, with robots, birdmen, dragons, and whatever else you can think of joining your forces. I’ll never forget Gong the monk, Guntz the armadillo steam knight, and Zylo the wolf.
It’s a crime that so many of the series’ future entries never made their way overseas. In total, there are eight games in the Shining series that never saw release outside of Japan. This includes direct sequels, all three of the series’ PSP games, and more. Of the games that are missing over here, there are four in particular that are sorely absent. All of which carry the Shining Force moniker and more traditional turn-based gameplay.
Shining Force Feather is the most different of the four, but no less deserving of release outside Japan. The DS game mixed things up a little and looked great. Ditching the traditional grid-based method of its forebears, Shining Force Feather let you move your characters freely around a movement stat limited circle, with combo attacks, slick anime visuals, and real-time battles that looked like something out of the later Project X Zone series (which featured playable Shining Force EXA characters).
When Shining Force Feather was first announced, I was fresh from playing the original Shining Force and its sequel on the Wii. I needed more. I waited years to play the game, and have been tempted to try out an English fan translation, but one has never properly been finished. I still hold out hope for an official release, but DS game ports/remakes are few and far between.
Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict is another big missing piece in the puzzle. As with other games in the series, a fan-made patch is available, but we’re talking proper releases here. Final Conflict doesn’t follow the story of Shining Force Gaiden and its sequel. It is set between Shining Force and Shining Force II and follows a new group of soldiers searching for Shining Force’s protagonist Max. Given the other two Game Gear titles were released in the U.S, it’s odd why the third handheld game didn’t make the trek to North America.
The most unforgivable crime of the lot, though, is that Shining Force III remains unfinished outside of Japan. The Sega Saturn title was released in three parts, with just Scenario 1 releasing in the west. We never got to find out what happened with Medion, Synbios, and the rest as official English translations of Scenarios 2 and 3 never saw release. What we’d do to get a complete set released on any platform. An HD port a la Square Enix’s Chrono Cross would do just fine, as long as it happens.
Shining Force is a classic of the tactical RPG genre and it’s a real shame that eight of the series’ titles never made their way outside of Japan. While fan-made English translation patches exist for a number of the missing releases, it’s not the same as owning an officially released physical or digital copy. C’mon, Sega, get aboard the tactical RPG comeback train and give us what we want.
