A New Shining Force RPG!!!!!!

[indiekid4]

I can not believe this when I came across this article! When I had Sega Genesis and Saturn, the Shining Force games were amazing. I liked them more than Final Fantasy. Now, They are making two new Shining Force games. One is called Shining Force: Neo and the other is called Shining Tear. I can't wait to play these games!!!

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/572/572357p1.html

[Pumster]

I was excited about the news, as well - Shining Force 2, in my opinion, was (and is) the best Sega Genesis RPG available. I didn't care for the previous two games and I never played the Sega CD or Saturn sequels, but I had some great memories with Shining Force 2. (Hahaha, Kiwi.) I have my doubts, considering how badly some of Sega's projects have turned out, such as Blood Will Tell, Headhunter: Redemption, and Sonic Heroes, but I hope these two Shining Force titles do the franchise justice.

EDIT: Removed Kiwi pic. :P

[Rob78]

Pumster, don't hotlink...it is "FORBIDDEN!!!"

[indiekid4]

I was excited about the news, as well - Shining Force 2, in my opinion, was (and is) the best Sega Genesis RPG available. I didn't care for the previous two games and I never played the Sega CD or Saturn sequels, but I had some great memories with Shining Force 2. (Hahaha, Kiwi.) I have my doubts, considering how badly some of Sega's projects have turned out, such as Blood Will Tell, Headhunter: Redemption, and Sonic Heroes, but I hope these two Shining Force titles do the franchise justice.

EDIT: Removed Kiwi pic. :P

Haha, I remember that little guy. I would have to agree with you Pumster. Shining Force 2 was the best one, but I also loved the original a lot. I was only able to play part 3 Episode I on the Saturn. but could never find Episode II and III anywhere. I stopped playing them once the Playstation came out and FF VII. But, I do have high hopes that this new Shining Force: NEO game is great! That is the one I am most looking forward to playing.

[Pumster]

Unfortunately, all the games are going for ridiculous amounts so I can't get a hold of any of the sequels after II. (I was able to get a copy of Shining Force II for a "more than reasonable" price. Unfortunately, GameStop charges $59.99 USD for the game now.) From CD to III, you'll have to pay between $40 and $80 USD to buy these "newer" Shining Force sequels. :shock:

Anyway, here are some screen shots of Shining Tears and Shining Force Neo:

Shining Tears

The art style reminds me of the PSOne and N64 Harvest Moon games.


Obviously, Shining Tears won't be tile-based like the Genesis games. :wink:

Shining Force Neo

The battle engine looks decent, but it's hard to tell from screen shots.


Apparently, you'll be able to use a variety of weapons.

What do you think?

[Rob78]

it looks...interesting, but RPG is not my genere of choice, I tend to go with any game that has guns(GUN NUT!) But it looks good nontheless.

[Pumster]

it looks...interesting, but RPG is not my genere of choice, I tend to go with any game that has guns(GUN NUT!) But it looks good nontheless.

Hahaha, believe me, I know that feeling - I'm not an RPG player at all. I've played all the mainstream Final Fantasy games, and, each time, I end up getting stuck or bored with them. (It's the Random Battles that really get to me.) I just prefer Action games over anything else. However, every once in a while, RPG's can be pretty fun to play, and I have been able to put in 40+ hours to beat a few of them. (Grandia 1 and 2!)
As for Shining Force, the series is awesome and the fact that the PS2 is getting two sequels is great. I'm hoping Sega doesn't screw them up, though. For example, Sega's latest game, Virtua Quest, isn't getting high ratings at all. Sega did well the first few years with titles like Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon Orta, and Virtua Fighter 4, but they've really gone downhill since then. (The climax so far is Sonic Heroes - especially the PS2 version.)
These two Shining Force games look promising, but it's hard to say since there are already a few underdog Strategy RPG's available, such as Phantom Brave and La Pucelle. In addition, Action RPG's are rare, but Shining Force Neo will probably be compared to the top games, like Kingdom Hearts and Dark Cloud. I'm not expecting either Shining Force game to do exceptionally well, based on Sega's previous efforts, but I'm hoping they're at least decent and fun.

We'll have to wait and see. :P

[Rob78]

it looks...interesting, but RPG is not my genere of choice, I tend to go with any game that has guns(GUN NUT!) But it looks good nontheless.

Hahaha, believe me, I know that feeling - I'm not an RPG player at all. I've played all the mainstream Final Fantasy games, and, each time, I end up getting stuck or bored with them. (It's the Random Battles that really get to me.) I just prefer Action games over anything else. However, every once in a while, RPG's can be pretty fun to play, and I have been able to put in 40+ hours to beat a few of them. (Grandia 1 and 2!)
As for Shining Force, the series is awesome and the fact that the PS2 is getting two sequels is great. I'm hoping Sega doesn't screw them up, though. For example, Sega's latest game, Virtua Quest, isn't getting high ratings at all. Sega did well the first few years with titles like Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon Orta, and Virtua Fighter 4, but they've really gone downhill since then. (The climax so far is Sonic Heroes - especially the PS2 version.)
These two Shining Force games look promising, but it's hard to say since there are already a few underdog Strategy RPG's available, such as Phantom Brave and La Pucelle. In addition, Action RPG's are rare, but Shining Force Neo will probably be compared to the top games, like Kingdom Hearts and Dark Cloud. I'm not expecting either Shining Force game to do exceptionally well, based on Sega's previous efforts, but I'm hoping they're at least decent and fun.

We'll have to wait and see. :P

Pumster, your statements are to true, Sega has really disappointed me with some of their recent titles, and you mentioned 2 of them(Sonic Heroes, Virtua Quest.) I have spent over 50 hours on some RPGs, one of my all time favorites was the Arc the Lad Collection for the PlayStation, in-fact, I still play that game from time to time. I really like Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits(PS2) because of the divided story. But other than Arc and the FF series, I really don't go for RPGs.

I think Shining Force can be great if Sega can go back to their days of glory, some of the games you mentioned were triple-A titles. Jet Set Radio Future and Panzer Dragoon Orta are some of my favorite Xbox titles. I also enjoyed other Sega franchises like the Sega GT(2002) on Xbox, and the original on Dreamcast. I've always wanted an Xbox Live compatible version of JSRF, it would be super-cool

[indiekid4]

I have to say the screens look great. Shining Tear reminds me of Shining Force III with the anime characters. Shining Force Neo grpahics look good as well....you are right though, it's hard to tell with stills if the gameplay is any good. I have high hopes for this game, I just hope Sega doesn't mess this up. I watched the High-Res video trailer for the game on IGN and it looks awesome. I can only hope they have the same fighting system that made SF so classic. I loved the tile-based system. You really can't tell in the Shining Tear game if they use the tile base system. I also hope they use the one on one zoom up when you are fighting the monsters. I hope they use this again for these games.

[Pumster]

Actually, the trailers look much better than I expected. In addition, the CG and Anime sequences animate very nicely - Even the sprites in Shining Tears animate very smoothly.

You can see the trailers here:
Shining Tears
http://xfersf02.ign.com/%5E84733592/...ip1_wmvlow.wmv

Shining Force Neo
http://xfersf02.ign.com/%5E558039454...304_wmvlow.wmv

Unfortunately, IGN blocks the Quicktime movies from "regular users." :?

[indiekid4]

I haven't seen the trailer for Shining Tears, but I have seen the one for Shining Force:Neo and I was impressed. It looks like it's going to be more of an action RPG this time around. My guess is that Shining Tear will be more like the original SF games and SF:Neo will be the update to the series. But, I did read that walking through towns and such will be like it was during SF: 3. I guess we'll have to wait till it comes to the States and Europe to really see what this game is like.

[Pumster]

From what I saw in the trailers, Shining Tears will be more of a Zelda-type game. (With, apparently, stiffer combat.) Shining Force Neo will be more like Dark Cloud, but probably without the extreme amount of variety. Unfortunately, neither of the two games seem to be Strategy RPG's like their predecessors. (Or, at least, the Genesis ones.)