Shining Force IV: Potential Blockbuster?

Written by Ryan Smotherman on September 18, 2001

Shining Force IV: Potential Blockbuster?: Yes, it's me worshipping Sega some more, if that's at all possible.

Strategy/RPG's are few and far between in today's more traditional RPG inspired console world. And Sega's Shining Force title's are even fewer and further between. Which is somewhat disappointing, I find both the genre and the Shining Force games to be some of the most entertaining gaming around. Since most gamers have never experienced the games (shame on you), it's been awhile since a new one has come out, I'll do my best to explain what makes the Strategy/RPG different from the standard. The central difference is how the battle system functions. Instead of the random encounters that just about every RPG ever created uses, the games place you into a battlefield, where you and your allies must face your opponents in a turn-based, strategy filled kill-fest.

For those of you who experienced the fantastic Final Fantasy Tactics on the PSOne, you should know what to expect here, minus all that complicated crap (damn you Square). The Shining Force games have always been simple; the strategy aspect mainly focuses on character classes. Warriors will jump right into battle and go on a killing spree, while your weaker wizard and healer characters will stand back and cast spells at a safe distance (pansies). Plus, your archers and spear-equipped cavalry can attack from multiple spaces away, besides the standard stand next to your opponent attack. Another thing that makes the battles so intriguing is the varied combat zones, they are full of mountains, forests, rivers, and hills, each of which affects where you can move or how many spaces you can progress. The battles are more or less a big chess match, and we all know the strategy and planning that chess contains.

But when you take away the battles, Shining Force is traditional down to its core. You roam around a huge world, collecting info, buying new weapons, and preparing yourself for the forthcoming battle. This is all repeated until you reach the final, epic conclusion, a.k.a.- Big Bad Boss Man. Just as in any respectable RPG, experience points also play a huge role in the games. Which in turn leads to your standard level building, though all the Shining Force games have one nifty feature, promotions. When each character reaches a certain level they can be promoted, along with a cosmetic change is the ability to learn new spells and use new weapons, it certainly puts a new spin on the whole level building aspect. It's these little features and the insanely fun gameplay that makes the Shining Force series one of my favorites of all time.

Unfortunately, the Shining Force series has suffered the same fate as many of Sega's highly acclaimed franchises, in that I mean it rarely receives a sequel. And I for one believe that the Shining Force series should be at the top of the list of Sega games that are in dire need of one, 3 games in 10 years just don't cut it Sega. But before I explain how the game could benefit from modern next gen systems, and why it has the potential to sell so well, here's a small history of the main titles in this fabulous series.

Shining Force- Genesis, 1992
My first start with the series was this, the first Shining Force game. It was love from the get go, I truly enjoyed everything about it. It's engrossing gameplay, high fun-factor, cutesy graphics, and it's typically clichщd storyline- which involves the resurrection of the evil Dark Dragon, and of course it's your job to stop him. Though the game wasn't super revolutionary, it had its moments, and I still consider it to be the best in the series. It can also be found on the Sega Smash Pack: Volume 1.

Shining Force II- Genesis, 1993
Only a year after the series' amazing debut, Sega, the great people that they are, brought us a wonderful, albeit uninspired sequel. Shining Force matched the original in about every way, the gameplay, graphics, and sounds were all identical, the only difference was the addition of new characters and a whole new plot. But was us Shining Force fans complaining? Lord no, although Shining Force II was basically a rehash of the original, it gave us fans more of what we loved, and that positively wasn't a bad thing.

Shining Force CD- Sega CD, 1994
Instead of a totally brand new game, Shining Force CD was more of a complication. It is comprised of two Game Gear games, Shining Force Gaiden (Japan) and Shining Force Gaiden II (released as Shining Force: Sword of Hajya in the U.S.), and two bonus adventures. And as you'd expect, the graphics were much improved over its 8-bit handheld counterpart. Yet again, the gameplay wasn't changed much, and was showing its age.

Shining Force III- Saturn, 1998
Four years after Shining Force CD, Sega finally decided to give us rabid fans the sequel we have all been dieing for, although, it came with some good and bad news. You see, the plan was to have three different versions, Scenarios 1, 2, and 3, but the Saturn was at the very end of it's life span at the time, so us U.S. gamers only received the first part. Changes weren't all too different from the other installments, once again; the gameplay was basically the same, with only a few subtle changes (though still extremely fun). The one dominant change was graphically. Harnessing the power of the Sega Saturn (what there was of it anyways), Shining Force was finally in a glorious 3-D form, with the ability to rotate the camera 360 degrees. Shining Force III would be the last version of the series to be created.

Where's Number IV?
So, the question comes to mind, is Sega planning a Shining Force IV? Along with myself, there are literally thousands of hardcore Shining Force fans (the countless fan websites prove this) just waiting for Sega to announce the sequel. Unfortunately, the chance for a sequel anytime soon seems slim. Even though the series has huge fan support and is almost guaranteed to sell, Sega seems to have forgotten about the franchise. Or have they? A few short months ago, rumors were circulating on Shining Force IV possibly in development for Nintendo's soon to be released Gamecube, this would make a lot of sense seeing as the developer of the last two Shining titles, Shining Force III and Shining the Holy Arch, is the now Nintendo heavy Camelot Software. Though no developments have been made on the rumor, and the title is starting to seem less and less unlikely.

Nonetheless, if and when a Shining Force IV sees the light of day, I have a few ideas in how Sega could utilize the current next generation systems to make one of the best games ever.

When thinking of how the gameplay could be improved, I began to realize why over the years the game hasn't changed much. There's not really too much that can be added to fighting engine without changing it too drastically. About all I can think of would be to add even more diverse spells for your wizard characters, which Shining Force III already built apon. Allowing more characters to be controlled within a battle would also be a nice touch. Every version of Shining Force only allowed between 10 and 12 warriors to be used in battle at a given time, so say they upped this to around 20 or so, this would allow for even bigger, more epic battles, not to mention tons more strategy. And if you're going to have more characters, your going to need bigger landscapes to fight on too.

Today's technology would also allow for more charismatic characters. This would of course come through the use of lifelike character models, and also voice work. Though, I think they need to keep the cutesy feel of the past games, it's been a staple in the series. The 128-bit graphics of today would mark a huge step in the series, especially over the weak 3-D graphics in the Saturn version, and even more so over the 16-bit hand drawn sprites. I could just imagine the game running on the Gamecube or Xbox, it'd be freaking unbelievable. Above all would be the battle graphics, when you attack/are attacked in Shining Force, it shows a view of your characters facing one another and attacking. They could go nuts with the battle animations and backgrounds here.

But aside from a few gameplay enhancements and a huge graphical leap, Shining Force IV would greatly benefit from online play. For some reason I never even thought about this till Arthur brought it up a few weeks ago. You could build your troops and take them into battle with real life people, or even have multiple people battling at the same time, with co-op play and all! Can you imagine you and a best friend battling two other people in a huge tactical online RPG battle? One thing that could prevent this from being so fun would be if everyone had the same characters. So to combat this, I say include a create a player opinion, this would also kick much ass. First you could start with the class (Fighter, Wizard, Archer, etcЕ), design the character, name the character, then start building him up for battle. The possibilities are endless!

Final Note
I'm sure if this game is in the works Sega is coming up with a lot of other ideas I didn't mention. But I think the online play would be the greatest possible feature they could add, and since Sega is the masters of online play, this is a good possibility However, if it's not included I'll be okay, just seeing a Shining Force IV actually existing would be enough for me, and I'm sure thousands of other fans would agree. Now come on Sega, PLEASE give us number four! Us loyal fans deserve it.