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Console:	Sony PlayStation 2
Region:
Year:	2007
RFG ID #:	U-072-S-14250-A
Part #:	SLUS-21567
UPC:	010086631128
Developer:	Cri Ware
Publisher:	Sega
Rating:	(ESRB): Fantasy Violence , Mild Language
Genre:	RPG
Sub-genre:	Action
Players:	1
Controller:	Standard Controller
Media Format:	DVD x1

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• 115 of 7621 collectors (1.5%) have this game in their collection
• 20 of 7621 collectors (0.2%) have this game in their wishlist.
• 0 of 7621 collectors (0%) have this game for sale or trade.

Tan's review:

In the case of this game, having such a great experience with Shining Force Neo, I wanted to make sure this game had my undivided attention when I started it. The long running series has never really interested me until “Neo” came out. Once in a while I have these gut instincts about games where something tells me I can buy a certain game right off the shelf having never seen it in action or read about it, and know that I’d love it. Well when my wife asked me to pick a game out for my birthday, this one popped out at me and following my gut instinct, we got it and the strategy guide at the same time. It turned out to be one of the best PS2 games I’ve ever played, despite the general gamer scorn and critic negativity the game received in the media.

See there tends to be two schools of thought on the latest two Shining Force games “Neo” and “EXA”. The majority say that these are “bastardizations” of the traditionally strategy RPG based games because they forego that genre for a more action oriented based game. Ironic as almost half the series are non-strategy games including the very first one which was a 1st person dungeon crawler. I attribute this scorn to the release of “Shining Wisdom” because it left a bad taste in many gamer’s mouths with it’s poor translation and change of genre to 1st person again as the original was. A shame it has carried on for so long infected the success of the sequels on some level, especially the hardcore fans who have dismissed the later games. That reminds me, I have to track down Shining Tears, a game expensive even used, but maybe I’ll get lucky this time.

But enough rambling for now. I want to write down my initial impressions of this game for future consideration. This will be a two parter because I want to make a few comments about the standard gameplay and such now, and then more on the “Geo-Fortress” aspect later on. The fortress side of things is an added part of the game where you build your fortress that is linked to the Shining Sword. Since I’ve only put a couple hours into the game, there hasn’t been much activity in that part of the game yet.

Visually, the game is as colourful and creative as Neo was, maybe even more so. It tends to have a more water-coloured look than the previous game. It makes you feel like your playing an art piece and an old school RPG all at the same time. Great animations, special effects and character art which really sparks your imagination.

The sound is top notch and I like the voice acting. Sometimes the battle music is a bit repetitive but you really don’t notice it much when your in the midst of action. Other than that the audio matches the visual very well.

The story and gameplay are fairly straight forward so far. A few cues taken from classic cliche’s like the sword in the stone, dreams of wealth and power from common folk and of course secrets that only the player is privy too and not the characters. No spoilers here of course but suffice to say it’s rock solid if a bit predictable. That’s good for a game that is more action based than story driven.

It plays almost exactly like Neo, which is a good thing. It’s more or less an isometric 3/4 view hack ‘n’ slash like Ys. Ark of Napishtim, Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance or similar games. The Geo-Fortress aspect is more RTS/Strategy based which will give timely breaks when you need to give your thumbs a rest between dungeon crawls.

So far I’m enjoying it immensely. With the exception of some added elements, it’s a case of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Meaning they’ve kept to the same formula that made Neo such a great game. I’m looking forward into diving into the Geo-Fortress gameplay more and exploring it’s potential, should make for an interesting part 2 to my impressions.

I’m something like 17-20 hours into the game and I know I’ve only begun to tap it’s potential. It has taken everything I liked about Neo and ramped it up and made it bigger. For every similarity there seems to be a marked improvement on something else. The game also keeps you humble as well. Just when your on the verge on becoming overly-cocky, it hands you your ass and says “your not a pro yet champ, let me show you why.”

The Geo-Fortress is a great concept. A robotic castle that serves as your base of operations. It has many cool features like training programs, vendors, warp points etc that make it a true hub of the game’s activity and a sanctuary when you need to lick your wounds. The whole while only letting you have a morsel of it’s power and potential a little at a time so you have to keep working on activating it through various quests.

My only real negative critique of this game is the dual lead character system. One main character stays at the fortress and the other romps around the countryside in the midst of action. You can switch to either one whenever you please. Now in theory that sounds good because that means you have a main character to lead a party to defend against the constant attacks against the fortress. But in actuality it’s a bit of a pain in the ass because you have to level both characters at the same time. Unlike many games the characters who aren’t in the active questing party do not level up with the others. So if you aren’t vigilant, you’ll be attacked with a lower leveled character in lead if you don’t keep them both equal. I’ve been lucky so far, as soon as I get the initial attack warning while I’m away from the fortress, I warp my stronger character back to the castle and switch for the other. That way when the game pauses to go into the “red alert mode” of a castle siege, my uber character is the one who responds. Crisis averted I switch them back again. Whether this will bite me in the ass later for neglecting the second main character, I don’t know. Only time will tell I guess.

Well I finally beat the game last night. I really enjoyed it and it rose above my expectations as far as being a worthy successor to Shining Force Neo. The only thing I really didn’t care too much for was ironically enough, the cutscenes. Especially between the two main characters. In a way they made the ending a bit non-climatic and really cheesy. Fortunately it didn’t detract from the gameplay as you can easily skip through them. Just goes to show you how unimportant they were to the overall story or experience.

The bonus gameplay unlocked after beating the game was superb. Like a big money/item treasure tromp as a reward for such a good game, throwing all kinds of goodies at you and plenty of enemies and maps to explore at the same time.

Great game all around. Any hack/slash or action RPG fan should do themselves a favor and pick these two games up, especially if you like power-leveling and acquiring things in-game.

Console	Reg.	Type	Title	Publisher	Year	Genre
Sony PlayStation 2		S	Shining Force Neo	Sega	2003	RPG