Platform: GBA
Developer: Amusement Vision
Publisher: Sega
Year: 2004
Shining Foce: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon is a remake from the original Genesis game, Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention (1992). The series is famous for its particular Strategy RPG combat system, where we command an army and fight the enemy on grid based areas. However, according to the lead developer (Hiroyuki Takahashi) of the original Genesis release, it was actually influenced by Dragon Quest and Silver Ghost instead of Fire Emblem.
The GBA remake is faithful to the original plot but goes some steps further with additional arcs and brand new levels. It’s kinda easy to summarize the setting if described as a good mix between Dragon Quest and Fire Emblem: a full kingdom goes down (Guardiana), a hero is born (Max) and he travels around the world on a quest to counter an evil army (Runefaust) led by a cursed king and an evil sorcerer. In addition, there is also the big risk of a Dark Dragon which may be revived to put the whole world in peril. Both the evil army and our hero are looking for a lost legacy, left by the gods. No one knows what exactly the legacy is or where it is, but Runefaust army wants to use it to destroy another kingdoms.
This remake provided improvements on the UI and some QoL features compared to the original material, making it more modern and approachable. It also brings brand new levels to extend the fun, 3 brand new characters and it has an extended story.
Gameplay-wise, I know I won’t find a better blend between Dragon Quest and Fire Emblem: grid based battle system, promotions, equipable items to boost stats, unit classes are also very FE (knights, healers, hero, archers, mages, etc), terrain effects. But, after a battle or before it, I can freely visit towns and villages to progress my current quest, find treasure chests, purchase items/weapons or just speak to random NPCs. If some allies are defeated, they can later be revived at the church for some fee, I save the game at the church and if someone is cursed, well… again, this is another service from the church (does this ring a bell for you DQ fan?).
Nevertheless, the real blinding highlights from this shining gem of a game are it’s original ideas for combat: card system for a lot of different effects, magic to boost stats for one ally or group of allies, every map has a reward if beaten below a given number of turns, counter is never guaranteed so we better focus on inflicting most damage with our units. Like I said before, there is no such thing as FE permadeath, there is only a money penalty to revive our fallen allies. Last but not least, the game really encourages us to distribute our best weapons and items to different units for balance. The main character is broken at mid-late game and some people easily grow better than others but still, it’s essential to have a balanced team where everyone has its chance to shine. We can’t rely on 3 units on the hardest maps.
Everything about this game would be just perfect if these flaws didn’t exist:
-They completely ruined how promotion works, it follows the original implemenation where the stats are decreased instead of increased. And then, why promote? Base classes can’t go over Lv20 and some weapons are exclusive for advanced classes.
-Some features from the UI didn’t age well even on this remake: enemies’ turns may be very slow sometimes, the game stops and focuses each enemy even if they don’t move. Inventory management interface is also a a pain, slow and outdated. And we can’t manage anything on the battle prep menu.
-Some characters are completely useless or become completely useless on the battlefield. It also doesn’t make any sense to have new weak recruits on the late game if there are no grinding mechanics. Pointless.
-Most of the soundtrack (with exceptions) is bottom tier bad, specially the village music, and sadly it’s over used across all the game. It doesn’t even fit the situation, this track sounds like a childish tune from a cartoon.
-The developers said they are not influenced by Fire Emblem and yet they recycled most of the tropes from the Archanea Saga.
Shining conclussions: I can’t forgive the mistakes but still, and considering everything, this is a must-play game for every SRPG fan, and this remake is the desired and recommended place to enjoy it for a better experience.
Score: 8.0.