Shining Force III Scenario I | July 19, 2003 | top |
| GAME FEATURES | A.) The award winning RPG for the Saturn and it costs a lot on Ebay | B.) Unique strategy Camelot had making this game. This was the 3rd installment in the Shining Series, but this game was the only one fully 3D. | C.) The best platform game for the console. | D.) Magical gameplay. I really was waiting for a sequel, no I don't mean Christmas NiGHTs either. |
This game is the game I ever seen that closely resembles Grandia II. The game has stubby anime and has anime portraits for who ever you talk too. Another thing is this game is very long. The Shining Force III Saga spans three discs. Must have a part to do why this game is getting good reviews. Good games are usually long. It was the last game to be good on the Saturn console. That is unless Panzer Dragoon Saga was released after it. In the game you play as this guy, and this guy can either be a mage, a knight or archer. Archers don't live long in this game so I picked a knight. This game is known through out Japanese world to be one of the better Saturn titles. Or perhaps it had a good developer, Camelot, which is suppose to make a new RPG for Gamecube. Who knows maybe it'll be a Shining Force IV, eh. Anyway Shining Force III almost looks 64-bit like it should of been released on the Unintended 64 somehow. Anyway it's like Unlimited Saga for the Playstation 2. No, I haven't played that game, but I have seen it on X-Play on TechTV. Shining Force III is more playable then the first person adventure in Shining Force II. But this game is actually a sequel to Shining of the Holy Ark, not Shining Force II. The main character you play is Julian. He is definitely the fighter type. I like the compare Shining Force II to Elder Scrolls II : DaggerFall for some reason. I can't really tell you why, it just happens to be that way. This game has a level up system that follows most action time battle systems except that the 3 classes (knight, mage, achier) are more used. Sort of like Final Fantasy but some characters use magic and some don't. This definitely was one of the more rare RPGs in 1998. In many respects, the new Phantasy Star Online is mapped similar to this game. The worlds are similar at least. The the has roaming like in PSO and the battle system also like PSO. Except in Phantasy Star Online, which has no battle sequencing like Final Fantasy. As all of you know, Final Fantasy is the standard and the franchise rocks !!! I like Final Fantasy, but I also like how Sega set up Phantasy Star Online. The PC equivalent would be Neverwinter Nights. All share two simularities, a lot of conversation and an unique action time battle system (ATB.) It's also interesting that in Japan, there is also Scenario II and Scenario III. Those to games were released in 1999, and in my opinion should have been ported to the Dreamcast. However they are exclusive Japanese titles. One nice feature in this game is the cinematic cut scenes. All games have them now-a-days. They are nicely done. Not as well crafted as those in Final Fantasy VII, but still nice touch. When determining Pixel to Pixel though, Grandia and Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII look better. One game this closely resembles, although this game is better, is the PSone game Legend of Dragoon. That game also spands 4 discs and takes a role similar to Shining Force III. The hero's town is destroyed by a evil guy and the hero's job is to save the day. That kind of story. I want Camolot's next Role Playing Game for the Gamecube to be a long and satisfying one. Actually there isn't a new Shining Force game, but instead there is Shining Soul for Gameboy Advance. Made by Camelot and published by Sega, this game closely resembles Diablo and is a 32-bit adventure in high resolution. From what I've read on Shining Force Central, the game had to start all over. Camelot, the developer had some bad relations with Sega on how they were so focused on the Dreamcast and barely gave Sega Saturn the support. It was harder for Camelot to overcome the sound department without Sega's official source code. After Scenario III, the developer quit on the Shining Force series completely, and turned to Nintendo to make the GBA RPG, Golden Sun. My final score of this game is a 8.5 out of 10. But the graphics aren't high resolution, so the game itself is terribly out-of-date. It looks the same as Final Fantasy VII. I still need to play this game to find out what happens to Julian and the evil empire. Sega should of also released this game for the computer! Either that or put it on one of the newer consoles. It would of been nice if Sega ported this game to Gamecube, instead of Skies of Arcadia. | |