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I just had a chance to play the brand new Shining Force. Here are some
impressions.
Shining Force Neo is the second game in the Shining project announced
by Sega, the first being Shining Tears which was just recently
released in North America. I must admit I was a little skeptical about
SF: Neo, since it was long known that Neo is not going to be like the
previous Shining Force games which are sRPGs but rather an action RPG.
However, I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised by this title. It's
quite a good game.
Shining Force Neo takes place in the Shining Force universe, where the
world operates on a mix of magic, called Force and technology. The
story goes that 13 years ago, there was a great war. The evil moon
race did something to the ancient Force crystals and conjured up the
dark castle from the earth. With their minions, they laid waste to the
world, destroying three of the ten races. An alliance of humans and
good races, led by a warrior named Gia and a wizard Maria was able to
defeat the moon race and reduce the dark castle to rubble and sealed
it with three Force crystals maintained by three nearby holy lands. As
it turns out, the main character Max is Gia's son. He's sent to
military academy for training at an early age and that's where you
start. After a quick start the outpost gets attacked by monsters. This
is basically the training stage as you can't possibly die.
The gameplay is like a standard action RPG. You control the character
with the left analogue. Circle is the attack button. Triangle is your
"skill"/"magic" button, and square is the "use item" button. Shoulder
buttons serves a variety of purposes such as map toggle. You can
toggle through your skills using the up and down digital, and you can
toggle items using the left and right digital. You have an inventory
of usable items such as weapon, armor, shield, etc.. the neat thing is
you start off with two weapons, a standard sword, which allows you to
attack physically with a 4 hit combo, and a staff, which is weak, and
only hits for 1 hit, but allows you to cast magic. The type and level
of magic depends on the weapon. Certain enemies are unaffected by
physicals and must be attacked by magic. Several items, including
weapons and armor, give you elemental affinity and bonuses, ie: fire,
ice, lightning etc.. You can pause the game and change weapons any
time. Each weapon also have a number of stats, such as # of combo,
attack speed, and special attacks.
Killing certain enemies will drop money or items (not sure what money
is for yet, havn't reached a shop). There are also a large number of
inanimate objects around which you can break or open to find items. In
this small skirmish at the beginning, it's meant as a tutorial so you
can't die, but in real fights enemies can take good chunks off your
health. There does not appear to be blocking, although that may be
because I don't have a shield. Also, enemies are staggered depending
on different weapons, most will not be staggered by light weapons,
although some on the board have mentioned that heavy weapons will. The
greatest challenge are enemey gates. These are black spheres can
constantly spawn enemies. These gates can be destroyed, but it often
takes quite a few whacks, in the mean time you're getting clubbed by
enemies around you. This is where multi player comes in. Supposedly
later you can get other members in your party where few can hold off
the enemies while others whack at the gate. You meet the first
character, Meril, shortly afterwards when your teacher sends you back
home to your father after you've taken out the invaders. Meril is your
childhood friend, she is studying magic, so will likely be a mage
character.
Graphics-wise this game is beautiful. Much better than Shining Tears
IMHO. The characters are properly proportioned, unlike the SD Shining
Tears characters and the background is just gorgeous. Very colorful.
While this may not be the typical Shining Force like oldtime fans of
the series are expecting, I will say the general reaction to the game
thus far among most people that have played it is positive. It's quite
a good action RPG, and fans of the SF series should definitely give it
a try. NA release is unknown, though since Shining Tears is out, the
chances are good that so will Neo.
I just had a chance to play the brand new Shining Force. Here are some
impressions.
Shining Force Neo is the second game in the Shining project announced
by Sega, the first being Shining Tears which was just recently
released in North America. I must admit I was a little skeptical about
SF: Neo, since it was long known that Neo is not going to be like the
previous Shining Force games which are sRPGs but rather an action RPG.
However, I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised by this title. It's
quite a good game.
Shining Force Neo takes place in the Shining Force universe, where the
world operates on a mix of magic, called Force and technology. The
story goes that 13 years ago, there was a great war. The evil moon
race did something to the ancient Force crystals and conjured up the
dark castle from the earth. With their minions, they laid waste to the
world, destroying three of the ten races. An alliance of humans and
good races, led by a warrior named Gia and a wizard Maria was able to
defeat the moon race and reduce the dark castle to rubble and sealed
it with three Force crystals maintained by three nearby holy lands. As
it turns out, the main character Max is Gia's son. He's sent to
military academy for training at an early age and that's where you
start. After a quick start the outpost gets attacked by monsters. This
is basically the training stage as you can't possibly die.
The gameplay is like a standard action RPG. You control the character
with the left analogue. Circle is the attack button. Triangle is your
"skill"/"magic" button, and square is the "use item" button. Shoulder
buttons serves a variety of purposes such as map toggle. You can
toggle through your skills using the up and down digital, and you can
toggle items using the left and right digital. You have an inventory
of usable items such as weapon, armor, shield, etc.. the neat thing is
you start off with two weapons, a standard sword, which allows you to
attack physically with a 4 hit combo, and a staff, which is weak, and
only hits for 1 hit, but allows you to cast magic. The type and level
of magic depends on the weapon. Certain enemies are unaffected by
physicals and must be attacked by magic. Several items, including
weapons and armor, give you elemental affinity and bonuses, ie: fire,
ice, lightning etc.. You can pause the game and change weapons any
time. Each weapon also have a number of stats, such as # of combo,
attack speed, and special attacks.
Killing certain enemies will drop money or items (not sure what money
is for yet, havn't reached a shop). There are also a large number of
inanimate objects around which you can break or open to find items. In
this small skirmish at the beginning, it's meant as a tutorial so you
can't die, but in real fights enemies can take good chunks off your
health. There does not appear to be blocking, although that may be
because I don't have a shield. Also, enemies are staggered depending
on different weapons, most will not be staggered by light weapons,
although some on the board have mentioned that heavy weapons will. The
greatest challenge are enemey gates. These are black spheres can
constantly spawn enemies. These gates can be destroyed, but it often
takes quite a few whacks, in the mean time you're getting clubbed by
enemies around you. This is where multi player comes in. Supposedly
later you can get other members in your party where few can hold off
the enemies while others whack at the gate. You meet the first
character, Meril, shortly afterwards when your teacher sends you back
home to your father after you've taken out the invaders. Meril is your
childhood friend, she is studying magic, so will likely be a mage
character.
Graphics-wise this game is beautiful. Much better than Shining Tears
IMHO. The characters are properly proportioned, unlike the SD Shining
Tears characters and the background is just gorgeous. Very colorful.
While this may not be the typical Shining Force like oldtime fans of
the series are expecting, I will say the general reaction to the game
thus far among most people that have played it is positive. It's quite
a good action RPG, and fans of the SF series should definitely give it
a try. NA release is unknown, though since Shining Tears is out, the
chances are good that so will Neo.
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