If you like strategy RPGs, do yourself a favor and pick up Shining Force III Part 2.
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Fans of strategy RPGs have long held Sega's Shining Force series as one of the premier examples of the genre, and it's highly regarded by some as the pinnacle of strategy gaming. RPG fans longed for Sega to create a new episode for the Saturn; nevertheless, it came as quite a shock when Sega of Japan announced last year that it would be releasing not one, but three new Shining Force games over the course of the following year. Shining Force III was to be released as a three-part series, with a new chapter arriving, roughly, every three months. Each one would stand alone as a game, but the full experience would only be gained by playing each chapter in full.
Unfortunately for Shining Force fans living right here in the States, the Saturn took an untimely dive in sales and support, just when the Saturn's best games were coming out. It was speculated that they would likely only receive the first installment. The good news, however, is that the rest of the series plays just like the first, enabling fans of the series a fair shot at completing the remaining two games. Of course they won't be translated, but the Shining Force series has always been about the combat, and in Shining Force III Part 2, there is combat aplenty.
Taking place in the exact same time frame as the first chapter, Part 2 focuses on the game as viewed through the perspective of a completely different group of warriors. In the beginning of your quest you'll find yourself in situations remarkably similar to the ones experienced in the first chapter. That's because they are the same events that happened in the first chapter. Only this time, your newly formed group takes a different course of action, even though the situations are linked. To make it easy to comprehend, it's like playing the good guys in part one, and then you get to play the role of the bad guys in part two, although the differences in the two chapters aren't that cut and dry. In Shining Force III, there's a civil war brewing, and no one is sure what's going on. Different factions take up arms to try to find out who is at the bottom of all this turmoil, and over the course of the three chapters, the plot will eventually be revealed. Provided you have completed the first part, the memory save and characters you've gained from SFIII-Part 1 will affect the events that transpire in Part 2.
So what's the difference aside from the storyline in Part 2? Not very much, and that's a good thing. In Shining Force III, you maneuver your party around a completely 3D world. Towns, battlefields, dungeons, etc. are all rendered in full polygonal detail. Characters are rendered as sprites a la Shining The Holy Ark, which isn't surprising as the designers of that game also did this series. Menus, as well, are almost exactly the same as those found in Shining The Holy Ark, so veterans of that game should have no problem getting adjusted to the Shining Force interface. Once you've done your scouting around and eventually find yourself in a skirmish, that's where the genius of the game engine makes itself apparent. By utilizing theSaturn's powerful Yamaha sound chip to process and funnel additional information simultaneously with the VDP1 and VDP2 processors, Camelot has managed to reduce loading times to practically nothing, which is impressive when you see the battle scenes in motion. Each character is usually represented by a superdeformed little sprite in the world map, but once you engage in combat, the character is then rendered completely in polygons. While they don't look as good as Virtua Fighter 2, they are still stunning tobehold. Fully light-sourced and Gouraud-shaded, these characters come to life complete with flashy spells and powerful attacks. Improvements to the battle engine in Part 2 include better light sourcing, better-looking spell effects, and other little details, such as beams of light surrounding your character as he levels up. As far as the regular game environment is concerned, texture variety has also been increased, giving each town a more convincing look. Far too often in the first chapter, every building looked exactly the same, sometimes making it confusing to make your way to places you hadn't seen yet. Aesthetics aside, there was very little that needed improvement from the first game. After all, this is merely the second chapter in a trilogy, so there wasn't a need for radical changes. Camelot had already achieved a remarkably efficient game engine. The point here was to continue the story.
As it is, each chapter provides somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-30 hours of gameplay, each loaded with increasingly complex strategic dilemmas. For gamers who choose to go the entire distance, you're looking at 75-90 hours of strategy gaming by the time the story's complete - a good amount of gaming at any rate. So if you can get past the fact that you won't be able to follow the storyline (at least those of you who don't read Japanese) there's a great deal of addictive game-playing to be had. Everything is left practically untouched from the first round, making it a snap to jump right in to what is probably the best strategy series to come around in a long time, Vandal Hearts and Final Fantasy Tactics notwithstanding. In addition to the numerous battlefield encounters, Shining Force III Part 2 is far more interactive than the average strategy/RPG. Your characters will need to thoroughly explore each village and talk to all the townspeople in order to progress and find hidden characters. Additionally, you'll also need to buy and equip the necessary weapons and items if you want to be successful on the battlefield. Considering each character has only four inventory slots, item management is key to survival.
Unfortunately, with the state of the Saturn as it is, the chances of us seeing the last two chapters stateside grow slimmer by the day. Gamers can only hope the success of Panzer Dragoon Saga might encourage SOA to bring out the last two installments for release here. However, in the event that Sega doesn't, at least there are the import versions to investigate and enjoy. If you like strategy RPGs, do yourself a favor and pick up Shining Force III Part 2. It's not everyday a series like this comes along.
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- Developer: Sonic Team
- Genre: Adventure
- Originally on: Saturn (1996)
- Runs on PC, Windows
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The latest in the series of 'Shining' games-which encompasses games like Shining Wisdom and Shining Force-is coming here soon from the Sonic team. Shining the Holy Ark bears a close resemblance to the Genesis title Shining in the Darkness due to the first-person view used in exploration and battles, but is not related story wise. Some of the features are multiple-member parties and full polygon characters/enemies that animate during story sequences and zoom in and out depending on the situation. The battle sequences are highly animated and allow you to see your party members attack the enemy (your character gets a close-up of the creature when attacking). This is where you can check out the impressive magic effects as well as the creative enemy attack methods. The Sonic team fans who were a bit disappointed with Shining Wisdom will be relieved to find a more story-heavy adventure as well as something that is graphically pleasing. Where's Shining Force for the Saturn?!
It's wayback-machine time for fans of Sega's long-running Shining series of RPGs, which began with Shining in the Darkness for the Genesis and continued through numerous installments for all of Sega's systems. The latest addition, Shining the Holy Ark, offers the same turn-based, first-person gameplay as Shining in the Darkness. Why, it even uses the same icon-based menus of the 16-Bit originator.
But story-wise, Shining the Holy Ark is no more a direct sequel than any other title in the Shining saga. You play Arthur, a mercenary whose pursuit of a Renegade ninja named Rodi runs into a snag when the pair are buried in a cave-in. Fortunately, their broken bodies are saved by benevolent spirits, who merge with the adventurers in exchange for their help in restoring peace to the world. But not all spirits are good-especially the one who has possessed the king. So Arthur and his party spend the rest of the game, which has as many plot twists as any Final Fantasy title, trying to restore peace to the world.
All of Shining the Holy Ark takes place in a first-person perspective, with you moving in steps rather than in the continuous, go-anywhere motion of most Doom clones. Your adventure will take you through forests, dungeons, sewers, towns, castles, shrines and other typical RPG locales (and the handy automap keeps you from getting lost). Combat occurs at random, and the battles are turn-based, making the game more traditional than most of the action-oriented RPGs that have come out lately. Your party can contain no more than four warriors, but you can hold additional adventurers in reserve and call them in when things get dicey.
Although its story line will keep you hooked, most of Shining the Holy Ark's charm comes from its graphics. Every enemy in the game is prerendered, colorful and well-animated (and we could swear that some of the enemies are actually dancing to the music!). The monsters in this game don't just do a little hop when they attack; most rear back and spring their entire bodies into a fearsome strike, or they cut loose with screen-filling, pyrotechnic spells. The members of your party, too, are prerendered bitmaps, as are the folks you'll encounter in towns. When you converse with other characters, they react with facial expressions and body language.
But although Shining the Holy Ark boasts these visual perks (as well as some kick-butt pixie com-panions-see sidebar), it does lack the digitized voice and cinemas that grace many other modern RPGs. No big deal. It's still a solid game that's a worthy addition to the Shining series.
Gamer's EDGE
Scattered through the game's world are dozens of pixies who join your party when you find them. There are five types in all--the pixie, fairy, succubus, incubus and leprechaun--and each helps your party in combat.
The key is to note from which direction enemies appear on the screen, then unleash the right pixie for the job. Leprechauns, for instance, attack enemies that tunnel up from underground, while fairies go after monsters that fall from above. If you pick the right pixie (and you have to be quick, since you only get about three seconds to send one off at the beginning of a battle), the tiny warrior will weaken your enemies and increase the amount of gold you can nab from them.
Some pixies are given as rewards for good deeds, but you'll find most in the dead ends of dungeons and in other out-of-the-way places. Just use the search command often, and soon you'll have an army of little helpers.
MANUFACTURER - Sega
Shining The Holy Ark English Iso Download Pc
THEME - Rpg
NUMBER OF PLAYERS - 1
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System Requirements
PC compatible, P-200
Systems: Windows 9x, Windows 2000 Windows XP, Vista, Win 7, Win 8, Win 10.
Game features:Single game mode
People say:
There's no question that this game packs some of the best animation ever seen in an RPG. The prerendered monsters strut around and practically leap off the screen when they attack. But here's the rub: The animation often gets in the way of the adventure, slowing it to a crawl. When you battle bats, for instance, their screeching, ultrasonic strikes take way too long to hit every member of your party. Sure, the attack sequences look cool the first few times you see 'em. but by the 10th time, you'll wanna yell. 'Just hit me already! I don't care what your attacks look like anymore.' That gripe aside, She is a solid RPG that plays much like the original Shining in the Darkness for the Genesis. It's a traditional, turn-based game. 90 percent of which is set in maze-like dungeons, castles and forests (don't worry about getting lost-you get an automap). The first-person perspective (which moves in steps, like the dungeon sequences in the original Phantasy Star) is a refreshing change from all the recent top-down, action-oriented RPGs-especially since StHA's scenery looks so dam good. But what's really cool is the tiny army of fairies you can amass and send into battle. Using these little guys takes quick reflexes, but they're essential in this combat-heavy adventure.
Although Shining the Holy Ark was a decent RPG. I just couldn't get into it. Probably because the game played so darned slow. It seemed like the first enemy types were a cinch, but then they got hard way too fast The graphics, though colorful, appeared blocky at times. It's a good one to play through, but check the price tag first. Maybe for $35 or $40...
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This is the best Saturn RPG I have played yet. I love the 3-D perspective, as opposed to the top-down view of traditional RPGs. The story line is long and involved, but it tends to drag on sometimes. I wish I could fix a few minor details (especially with the interface--it really needed an equipment pool) The graphics and music are excellent Highly recommended.
This game is a little King's Field mixed with stock RPG battles and a great story line. The entire game is 3-D. with excellent rendered characters as friends or foes. The one feature that impressed me the most was the seamless tie-in of cinemas and actual gameplay. Only the command interface hurts, as you wade through tons of screens to heal yourself.