If you enjoyed RPGs during the 16-bit era then odds are you had a Super Nintendo. It’s not that the genre was completely devoid on the Sega Genesis, rather, third parties put their best efforts on the competitor’s system. The house of Sonic the Hedgehog did most of the heavy lifting with their Phantasy Star series. Shining Force was also one of their big games, but that fits more neatly as a strategy title. It was a hit, and gained quite the following.
Back then Sega was big into sequels and a few years later we had Shining Force II. Honestly I was a late follower in the franchise and I didn’t know what to expect. Thankfully Sega upped the production values, refined the gameplay, and perfected the formula here. Shining Force II is truly something special. Let’s take a look.
Initially I was disappointed to discover that this isn’t a direct sequel to the original. Shining Force 2 takes place in it’s own continuity despite some characters having the same names, and similar plot elements. The story here begins on a stormy and foreboding night. A unwitting thief named Slade (who happens to be a humanoid mouse) has broken into a shrine just North of Granseal Castle. He removes a jewel and unknowingly releases the seal on a dark lord named Zeon.
He’s not the good kind of ‘dark lord’ and quickly overtakes the nearby kingdom of Galam, and eventually Granseal itself. You play as a youth chosen to command the Shining Force, defeat Zeon, and eventually save the world from certain destruction.
Let me start by saying the storyline here is far more interesting than in the first outing. The characters have actual personality, the world is finally fun to explore, and plot points are no longer laughably bad in terms of presentation. This is the point at which Shining Force actually came close to matching Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest in terms of charm and scope of the narrative.
The only thing I don’t like is that it still has the silent protagonist. This method of storytelling has never interested me. It’s just odd when characters are super chatty and then randomly react as if the main character has said something. This is a minor complaint, but if I had to choose one weak link in terms of story then that is it.
Shining Force II plays in a similar fashion to the original. When I say ‘similar’ what I really mean is nearly identical. You explore a world map containing within a myriad of towns, caves, and a variety of terrain. Dialogue pushes you from one area to the next with objectives that are fairly well outlined. One major upgrade here is that you’re rarely cut off from specific areas of the world.
In the original Shining Force you were only given small areas to explore and could not backtrack. Here you can go back to almost every location you’ve previously been to. This is helpful considering hidden items can be missed. When progressing you’ll often be thrown into pre-determined battles that cannot be avoided. This however is where things get interesting.
Battles are traditional for where the strategy RPG genre was at the time of its release. Your characters, and the enemies are both displayed from an overhead perspective and movement here is purely grid based. Characters have specific stats relating to their attack, defense, agility, etc. When you are within range of a foe you can attack or cast magic against them.
This whisks you to a separate screen where you watch your character carry out the command with their current hit points as well as those of the enemies displayed. These sequences look amazing and move at a brisk enough pace that it doesn’t feel superfluous. Battle scenes are interesting enough that you’ll never grow tired of them.
Basic gameplay is downright amazing. Exploration is okay, but the battle system is downright fun and addictive. The battlefields are thoughtfully designed. You will find instances where the game nudges you to split up your forces, send specific characters to places, etc. Of course the choice is ultimately yours and at no point will you feel locked in to certain tactics. There’s a lot of freedom in the battles in Shining Force II and everyone will no doubt play them differently.
The game is very forgiving so experimentation is encouraged. If at any point you want to return to the last church you visited you can by casting the Egress spell, and at pretty much no penalty. Should all of your characters (or the hero) perish you’re simply sent back to the last church, but this costs half the money you had in your possession.
I also really love the character types. Generally they fit under a specific class, but differing stats ensures they’re all separate from each other when it comes to abilities. You have knights which are centaurs and use lances, archers that use ranged attacks, warriors that hit hard but are slow, priests that have healing spells, and mages which are well versed in offensive magic. Most characters fit neatly within these classes however there are some outliers.
Slade is a thief that becomes a ninja and has his own special set of characteristics unique to the class. You also have Kiwi the turtle monster, Gerhalt the werewolf, Luke the birdman, Zynk the robot, and more. Some of the characters are hidden and require you to complete specific tasks to recruit them. You can have twelve in your active party at once. The customization allowed here gives each player a different experience.
Most characters can also be promoted to an enhanced class. This can only be done when they reach level ten. When doing so their stats are reduced, but they’re sent back to level 1 so getting stronger is easy. Many of the promotions are linear. You can’t make a mage into a knight, for example. By default they will become a wizard. The big upgrade in Shining Force 2 is branching promotions.
These require special items that are highly limited, and hidden. The pegasus wing allows your knights to become pegasus knights instead of paladins. This let’s them fly through the air ignoring terrain and heavily increasing their movement. Priests can become master monks with the vigor ball which makes them offensive powerhouses on top of being able to heal. Because these items are limited you have to choose carefully, and it gives you even more options for your party.
Sega added some great quality of life changes. Outside of battle you previously had to bring up a menu to speak with anyone, or search for items. While this does still exist you now have an action button that let’s you speak or inspect without the need for navigating commands. Furthermore the game does a much better job of pushing you in the right direction. Town layouts are also much improved.
In the last game I found it to be overly difficult and/or convoluted to find churches (where you save and revive characters) or weapon/item shops. Here it’s a breeze. Finally I loved the fact that you get a caravan on the world map. This vehicle follows you around while you’re exploring, and you can access it on the world map. It allows you to switch active members of your party, as well as store items. It’s a welcome upgrade.
If there’s one complaint I have with this game (and the Shining Force series in general) it’s definitely the scaling experience points. Each time you reach one hundred experience points you gain a level. This is true regardless of how strong you are. Unfortunately as you gain levels attacking and defeating foes will net you lower numbers. This was obviously done to limit grinding and help balance the game for those that replay battles often. Building up each character in my army is my favorite element in the franchise, and I hate that this is capped.
Additionally stat gains have tremendous effects on how useful each character is. This means that a character dying and missing out on a battle can make them virtually unusable during the next skirmish. I wish Sega had fixed this aspect for the sequel.
Shining Force 2 is a solid upgrade in visuals from the original. If you’ve read my review of that one you’ll know I did not like the graphics. Shining Force 2 however looks beautiful. The sprites are significantly more detailed and animate much better. Furthermore the backgrounds and scenery look amazing. The level of detail is impressive by 16-bit standards and can go head to head against most SNES RPGs of this era.
Sega must have tapped into the hardware with some tricks regarding the color palette. Shining Force 2 is more colorful than most Sega Genesis games. I’m surprised they were able to pull off these tricks on the hardware because the game transcends what I thought the hardware was capable of. The soundtrack is also a significant upgrade with more than the simple bleeps, blips, and screeching notes that were present in the original.
