Shining Force CD: Fanservice of the Highest Caliber

I picked up Shining Force CD a little while ago, knowing it's a Sega CD remake of the two Game Gear Shining Forces (one of which was only released in America on this disc) but what I didn't know was how there is actually a few chapters exclusive to this release.

This makes Shining Force CD an absolute treat for series fans.

Having grown up playing Shining Force II, I still prefer the strategy-lite approach to tactical RPGs the classic Shining series uses, as opposed to the complicated "make-sure-your-guys-aren't-exposing-their-backs" tedious BS of the Final Fantasy Tactics lineage (and pretty much every other tactics series besides maybe Advance Wars or Fire Emblem). There aren't too many games like this left, sadly, and Sega seems to want to make the Shining series into action-RPG only. This makes me sad, because there is Ys for that, and I want more Shining Force.

I picked up Shining Force III last year, and played a few hours of it before being distracted by other things. That may happen with Shining Force CD, but I don't think it will. You see, the game has 2D graphics, basically a mix between Shining Force I and II. Having been 16 years since the game released, I have memories of Shining Force II and this game calls back to it very well. In fact, I think that's the best way to enjoy this game; having played the original Shining Forces as a kid, going back to this sixteen years later is a treat, somewhat like Mega Man 9 was when that came out in 2008.

Anyway, so there are a few differences. Unlike Shining Force II, there is no between battle exploring - there is simply the option to Save, manage items and characters, and the occasional shop, then on to the next battle. Which is somewhat disappointing, because I really liked talking to people in Shining Force II - made the world seem more real. Then again, having played games of a more recent vintage that present their worlds on a deeper level, perhaps this is for the best.

The battles themselves so far have been pretty great, though. My favorite so far was the one where my characters had to abandon ship, and after washing up on a beach, find themselves under attack. They lost all their weapons and items when this happened, so they had to search the beach to find some sticks to use to beat the battle. I doubt a scenario like this would come up later in the game, but I thought it was pretty neat - in fact, there isn't anything like it in Shining Force I or II. It also highlights something I wish would have been implemented into the American version of II - the ability to search treasure chests and the ground - when applicable - during battle (Shining Force II had a few battles with chests in them, but they were only accessible in the Japanese and European versions, for what reason I do not know). This changes the strategy of battles, because the player will want to go out of their way to obtain items from chests rather than just go beat the boss. There was one battle, though, which had a treasure chest that I had to send a character way out of their way to go get that was just a stupid Medical Herb that pissed me off, but that has only happened once so far, thankfully.

I'm in Chapter 2 of the first part of the game, and I have no idea what that means in terms of how much of the game I have completed. I'm sure I'll blog more about the game, though, as I'm having a blast identifying the references to Shining Force I and II (sadly, most of them are to the first game, although we'll see how long that holds true as I go on).