The AI is also quite similar, although I’m not sure I should classify this as good or bad. The menu system overall remains similar to Shining Force II’s. However, if a character dies, all friendships with that character drop a level. Whenever one character performs an action that has anything to do with the other one, such as attacking the same enemy, those two can slowly gain levels of friendship, so that when they stand next to each other, both characters’ attributes increase…a boost of morale, I would assume. It may sometimes appear like switching weapons is a good idea just from the basic stat by stat comparison, but in the long run, sticking by a certain weapon will help you in the end.Īnother interesting improvement would be the friendship system. Each character can use at least two different weapon types, and concentrating upon one type of weapon helps build your strength up faster. First of all, the story is much more complex, there are more classes of characters, more weapons, more spells, and for each weapon, there are certain special attacks, which are gained through increasing your weapon levels, which, of course, increase by fighting. Improvements upon this game over its prequels are numerous, even if I exclude the graphics and music. And the best part is that all this stuff loads quickly…especially the battle cutscenes, which, thankfully, is good news. Each of them can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours, depending upon what your style is (slow and easy, or fast and reckless). You have to use a little strategy and thinking, but not so much that it would make you get a headache after each battle. The game in itself is very simple, not going nearly as heavy in terms of depth as many other strategy games, and that may be why it’s so much fun. And from there, it’s endless surprises, plot twists, and battles. In addition, King Benetram, the leader of The Republic, is involved with the kidnapping, or so it seems. After that, the Emperor is kidnapped by mysterious masked monks of the Bulzome Sect, a cult of religious fanatics that, of course, worship a force that opposes all that is good. ![]() Things, at first, seem to be going fine, until explosions occur during a cruise around town. Synbios and other important delegates of the Republic are attending a peace conference in Saraband, which is the neutral nation in the whole affair. The Empire has invaded Barrand, a territory of the Republic, and war is immanent. There are three major nations: The Republic, The Destonian Empire, and Saraband. In this scenario (this is actually the first installment of three “scenarios”), you play the role of Synbios (me!), a young warrior who is the son of a very famous General of the Republic. The story is probably one of the most complex you’ll ever get into. I can’t say a whole lot more in this department. Motoi Sakuraba (the composer of Star Ocean’s soundtrack), did a very good job here, cranking out some really great tunes. Music from the game is, in my opinion anyway, very good. Spells have been improved considerably in terms of graphics and in number, some being extremely impressive, pulling off effects that were supposedly not possible on the Saturn. Whereas they used to feature 2D sprites bouncing back and forth, they now have evolved into fully rotating, light-source shaded, polygonal characters hacking and slashing at each other. The infamous Shining Force battle cutscenes have really improved from the first two games. The textures are very detailed, both on buildings and the ground, and there are various other noticeable things such as trees, flowing fountains, light reflections off of floors, all impressive for the Saturn hardware. What really impressed me, though, was the in-game graphics, with 3D polygonal environments that were more detailed than the 2D environments of the first two games. You start off with a CG cinematic opening movie that’s suprisingly good for full screen Saturn cinepak movies (although it’s really nothing more than eye candy). The first thing I noticed when I turned the game on was the excellent graphics. I’ll first start with the game’s strengths. The latest game in the series continues with the same style as its predecessors, only it does it better in every way. ![]() The Shining Force series is infamous among those who own Sega systems, mostly because of its good graphics, great music, and its unique battle system. Shining Force III was one of the last Saturn games to be released here in the U.S., and what a way to end a system.
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