It may be relatively unknown, but Sega's Shining series has been pretty prolific since its 1991 debut; the little research I've done tells me that there have been 16 games in the franchise--though it's important to note that anything Shining started to suck around 1997 or so. The loss of developer Camelot Software Planning, combined with Sega's general financial failure, caused the Shining name to be repeatedly exploited in games that had absolutely nothing to do with the series' S-RPG roots. To be fair, Camelot didn't always have the Midas touch when it came to the Shining series--see aberrations like Shining Wisdom--but Sega and its development teams seem committed to slapping the Shining name on everything but strategy RPGs. And that's a damn shame.
Now that Camelot has been exclusively pumping out Nintendo sports games, all we are left with are memories, and the weeks Nintendo decides to release good things on Virtual Console Mondays. This happens to be one of those weeks, what with Shining Force II hitting the Virtual Console today. Now we can rest assured that our memories haven't lied to us; Shining Force is awesome! Now let's just be glad that Camelot decided to let the interminable Golden Sun series die, lest their reputation be damaged.
The main reason today's release of Shining Force II excites me--aside from the fact that I love the first two Shining games--is that I once assumed SFII would eventually be re-released. The first Shining Force saw a nice enhanced GBA port in 2004, and me, being the schmuck that I am, expected to get a GBA version of SFII not long after that. But it never came; which is a minor tragedy, seeing as the second game offers many improvements over the first one. Getting a chance to play it again--and pay much, much less than I would for a GBA game--is a consolation for me, as it should be for you. And if you've never played the series, here's the best description I can give: it's just like Fire Emblem, except that it doesn't make you want to murder the world.
Playing SFII does fill me with a bit of regret over the third game in the series; I never got a chance to play it, and with the combined factors of how much the game costs on eBay along with how impossible Saturn emulation is, it's very unlikely that I'll play the game in this lifetime. Add in the fact that America never saw the final two parts of the episodic SFIII, and you've got one major case of blogger's remorse. 61FPS readers who've played the Saturn Shining Force: are my bitter tears justified?
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