#Shining force 3 trilogy patch series#

#Shining force 3 trilogy patch series#

Shining Force 3 was undoubedtly a series high point. If you played Shining Force when it came the Mega Drive/Genesis library as part of the Switch Online Expansion Pack (with the original game part of the line-up at launch), you'd have noticed that its 16-bit pixel art still holds up very well compared to its dated predecessor, and also featured a larger world where you can freely roam in between battles. The follow-up was simply a bigger, better sequel, with its protagonist having the much cooler official name of Bowie (sorry, Max). It wasn't until the sequel – predictably called Shining Force 2 – that I'd see this kind of gameplay system again. For a fairly rudimentary RPG, it had a lot of depth. Shining Force also wasn’t limited to just battles: you could engage in other RPG fare, too, like exploring towns on foot, talking to NPCs, and visiting shops to buy new gear and supplies. There’s the way the action would transition from the top-down grids with fairly simple pixel sprites to more cinematic battle illustrations of your characters making their attack, which were more dramatic to look at. Shining Force also had better presentation than Fire Emblem – at least in the beginning. You can't argue with these immaculate vibes. Unlike in Fire Emblem, you weren’t getting to move all your characters in one go before waiting for the enemy to take their turn – and so an opponent countering was an exception rather than the norm. That, and battles were also more like typical RPGs where characters’ turns were determined by their speed. Namely, Shining Force didn’t have the same merciless permadeath as its Nintendo rival. While Shining Force was pretty much Sega’s answer to Fire Emblem, the two series were also quite different from each other in some key areas. The series evolved quickly, but the older games hold up better. Yes, levelling up characters, promoting their classes, upgrading their gear it all sounds pretty basic stuff now, but this strategic kind of play was an eye-opener to me as I was slowly learning more about what games could be.

I recall, initially, leaving my leader (canonically named Max) in the back and just letting the others get on with it as his attacks were weak and you’d lose the battle if he died.īut then I realised I could have my stronger characters weaken enemies so he could swoop in to finish them off and net the most XP, eventually become a stronger character. Compared to adventure games like Zelda, you weren’t particularly powerful but you could command your companions across different battle grids, taking your turns to surround the enemy and attack like a much fancier chessboard. Here’s a game where you begin as a humble swordsman who becomes a leader of an expanding force of warriors. Safe to say, though, after renting it from a local video store, it quickly left an impression on me. Watch on YouTube Hopefully it won't be long until Fire Emblem, once again, appears in a best games of the month list.īack when my knowledge of role-playing games was extremely limited and I was only playing because of the draw I felt to elves, centaur knights, and other fantasy tropes, Shining Force was essentially my introduction to the RPG genre – and to the idea of games being much longer form than the quick arcade thrills of Sonic or Streets of Rage that I was used to.