Target Acquired: Target Completed

Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy may have been the first two role-playing-game franchises that I was exposed to as a kid, but it wasn’t until the 16-bit era where RPGs really started to sink their claws into my soul.

The Super Nintendo was, and is, known for having a variety of really enjoyable titles in the genre that have been dubbed classics by video game fans for years.

Final Fantasy VI...Chrono Trigger...Earthbound, to name a few. Others that I enjoyed include: Lufia (I&II)...Breath of Fire...7th Saga, and more.

But it was a franchise on the Sega Genesis that really stuck with me and is behind only Final Fantasy as my favorite franchise of all time.

Shining Force.

My first Shining Force experience was so good. One of my favourites of all time.

I won’t go too deep into my love for the Shining Force series, as you can re-live that passion here. But what I enjoy so much about the franchise is the familiarity of each release in the series. The sequel (Shining Force II) on the Genesis is equal to the original, but adds some differences that make it a more enjoyable experience (for most people, anyways). Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya provides an awesome handheld experience for players, and Shining Force CD on the Sega CD is basically a home console port of Sword of Hajya with some improvements and additional content.

But there was always one release that I had always wanted to play from the first time I had seen it in a magazine. It was on a console I never owned and was likely never going to play.

Shining Force III. On the Sega Saturn.

Yes. The “third” installment in Sega’s cornerstone RPG franchise (suck it, Phantasy Star) was officially named the third game in the ‘trilogy’. While the continuity was non-existent, similar to the first two games in the series, it was five years since the sequel on the Genesis and I, for one, couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.

Alas, I was one of those who never did get on the Saturn bandwagon. I went from the Super Nintendo/Genesis straight to the Playstation and Nintendo 64. By that point, the Saturn and any chance of playing Shining Force III was behind me, and I had moved on.

It wasn’t until many, many years later when I started diving back into games of yesteryear that I decided that I wanted to jump into the world of SF3, and was going to purchase a Saturn to do so. At the time (2011) when I had looked into acquiring these pieces, the Saturn was about $80-$90 (similar to today’s prices on eBay) but the game itself?

$200.

So...because finding a Saturn around these parts was next to impossible, and finding a game like Shining Force III was even more unlikely, I was left to purchase the console and game online. My best option to get a console and the game and have them shipped from the US to Canada was going to cost me over $300.

I couldn’t ever justify spending that much money for one game, and thus, never ended up buying it.

Instead, I patiently waited until emulation on the Saturn had reached a stable point, and that time (for me) was in 2018. An emulator was finally in a position to properly allow Saturn games to played properly, and so I finally embarked on the journey that was Shining Force III.

It was...an interesting journey.

The world of 3D was in full force during this era, and Shining Force was no exception

In the years that I waited to play this game, I learned that the North American release was just the first of three actual scenarios that make up the entire game. Japan got all three. North America got stuck with the initial release and that was it.

That aside, the game greets you with the same familiarity as others in the franchise, which was nice to see. Once you enter the game, you’re quickly reminded of what modern gaming was in 1998.

Pre-rendered graphics and 3D polygons.

Final Fantasy VII, rightly or wrongly, seems to be the main reference point when people refer to graphics on the Playstation. It gets ripped for how ‘ugly’ it looks and how ‘terrible’ the graphics are by today’s standards.

Well, kids. The Saturn was no different. Final Fantasy VII and Shining Force III have a lot of similarities in that department.

I’m not a graphics guy, so it doesn’t affect me one way or the other, but the game had one flaw that I struggled with at times, and that was the 3D camera. Shining Force III had the ability to rotate the camera’s view 360 degrees, and at times, it was necessary given how the game would control the story or battle in front of you. The game will rotate the camera to emphasize a specific angle for dialogue and once it turns control back over to the player, the camera stays the same.

I’m not sure if that makes sense reading that, but you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about when you play the game. Again, it’s not a deal breaker but it does get quite annoying when you’re trying to enter doors, open treasure chests, talk to people, etc.

Other than that, I had no beefs with the game and quite enjoyed it. The story is interesting, though not groundbreaking. It’s pretty standard for Shining Force, and that’s what I enjoyed about it. The characters don’t seem to have as much intrigue as previous iterations in the franchise, but again...outside of 2-3 characters in any Shining Force game, few are really given any sense of depth or back story outside of when you find them in-game and they join your party.

The final battle is an interesting one, though it did almost bite me in the ass with how I played the game up to that point. I won’t spoil why (yeah, no spoilers for a 20 year old game) but I managed to work around it and finish the game. The interesting part was that after the boss battle. There’s a very short post-battle wrap up (no different than other battles in the game) and then...BOOM. Credits.

I will say though...I started chirping on Twitter after I finished it about how the game just ‘ends’ but after the credits roll, you’re treated to another end scene and that’s where things get interesting. The references and how they wrap the final scene definitely leads into an additional story that, I’m assuming, ties into scenarios two and three.

There’s a lot of references to characters and stories throughout the first scenario, so knowing that there’s two other additions to the game makes sense. And that’s where I’m at a crossroads.The first scenario took me about 28 hours to complete and outside of the final battle, I cruised through the majority of the battles in the game without having to escape or go back into town and return to the fight. I’m fighting the urge to jump into scenario two because I know if I do that, I’m inevitably going to have to continue to three.

Do I have another 60 hours in me to dump into this? I mean...I DO enjoy Shining Force, but I tend to move on to another RPG once I’m finished with one, but...am I ACTUALLY finished?

Regardless, I enjoyed the first scenario of Shining Force III and I am looking forward to the next two at some point. I’m glad I waited and didn’t fork out all the money for the console and game, but I really hope that if I jump into the aforementioned additions, they’re worth the 28-30 hours they’ll demand.

Only one way to find out, right?