Shining Force fans rejoice?

SEGA
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A few images of the new Playstation 2 Shining Action/RPG, Shining Tears, have emerged:

Magazine scan 1

Magazine scan 2

Shining Tears looks interesting but in a few ways actually looks worse than Shining Wisdom. I always knew the Playstation 2 struggled to cope with the graphical demands of today’s games, but I never thought the Saturn was better equiped to render 2D graphics! I was expecting a fully 3D Action/RPG, but Sega has taken the cheap route with 2D graphics and fixed overhead angles/top down views. I hope the new Shining Force game doesn’t go the same route. A Shining Force game with Grandia 2-esque visuals would be a dream come true for me.

Also, the artwork of Shining Tears looks like it has taken a turn for the worse when compared to the stylish anime-inspired artistry of the Camelot Shining games. The artwork in Shining Tears is very reminiscent of Hundred Swords for the Dreamcast IMO. Of course, there’s a token badass hero with a steadfast gaze and hair of the purest white.

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I can’t really say that the Saturn 2d engine is better that the PS2’s but I knwo for sure that the Saturn was supposed to be the 2d king when it was made.

Funny that the 3d age started along with it…

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I can live with 2D graphics when they do a good job of representing a game’s gameplay, but I was expecting more from a Playstation 2 game. My liking of Shining Tears will depend on its gameplay, however.

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The new Shining Tears website is now online.

For a mere 2D Action/RPG, Shining Tears doesn’t seem too bad. Amusement Vision is busy working on the new Playstation 2 Shining Force game even as we type.

Damn, the artwork resembles the character artwork in Hundred Swords so closely it’s almost frightening. The characters even stand on each side of the screen when talking to one another… just like in Hundred Swords.

In most of the Camelot Shining games, certain characters would have portraits that would appear in the top left hand corner of the screen whenever they engaged in dialogue. Sega has decided to break with tradition…

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Why are these strategy RPG’s all alike??

This type of style (the characters) is soo clich?..

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Shining Tears is like no Shining game I’ve played. The gameplay mechanics don’t even come close to resembling Shining Wisdom or Landstalker (real Action/RPGs) as far as I can tell.

Here’s an image from the PC version of Hundred Swords (I blatently stole):

http://www.panzerdragoon.net/extra_images/hundred_swords_image_01.jpg

The artist who worked on Hundred Swords and who is now working on Shining Tears must surely be the same person?

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[quote=“Geoffrey Duke”]
The artist who worked on Hundred Swords and who is now working on Shining Tears must surely be the same person?[/quote]

It’s either that, or a blatent rip-off.

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Apparently, it’s a generic style of art used in Japanese games. The artwork seems similar in Fire Emblem too.

The artwork is Shining In The Darkness and Shining Force also differed from the subsequent games because the artwork was drawn by Climax (the first two games were co-developed by Camelot and Climax), yet the differences were subtle and many traditions remained intact.

The artistry in Shining Tears seems to break away from tradition IMO. The traditional portraits in the top left hand corner of the screen have been replaced, almost as if Sega wants to forget all about the Camelot games.

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Also…

I hope Sega doesn’t use the same 2D approach seen in Shining Tears in the Playstation 2 iteration of Shining Force. Considering how far 3D graphics have come over the years, it surprises me that Sega has chosen to use a 2D graphics engine for Shining Tears. It just seems lazy and “cost-efficient”. We know Sega can do better, so why doesn’t it?

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I don’t see why you consider 2D games’ creation as being “lazy”, it’s just as hard as 3D games… And in certain ways harder, after you create a 3D model and skin it, animating is done quite simple with nowadays software and you can even put the same animations on all your 3D characters, while in 2D you have to redraw every frame of every animation of every different looking character for example…
Well made 2D games can be just as beautiful as any 3D game, in their own way ofcourse… Saying anything negative based solely on the game being 2D doesn’t really have any point imo… Those screenshots you posted look beautiful to me, I wouldn’t mind at all if SF was like that. The rest screenshots on the rest pages of the site look great too :slight_smile:
I’m sure the Shining Force game will be 3D though, in the style of Skies of Arcadia propably with ultra eye candy detailed battle scenes in the style of SF3…

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I have no problem with 2D graphics when they do a good job of representing a game’s gameplay. I liked Shining Wisdom, which was a 2D game, and I loved Shining The Holy Ark which combined beautiful 2D sprites with 3D graphics. Camelot could programme the Saturn to perform graphical feats even Sega’s own development teams couldn’t.

I’m led to believe that Shining Force IV will be entirely 3D with an adjustable overhead view which can be rotated left or right just like in Shining Force III.

I was hoping that Shining Tears would be an old-school Action/RPG, but I suppose gamers are incapable of appreciating the wonders of leaping across platforms hanging over an abyss with monsters and puzzles waiting on the other side… all within a huge non-linear dungeon. The mere thought of exploration must frighten most gamers away from the idea. Perish the thought of playing a game that actually requires you to think for a change.

I’ll have to travel back into the distant past to get a decent dose of real Action/RPG bliss.

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All these new Shining games have got me really excited, however I’m a little annoyed that I have to fork out ?100 for a PS2 just to play them :frowning:

Hopefully SEGA will consider porting them over to Xbox and/or GC. Fingers crossed, eh?

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Geoffrey why do you always have to try to find the bad in things?

As for the Question in your Sig,
Have you played SF RDD yet?

The anser is YES!!! OH YES!!!

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I know exactly how you feel. I always refused to buy a Playstation 2 as a matter of principle, but now I’m left with no other choice.

After Sega’s unfinished translation of Shining Force III and the early demise of the Dreamcast, give me one good reason why I shouldn’t air on the side of caution? I shall remain pessimistic in the hopes that Sega disappoints me by proving all my negative expectations wrong. When Shining Force III was announced I was overjoyed, especially since the story tied in with the wonderful story and storytelling of Shining The Holy Ark. Now imagine how utterly pissed off I was when some retard at Sega of America decided against finishing the translation of Shining Force III. If Sega wasn’t going to finish the translation it started, then why bother at all?

You can defend Sega’s decision all you want (you wouldn’t be the first), but I won’t listen to excuses.

[quote=“sharky”] As for the Question in your Sig,
Have you played SF RDD yet?

The anser is YES!!! OH YES!!! [/quote]

I dislike the Shining Force remake for a number of different reasons. For a start, it seems Amusement Vision has editted the original story in a few places. I hope Amusement Vision hasn’t changed the game’s story to tie in with the Shining Soul games. Remember Amusement Vision, you never created Shining Force.

However, the English script was already plagued by translation errors anyway. For example, Max (the main character) washed up on the shores of Guardiana with no prior memory. This is mentioned in the manual, but he’s also Kane’s brother which the English script neglects to tell us. It’s funny because at the end of the game Max forgets who he is again…

The main character of Landstalker was going to be Max, believe it or not, before Climax and Camelot parted ways. “Shining Rogue” aka Landstalker should’ve been a part of the Shining series.

The new artwork present in the Shining Force remake is terrible when compared to Climax’s original work. Thanks to the bright colour-scheme, the serious atmosphere pervading the original game, which was also reflected by the grim character portraits, has been replaced with something that can only be described as childish. Shining Force II adopted a cleaner, more colourful graphics engine than Shining Force, but at least the artwork was anime-inspired. The resolution of the Game Boy Advance is actually lower than that of the Genesis/Megadrive, meaning everything is chunkier than before, too.

By all means, praise the Shining Force remake. I, however, played this game over a decade ago, so find nothing praise-worthy about it. Other than the overhauled graphics, a few extra characters, and some more background information sent our way about the main heroes and villains alike, I see no compelling reason why fans of the Megadrive/Genesis game should even considering purchasing it.

That said, I hope Sega rakes in piles of cash from the release of Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon. Who knows? Maybe Sega will compile Shining Force III Scenarios 1, 2 and 3 in English on a single disk and release it with Shining Force IV. I can’t see any other way Sega can possibly redeem itself.

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Im at the end Of Shining Force RDD and If you dont like it
you must have some serious issues with SEGA
I mean its So much better in just about every way.

I DOES work with Shining Soul but
the point is that SEGA Are remakeing The Series
Trast me the Scrip isnt Flawed how it sounded it was
It actally Very Different to what we Orignaly thought

The Storyline Actally makes Sence now to ;p
Lots of new things have been added Including
Lots of Parts to the Story to make it all more Clear.

When Compaireing the Old Art to the New one
I love the new One much more
Expically Zylos New look I mean in the Orignal
When he is Promoted his move is retarded!

But now … its much cooler

“”“For example, Max (the main character) washed up on the shores of Guardiana with no prior memory. This is mentioned in the manual, but he’s also Kane’s brother which the English script neglects to tell us. It’s funny because at the end of the game Max forgets who he is again…”""""

… Are you sure you have played SF Remake?
because its nothing like that!

As for SEGA’s Shining Tears 2D look
SEGA werent being Lazy at all…Thats how People wanted it to be!

Yes SEGA made some mistakes in the past GET OVER IT MAN!
Stop puting SEGA down for lame resons
Its quite Obvious your Loooking for reson to put them down no matter how
stupid of a reson!

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[quote=“sharky”] “”“For example, Max (the main character) washed up on the shores of Guardiana with no prior memory. This is mentioned in the manual, but he’s also Kane’s brother which the English script neglects to tell us. It’s funny because at the end of the game Max forgets who he is again…”""""

… Are you sure you have played SF Remake?
because its nothing like that![/quote]

What I meant was Kane’s identity wasn’t revealed in the original English langauge version of Shining Force like it was in the Japanese game. Sega seems to have ammended this lack of disclosure in the remake.

As far as the story goes… Climax and Camelot wrote it, not Sega. Sega has no right to rewrite anything, even if Sega does own the rights to the series. I don’t appreciate the original story being rewritten for any reason.

[quote=“sharky”] Yes SEGA made some mistakes in the past GET OVER IT MAN!
Stop puting SEGA down for lame resons
Its quite Obvious your Loooking for reson to put them down no matter how
stupid of a reson! [/quote]

You misunderstand: I’m a huge Sega fan and a huge fan of the Shining series. However, Sega has made some mistakes I’m not prepared to ignore. Why should I, or any Sega fan turn a blind eye to its mistakes? Not translating the complete Shining Force III was one such mistake, and one I will never forget simply because I love this series of games.

Shining Tears isn’t the Action/RPG I was hoping it to be but that won’t stop me from liking it if it’s good. Time will tell if Sega can finally do the series the justice it deserves… with an original title. Taking someone else’s game and remaking it in your image is hardly a testament to your creative prowess.

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Okay!

Well Im on the DarkDragon/DarkSol Battle now
and so far What I have seen from the Remake
Out Does the SF Orignal Script in Both Japanese and
English Version I herd about the Japanese One
Being better but I think SEGA have looked at the
Japanese Script for this game and Gone From there
on this one. There are A few Script Changes
but in the end its all the same Result.
But yes Shining Soul Does Tie in with it.

The Lagacy of the Gods well lets just say
Gods or Ainchents They mean the same thing
But some Regons call them Ainchents other less informed
call them Gods!

The hole Script works out a hole lot better and so much Easyer to
Understand… With Flash backs,Cutseens where you see Darksol
and the King Talking and Side Quests that show How
Narsha gets to you!

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I will never consider the Shining Soul games or the Shining Force remake to be a part of the original Saga Climax and Camelot envisioned.

Damn, if only Climax Entertainment had made an RPG as good as Landstalker since its release. Climax didn’t heed the old saying “if it aint broke, don’t fix it”.

Shining Tears seems to be set on a new continent in a new world and I wouldn’t be surprised if the new Shining Force game follows its lead. This is a bad thing in that Sega wants forget about the previous games and about everything that took place in them, but it’s also a good thing in that Sega can make a fresh start without rewriting Camelot’s story arc.

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Shining Soul 1 and 2 arent suposed to be A part of Shining Force Orignal
SEGA is Keeping the same storyline but Refreshing it,
Changeing a few things that have actally made it more fun to play

If it isnt broken dont Fix it,
But in this case it was… Remember how the Script was messed up
well not anymore!

Shining Tears We dont really know to much about it yet so lets not Judge.

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What I meant was Climax made a great game when they made Landstalker, the gameplay of which wasn’t improved upon in any of its indirect sequels. In fact, the Stalker games (Dark Savior, and Time Stalkers) were worse in many respects. Why couldn’t Climax just make a true sequel to Landstalker forged from the same gameplay template? Forget Zelda; Landstalker is the best 2D Action/RPG money can buy. It’s comforting to know that it was originally meant to be a Shining game.

I truly hope that Sega sees the sense in not rewriting Camelot’s story arc. As if the flawed English translations and Camelot’s improvised timeline weren’t enough…

I’m still waiting for the Playstation 2 to drop in price before actually wasting money on Sony’s underpowered and overpriced piece of hardware. I don’t expect Shining Tears or the new Shining Force to be localised straight away, so I can afford to wait.