Yeah, but just the fact that your level pretty much gets reset to level 1 every time you leave a dungeon was pretty durn frustrating to me =\
Yeah, but just the fact that your level pretty much gets reset to level 1 every time you leave a dungeon was pretty durn frustrating to me <<
Sounds like a cheap developer trick to get around dealing iwth game balancing!
You may also find it interesting to know that all the character designs in Shining In The Darkness, Shining Force and Landstalker were drawn by the same person – Yoshitaka Tamaki (who is now drawing the enemy creature designs in Shining Force Neo). If you compare the Japanese box art for Landstalker with the box art for or even the character artwork in Shining Force it won’t take you long to notice the similarities in design:
Shining Force Japanese artwork.
I have no idea why Sega of America felt the need to change the cover art for our versions of these games. Was the box art deemed “too Japanese” for our tastes or something?
Why Tamaki-san wasn’t given the job of drawing the main character designs in Shining Force Neo is another thing I don’t understand (though it probably has something to do with making a fresh start).
Landstalker, Shining Force, and Shining Force II (and to some extent, Shinobi) were all a part of my childhood, so of course they each hold a special place in my fondest memories. The saddest part for me is that we may never see another true Shining Force game again. I’m not sure who to blame.
What I meant was I’m not sure if I should blame the casual part-time softcore gamers who now shape the future of the games industry, or Sega for supplying the demands of these mainstream gamers.
Action/RPGs are far more accessible than Strategy/RPGs, so naturally when the time came to develop what was to later become Shining Force Neo, Amusement Vision chose the most marketable genre… much to the chagrin of long-time Sega fans.
I know what you meant XD
Blame the market- Sega can’t spend the money to make a game that the research says won’t sell well …
It’s still possible to satisfy both, I believe =\
You can create a game that will sell to the mass market and be creative/innovative at the same time.
It’s near impossible to satisfy both gaming aficionados and casual gamers with the same game without beeing repetitive or copycat.
We shall see. It’s not as if Strategy/RPGs like Fire Emblem don’t sell in today’s market - they just don’t sell as well as other types of RPGs, especially those calling themselves Action/RPGs.
I’m not going to allow anything to raise my hopes anymore, least of all rumors.
Looks rather “mass market” as Abadd puts it but still PSOneish in appeal and aesthetics in the main. Tired, cliched, cookie-cutter RPG formula go!
gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=4085
How can it still be a “Shining Force game” if they take out the strategy element? Innovations are fine in a series but when you reinvent the unique fundamentals that make it a series it no longer becomes a ‘series’ other than a singular binding element of a title. Suikoden III suffered from this “Reinvention Syndrome” and we all know where its reputation lies.
Shining Force did not need to be reinvented but overhauled–that’s what made the FF series so fun to play. It remained essentially the same–with minor tweaks–and we liked it that way because of the familiarity aspect shared between games.
What Sega is doing is reinventing a new series, borrowing some of the character designs and conventions from another and slapping a ‘Shining Force’ moniker upon it. Of course the droney masses will dig it–that’s the way it works; that’s why we refer to them as ‘mindless’, they don’t think–they purchase and have no better idea of how game design and art aesthetics operate than fossilzed coolia dung. It’s: “WOW, A NEW SHINING FORCE GAME!!!11 HERE’S MY $50.00!!!11.” And then proceed to whine when unsatisfied upon completion. Fools.
These companies really need to stay true to a series’ heritage and build upon what makes it FUN and GREAT to begin with. This reinventing the series every 4-5 games has to stop–I know it’s killed my interest in RPGs for the last five years. Or I could be all wrong and this turns out to be the equivalent of a Mega Man X spawned series of games that run in tandem with the regular SF series. If that is the case, I’ll continue to await for SF4. (Not that I really care. As I mentioned earlier, a Phantasy Star V [made true to the original series] announcement would be the greatest game news since I first heard PDS existed.
And why does everyone swoon over Landstalker? That game was a horrible mess to control and play. Any enjoyment of the story, or what have you, soon evaporated upon the first dungeon. It’s a shame I own it.
[quote=“DivineDragon”]
And why does everyone swoon over Landstalker? That game was a horrible mess to control and play. Any enjoyment of the story, or what have you, soon evaporated upon the first dungeon. It’s a shame I own it.[/quote]
Heh, there had to be someone out there who agreed with me 
BTW, who are Amusement Vision?
One of Sega’s developiong teams.
Indeed.
I actually thought Suikoden III was a breath of fresh air as far as Japanese RPGs go… 
Sure, some of the character designs were arbitrarily bizarre, and there were many localization issues, but the overall game was fun. The story wasn’t too convoluted, and the gameplay balance was done quite well.
Given the sales, feedback I’ve seen on forums, and the overall reviews, I thought it was generally looked upon in a positive light. Was I wrong?
It would be better than what Neo is shaping up to become, that’s for sure 
However I’d also really like to see Sega either starting a whole new unrelated story or actually doing a proper job of continuing Camelot’s saga. How Shining Force Neo links in with the rest of the series is yet to be seen, but I’ve got the impression that it’s going to be a sequel or prequel to Shining Force Resurrection of the Dark Dragon rather than Camelot’s story. I don’t know about you, but I really hate the way some sequels try to overwrite the events of the past, especially when it’s someone else’s story that the writers are destroying.
I guess there’s a chance that the combat will be fun, but in the videos and screenshots that I’ve seen show nothing of platform jumping or puzzle solving which were two of the main things that made those games so good.
[quote=“Abadd”]Though I’m not sure if it’s what Nagoshi-san is talking about, you guys do realize that Shining Force Neo is made by Amusement Vision, right? If you aren’t happy with the way that’s turning out, what gives you hope that another RPG from the same group would be any better?
/just askin’[/quote]
I’m holding onto a faint chance that Amusement Vision will listen to Shining Force fans and give us what we want the second time round. Maybe they were hoping that Shining Force fans would be open to a ‘new’ style of gameplay in Neo, but when they announced it, it was too late to change the gameplay back to a strategy RPG? The fact that they slapped the “Neo” on the end of the title (it was originally going to just be called “Shining Force”) shows that they were at least partially listening to fans’ issues with the game’s title.
Well… your rank would go up every couple of dungeons, which would improve your starting stats, so you could level up after fashion. It wasn’t a total reset. But yeah, that was weird. It didn’t bother me as much as most other people though. I’m not big on leveling so I never really felt I was losing anything.
[quote=“Abadd”]I actually thought Suikoden III was a breath of fresh air as far as Japanese RPGs go…
Given the sales, feedback I’ve seen on forums, and the overall reviews, I thought it was generally looked upon in a positive light. Was I wrong?[/quote]
I haven’t played it myself yet–it’s sitting in the “to be played” pile, but I’m under the impression that some of the older series fans are disgruntled about it, but there are plenty of newcomers who like the third game just fine without knowing anything of the first two, so I’d say it’s overall positive, but there are still some disgruntled people out there.
That much is obvious What have they developed that makes this worthy of a topic?
Most of Panzer Dragoon Orta team who were previously part of Smilebit, are now with Amusement Vision. So with that in mind, they’re very worthy of this topic.
Considering that the members of Team Andromeda Smilebit and now Amusement Vision inherited are some of the best and brightest game developers in the industry, it would be nice to find out what they are actually working on at the moment.