For those who have played the new Shining Force for the Gameboy Advance…did you not find it odd how the ‘new’ storyline is similiar to that of the Panzer Dragoon series in many ways?
SPOILERS:
The ‘Ancients’ created all of the creatures in the world, including the Dwarves and the Centaurs, and basically everything else…only to realize they had made a grave mistake. To correct this mistake, they created Dark Dragon to wipe the slate clean - but, they found out too late, that this, too, was a mistake, because Dark Dragon could not be controlled. Dark Dragon was sealed away, but it destroyed most of the ‘Ancients’, thus ending the Age of the Gods.
I won’t say anymore, but you can definitely tell that this was redone by Team Andromeda members. In any case, this new Shining Force is ten times better than the original. I can’t wait to see what the other two Shining Force’s are like…I hear Dark Sol might make another Cameo appearance…
Wasn’t that the original storyline as well more or less? I haven’t played the game but from what I’ve read about it this “new” story doesn’t sound very different (Geoffrey, wanna share your knowledge?), and even if it IS different I don’t see why the remake has to be made by TA for those similarities to exist…
Phantasy Star games have a lot of similarities as well (towers scattered around the world, biomonsters etc) and they came before Panzer Dragoon and before TA was formed…
Stories are never unique these days, the way they are told/presented can be though.
To sum up, storyline similarities don’t necessarily mean the creator is the same or that the game copies another game or anything like that…
My 2 cents
I wouldn’t pay any attention to the storyline of the Shining Force remake if I were you. Amusement Vision basically rewrote the original storyline (written by Climax and Sonic Co/Camelot) to tie in with the Shining Soul games which were never considered a part of the original Shining saga anyway.
Dark Dragon was meant to be the incarnation of darkness, not a mere creation of the ancients. The best the ancients could do was seal it away within the predictably named “castle of the ancients”. In the Japanese version of Shining Force the gods of the world were the ones who sealed Dark Dragon away, and believe it or not, actual gods do exist in the world of Shining Force.
If you want my opinion, the story of Skies of Arcadia is far more reminiscent of Panzer Dragoon. The Silvites in particular remind me of the “ancient ones”, though they never left any ruins behind to keep the world under their control before departing it.
I wonder if the Panzer team at Amusement Vision is developing the new Shining Force. They would be the best candidates for the task now that Camelot is out of the picture. I wish them all the luck in the world, but also hope they don’t rewrite the original story.
Climax Entertainment became Crazy Games. Some of the staff who worked on Landstalker left to work on Alundra. Apparently, the gameplay is very similar. If so, then I need to check it out.
Alundra is a great 16bit like action RPG with more emphasis on puzzle/adventuring than combat Geoffrey, Alundra 2 is nowhere near as good imo but I didn’t play it that much though.
And btw, I just got to watch the intro of the GBA Shining Force and it describes Dark Dragon as what Geoffrey said, it says nothing about Dark Dragon being created by the Ancients… It said the Ancients fought against him and all that like Geoff’s post describes…
Maybe the game itself says the stuff you say Kadamose but so far I saw nothing like that… What are your sources?
Alexander, the intro to the GBA game is STILL the same, just like the original. You do not know about Dark Dragon’s origins UNTIL you get to Runefaust for the first time.
Please believe me whan I say that the story is VERY different than the original. This is due to the fact that the original was vague on the storyline…it never tells you how or why Dark Dragon was created, and you never learn anything about that ‘Ancients’. In this one, you do…plus, you find out who Max really is.
Many of the finer details present in Shining Force were lost in translation. In the Japanese version of the game Dark Dragon is anything but someone’s creation. He’s more powerful than the three devil kings for some strange reason. I suppose we shouldn’t expect anything less from the incarnation of darkness (i.e. darkness given physical form).
All the gods did was seal Dark Dragon away, like they did with Zeon after the other devil kings stripped him of his power. The ancient gods sealed the two entrances to the castle of the ancients and left two kingdoms behind to defend them called Guardiana and Runefaust, formerly known as Protectora. Over time the people of these kingdoms gradually forgot about their ancient duty…
Anyway, this theme is the same in Shining Force II. Granseal, formerly known as Ground Seal, was built to seal an ancient gateway to Arc Valley.
I really hope Sega doesn’t remake Shining Force II. Amusement Vision will have a hard time explaining the presence of a huge bird god… unless the ancients created him too!
I was wondering how this new version of Shining Force compares to the Japanese version of the original, have Amusement Vision fixed translation errors or have they actually rewritten parts of the story? Also if the story has been changed, how is it being received by the fans(e.g. at shining force central).
The underlying story of the Shining Force remake has been almost entirely rewritten. After reading about some of the changes Sega made to the original story I can safely say that I won’t be going anywhere near the game.
Let’s see: in the remake Darksol and Dark Dragon are now bioweapons created by the ancients instead of a devil king from another dimension and the incarnation of darkness, respectively. The source of all magic in the world is a satelite orbiting the planet (who came up with that idea?). And if anyone doesn’t want to be spoiled any further stop reading now because Max and Kane were both placed in suspended animation 1000 years ago in preparation for Dark Dragon’s return. They were given the task of resealing Dark Dragon if/when it reawakened.
The game has received mixed opinions from long time fans of the series, but I almost cannot believe how ridiculous some of the new/edited narrative is.
The story and translation have changed significantly. Though the original story and most of the gameplay remains intact, the story has been added onto, making the once vague story very clear to the player. It’s a huge improvement.
[quote=“Geoffrey Duke”]The underlying story of the Shining Force remake has been almost entirely rewritten. After reading about some of the changes Sega made to the original story I can safely say that I won’t be going anywhere near the game.
Let’s see: in the remake Darksol and Dark Dragon are now bioweapons created by the ancients instead of a devil king from another dimension and the incarnation of darkness, respectively. The source of all magic in the world is a satelite orbiting the planet (who came up with that idea?). And if anyone doesn’t want to be spoiled any further stop reading now because Max and Kane were both sent to the future from the past to reseal Dark Dragon.
The game has received mixed opinions from long time fans of the series, but I almost cannot believe how ridiculous some of the new/edited narrative is.
Better luck next time Sega.[/quote]
The original was great…BUT it lacked depth. Though I agree that the new Shining Force story is nothing more than a cheap tack-on, at least it has some depth this time around. It is an improvement.
I agree there, but I’m one of the rare few who didn’t like Shining Force II anyway.
Shining Force III was the best in the trilogy - I’d like to see all 3 episodes remade…(just updated graphics…no new story) - - The Scenario system was simply great, and added ALOT of replay value. It wasn’t a linear game, unlike the other two.
I thought Shining Force II was the best force game in the series. The game has over 30 characters and over 40 battles, all in a non-linear world unlike the game worlds of Shining Force and Shining Force III. In fact, each team in Shining Force III barely had more than 12 characters, which meant you couldn’t truly customize your team.
I’d be perfectly content with a simple rerelease of Shining Force III in English. Sega betrayed its fans by not fully translating the game and the time has come for Sega to redeem itself in the eyes of those fans.
[quote=“Geoffrey Duke”]I thought Shining Force II was the best force game in the series. The game has over 30 characters and over 40 battles, all in a non-linear world unlike the game worlds of Shining Force and Shining Force III. In fact, each team in Shining Force III barely had more than 12 characters, which meant you couldn’t truly customize your team.
I’d be perfectly content with a simple rerelease of Shining Force III in English. Sega betrayed its fans by not fully translating the game and the time has come for Sega to redeem itself in the eyes of its fans.[/quote]
How was Shining Force II non-linear? No matter what you do, you still fight the same battles, and get the same ending.
In Shining Force III, you also fight the same battles, but there is a scenario system involved…(do you save the character so he can join your team later, or do you prefer to sacrifice him/her and defeat the enemy before he esscapes)? Shining Force III definitely gets my vote.
Shining Force II allowed you to roam the game world – to revisit old locations to discover new things. Camelot sacrificed this aspect of the game in Shining Force III (no doubt to keep the main story in the player’s sights at all times) though there were still a number of unrelated encounters to divert your attention.
No that’s wrong mate. Climax Graphics (makers of Blue Stiner) became Crazy Games. They never wored on any of the Landstaker /RPG games for SEGA. They are/were a diff team to Climax Enterainment (makers of landstaker).
I’m not sure if Climax Ent, or in fact Crazy games are still going now though.
I always thought that Climax Entertainment was Climax Graphics. In the Japanese version of Blue Stinger there are posters in a few areas of the game of Garian and Kay from Dark Savior.
