As a fan of the series I hope that the new shining games will be good, I think those screenshots look good and I dont think you should be so hasty to critisise the new style - maybe it works very well ingame. It also seems that they are mindful of the old style due to the intro screenshots so I dont think you should worry.
This said I have no intention of buying any of the new shining games, there is no way ill be buying a PS2 or its sequel.
I agree with you on the first count about resemblence. I don’t know about its method of gameplay distancing it from the rest of the series though. Shining Wisdom was nothing like it’s forebearers either and most people don’t disown it (unless you’re like me and think it’s the worst game in the Shining series ^_^).
I get the impression that even in Japan PSIII is sort of the bastard child of the Phantasy Star series, which is too bad because of the three Mega Drive games it probably could have used the remake the most. The generation system could have been expanded upon and finally given four fully-realized paths to the end of the game depending on who your last character was. And then there’s the battle system… I don’t know what they were thinking when they regressed back to having slash animations instead of actual characters on screen.
[quote=“DivineDragon”]I concure with Mr. Duke that Sega is folly incarnate for not releasing 2/3 of SF3 here–that was the biggest mistake they ever made; burning the fans like that.
Why Sega doesn’t make Shining Force their ‘Final Fantasy’ is beyond me. If done consistantly and with quality it might even rival it. There really is a dearth for THE strategy RPG series in the industry and SF could fill those shoes in spades.
If Sega/Climax/Sonic continues to make these grave mistakes (total disregard for common sense really) they deserve their rightful place on the ash heap of demised developers.[/quote]
I’ve given up all hope of playing the complete Shining Force III in English. You could argue that the Saturn succeeded in capturing a decent market in Japan where the Dreamcast failed due to its much wider range of RPGs. If only Sega’s relationship with Camelot hadn’t turned sour; I can only imagine how great a Dreamcast Shining game might’ve been.
While Sega was busy wasting money hiring third parties to develop rushed conversions of Manx TT and House of the Dead for the Saturn, Sega of America believed that localising Riglord Saga 2 and Shining Force III Scenarios 2 and 3 was more trouble than it was worth. Also, if Sega of America hadn’t alienated Working Designs we may have seen Dragon Force 2 in English. The Saturn wasn’t exactly what an English speaking RPG fan could call home; of course, I’ve would’ve been more than happy with localisations of the aformentioned RPGs. Sigh.
Sega now realises that there is indeed a market for Strategy/RPGs outside of Japan (better late than never I suppose), and hope the new Shining Force game stays true to its roots in both gameplay and style.
We will need to wait and see I suppose. I hope the new Shining games have story ties not only to each other but to the previous games in the series too (with the exception of the aweful Game Boy Advance titles).
My only complaint about Shining Wisdom is the game’s length; overall, it’s a good old-school Action/RPG. If Landstalker had remained a part of the Shining series (under the name of Shining Rogue) then people would be less inclined to view Shining Wisdom as an outcast.