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| CORBIE'S BLOG <- REVIEWS <- CONTACT |
| Shining Force CD Publisher: Sega Release Date: March 1995 Genre: Strategy RPG     |
 As the story of Shining Force CD goes, the queen is placed in an eternal sleep by a group of rogues who work for the evil King Edmond. Powerless, you must set out with a group of your closest friends in order to track down this mage who's put your queen under his spell and restore peace to your kingdom. You'll venture far and take part in many epic battles in order to do so. The first thing you'll notice about Shining Force CD is how good it looks. It may not be the best looking Sega CD game, but it features a great amount of detail and color in most of the areas of the game. Since this is a strategy game with an overhead perspective, you wouldn't expect much from it visually, but the game manages to impress you with some of the beautiful areas in the game. Character and enemy animations are a little on the simplistic side, and don't feature more than a couple of frames of animation, but it's really not anything noticeable, since you'll spend most of your time staring at the many menus in the game anyway. The cutscenes in the game are another area that really shines in this game, and are a testament to why this game fits so well on the Sega CD format in the first place. If there's a high point to Shining Force CD it has got to be the soundtrack. This game has one of the best CD soundtracks of any Sega CD game, and I'd even go so far as to say that it would give many of today's rpgs a serious run for their money. Beautiful orchestrated tunes abound, and they seem to get better with each new track. The one downside to all of this is the severe lack of voiced dialogue in the game. There's none to be found and this is quite puzzling considering the amount of detail found in most other aspects of the game. It will make you wonder why the developers spent so much time and effort putting together such an outstanding soundtrack, only to leave out the voice overs. Gameplay in Shining Force CD is pretty simple. You are put into combat situations with your band of fighters and you must carefully and strategically move them into formation in order to carry out the battle. Each fighter has their own strengths and weaknesses, and it's up to you to use them in a way that works best. How you move around the area is just as important as how you attack when you approach an enemy. It's like a war simulation only in an fantasy rpg setting. You still get to use the traditional rpg commands like: Attack, Use an item, and even just to Stay put. It's this strategic side of the game that is so involving, and what makes the game so much fun to play. Suffice it to say, if you like the Fire Emblem games, you really need to give Shining Force CD a try as they're gameplay is extremely similar in both execution and function. Since you basically get two games in one, not to mention one of the best video game soundtracks you're ever likely to hear, you can't beat Shining Force CD for value. The game has everything a Strategy RPG fan could possibly want and more. It may be argued that the Sega CD just didn't have enough great games to warrant a purchase back when it was new, but Shining Force CD is one shining example that there may not be a lot of great games, but the ones that are great are absolutely outstanding. A must own Sega CD title. |
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