Shining Force II

Shining Force
GENRE: Tactical Roleplaying Game
PC (Steam or via Amazon.com), originally on Sega Megadrive/Genesis
1993 Sonic! Software Planning, Sega

Manufacturer Product Description:
As a student of Astral the wizard, you and your friends study all the usual subjects: reading, writing, and sword fighting.

As your time at school draws to an end, dark events are taking place on the island of Grans. The two Jewels which seal the Door to Darkness have been stolen, allowing a creature of awesome power to be unleashed. Finding where the Jewels were taken, and why, is a task only the bravest of adventurers can undertake.

Minimum Specifications:
OS: Win 7, Vista and XP
Processor: 1.6 HGz Intel Pentium 4
RAM: 2 GB
Hard Drive: 50 MB
Video Card: 32 MB or greater
Additional Info: Unknown

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Shining Force II All other Shining Force titles

Gender stereotypes broken. >>> by skysenshi
Shortly after enjoying a bit of nostalgia from the first Shining Force, I was gifted with Shining Force II. In terms of overall look and feel, there is not much difference between the two games, although there were a few improvements on this one. Let's start with the basics.


Story and Characters
I'm not sure if it's just me but I find a lot of Shining Force II's humor mature, yet no less hilarious than its predecessor. It's a bit strange to see them uttered by cutesy little sprites that look like they belonged to a children's game. Then again, it may only be just me re-imagining the dialogues in such a colorful manner.

The story is basically as common as the first Shining Force's: world in trouble because of a dangerous, otherworldly adversary so hero collects party members and save the day. This time around, though, I noticed that they gave this a romantic spin. Or tried to. Mostly, the romantic part just came as a surprise at the end because there weren't really any meaningful conversations throughout the game that would actually hint that there should be any romantic developments whatsoever. But then, my feelings over this could probably be attributed to the fact that I grew up on Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII plot devices where hints are not at all subtle. I should be reminding myself that this game lived in an era where we had barely scratched the surface of Super Mario's relationship with Princess Peach/Toadstool.

Speaking of characters...


Gameplay and Battle System
Shining Force II is a dream game for anyone who loves monks as much as I do. One development that I truly appreciated here was that there are alternate second jobs. To me, this translated as the ability for my healers to become master monks instead of just higher leveled non-offensive clerics. The bonus? ALL my master monks are female, so I had 4 healers where the master monks are female and the vicar is male. I am not sure what the designers were thinking back then but I was just so glad to see an old game where gender stereotypes got broken. And as a female gamer who likes to kick ass once in a while, this meant a lot to me.

Below is a photo of the main character. It was very easy to forget that he's male, which gives Shining Force II a sort of androgynous quality to it. Heck, even my most powerful wizard/sorcerer looked prettier than my female monks.

Those who played the first Shining Force would notice a small difference (but considered a huge improvement) in the inventory system, which I previously whined about. In Shining Force II, if the main character's inventory is full and he opens a treasure chest, the item is automatically transferred to anyone with inventory space. Thank goodness they fixed it. You'll also acquire an added storage midway through the game, which is good because unlike the the first Shining Force, the designers here suddenly became fond of chained battles.


Audiovisuals
There's an improvement in the portrait characters in terms of detail and texture but they still maintained their old school quirkiness. What they have not improved yet is the collision detection, because I found myself still walking over beds and mountains...

The sounds are forgettable at best. I was still humming Shining Force I's background music all the way till the end of this game. I can still hum it now. I can't say the same for Shining Force II.


Replay Value
Considering there were interesting characters that I never got to use (i.e. one of the last few ones you can pick up on the way to the final battle), the replayability of this game is very high. If I had more free time, I'd definitely replay this game for the LOLz.

PLAYER STATUS:
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
COMPLETION TIME: 30:24:58 (end of credits)
HIGHEST LEVEL ACHIEVED: Hero 26 Sarah 28 Jaha 28 May 25 Sheela 25 Frayja 27 Gerhalt 20 Kazin 28 Chester 29 Peter 29 Jaro 26 Karna 15
RATINGS: Gameplay 8; Battle 10; Story 8; Visuals 10; Characters 8; Sounds 6; Replay Value 9

Shining Force

Shining Force
GENRE: Tactical Roleplaying Game
PC (Steam or via Amazon.com), originally on Sega Megadrive/Genesis
1992 Climax Entertainment, Sega

Manufacturer Product Description:
The land of Rune, in the kingdom of Guardiana, has been at peace for centuries, until the hordes of Runefaust attack.

Now, the evil forces of Runefaust are spotted near the Gate of the Ancients. As a young swordsman of Guardiana, find out what Runefaust is after, stop their ambition, and bring back peace to the land of Rune. The fate of the world depends on the Shining Force and you.

Minimum Specifications:
OS: Win 7, Vista and XP
Processor: 1.6 HGz Intel Pentium 4
RAM: 2 GB
Hard Drive: 50 MB
Video Card: 32 MB or greater
Additional Info: Unknown

SHOP:

Shining Force I All other Shining Force titles

Old school gooooooodness!! >>> by skysenshi
I had been busy retrogaming on Steam lately and was so happy to have found some classic Sega tactical RPGs like Shining Force. Of course, it's a very old game. If Shining Force were a boy, he'd probably be in college now. Back in the 90s, I was more of a fighting (and sidescroller) gamer, so I did not expect to be addicted to this 21 years after its release. Call it a pleasant surprise, if you will.

Story and Characters
One of the things I found absolutely charming are the characters' -- both playable and non-playable -- interactions. This is actually difficult to explain, so you really have to experience the game for yourself. Maybe if you had played this when you were younger and re-played it again now, the overly innocent remarks seem suggestive. As for the rest of the dialogues, I can't pinpoint why exactly I find them entertaining. Considering that the graphics and portraits don't even have expressions, I'd have to say that this is one well-written game. Shining Force is just simply funny in many unexpected ways.

Hilarious dialogues that made complete sense to me. Um. I could actually relate to Dr. Crock.

Unlike many newer tactical RPGs, which are essentially story-driven, the characters don't really affect your gameplay. They don't make heavy plot points either. In fact, the entire story of Shining Force revolves around the epic battle between good and evil. This could be considered common now, but I think the way the dialogues are written more than made up for the linear story.

Gameplay and Battle System
Because this is a 21-year-old game, do not expect exceptional user experience. I had a difficult time navigating the menu, especially since you have to activate the menu first if you wanted to search an object. The inventory system can also get frustrating because you don't have a shared inventory. Each character can hold a total of 4 items, so whenever your hero picks up something and his hands are full, you'd have to manually transfer all his existing items onto another character's inventory before you can actually pick anything up. Apparently, many gamers during those days complained so they fixed this in Shining Force II.

As for the battle system, I must say this is the first time that I've actually relied heavily on mages.

Initial battle setup.

I suppose the reason why I rarely used mages is that it usually takes too long for them to cast their spells and I'm not a very patient person. In Shining Force, however, EVERYONE takes a long time to execute an attack because they have to show the attack animations. You can't skip these. Unfortunately.

Screenshot of the attack scene of my favorite mage.
Yes, I'm talking about the jellyfish.

Thing is, that small inconvenience forced me to rethink my usual strategies and I really invested in my magic users. Of course, I would have preferred to have monks (my favorite class) for healers because they have offensive skills but I learned to develop my physically weak priests in this game. Truth be told, I found this a refreshing change from my usual brawl-your-way-to-the-ending style of battling. The only disappointment I felt was that Gong, my monk, was still too slow and too weak by the end of it. I kept him in my party, though, because I like monks.

Audiovisuals
Seriously, I could cry out of sheer nostalgia. I don't care how primitive the graphics looked. To me, they're perfect! Wait. Hm. Maybe except for the attack animations, which I wish I could skip. I have nothing against it, visually. I just don't want to have to see them always.

As for the music, let me just say, this has one of the most LSS (last song syndrome) inducing soundtracks I've ever encountered. The music is nothing special, really. It's not even Nobuo Uematsu level. But for some reason, it stuck. In fact, I finished Shining Force II and all but I still sing Shining Force I's background music in my head while barely remembering its sequel's BGMs.

One of the ironies I find amusing, a nun complaining about lack of progress.
They remind me of the cool nuns in my high school.

Replay Value
Definitely high replay value because you can try other party members and experiment with different strategies. It would be nice to revisit this in a few years when I encounter my next game drought.

Sigh. I miss games like this. Game developers now just don't make 'em like they used to.

PLAYER STATUS:
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
COMPLETION TIME: 24:41:30 (last saved, middle of final boss dialogue)
HIGHEST LEVEL ACHIEVED: Hero 16 Domingo 31 Tao 19 Anri 18 Luke 20 Mae 20 Kokichi 19 Torasu 6 Gong 14 Musashi 21 Zylo 26 Bleu 14
RATINGS: Gameplay 7; Battle 10; Story 9; Visuals 10; Characters 8; Sounds 7; Replay Value 9

Luminous Arc

GENRE: Tactical RPG
PLATFORM: Nintendo DS
DEVELOPER: imagepooch
PUBLISHERS: Marvelous Interactive Inc., Atlus, Rising Star Games
PRODUCER: Hideyuki Mizutani
DESIGNERS: Hideyuki Mizutani, Kaito Shibano
Images by RPGFan

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All Luminous Arc games and merchandise

Amazon.com Description:
1000 years ago, dragons and witches warred against God for the fate of the world. God's power was triumphant, but it was a difficult struggle, and the deity sent Himself into a deep sleep to recover from the terrible wounds he suffered in the battle. Ten years ago, the Church has proclaimed that a great event will soon occur- God will be reborn, and the world will be led into a new golden age under His guidance. However, this news is coupled with a grave warning- the Witches will soon reappear to begin the millennia-old conflict once again.

• An isometric strategy RPG on Nintendo DS
• Create new weapons and equipment with the Vitae Imbusing system
• Strengthen your friendship with comrades and improve your attacks on the battlefield
• Compare your friends' strategic prowess against your own with Wi-Fi multiplayer

Meh. >>> by skysenshi
Having finished Disgaea two games before I played this, I find Luminous Arc forgettable at best. In fact, I realized that I should have written my review earlier ("as soon as I finished it kind" of earlier) because I really did forget its title and I had to borrow another DS to resurrect my saved game and unearth my stats and data.

Atlus is one of my favorite publishers. I mean, I had never gone wrong with the Shin Megami Tensei series. This was why I had expected more.

There are a few good things I could say about Luminous Arc, though. Among them:

• Beautiful portrait art.
• Well-balanced grinding system. You just need to hit 100 experience points per level and even healers gain experience points for using magic, which is how it really should be.
• Some characters are intriguing. I personally like that twist about the protagonist and his brother's origin.
• Battles are relatively quick because the terrains are well-designed.

The things I hated most:

• Vitae imbuing system for weapon/armor creation. Can you get any more cryptic?
• Some characters have annoying voices that really grated on my ears.
• Something's seriously wrong with using the stylus (problems with calibration?) that was why I would avoid it all costs.
• The intermissions allowed you to get to know your comrades better so that you can gain items and rare gifts. Unfortunately, if you try to get close to all your female friends, it begins to look like a bishoujo game. Sometimes the males are weird, too.
• Blah blah blah blah blah. For some reason, many of the inane dialogues here drone on and on and on that it does feel like a bishoujo game when you're not in battle.

For highlights, those are what I can remember. The rest of the game seemed like a blur. I suppose Luminous Arc is a good way to pass the time when you're in between games. Other than that, I can't seem to put it on my list of replayable games. I hope Luminous Arc 2 will be better.

PLAYER STATUS:
DIFFICULTY: Easy
COMPLETION TIME: 32:01 hours
HIGHEST LEVEL ACHIEVED: Alph 62 Theo 59 Saki 57 Cecille 71 Nikolai 54 Lucia 74 Kai 56 Heath 58 Leon 57
RATINGS: Gameplay 8; Battle 10; Story 7; Visuals 7; Characters 8; Sounds 7; Replay Value 5

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

GENRE: Puzzle Adventure
PLATFORM: Nintendo DS
DEVELOPER AND PUBLISHER: Level-5, Nintendo
DIRECTOR: Tatsuya Shinkai
PRODUCER: Akihiro Hino
Images by RPGFan and Amazon.com

SHOPPING:

All Professor Layton and the Curious Village games and merchandise

Amazon.com Description:
In Professor Layton and the Curious Village, you’ll tackle over 130 puzzles as you unravel the mysteries of the village. Puzzles range from mazes and riddles to logic and sliding puzzles. Touch Screen controls make working through puzzles fun for players of all skill levels, and new puzzles are available weekly for download via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Fully voiced animated scenes bring the story to life, while the eccentric villagers and the hand-drawn art provide a charm that appeals to gamers and non-gamers alike. Only playable on Nintendo DS systems.

There's a reason why there's an age limit for IQ tests. >>> by skysenshi
It took me a while to play Professor Layton but it was only because I'm not too fond of the art. But just like Lunar: Silver Star Story, a game I did not initially want to play for the same reason, I found myself immensely enjoying Layton despite its aesthetics. Later, the very same aesthetics that turned me off started growing on me.

Thing is, some of the puzzles in Professor Layton and the Curious Village are a bit...let's just say, if you belong to a certain field, you will find yourself questioning the validity of the puzzles. There are times when you'd find yourself overthinking when the answer is the simplest of solutions. The math problems throw me off nearly most of the time, and then I'd scream, "This is fake math!"

I'm also a little wary of math problems involving people. For regular IQ tests, the solutions seem easy but if you were immersed in Human-Computer Interaction theories, you would always count for fatigue and the differences in skill level of every individual. This is also the basic reason why IQ tests should have an age limit. The formula for IQ is: (Mental Age / Chronological Age) x 100. This simply means that for many people, their IQ points decrease as they grow older. Without looking at the formula, however, one must realize that after high school, people begin to specialize. One word may mean differently to people belonging to various fields. And as I mentioned, people who have studied Human-Computer Interaction would find a lot of oversimplification in math questions about human abilities. That was my only major complaint about Professor Layton's puzzles.

A friend of mine assured me that many of these issues have been fixed in later installations of the series and this makes me look forward to playing them. Just a bit of a warning: If you're trying to play DS games to make yourself sleepy, keep away from this game. There were times I'd be awake all night because I can't stop myself from solving the puzzles (I love the visual ones that require abstract reasoning) or from trying to find out what was really going on in the Curious Village! It was that immersive.

Oh and yeah! Check out Amazon.com's developer interview with Akihiro Hino!

PLAYER STATUS:
DIFFICULTY: Easy - Difficult
COMPLETION TIME: 8:41 hours
HIGHEST LEVEL ACHIEVED: Solved 84 puzzles before the ending (finished everything else after the ending).
RATINGS: Gameplay 10; Battle N/A; Story 9; Visuals 6; Characters 9; Sounds 7; Replay Value 8

Pokemon Diamond

Game Freak, Nintendo, The Pokémon Company
Director: Junichi Masuda
Producers: Hiroyuki Jinnai, Hitoshi Yamagami, Gakuji Nomoto, Hiroaki Tsuru
Screenshots courtesy of RPGFan.com

SHOPPING:

All Pokemon Diamond merchandise Pokemon anime Pokemon Diamond cards Pokemon Diamond toys

Amazon.com Description:
Pokemon Diamond is a traditional Pokemon RPG that takes place in a region called Sinnoh.

In the Sinnoh region, there are two Pokemon that symbolize the region. They appear in the Sinnoh reigon's myths and old folklore. One is called Dialga, and is said to have the power to control time. The other is called Palkia, who is said to have the ability to distort space. The sinister organization called Team Galaxy is trying to rule the region by utilizing these two Pokemon's power. During your adventure to complete your Pokedex and become the Champion, these two Pokemon, and Team Galaxy, will intertwine into the story and lead you on a fantastic journey across the Sinnoh region.

When you set off on your travels, you'll be able to play as either a boy or girl Trainer. You will also utilize the DS's dual slots to transfer Pokemon from the GBA Pokemon games and be able to link up with Pokemon Ranger to access more special content. Pokemon fans have caught glimpses of Mime Jr., Lucario, Munchlax and Weavile in Pokemon movies, and these Pokemon will be debuting in this adventure.


A fun, light-hearted RPG. >>> by skysenshi
Whew! This review has been waaaay overdue. It's ironic that after taking a break from the video game industry, I finally found time to write a video game review. Anyway, I have a confession to make: Pokemon Diamond is the very first of the series that I have ever played.

It's hard to imagine myself playing Pokemon nearly 2 decades ago. Sure, I watched the anime, but my gaming habits were a different matter altogether. I thought that the video game series looked very childish and that they were more suitable for tweens (pre-teens). I'm surprised that I've gotten much older but more appreciative of games with simple graphics and old school mechanics. I've actually become a retro-gamer now, instead of the hardcore gamer that I used to be. (Besides, "hardcore" is no longer the preferred term in our industry. There are casual gamers that exhibit the determination and strategy of hardcore gamers.)

Pokemon Diamond plays like any other old-school RPG: You walk around a 2D map, hop from one town to another, enter grasslands and dungeons complete with mazes and all. The only difference this has to old RPG franchises like Final Fantasy is that there is no epic battle between good and some diabolical villain. For those who are unfamiliar with the series, Pokemon is a game wherein the player collects as many adorable little critters, called pokemon, as he or she can. So basically, you'll be traveling throughout the entire map in order to battle with cute furries, weaken them, then store them in a ball.

Each pokemon has a maximum of four skills to deploy, but they will want to learn different skills as they level up. It's up to the player to decide what skills they should learn, depending on the player's strategy. I was actually more obsessed with evolving my main pokemon party than completing my collection (called the pokedex). Evolving not only changes the look of the pokemon, it also makes him/her stronger. My heart broke, however, when my Abracadabra evolved into Alakazam. His evolution required trading. When I got him back, he no longer recognized me as his master and I had to get to know him all over again.

There are many side activities to do in Pokemon Diamond. You can enter your pokemon into a beauty pageant (I hated this part). You can do quests to get their skills. You can walk them through parks. My favorite activity of all was baking Poffins. This reminded me so much of Cooking Mama, though the stylus doesn't seem to be as responsive. Baking Poffins increases certain pokemon traits, though I mostly use them so that all my pokemon would have a close affinity with me.

Don't expect much from the story. It's very cutesy in that aspect, because all you're after is defeating gym leaders and finding out what Team Galaxy people (the villains) are up to. Based from what I've seen in the anime, the premise for all games in the series seems to be generally the same.

Overall, Pokemon Diamond is a relaxing game, though I had a difficult time with the final battle. There's nothing interesting to do after that, even if a lot of side quests do open up. Would I repeat this game again? Sure, if only to collect 'em all. I'd need to play Pokemon Pearl, or trade with someone who plays it, in order to complete the collection.

PLAYER STATUS:
DIFFICULTY: Easy - Moderate
COMPLETION TIME: 71:50 hours
HIGHEST LEVEL ACHIEVED: 8 Badges, 145 Pokedex
MAIN PARTY: M.Empoleon lv63, F.Staraptor lv60, F.Luxray lv60,
M.Alakazam lv63, M.Rapidash lv61, F.Roserade lv60
RATINGS: Gameplay 10; Battle 10; Story 7; Visuals 8; Characters 7; Sounds 8; Replay Value 9