Shining in the Darkness is one of my favorite RPGs - love me a good dungeon crawl - and this is a remarkable direct sequel. It provides enough context to be a stand-alone game, while both serving as a direct sequel to Shining in the Darkness, and as a prequel to Shining Force III. It's an remarkable balancing act but they pull it off.
Entirely first person, we can now explore towns, castles and other interiors in addition to the dungeons and caves. Greatly expanded in scope, there are now numerous caves, shrines and other dungeons to explore, a contrast from the monolithic labyrinth of Darkness. Similar to the Shining Force games, the environments are packed with secrets that encourage and reward exploration, and with so much more area to explore, there's a lot more to find. Notable is the unusual but brilliant fairy system that serves as our preemptive combat strike, rewarding bonus XP and gold.
The dungeons are all very unique and superbly designed. Every one has new ideas packed into them, from finding new passageways and boats in the waterways, to having to weave navigating on the ceiling and floor in another. And the music is simply incredible throughout. A couple of personal favorites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEfows0mD6A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwY1csmv4gs
The quest is long, tough, varied and packed with great characters and ideas. I love that while there are more party members than you can have active at once, even those that did not participate in battle will level up with you, so no one falls behind. You never get locked into a core set and can adjust the party on the fly as needed - which is frequently needed due to the very challenging boss fights.
I love everything about this game. The lone major flaw in the performance: combat in particular suffers from frequent slow down. With some additional optimization, the game would run so much better. Still, this is one heck of a great dungeon crawl and worth playing any way you can if that's your jam.
Entirely first person, we can now explore towns, castles and other interiors in addition to the dungeons and caves. Greatly expanded in scope, there are now numerous caves, shrines and other dungeons to explore, a contrast from the monolithic labyrinth of Darkness. Similar to the Shining Force games, the environments are packed with secrets that encourage and reward exploration, and with so much more area to explore, there's a lot more to find. Notable is the unusual but brilliant fairy system that serves as our preemptive combat strike, rewarding bonus XP and gold.
The dungeons are all very unique and superbly designed. Every one has new ideas packed into them, from finding new passageways and boats in the waterways, to having to weave navigating on the ceiling and floor in another. And the music is simply incredible throughout. A couple of personal favorites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEfows0mD6A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwY1csmv4gs
The quest is long, tough, varied and packed with great characters and ideas. I love that while there are more party members than you can have active at once, even those that did not participate in battle will level up with you, so no one falls behind. You never get locked into a core set and can adjust the party on the fly as needed - which is frequently needed due to the very challenging boss fights.
I love everything about this game. The lone major flaw in the performance: combat in particular suffers from frequent slow down. With some additional optimization, the game would run so much better. Still, this is one heck of a great dungeon crawl and worth playing any way you can if that's your jam.
An amazing follow-up to Shining in the Darkness that surpasses that game in almost every category.
Pros: Enjoyable dungeon exploration gameplay. Good graphics that have aged well for the 32-bit era. Interesting puzzles that really make you think. Interesting story about spirit posession and leads into Shining Force III's story. References to Japanese mythology, specifically the Sword/Mirror/Jewel of Amaterasu. Good music. Cons: Characters have little persononality/dialogue. Random slowdown in some battles, I'd estimate single digit FPS.
I fucking love it. Rodi my beloved
you might expect this to be a pretty straightforward dungeon crawler-style jrpg, but it's full of so many moments of unsettling strangeness. the soundtrack is quality sakuraba. i wish camelot would make something like this again, instead of the endless mario sports games.
Really good rpg until last 1/3 where it just feels tedious without much story
fuck those last fights
fuck those last fights
One of the best RPGs for the Sega Saturn.
"the saturn doesnt have games worth playing" Eat My Fucking Ass
10/10 masterpiece that doesnt deserve to be dead on the saturn