Story: An ode.

The Story of Shining Force, is effective if not groundbreaking. The story feels is like a cross between Lord of the Rings and Super Sentai. One thing interesting about the world is the mixing of Magic and Technology that you see in the fantastic enemy variety.

The best thing about the story of Shining Force, is how it rewards you for caring. Talking to everyone and listening to them, and coming back after story events to talk to them again, is how you get your most powerful companions. It is not a very character focused game, though some characters do get rather good introductions before joining. While the story felt satisfying in the end, I did end up wishing the characters got more development than a paragraph or two worth of lines; I can see why kindred game series like Fire Emblem and Valkyria Chronicles became more character focused, because of this feeling of lacking here.

Presentation: Ahead of its time.

Shining Force is a gorgeous looking game, despite being made in 1993. The reason why, is good art direction. Beautiful hand-made animations and backgrounds permeate. Every square has its own background and foreground picture, and the maps and backgrounds are varied and beautiful. Most gameplay in youtube reviews only shows the first battle map, which is the least visually interesting level, so this caught me by surprise. The enemy designs are very creative, which you might not expect being based on classic western fantasy. It incorporates a lot of sci-fi due to ancient forgotten technology.

The music, is fun (if simple) and atmospheric. As long as you're not deciding to grind, it should never wear on you. I wouldn't hype it up to be on a top list of videogame music, however. My favorite music is actually the most commonly heard: The attack theme. You only get a tease of this song, unless you or the enemy are using powerful magic spells that hit multiple targets.

Gameplay: A foundation for a great genre.

All classes in Shining Force, feel useful and necessary. Some characters, usually missable if you don't talk to people before and after story events, will be carrying your party in the late game. Human warriors can dish out incredible amounts of damage. Knight/centaur units are nimble and quick (while nearly useless on rough terrain maps), and can actually all equip throwing spears, they'll be your most versatile unit for the first half of the game. Your non-flying melee units can usually be quite tough. Magic users get spells tied to their level, and are the main way of handling large concentrations of enemy units.

While the leveling up is linear (the only choice you have is when to promote once you reach level 10), it is fun due to just how easily and often your characters level up. How much stats are gained, is random, you could get literally no stat boosts, nothing (though I do think attack damage is tied to units levels as I have seen improvement). Or you could get 10 of a more useful stat. You have to 'feed' characters XP by letting them get kills, if they're not naturally good attackers. Healers do get XP from healing however, and you can treat other team members with a health item to get XP too. You can use rings or unique weapons to have non-mages cast spells as well. The heroes Egress spell is your main way of 'grinding' to level up your characters. Chapter 3 is the best place to grind; the field battle will give you an aforementioned item each time, and the harbor is close packed for quick xp.

Enemy variety is actually very good. New enemies are introduced very often, it keeps you on your toes. One enemy is able to keep you from retreating from battle with Egress, by sucking away your heroes mana! Magic attacks ignore the Defence stat (which makes tanks able to shrug off physical attacks), and are your biggest obstacle in the latter half.

In conclusion:

I heartily recommend this game, that I got for less than a dollar (and with the ability to save anywhere), on Steam. Launch it with the "Simple Launcher" when you can. I got a good 40 hours out of it (only about 5 of those were grinding which I enjoyed).