Topic: Shining Force 3

This is my favourite, and first, RPG game that I ever played. I neglected the genre until then, but I fell in love with this title and it's still the most fun I've had on an RPG to this day.

I was wondering if anyone has any other examples of an RPG such as this. Especially something on the Wii. I've asked this question before and had numerous suggestions - but every game I've bought hasn't even been close. Either it's JUST a battle game with no RPG village exploration and progression to new lands, or it does and the battle system is completely different.

I'm kind of hoping to try this again because I really can't stand RPG games with the random battles - I love the strategy of this game but I also love the adventure side of it too so just a battle game doesn't suffice. Obviously I have bought the original Shining Force games on the Virtual Console.

I'm thinking this is actually a very rare genre - whilst you get strategy battle games, they're very rarely also incorporate traditional RPG exploration and adventure. It'd be nice to see another Shining Force game - 12 years on and I'm beginning to think I'll never find another game like it.

Final Fantasy Tactics.

Oh don't get me started on Final Fantasy Tactics! This has been suggested to me before and I snapped it up (for an insanely high price) and found it is not what I'm looking for. Granted the battles are similar but it doesn't have the adventures side of it - there's no exploration of villages, travelling accross the world map, talking to characters, going into their homes and taking what gold you find in their cupboards etc.

It's not just the battles I want - it's the adventure too. I can get either one or the other - never both in the same package.

There is a Shining Force on DS... only in Japan. It looks pretty bad though. I wish I could try SF3. SF2 is good. I prefer Fire Emblem greatly, but aside from FE2 (which is Japan-only), there's no village exploration.

Disgaea has a hub world, at least in Disgaea 3 (the only one I've played), but no individual villages.

I just read that Sega said they're considering downloadable Saturn games (likely on PS3 and 360 only, like the recently announced Dreamcast service), so maybe I'll get the chance someday.

I'm not sure how much Shining Force 3 would be to buy these days - I'm assuming it'll be pricier than most with it being a release near the end of the Saturn's life. If you can get hold of it I really recommend it, obviously.

It's a lot like Shining Force 2 except with 32-bit graphics. Generally graphics don't make the game but, in this case, I really think they add a lot. I bought Shining Force 2 on the VC to play through it for the first time and really enjoyed it - but was thinking throughout that the graphics are letting it down slightly. Still both are top games.

I think a re-release of Shining Force 3 would be great with both scenarios 2 and 3 included and translated. It's a shame that there's actually two more parts to my favourite RPG game that I may never get to play.

Hey madgear.

There may be light at the end of that translation tunnel! Have you seen the SF3 translation project? My brother reminded me of it yesterday, and having seen some videos on YouTube it's made me desperately want it myself. I've actually got all three Scenarios of the game (and the Premium Disc, woop!) and totally agree with you that there's nothing else like it around and it's one of my all-time favourite games.

Even if you play them in Japanese only, they're well worth buying as Scenario 3 in particular is huge and probably my favourite RPG of all time. There's a version of the script you can download or refer to on a monitor as well, so there are plenty of options. Looks like I need to dig my Saturn out now

That's awesome, Prosody. I can't believe I haven't heard of that! Only problem is I don't have scenario 2 and 3 but I might be able to find a way to get them. However I hope Sega see that the whole thing has been translated and contact those guys for a re-release. Would make a fantastic WiiWare game series and, with no FMV or speech, each scenario would be well within the download limit.

Failing that I'd take a DS collection. I wish the Shining Force games were shown more love - I'm totally going to dig out my Saturn too and give it a play through. I've actually not touched it in almost a decade so I think now is definately the time to give it another go!

Well, getting a hold of Shining Force 3 would be the secondary problem, getting hold of a Saturn would be the primary one, haha. I'm just going to hope they rerelease it someday. I need to try beating Shining Force 2 again someday. I forgot where I got stuck last time. I barely played Shining Force 1. For some reason I just wasn't feeling it.

It's a shame there aren't more of these games. I like Fire Emblem a lot more, but to be fair, I like the recent ones that have some 25-ish years of history behind them, unlike Shining Force, which has only a couple readily available entries, both very old. Since you mention translation projects, I'm not sure if it's okay to mention this but there is a playable English translation of Fire Emblem Gaiden for NES/Famicom. It was never released in the US, unfortunately, but it is maybe the closest to Shining Force in that you can explore villages and castles, but instead of exploring the world, you have a world map like SMB3, so you just end up exploring little areas (but they're filled with NPCs, invisible paths, secrets, etc).

I don't know what Phantom Brave is like exactly, but you could always check it out.

I didn't like that game. The battles are really weird, and they aren't locked to a grid. I only played a couple battles, but it was too confusing without being more interesting as a consequence of the complications. And the characters / setting much too bright and shiny for me. Not that I like bleak seriousness, not at all, but incessant cheerfulness is just as bad to me.

If I recall correctly, it was like Fire Emblem Gaiden in that there was a world map connecting small, explorable areas.

I'd happily give a kidney or two for a translated SFIII but sadly it's never, ever going to happen. I doubt finding a Saturn will be that hard either, it's finding a 'special' one that could be tricky.

And fan translation projects are fine to mention, I reckon.

Sounds good, should put this on VC

I'm so annoyed today! I dug out Shining Force 3 yesterday and gave it a play through for quite a few hours. Was just about to continue the adventure only to see the game didn't save! I thought it could have been the battery but I saved onto my RAM cart so don't know why it's not there. That's such a pain! I now have to decide if I should play through the start of it again today or just leave it for now and try again at a later date. Stupid old consoles!

You have to fire up the RAM cart in the system from time to time in order to keep the charge and the saves.

That'll be why my memory card dies from time to time then - I've got two and one of them keeps corrupting data. Now I just use the internal battery - grab yourself one of those as well Madgear (CR2032, only about £3 or so) to be on the safe side.

The answer to your predicament is of course to play it through again immediately! Do things differently so if you do get Scenarios II and III you'll be able to see the amazing Synchronicity system in effect

what is this ram cart you speak of?

That was me being a derr-brain! I meant the memory cartridge that lets you save games. I do have the 4MB RAM cartridge for Saturn as well but it only works with certain games - X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Street Fighter Zero 3, Marvel Super Heroes etc. Can't be used for Shining Force III sadly

I've actually left the Saturn on all day to see if it charges up the cart. I'll try saving some data, give it a couple of days, then I'll try playing through it again if the save is still there. The memory cart running out of power was something that didn't occur to me - and the machine has been practically unused for the better part of a decade so I should have expected it really.

My Saturn hasn't been on for a good few years but I really should set her up again. About 12 years ago I had it switched to play imports and output a 60Hz signal and I've never looked back. It makes SF3 even more incredible to have it running that bit faster, even though it's an RPG.

Sometimes I wish I wrote for a Sega site so I could talk about this game all day long.

Well I don't write for any gaming site at all so I have to keep it bottled up to myself unless I go onto a forum - and I think I'd just get the weirdest of looks if I mentioned Shining Force 3 down at the pub. At least you can rave about Shining Force 1 and 2 on here, though.

For the record my Saturn works - that charge up seemed to have done it and I didn't think it would. I think I'm going to have to give all the classics a go too - Panzer Dragoon Saga, Nights, Daytona USA, Sega Rally, Fighters Megamix, Burning Rangers, Guardian Heroes .... oh why did I put this machine away!? But first Shining Force 3!