Shining Resonance Refrain Demo Live on PSN

AztecComplex said:

I've never played a Shining game before this demo. Has the series ever put out an honest to goodness decent and/or respected entry in the jrpg genre? I know the franchise has a rich history but is it any good?

What would you say is the absolute best Shining game? And please don't tell me some obscure Japan-only Saturn game that's impossible to track down and play.

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Krejlooc said:

Back on the Sega Genesis, Game Gear, and Saturn, the Shining Series was easily among the very best RPGs. They were grouped with the Chrono Triggers, the Final Fantasies, the Phantasy Stars. The Shining Force games, in particular Shining Force II and III, are considered among the best 16-bit and 32-bit RPGs period. They were made by Camelot, who later made Golden Sun and the Mario Tennis RPG. After Shining Force III, they had a falling out with Sega, and Sega basically reinvented the series. After Shining Force III, the series became entirely, 100% different. They are the same in name only.

Absolutely try Shining Force III. It's one of the most ambitious games ever made. It's 3 full games long, each game being a different perspective into a larger story, where actions in 1 game affect the outcome of others. This was back in 1998.

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Vinnk said:

Did anyone figure out what the "Fromage" toggle does?

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Morrigan said:

This post depresses the shit out of me. :(

(To actually answer your question, see below)


All of this.

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Krejlooc said:

Back on the Sega Genesis, Game Gear, and Saturn, the Shining Series was easily among the very best RPGs. They were grouped with the Chrono Triggers, the Final Fantasies, the Phantasy Stars. The Shining Force games, in particular Shining Force II and III, are considered among the best 16-bit and 32-bit RPGs period. They were made by Camelot, who later made Golden Sun and the Mario Tennis RPG. After Shining Force III, they had a falling out with Sega, and Sega basically reinvented the series. After Shining Force III, the series became entirely, 100% different. They are the same in name only.

Absolutely try Shining Force III. It's one of the most ambitious games ever made. It's 3 full games long, each game being a different perspective into a larger story, where actions in 1 game affect the outcome of others. This was back in 1998.

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AztecComplex said:

A Sega Saturn trilogy thats almost impossible to properly emulate and 2 of those 3 were never even localized into english. This is the definition of an obscure as fuck games who no non-JP-speaker will ever play but the hardest of hardest of the hardcore. And no, I'm never gonna give this egames the time of day until Sega rereleases them in some way. I'm sure they're good but not buy-a-Saturn-mod-it-buy-expensive-used-copies-of-all-three-games-and-insert-fan-translations good. It's just not worth it.

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Krejlooc said:

Literally all of this is wrong dude, and that's the good news. You've been able to emulate Shining Force III in full speed on SSF since like 2002. I remember running it on a dinky single core Dell Laptop back in the day. Saturn Emulation isn't really iffy, it just doesn't offer the usual bells and whistles like higher resolutions. SSF is essentially just like you'd run it on a saturn -- same resolution and everything.

Legality of emulation isn't questionable, it's legal.

The US version of the game is super expensive, but A) The US Version's translation is messed up, because they changed the story to be self contained, and B) A US save will not transfer over to scenario's 2 and 3. HOWEVER, the Japanese version of Shining Force III is pretty damn cheap. It's a super, super common Japanese game -- all 3 scenarios (although the premium disk is KINDA rare -- but the premium disk is a bunch of extras, not related to the core game or story). Just looked it up, a MIB copy of the JPN Shining Force III is going on ebay right now for $20 buy it now. The "kinda rare" premium disk is going for $50 non-MIB. There is a bundle of all 3 scenarios going for $80 right now buy it now.

Just to clarify -- Shining Force III is a series of 3 complete games. Each "scenario" is a fully self contained game, but taken together, they tell a large, overarching story. They are meant to be played in order, as the reveals in each game are tied to player having prior knowledge. Essentially, all of Shining Force III takes place concurrently, and each scenario is told from a different character's perspectives. What you do in one scenario, thus, affects the next. I.e. there is a part about a quarter of the way through in Scenario 1 where some vandals are killing a group of people at a train station while your heroes are fleeing a persuing army, so you have a choice of either stopping and helping the people, or continuing to run from the army. Even if you stop and help the people, they, as NPCs, still could die, and at least one of them becomes an important character in another scenario if you manage to keep him alive. The very end of the 3rd scenario wraps them all together, and you get sort of a final chapter that completes the story. Shit, in fact, when you first start playing Shining Force III, you wont really meet the TRUE protagonist of the entire story for several, several hours. And when you DO find out who the protagonist is, it's sort of a small shock.

Finally, the entire game is translated now. Which is why it's recommended you use the JPN version. The translation tool is dirt easy to use -- pop in your JPN Shining Force III disk, run the program, and it'll work a sec then prompt you to pop in a CD-R. Pop in the CD-R, and bam -- it burns a translated version of the game.

http://sf3trans.shiningforcecentral.com/

You'll note there is constant work on the translations, still. That's because there is bug testing and all, catching grammatical errors, etc. But the entire series of Shining Force III games have been fully playable, start to finish, in english, for over a decade now.

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AztecComplex said:

A Sega Saturn trilogy thats almost impossible to properly emulate and 2 of those 3 were never even localized into english. This is the definition of an obscure as fuck games who no non-JP-speaker will ever play but the hardest of hardest of the hardcore. And no, I'm never gonna give this egames the time of day until Sega rereleases them in some way. I'm sure they're good but not buy-a-Saturn-mod-it-buy-expensive-used-copies-of-all-three-games-and-insert-fan-translations good. It's just not worth it.

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Morrigan said:

What? He also listed Shining Force 1 and 2 and they're super easy to get...

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Vinnk said:

Did anyone figure out what the "Fromage" toggle does?

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Krejlooc said:

Allow me to correct this for the second time this week:



Also, shining force 1, 2, and shining in the darkness have been rereleased literally dozens of times across multiple systems. Shit, a new version was released on the ps4 and xbox one like a few months ago. You can currently buy shining force 2 on steam for $0.99.

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sibarraz said:

Can I Play SF III in english? (the 3 scenarios)

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Infcabbage said:

I actually thought the demo was really fun! Looks great on switch handheld mode too. I may actually get it since even with Xenoblade 2 I'm still hurting for good JRPG's on Switch, and the latest Octopath Demo just isn't doing it for me somehow, despite being somewhat into the first.

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Krejlooc said:

yup

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