Collection essentials #133: Shining Force II (Genesis)

Unlike with movies, video game sequels tend to be better than the originals, with the developers being able to refine the foundation set by the first game and usually deliver a larger amount of content as well. Shining Force II is certainly one of those sequels.


The game largely doesn’t mess with the basics of the original game. It’s still a strategy RPG with most of the same gameplay elements. It’s just that practically everything here is better and/or more abundant here. The game’s longer, you’re more free to explore the world, there’s more variety in characters, better music….Shining Force II is just a very well-made game that’s still plenty enjoyable to this day. The game can be quite challenging, too. There’s one character that’s really easy to level up, making them very powerful (shown in my photo, it takes a long time to get green in your health bar), but even abusing that character, I still sometimes had a hard time because a really strong character is only one in your army of 12 taking on the enemy forces.


Shining Force II also has some amusing cheat codes, which you almost never saw in RPGs even back then. One of them, upon starting a new game, lets you rename every single playable character, of which there are many. When I started my file, I had my sister Julia (who I think was 13 at the time) name all the characters for me, and I still have that save file to this day! (And well backed-up, too)


I missed a bunch of optional stuff when I played the game, so that combined with its high quality makes it a strong candidate for a replay at some point. It’s one of the shining (pun intended) gems of the Genesis and a true essential.

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