Collection essentials #326: Shining Force III (Saturn)

Here’s a big one.

The previous game I covered was in Sega and Camelot’s “Shining” series, but “Shining Force” could sort of be seen as a sub-series, as seeing that word “Force” let gamers know that they were specifically in for a strategy RPG (well...that was the case when this game out anyway; later on they would break that rule). These are definitely the most popular “Shining” games, and I’ve covered a few of them already. For the third mainline entry, the developers wanted to really deliver something epic. And boy, did they ever.

First of all, what’s super cool about Shining Force III is that it’s not just one game. Well…this entry I’m talking about here, what you’re looking at in the photo, is actually just one game. But in the span of less than a year during 1997 and 1998, Sega would release THREE games with the “Shining Force III” name to deliver an epic experience that covers one long storyline. Now, sadly, the Saturn was almost literally dead outside of Japan when these games were coming out, so Sega only decided to localize one of the three for an English release. In Japan, this game is called “Shining Force III: Scenario 1”, but they dropped that second part from the English-language release for that reason (though the full title still appears in the game’s credits). They actually changed the ending a significant amount for this game for the English release to try to give it a little bit more closure, because Western gamers weren't going to (officially) get a chance to play the rest of the story.

The game’s storyline involves an empire called Destonia and a young Republic called Aspinia which split off from the empire. You can imagine the empire wasn’t too happy about the Aspinians wanting to go off and start their own thing. But at the start of the game, the two powers are meeting at a neutral site to come up with terms for peace. While this is going on, however, somebody kidnaps the emperor and frames the republic, which reignites hostilities! The party responsible is a powerful religious cult called the Bulzome sect. In this first game you control a warrior from the Republic named Synbios as he chases down the Bulzome sect while dealing with the angry empire. The story actually is not connected with the previous Shining Force games at all, but instead has connections to the previous "Shining" game, "Shining the Holy Ark". But the connections are pretty light and not very important, so it comes off more as a nice little bonus for people who have played Holy Ark.

As stated, this game is a strategy RPG, and what I like about Shining Force games is that they’re fairly straightforward and accessible unlike some other games in the genre which can get very complex to the point of it being a detriment. Synbios starts the game with just a few friends, but many soldiers will join his army as the game progresses, and he’ll be able to bring up to 12 of them to battle at once. Each individual unit gets their own turn to move and act (as opposed to the entire time moving at once). Objectives of each battle tend to be either destroying all the enemies or one particular boss enemy, but sometimes your goal will be getting to a certain spot on the map instead. Map design is highly varied, preventing the game from feeling repetitive. There are several factors which influence combat to consider if the player wishes to engage with them, such as certain spots on the map that provide more defense, and the friendship system which lets characters who interact with each other or the same enemy in battle provide each other a stat boost depending on their level of friendship. Characters don’t die permanently, but it costs some money and a drop to their friendship levels when you bring them back. As characters level up, they will learn special attacks which can’t be selected but may be triggered at random when attacking an enemy, giving the player a lot of great “fist pump” moments as they get extra damage and get to see something cool.

Between battles, the player explores towns, where they can talk to locals, go shopping, and try to find secrets. There are quite a few optional things that can easily be missed if the player isn’t thorough, including several recruitable characters. You can’t freely roam around the world like you can in Shining Force II, and the game is strictly linear. But I think for a strategy RPG that’s perfectly fine.

My biggest complaint with Shining Force III: Scenario 1 is that it takes some time for the gameplay to really become enjoyable. The story gets off to a great start and that helps keep the early game interesting, but in my opinion some of the game’s early battles just aren’t that interesting and sometimes feel like a slog to get through. But as you get more characters and learn more spells and moves, the game really picks up.

I want to give a special shout out to the soundtrack, composed by the great Motoi Sakuraba. This game’s music is absolutely excellent, with exciting tunes you’ll hear during battles and catchy tunes for various locales. Speaking of sounds, though…I do have to mention the game’s English voice acting. The characters speak when casting a spell or performing a special move or critical hit in battle, and the voices are usually pretty atrocious. Some are passable, but many will make you think they just pulled random people off the street for a short recording section. And maybe that’s actually what happened!

I discovered this game as a child roughly circa the year 2000. I had never heard of the Sega Saturn until this time, when my friend Dan got one, and this was one of the games he had. I watched him play it and I thought it looked super cool. I even remember what part of the game I saw, too, and the specific cutscene that happened after a certain battle. I never forgot it, and decided that I wanted to play this game someday. A few years later in 2004, when my family finally got the internet at home, I got my own Sega Saturn on eBay in the summer and got this copy of Shining Force III shown in the photo a short time later. I loved it, and was thrilled to find out that it was merely the first of a whole trilogy! I’ve beaten the game three times to date, twice back then and then one time as an adult in the late 2010s. Is a fourth playthrough in the cards somewhere in the future? I believe so.

You may notice in my photo that my barcode is missing from the back of the box. There’s actually a reason for that! You’ll find out three posts from now.

It’s a crying shame that Shining Force III is still stuck on the Sega Saturn all these years later. Way more people have played the first two Shining Force games since they were on a much more popular console, and it makes me sad when I see people who love those games and never got to experience III. It’s begging for some kind of remake or modern port. Make it happen, Sega! Stay tuned as I cover the rest of the Shining Force III trilogy this week.