Introduction

Introduction
Hey, folks! My name is Rojo, and this is my first official SA ~~post~~ thread. Yeah, yeah, I know Shining Force has been done like 1000 times, but this one will be different. Unless you've already seen a VLP where we tell anybody without a magic bar to fuck off, in which case we're both out of luck. If you're somehow not familiar with the game or you just want a bit of a refresher, there's a blurb below to get you started.

Shining force is a turn based strategy RPG from the days of the Genesis. The game features a colorful cast of characters who will help Max, a young man with amnesia, realize his destiny and battle the evil prophesied to endanger the land of Rune. The game was published by Sega and developed jointly by Climax Entertainment and Camelot Software Planning (also known as Sonic! Software Planning). You can find the version of the game that I'm playing here.

About the Playthrough
As I mentioned, we're only going to be using spellcasters in this LP series. That's going to handicap us early on, but I suspect things will quickly get easier due to superior levels / stats, and then harder as the level difference between us and our opponents shrinks and we start fighting trickier foes. Even though we're only using spellcasters, I'll still try to recruit all of the characters possible who will then be sent on "vacation." I'm also going to attempt to show off all the secret stuff that I know about, and when the opportunity arises, drop phat lore bombs that may or may not be 100% correct. Finally, I'm going to try to fit in one battle per episode along with some town exploration if applicable.

Why spellcasters? Basically, in my typical playthroughs I roll with 2 priests and 2 mages. The priests usually struggle to get experience which means unlocking new spells is slow, and often one of the mages dominates while the other lags behind. I considered some other types of playthroughs, but spellcasters seemed like the most interesting, both for me, and to watch. We'll have a bunch of magic at our disposal to use tactically, which should make for some interesting decision making, and we'll often be forced to put units that typically hang out in the back away from danger right on the front lines. Finally, we'll be playing understaffed for most of the game, theoretically making battles a bit tougher and adding some drama.

Special thanks to a one Tonberry2k wherever you are for creating a great sprite sheet from the characters in the game and putting it out there for people to use.

There are two versions of each episode.
The full version includes all of the town and talky bits of the game, whereas the battle only version contains a brief summary of the story for context, and then jumps right into the action. No need to watch both - just pick the version that suits your tastes.

Videos

Series Playlist | (Battle Only Playlist)

The Let's Play Archive

Shining Force

by rojovision

Introduction

Videos