Shining Force CD Review Part 1 (History and Book 1) | Bofner
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- Опубліковано 22 сер 2024
- Part 2! • Shining Force CD Revi...
The first Book of Shining Force CD as well as a quick history lesson. The Shining Force series has always seemed like a hidden gem series to me. I know that people know it exists, but it gets no attention. Chrono Trigger seems to hog the spotlight when it comes to 16-bit master pieces. Although Chrono Trigger is also super good. I just want my Sega RPGs to get more love...
Footage recorded on a region modded Genesis model 1 with Sega CD using HD Retrovision Component cables.
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I'm putting this down for posterity: Shining force CD was the first game I ever played, and I thank whatever deity arranged it that way. I have never stopped loving this game, and every year I hope that one day the nostalgia boom will bring it back around into the current generation.
It's a damn good game, Book 2 being my favorite one, but Book 3 has a shorter more intense feel to it that I absolutely loved as well
Sega has been releasing a lot of classic games on the Switch lately, such as Panser Dragoon and Phantasy Star 1, so who knows, maybe they'll actually make a good decision and rerelease all of the Shining Force games. I understand that if you make games more rare then people will appreciate them more when they do finally get rereleased, but I imagine it would be incredibly easy for Sega just to port this onto the Switch.
i love this game so much but sf2 is my overall favorite from the series, i'm currently streaming this game on my channel!
Seeing your army bundle across the screen and queue up outside the shop or the gate when you're at your home base is pretty cute. It reminds me a little of the pre-battle scenes in the Amiga classic Cannon Fodder when all your recruits are marching in a line over boot hill.
Yeah it is kinda like that! Did that ever get a release outside of the amiga?
@@Bofner It was ported to the 16-bit consoles: I've played the Megadrive/Genesis version.
I wish there were way more sf games
Shining in the Darkness
In Shining Force CD Book 1, Cray, the one eyed monk, is the strongest character in the game plus he has healing magic.
Cray makes Sig look like a sissy. I guess it makes sense though, Gong is pretty garbage in the original Shining Force
@@Bofner if you work on grinding Gong and promote him... He isn't half bad as a master monk. I believe I end up replacing him at some point, but he becomes good. Initial garbage.
@@Valcariusevery character outside of Jogurt is good if you grind them
true to an extent. some characters are def S tier, A, B, etc..@@JeffPenaify
Shining force love will always get upvotes and subs :)
hahaha that's awesome. I also own SFCD and have never played it. Because it is a process. BUT I have beaten and own all 3 SF Gaiden games on the Gamegear. Yes, they are amazing, the 3rd part is the stuff of legends.
I've been getting more and more into Sega's 8bit consoles. The GG had a LOT of REALLY cool games that I want to get into, but don't reeaallly want to play on an actual game gear haha
@@Bofner I totally understand. Play the GG how ever you must to enjoy its games. I am 39 and these are the games of my childhood. It makes me really happy to hear younger generations enjoying the classics. Play on, my brotha!
Just for the record, Sword of Hayja is available on the 3DS eshop as well... until it shuts down.
SF CD music is top notch. Used to jam it in my CD player LOL.
sega cd games can be played on any pc with a cd drive you just need fusion to play them. Also they have no copy protection so I burn a backup disc to play games with and leave the originals on the shelf.
Oh that's really good to know, thanks for that
I had this game back when it was released. Truly one of the best games for SegaCD
Edit: I didn't need a backup RAM cartridge in order to save my progress. Not sure why anyone would.
If you want to play the unlockable Third and Fourth book, I believe you need the RAM cart because the Sega CD internal memory doesn't have enough space to save all 4 books at once. I go over it in part 2
On the Sega CD’s hard drive, I can save three games of Lunar and that maxes the capacity lol. The RAM cart is an absolute must imo.
If you haven't played Shining Force 3 I think you would love it. You can get translated reproductions of Part 2 and 3 of the Shining Force 3 trilogy.
Yeah I really want to play through it all! I made translated discs for my Saturn maybe 2 years ago, but only got around to playing the original Part 1 (which I made a video on).
Unfortunately I don't have most of my consoles atm because I moved (to Japan actually) so depending on how things go I'll either play parts 2 and 3 when I return to the US, or I'll play them here in Japanese if I end up staying
Use the Ram back up cartridge. This cartridge allows the player to unlock the last story segment of the game, inaccessible without the backup cart due to the Sega CD's internal memory limitations.
I did! I even made a video on the other Books on the disc
Just finished the game. Absolutely loved it, it truly feels like the Shining Force I loved in 1 and 2, although I felt it was much easier than the previous ones (I played at Normal difficulty)
Cons: The music isn't as epic as SF2(even tho the orchestration is beautiful, and some songs there are drooling good) and exploration is limited(also the fact that hidden items and characters are in literally random tiles. I found Musashi in book 2 literally by accident, I just tried to hide behind a pillar. Later I read that Hanzou and Amigo are even more random, what a shame). Also some bosses are just cheaters. I hate Kisaragi for example, she jumps the queue much more than she should by her AGI. Book 4 is also just a ridiculously cheap battle. I got more than half my army wiped out by a 4-attack sequence of Demon Breaths and Bolt3, made me instantly quit and refuse to play that battle again. No maxed out character can survive 100+ damage all at once, it's just bs. Also the confusion status breaks everything. You can't cure confusion and you can't block the confused ally from crossing the formation, he's just gonna walk around thrashing everybody and killing all your healers, nothing you can do.
Pros: Some songs are just gorgeous(the final boss themes are pretty sweet), the gameplay is just what we love, the book 3 is crazy fun and pretty quick, very diverse levels with big exp monsters that feel good to beat and secret items everywhere. The sum of the 3 books produce a nice story imo, it's just fun. Also love the different designs for different books in world view, it's not just one palette per class, and some of them just look epic (PLDN Eric and Dawn look too good, GLDT Jaha and even PRNC Nick look cool). I had a lot of fun playing this game(or games).
The only thing that I miss in this port is the original style of music
Great video! Really enjoyed it.
Thanks, you don't know how much that means! My plan is to eventually review all of the Shining Force games. I'm currently replaying the first one right now
Bofner Oh, that’s awesome. I’ll definitely watch all those then.
Thanks for going to the trouble of reviewing a Sega CD game. You convinced me to eventually to put down the money and acquire all the needed hardware, haha.
@@thanksbetotap Amazing! I've got a couple of recommendations that I hadn't thought of when I made the video. If you do get the japanese RAM cart, you'll either need to cut your genesis system so the cart fits, or use a game Genie, because japanese carts don't natively fit, but other than that there is no region protection. Also there exist power cables that split at the end designed specifically for the Genesis/32x/sega cd. Might be worth looking into to save some plug space.
Bofner Thanks! Will note for the future.
It seems there are also some modern options, like the Ultra CD Backup RAM Cart. Which may or may not be a good idea.
I wish Sega would just turn over the rights to Shining Force and Phantasy Star so someone could start making games again.
What?! There is quite a few great games on the Sega CD. There's at least 30 great, must have games that can't really be played anywhere else. The problem is most people don't know that and think the Sega CD is mostly FMV games. Did you know there are more great games than there are FMV ones on the Sega CD. Hell, there are 5 fantastic Sega CD FMV games that are worth playing as well (Road Avenger, Cobra Command, Time Gal, Dragons Lair, and Space Ace).
Addendum- You can play Shining Force CD on the Sega Genesis Mini 2! It's fantastic and you can play all 3 scenarios without any memory carts.
1:05 jeez had no idea it had gone up so much in value... ~200-350USD on eBay currently.
i feel SEGA got lazy and just ported it instead of modifying it for what the system could handle.. i.e. add towns, story, people etc... I guess this is a reason why every SEGA system failed except the Genesis... And they no longer make hardware... Some people just don't get it...
I like Shining Force 1 more than Shining Force 2 for the Sega Genesis, because I prefer the battle animation in the SF-1 game. I also have Shining Force CD for the Sega CD, and Shining Force 3 for the Sega Saturn. The Sega CD game is probably my least favorite in the series, mainly because it's pretty much all battle and no exploration in towns etc.. My next favorite game in the series (After Shining Force 1) Is the Sega Saturn- Shining Force 3 game.
Do the full sf3 garentee ull get at least 1k plus views
God I want to. I play all my games on real hardware, which makes that a little more difficult, but I would love nothing more than to play through it.
@@Bofner you could try playing it on an emulator make a video see how it goes then you can always get back to the real hardware later, you have alot of potential i seen your vids. Great channel needs more content
@@yelnatspowerzz4970 Wow, you don't know how much that means to me. I'm trying to release a new video every 2 weeks at this point. If you have any other suggestions, I would be more than happy to look into it. Can you recommend any Saturn emulators?
Thanks for the inspiration to play through SF3. Just finished up editing the video for it and it'll be up in the morning
Looking forward to seeing the video def will share!
hey bro, reply asap plz, is the turn order like in 1 and 2? agi + rng?
ProductHuman as far as I could tell yes, but it felt a little less random than the first game tbh
@@Bofner
Thank u, subbed.
@@stupidreligionz Thanks, I really appreciate it!
is there a computer version? where to download?
Wanted to get USA copies of this and sf3............ They're so expensive now I'd rather leave my pal ones on the shelf and emulate these days
Yeah it's insane how much these games go for these days
@@Bofner like I'd drop £300 for the pair but they're around that much each 😂😭😭
@@NeutralAtJSP The price of retro games in general has gone up so much in the last few year, it's absolutely insane. I used to play old games because it was cheaper than buying new games all the time, but that is just not the case anymore
@@Bofner yep, I wanted to pick up lunar 1+2, popful mail and the arc the lad collection.... They're sooo expensive that whilst I could buy them they're beyond considering.
What’s a good emulator to play this on iPhone/MacBook?
Have you played sf3?
I actually haven't! I've been meaning to play it soon. It will definitely be my next shining game after CD. I usually prefer to play games on real hardware, but I may look in to emulating, or at least burning fan translations of the discs so I can play on my saturn
@@Bofner the translations are fantastic, and it's one of my favorites of all time. I believe you can burn the discs and play on a soft modded saturn. If you've ever heard of Shining the Holy Ark, that's another great saturn RPG and in SF3, Especially the 3rd scenario, there are quite a few references to Shining the Holy Ark. It's also one of my favorites but it's actually a traditional turn based RPG from 1st person perspective rather than a tactical RPG like SF3
@@Bofner and I also agree with the other comment, this video was informative, unbiased and you seem to enjoy yourself. I actually watched the whole video and it's quite well done I think. Definitely would love to see your thoughts if you do ever get around to SF3
@@rider4499 Thanks so much for watching the whole thing! I really appreciate it!. Do you recommend playing through Shining the Holy Ark before SF3? Or is the reference just a passing sort of thing rather than an integral part of the plot? I'm hoping to cover any future RPGs that I play. I've got Lunar, and the Phantasy Star games on my list of games to get to
@@Bofner definitely more of a passing thing, nothing integral to the plot at all. But it's worth playing at some point for sure!