Shining Force III: 1st Scenario

Set in a world of fantasy and magic, Shining Force III places you in the boots
of a young general, fighting to preserve the peace in your world. The story
starts out as the Emperor is abducted from within the city of Saraband, and
you must go on the run with your king, who is suspected of being the
mastermind behind the abduction. Of course, things are not as they seem, and
you will be taken through a web of lies and deceit in your quest to prove the
King innocent.

The game is very similar in style to the earlier Shining Force titles, so
anyone who’s played them will be comfortable with the game, though likely
they’ll also be happy to find the game graphically overhauled, with a 3-D
landscape and 3D characters during the battle animations. As ever the main
game is controlled like a traditional RPG, with you controlling the main
character, talking to NPC’s and searching various items. However, the main
selling point of the Shining Force series has always been its battle
sequences.

The combat system is amended from the earlier titles, with a new and unique
“friendship” system, whereby the more two characters work together (helping
each other out, healing each other etc.) the closer they bond, and they will
start to give each other bonuses on the battlefield. Other traditional
features, such as the rock-paper-scissors nature of the weapons (sword beats
axe, axe beats spear, spear beats sword etc.) and the terrain effects (someone
hiding in a forest is going to get better protection than someone on an open
road) remain fully intact, and anyone who’s played the earlier titles in the
series will likely be very comfortable with the combat system.

It should be noted that this is actually the western conversion of Shining
Force III: Episode I, and was therefore only the first episode in an intended
series of three. Unfortunately the other two titles were never released
outside of Japan, so most western gamers were only able to experience a third
of the storyline.

Shining Force III: 1st Scenario