Old Shining Series

I just started playing Shining the Holy Ark in Mednafen. Why didn't any one tell me just how shit Yabause was? It looked like the Shining games ran but now that I'm using Mednafen I'm seeing all the shit that was wrong in Yabause being correct and looking fine in Mednafen. Holy Ark is a pretty comfy dungeon crawler so far but starts off really grim. Definitely enjoy seeing SSP/Camelot's Saturn games being playable. The only bad part about Holy Ark that I can see so far is not being able to strafe in a dungeon. Otherwise it's shaping up to be a fun adventure and one I feel like isn't talked about a lot, so it feels really fresh despite it's age and that it'll probably be cliched as fuck.

Shining in the Darkness sucked, so I can't imagine Holy Ark is any better. Shining Force 1 and 2 are classics though.

I was just bidding on a copy of Shining the Holy Ark on eBay. I really want to own a copy. It looks like Proto-Golden Sun but with that Sega Saturn style of game design and graphics.

hold B and tap direction.

Climax games are Awesome
Shining 1-3+ Gaiden(s) is Awesome
Shining Soul 1-2 is Awesome

Trash listed below:
Neo
Force
Tear
Wind
EXA
and especially Wisdom
All Nintendo Sport Treasure Games (aside from Golf)
Golden Sun

Trash list (cont):
Darkness
Ark

Landstalker is also pretty good, if you can get used to the controls.

That's included in Climax games.
Land/Lady/Time/Alundra are on my top list.

Lad…

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He means something like this, I assume:

Tate? My monitor can rotate that way, though I haven't found many games it's useful for.

While that's retarded, I'm a fucking idiot and this makes dungeon crawling that much better. The Saturn had shoulder buttons, not sure why they aren't used.


Haven't played Shining in the Darkness so I can't comment, but Holy Ark is fun at least. Combat goes fairly fast and once you level up once, the first dungeon doesn't feel like a slog. SF1 and 2 and the Gaiden games are great. If you get a chance, play the SegaCD collection, it's all tactics, all day. A bit easy since if you collect all the items on every stage and pump your MC, you'll one shot everything and be able to sprint across the map at the end. I think I was stronger than the returning protagonist of a previous Gaiden game at one point, which was hilarious.


It almost feels like that but I haven't run into any puzzles yet. The dialogue and obviously art style are really reminiscent of Golden Sun.


Lad…

But that's a whole other company. Never played their games but I've read they're very good. I'll probably get around to them one day.


Mostly shmups, I'd wager.

I have. I don't really like how it's battle after battle, with no exploration segments.

Nice doubles. And that's fair. For me, not needing to explore and getting pure tactics while emulating on a Korean handheld was a nice treat. I think I was on a train ride up the coast and was able to bang out a ton of battles because it's nearly non-stop action and only slight down times to get more equipment. Almost like Devil Survivor, but less tedious.

Holy Ark is actually fun instead of a tedious lackluster grind.

If you want JRPGs with a puzzle-exploration focus like Golden Sun, Wild Arms might be a series of interest to you (main difference being using Legend of Zelda style dungeon items to explore, as opposed to spell utility). Also heard that Lufia 2 does similar, but I haven't played it yet myself so I can't speak personally on if it does at this point.

Both being made by Camelot, it makes sense they’d share some staff. According to Mobygames, Yamanouchi also did character design for Shining Force III and Shining the Holy Ark prior, and Kajiyama also did character designs for numerous Shining games (while being on monster design duty for Golden Sun). However, it does make a note of “Character Design” and “Artwork” being different credits though, with the artwork guys for Golden Sun not having been involved in the Shining series.

I've tried Wild Arms (PS2 Remake) but for some reason it didn't hold my attention. I'm a few hours in, needing to spam search on the over world was annoying and combat seemed a bit slow since you have to wait for the animations to fully play out. Otherwise, it's a good game. The actual style and battle system is neat and the puzzles are nice uses of your overworld items/powers. I want to return to it to try and beat it some day. For now I figured best not to burn myself out and take it in small turns whenever the mood strikes me.


Yeah, for some reason Holy Ark feels satisfying to beat up monsters in. I know logically that I'm grinding but it helps to clear an area once, and then go back with a guide to collect any missing items and battle absolutely everything along the way for maximum XP. I'm to the first major boss but I was a little underleveled and under equipped the first time so I was wiped. Nearly killed the thing, too. Went back and looked for pixies in the mine and forest instead. Also learned that L and R switch your pixie for pre-battle damage. Mash A or C at the start of a fight to send your pixie out for a chance to do damage, get some extra money and some extra XP out of a fight.

Fucking shitty internet, making me change IDs and shit.

I'm glad you enjoy the game user. I wanted to play it again but my dead desktop won't fix itself.

I'm sorry for your loss, user. It's a really fun game. I thoroughly enjoy it, which is funny since I grew up not liking first person RPGs or dungeon crawlers. I guess my tastes have changed.

The PS1 version of the first game lacks the search system, with every town and dungeon being automatically visible from the (sprited) overworld. Subsequent main series games all use the search system, aside from WA4 which doesn't even have an overworld. I didn't mind it that much (would be better if it was just used for hidden items instead of towns and dungeons though), but I can see how it would annoy some people, and I'll say that WA3's probably the most manageable search system, as once you get horses, you can ride and search without motion freezing up every time you activate it, letting you keep moving as you go.

And yeah, if it's that much of an issue, take it slow, but try to remember what had been going on since you last played, so you don't find yourself lost. I myself had no problem blowing through them.

Ooba's done the designs (and redesigns, in the case of ACF) for Wild Arms 3, ACF, and 4, as well as being the artist for Wild Arms: Flower Thieves (a standalone manga). Kind of a shame that it doesn't seem like he's gotten put on any games since then, in series or out (Tomomi Sasaki having replaced him for WA5 and XF). As for puzzles, it really seems a shame that the Golden Sun style "non-combat application magic" and Zelda style dungeon tools don't show up in JRPGs more often, as most seem more apt to use "solve logic puzzle" or "locate key item in dungeon and find where to use it" to proceed. On the occasions where the Sorcerer's Ring has shown up in Tales, that's at least somewhat related, but still rather limited in its use (Symphonia's usage being on a per-dungeon basis, while Abyss and Vesperia have evolving strength rings, but don't actually acquire that much more utility).

Polite sage as this is offtopic.

Oh, definitely. It's not that it's a deal breaker per se, but it's just a bit of a frustration.

Yeah, non-combat magic was really fun in Golden Sun and getting the new items in Wild Arms so that each character has a nice niche in dungeoneering outside of "This is my healer, this is my tank, this is my DPS" was really nice.

Are you the same Wild Arms user that talks about it every so often here? I think I started playing based on your recommendation a few months ago.

I want to bump but there's not much to talk about if no one else has anything to say about the older series of Shining games.