Ye Olde Blah

I haven't played the first SS, but I know it got a really bad reaction from most Shining Force fans, but when I saw SSII in the shops on special offer (?10 off for Game Reward Card holders :P) I decided to get it. I've been playing it for a few hours already, and I'm loving it.

The battles are nowhere near as tactical as in SF, of course, but that doesn't mean it's not fun. It's a good old hack-and-slash game that reminds me a bit of the old classic Gauntlet (I should imagine the four-player mode is very similar too), or more recently Phantasy Star Online. In fact, I'd love to try the four-player mode one day, it looks like it'll be awesome, but I'll probably have to wait until the quite-similar Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures is released on GC.

The largest problem I have with it regards the save game function, which is of the "resume save"-style, which means every time you want to save your progress you have to stop playing. It's not a major deal, as I think it has auto-save points along the way, but it's just a minor gripe. Oh yeah, and the long conversations that can't be skipped are annoying, made all the moreso by the babbling noises.

Anyway, I've been rambling on a bit here but I thought you'd like to know what I think of the game. It's more of an arcade-style battler like Gauntlet than a strategic battle RPG like the other SF games (in one player at least), but it's still great fun. I like it. A lot.

Excuse the second post, but I thought it might attract people to see there was a new post for the first time in a month :P

I completed SSII last week, and now I'm back for more. The best comparison I've come up with so far is to Phantasy Star Online on Gamecube/Dreamcast/X-Box. In fact, it's very similar. The emphasis is firmly on levelling-up and battling, rather than the plot (which is pretty poor, as you're probably aware), and I can see how gathering a team of four different warriors, each with a speciality, would be great fun. There are rare weapons to get, and you can pick up "unidentified" weapons and armour which can then be examined/Tekkered, and sometimes they have special properties, like poison, stealing HP and so on. Anyone who's played PSO for any length of time will be right at home here.

I'm on Advanced mode at the moment, which is like the Hard mode. It takes barely any time to level up, which is definitely a good thing, and there are enough rare items in there to keep you going for... well, a long time, really. If you fancy a PSO-style Shining game (I would *love* to play this game multiplayer), I highly recommend it. Go forth :D

*shameless plug* Bowie Online has a Shining Soul-like battle sytem, and is based on SF2.  What more could you ask for!?

Seriously though.  Satan got the game a while back, and I have an urge to rob it from him while he sleeps, and try it out.

Shining Soul 1 > Shining Soul 2

I couldn't believe it when they remembered Mythril and Dark Matter in SS. Such a cool game, I don't see why everyone bashes it.

Poor story maybe but... plenty of Variety in classes, builds, gave the game good replayability. It was quite large for a hack and slash game, IMO puts PSO to shame...

I've not played the first one, mainly because I haven't seen a cheap copy. From what I've read, SSII improves on most of the bad parts of the original, and sticks in lots of good new stuff.

I've made three characters on SSII, but levelling them all up individually is boring as Hell. I might try and cajole a few mates into getting the game, and giving me a hand :P

Maybe you should try your hand at a rom for 24 hours. Might save yourself some cash if you hate it :P

Only get SS1 if you can get it cheap and even then only for colleciblity sake.  SS2 is superior in EVERY way.

SS1 > SS2

I have both :P