The Shining Source

Not! Enter Shining Force Neo.

 
 
Bet that title gave you Shining Force fans a fright! But don't worry your poor heads, it's not a cancellation. Just a name change.

Sega's upcoming PS2 RPG, Shining Force, has been renamed "Shining Force NEO". However, it's gotten more then a minor name change. It's now in a whole different genre. Rather then the strategy RPG Sega had originally announced, NEO will now be taking an action oreinted angle.

Now, I am sure a lot of you Shining fans are going "What the $%&#!?". Well, let me explain. Well actually, let the producer, Youichi Shimosato, explain. In a recent interview with the Japanese game magazine Famitsu, Mr. Shimosato explained what drove his team to change the direction of the game. SF was originally meant to be a simulation/strategy RPG like the original Shining Force. However, the team felt it wouldn't be enough to just remake the original into 3D. At first, they considered making the game a real time strategy game. After a lot of thought and changes, Shining Force turned into an action RPG, and obtained the name "Neo".

Shining Force Neo will be very different from other Shining Force games. Max, the main character from the original Shining Force, will be the remain the primary character for Neo. Max can be equipped with four different weapons, each giving Max a different strategic ability. You can make him a knight, which will give him a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. This will enable boost Max's defence. Arming him with a bow will make him an archer, allowing him to deal strong attacks from a distance. Give Max a large, heavy blade, that requires him to use both hands to weild, and you will make him a warrior, able to take down multiple foes with a single deadly swipe. Lastly, the staff will turn Max into a sorceror, allowing him to use various magical spells, that change depending on the staff that is used. In addition to these weapons, Max wull also be able equip a "Force Frame", an add-on that will give a weapon more abilities when used. You can change the kind of powers your FF has by using Force Art symbols, which are powered up by the force energy of defeated enemies. In addition to all of these force based things, Neo will also have the standard RPG exeperience and level-up set up.

From the looks of it, Shining Force Neo is the first very promising game we've seen from Sega in awhile. This will definetly be more of an action based affair, but will that turn out to be good or bad? Only time will tell. Sega has some very strong voice talent behind the game and has many veteran developers working on the game. So with any luck, Shining Force Neo will live up to it's namesake. We shall see when the game arrives in Japan, March 24th.

Shining Force Neo will be released as a manga comic in next months issue of the japanese magazine Magazine Z to help promote the game. It will follow it's own storyline, but will contain the same world and characters of Neo.

Well, that is all for now. And I managed to get through the whole thing without cracking a Star Wars based force joke. 'Til next time, may the shining force be with you!

for me, you're right, it sounds like shining force is no more...
Seems that the idea behind all this is that the hero himself will incarnate the 12 force warriors. I expect him to change into a pegasus knight, a cyclops or a robot later in the game....
I dread the name of the follow-up of this game: "shining force neo 2"? ugh...

Sega needs to die... That is all

Youch, thats a little harsh.

Althought, I hate seeing the game going in this direction, I'll probably still give it a shot and play it.

By the way, nuckles: mind if I set this on the main page along with accompanying credits?

Man why do they call it Shining FORCE I mean Shining Soul already is a Shining action RPG game - so where is the main difference? That's just pure name dropping as SF GBA sold well enough.

The Force is just to entice fans. Just like "GoldenEye: Rogue Agent".

'Tis a shame, because a true Force game on next gen systems would truly have rocked.

I guess it's up to us to bring the true goodies then?

Heck yeah!

I've been trying to get DcD back on it's feet for months now. It'd be great to have another one of our articles supported by you guys .

*Dies alittle on the inside*

Sega took it too far.

I guess it's up to us to let the Shining genre mature the way it should mature?

Not really, I mean they get your hopes up and kick you in the balls.... Don't get me wrong i'll probibly still... rent the game or somthing but I'm seriously done with sega.

Two points.

One, just because Shining Force Neo isn't the SF game we all want doesn't mean there won't be one in the future. Sega confirmed there's another SF game in development that isn't Shining Tears or SF:Neo, so there's still hope.

Two, how about playing the game before writing it off?

The biggest disappointment about all this is that the core Shining fans can't look forward to it, which is a bit of a shame. I'd like to see Camelot move away from Mario sports games and make a 3D Golden Sun, as I think that's the closest they'll be allowed to get to a SF game these days. Or we could always make a new SF-battle-system-using game ourselves, what with that being the point of this place and all

I don't believe there is hope for a real SF game - if they even WANTED to do that but decided not to the other team is probably working for on sth completely different.

Nevertheless I strongly believe in our projects