Typically, I’d gripe about a game, meant
as part of a trilogy of interconnected titles,
of which we in the west got only one.
There are, in fact, two more Shining Force
IIIs out there - following the same storyline,
but from different angles - plus a premium
disc for those who bought all three.
But this is all we got.
And by “we,” I mean “the twelve people
who bought the game back in ‘98”, and
who have been circulating the few known copies
for fifteen years now.
That may be overstating the game’s rarity,
but I assure you, not by much.
I managed to find one for $105, in pristine
condition, which was about $25 less than I
was expecting to pay.
It’s no Tron Bonne, but then again, Tron
Bonne wasn’t a fantastic tactical RPG.
And you know how I feel about those.
It’s a tale of political intrigue, as peace
talks between the Republic and the Empire
(naturally) have broken down due to... well,
a complex web of finger-pointing.
Behind it all is a sect devoted to reviving
an ancient evil, and who play both sides against
each other to cover their tracks.
You control the strangely-named Lord Synbios,
son of a Republican dignitary and personal
guard to the king once all hell breaks loose.
It’s not an easy job... but you’ve got
your own army, assembled along the way from
the remnants of other forces, bored bar patrons,
and the occasional werewolf or a gnome in
a suit of steam-powered armor.
(Still not as cool as an armadillo under similar
circumstances, but then again, what is?)
And the combat.
It’s grid-based tactical maneuvering at
its finest, complete with a couple upgrades
cribbed from its brother-from-another-developer,
Fire Emblem.
There’s a cyclical relationship between
sword-ish, spear-ish, and axe-ish weapons,
as well as some outliers like archers dominating
casters.
In addition to increased damage output, such
matchups increase the chance of extra-shiny
special attacks.
The rest of the game plays much like the Shining
Force games of old, though the 3D battlefields
can sometimes introduce human error due to
misleading camera angles.
And in a low-number game like this where every
hit counts, and every cure counts more, a
single square out of place can be devastating.
It doesn’t help that battles in III are
a fair sight more complex than before, with
the occasional ruin to investigate mid-fight
or a giant rock-chucking golem to put down
or two trains moving through the battlefield
while you have to guide a band of refugees
to safety.
It’s certainly an evolution.
But the vocal performance.
Oh, Buddha.
It’s downright laughable, from the over-acting
to the under-acting to the downright weird.
It’s like a mine field of nutcaseness, sullying
what would otherwise be an amazing Motoi Sakuraba
soundtrack.
(So, yes, you were correct: This DOES sound
a whole lot like Star Ocean, because it’s
the same guy.)
The score combines the heroic aspects of the
first Shining Force titles with Sakuraba’s
trademark sweeping grandeur, So it’s an
installment in one of my favorite tactical
RPG series, featuring one of my favorite composers...
and the knowledge that this is only a third
of it.
And we won’t be seeing the rest.
So the comment I was about to make about transferring
save data to the other chapters, like Suikoden
and .hack after it, is kinda lost to the ages.
But hey, at least we got this much.
(Though my wallet doth weep.)
