Misplaced Pages

#519480

23-749: The game has been repeatedly re-released: in Sega Smash Pack Volume 1 for the Dreamcast and Sega Smash Pack 2 for Microsoft Windows , in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 , and as a standalone game for the Wii Virtual Console and Microsoft Windows via Steam . Additionally, in 2004 a remake was released for the Game Boy Advance under the title Shining Force: Resurrection of

46-437: A class , which defines a set of abilities for that unit and determines the spells and equipment they have access to. A unit can be promoted to another class at any level between 10 or 20. Upon promotion the character's level resets to 1 and statistics are reduced by a fixed amount, although they begin higher if the character had been promoted to a higher level. Battle goals for the player are fairly simple: kill all enemies, kill

69-464: A unit can also perform one action: attack, cast a spell, use an item, or search the area. Some commands, such as equipping or dropping items, do not count as actions. The order of turns is determined by the unit's agility score and a random seed . As is most common for the RPG genre, units become stronger by fighting enemies or by performing other actions in battle, such as healing allies. These actions give

92-490: Is a series of game compilations featuring mostly Sega Genesis games. The first pack titled Sega Smash Pack ( Sega Archives from USA Vol. 1 in Japan) featured eight games. The second pack titled Sega Puzzle Pack ( Sega Archives from USA Vol. 2 in Japan) featured three games. The third pack titled Sega Smash Pack 2 ( Sega Archives from USA Vol. 3 in Japan) featured eight games. The console version of Sega Smash Pack

115-467: Is the president of the video game development studio Camelot Software Planning . He has participated in most of the company's projects as a game designer, producer, and writer. Hiroyuki Takahashi started his career in video game production as an employee at Enix , where his work on the Dragon Quest franchise included roles as assistant producer on Dragon Quest IV and executive producer for

138-510: The Famitsu sales chart in April 1992 . The game was well received. Mega placed the game at #33 in their Top Mega Drive Games of All Time. In 2004, readers of Retro Gamer voted this "truly unique RPG masterpiece" 86th top retro game, with the staff additionally calling it "one of the greatest Megadrive games of all time and a definite office favourite." The game was remade in 2004 for

161-461: The Game Boy Advance under the title Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon . The changes included an expanded plot, three new playable characters, three new battles, ramping difficulty system and some tweaks in the gameplay. One of the new characters can use "cards" in battle, and turn order is determined solely by a unit's speed stat and can be checked at any time from a list, allowing

184-648: The Beyond . Camelot would also support Sonic in the development of games in the Shining series including Shining Wisdom and Shining the Holy Ark . After the release of the latter, Sega merged its investment in Sonic into its subsidiary Nextech , and Hiroyuki Takahashi moved to Camelot, where he became president during the development of Shining Force III . In late 1998, Sega began focusing their resources on

207-554: The Dark Dragon and in 2010 the game was released for iOS but was discontinued in 2015. It was re-released again on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack in 2021. Shining Force is a turn-based tactical role-playing game . Battles take place in square grids, and each unit occupies one square. Each unit can move up to a fixed amount of squares along the battlefield, determined by its Move statistic. Depending on its location relative to enemies and to allies,

230-528: The North American release of Dragon Warrior II . Takahashi left Enix and in April 1990 founded the game development studio Climax Entertainment alongside Kan Naito, the chief programmer of Dragon Quest III and Dragon Quest IV at Chunsoft . Takahashi and Naito were also joined by two former Enix freelancers, artist Yoshitaka Tamaki and programmer Yasuhiro Taguchi. Climax's first project

253-624: The army, and choose which of the army's members will be used in battle. The game opens in the Kingdom of Guardiana, in the land of Rune. The protagonist , Max, is sent on a mission to prevent the evil Kane, who commands the hordes of Runefaust, from opening the Shining Path and resurrecting Dark Dragon. Along the way, Max recruits a number of allies to join the Shining Force. They eventually find that both Kane and King Ramladu are under

SECTION 10

#1732791793520

276-553: The control of the manipulative Darksol. Darksol ultimately succeeds in reviving Dark Dragon, but Max seals the creature away using the power of the Chaos Breaker, a sword created by merging a sword of light with Kane's sword of darkness. Despite being the sequel to the successful Shining in the Darkness , Sega allotted only a minimal budget to the development of Shining Force . Contrary to popular assumption, Shining Force

299-457: The development of the first Shining Force , for which Takahashi has design, production, and writing credits. After Climax's departure from the series, Sonic became the primary developer of subsequent Shining games, which Takahashi would continue to produce. In April 1994, Hiroyuki Takahashi's brother, Shugo Takahashi, founded Camelot Software Planning as an independent studio to develop games for Sony 's PlayStation starting with Beyond

322-544: The development team could "take the battles from Dragon Quest and make them more fun", he drew inspiration from an obscure Japanese PC game called Silver Ghost , "a simulation action type of game where you had to direct, oversee and command multiple characters". The game was released for Wii via Virtual Console in Japan on July 10, 2007, in North America on July 23, 2007, and on August 3, 2007. In Japan, it topped

345-473: The enemies' leader, or advance to a town or landmark. The enemy side wins if they kill the player's leader, Max, or if the player chooses to escape the battle by casting Egress. Even if the player army is defeated, the player can recover allies and retry the battle. The Force keeps any experience that is obtained, regardless of the battle's outcome. Thus, there is no Game Over , and the player's army gets stronger even upon its defeat, although Max's death results in

368-711: The first Smash Pack. While Ecco the Dolphin and Sonic Spinball were developed using the original source code, Golden Axe had to be recreated from scratch. Craig Harris from IGN gave the handheld version a 6/10. He criticised the handheld version for several technical issues and lack of cooperative multiplayer in Golden Axe . It was nominated for GameSpot ' s annual "Most Disappointing Game on Game Boy Advance" award, which went to The Revenge of Shinobi . Hiroyuki Takahashi (game producer) Hiroyuki Takahashi ( Japanese : 高橋 宏之 , born October 30, 1957),

391-466: The player losing half of their money. Shining Force also possesses an exploration mode that occurs outside of battle. This gameplay mode is essentially a Japanese-style traditional RPG, along the lines of Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest , although there are no labyrinths and only a few puzzles to solve. In this mode, the player's army is represented by Max, who is able to walk around, interact with people, find treasure, buy equipment and items, outfit

414-575: The player to plan out battles with greater certainty. The remake features a ramping difficulty system: every time a playthrough is successfully completed, a player earns a star and all enemies get a boost in stats for the next playthrough. The game has also had a rerelease for iOS, which has been removed from the App Store by Sega. GameSpot named Resurrection of the Dark Dragon the best Game Boy Advance game of July 2004. Sega Smash Pack Sega Smash Pack ( Sega Archives from USA in Japan)

437-443: The programmer, had himself deliberately left a documentation of the built-in emulator, with the documentation seemingly intended at them due to the filename (ECHELON.TXT). Additionally, Sega Swirl and Virtua Cop 2 were the only non-Genesis games in the compilation. The handheld version of Sega Smash Pack was released for Game Boy Advance simply titled Sega Smash Pack and featured three games, two of which had been included in

460-467: The units experience points (EXP) , which allow them to gain levels . In Shining Force , each allied unit is represented by a character with his or her own background and personality, much like in the Fire Emblem series. Although there are no "generic" units, except on the enemy side, most characters contribute little or nothing to the plot upon joining the player army. Each allied unit also has

483-627: Was Shining in the Darkness for the Sega Mega Drive , a game which Takahashi wrote and produced. On June 12, 1991, Takahashi registered a new game company, Sonic! Software Planning , with an 85 percent investment from Sega Enterprises to develop further role-playing games for the Mega Drive. The studio was named after Sonic the Hedgehog , a Sega mascot character whose first game would release that month. Sonic supported Climax in

SECTION 20

#1732791793520

506-455: Was not influenced by archetypal tactical RPG Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light . In fact, when asked about the game, lead Shining Force developer Hiroyuki Takahashi remarked: "The tempo of that title was so bad that it wasn't something I even wanted to play." Takahashi recalled that Shining Force was chiefly inspired by Dragon Quest . Asking himself how he and the rest of

529-452: Was released for Dreamcast titled Sega Smash Pack Volume 1 and featured the following twelve games: Jeff Gerstmann from GameSpot gave the console version a 4.5/10. He criticised the console version for its patchy performance and poorly emulated music. The Genesis emulator built inside the compilation gained popularity with homebrew groups, as Echelon released a kit that allowed users to add and load their own Genesis ROMs. Gary Lake,

#519480