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Shining Force SeriesShining Force is a series of fantasy console games developed by Sega. The games are (mostly) Third Person Turn-based Strategy/RPG games. They always use "archaic" weaponry, (IE Swords, Lances, Bows and arrows etc.) and Magic but often feature futuristic items and events, such as teleportation and aircraft. In addition, the games feature many fantasy and anthropomorphic (animals with human characteristics) races. (As an example, in SF1, only 7 of the 30 playable characters are human) You generally play the role of a Hero who leads the "Shining Force", a small army destined to fight a great evil. You will have to choose what characters you take into battle, as there are a limited number of characters you can take at one time. As there are several different character classes (IE swordsman, healer, mage, knight, etc.) each character of which has different strenths and weaknesses, the strategy you need to use in order to win can vary from game to game. The game names, North American release dates, and systems are as follows: - Shining in the Darkness; 1991, Sega Genesis (occasionally argued to not be part of the series, as it is a first-person dungeon-crawler RPG where the rest are third persons with elements of strategy.)
- Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention; 1992, Sega Genesis (Also re-released with several extras for the Game Boy Advance in 2004)
- Shining Force Gaiden; 1992, Sega Gamegear, Never released outside Japan. "Gaiden" translates to English as "side story"
- Shining Force Gaiden 2; 1994 Sega Gamegear
- Shining Force 2: Ancient Sealing; 1994, Sega Genesis
- Shining Force Gaiden Final Conflict; 1995, Sega Gamegear, Never released outside Japan, bridges plot between SF1 and SF2
- Shining Force CD; 1995, Sega CD, Contains the first two gamegear games plus two bonuses.
- Shining Wisdom; 1996, Sega Saturn
- Shining the Holy Ark; 1997, Sega Saturn, Dungeon crawler, similar to Shining in the Darkness.
- Shing Force 3; 1998, Sega Saturn, has three separate scenario discs (only the first was ever released outside of Japan) and a bonus disc given away for free if you sent in a token from each of the three scenario discs.
- Shining Soul; 2003, Game Boy Advance, supports multiplayer for up to 4 people.
- Shining Soul 2; 2004, Game Boy Advance, supports multiplayer for up to 4 people.
- Shining Force: Ressurection of Dark Dragon; 2004, Game Boy Advance, re-release of SF1 with some extras.
- Shining Tears; PlayStation 2, Japanese release 2004, planned North America release March 2005
- Shining Force Neo; PlayStation 2, Planned Japanese release 2005, no North America release planned as yet.
The best resource for all of these games (and where most of the info for this article is from) is Shining Force Central maintained by Moogie. More details, including links to complete game walkthroughs for all of the above games, can be found here. A comic strip loosely based on the series was featured in Sonic the Comic.
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