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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.)