Shining Force

So, the most accurate way to describe Shining Force, in my opinion, is to call it "Sega's version of Fire Emblem," due to how many similarities it shares with a typical Fire Emblem game. But of course, it does have its differences as well, which I will go over right now.

For starters, while the gameplay is fundamentally the same, there are no phases. Turn order is decided by the speed of units, but for the most part, it's going to look random to you. You may also use a spell called Egress to escape a battle. If you do so, or if you lose the battle, you retain all of the exp you earned, and the enemies will respawn when you try again. It might sound like an annoyance, but this actually allows you to grind out levels for your weaker units, which could come in handy!

As with Fire Emblem, every unit has a class, and once they hit at least level 10, you can go to a priest and promote them to their 2nd class, which is more powerful, of course. You also use the priest to revive fallen units, save your game, and to heal them of any statuses, for a small fee based on the unit's level. You obtain coins so easily, however, that the fee is never an issue. Enemies drop coins every time you kill them, even if you're using Egress to level-grind a bit.

You also explore towns between battles, and while in them you may find money, new items, or even new members to add to the Shining Force, and some members have a few.. specific terms to get them, almost like Fire Emblem, but for the most part, if you talk to everyone, you'll be just fine. One of my favorite units is a dragon named Bleu. He starts off kind of weak, but once he promotes, he's a force to be reckoned with (I think I just did a force pun, because Shining Force? I don't know) and I love dragons so that's a plus too!

Lastly, if Max (your main character) dies, the battle will just act as if you used Egress, and you'll lose a small amount of money that you can easily get back when you try again. The game is a lot of fun and I was introduced to it thanks to Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (yeah, I'll be referencing that a lot, as if I wasn't doing so already) and I also got to play Shining in the Darkness and Shining Force II as well, but those games will be for another day. Until then, thanks for reading and I'll see you all again soon!

Have a nice day!~