Games Media Ranks The Shining Force Games 

Got the mega drive mini 2, mostly to try cd. Been looking forward to it, but I’m glad you play so many shining games so I can see what they have offer. Like saving me from playing wisdom lol. Keep up the great work Chris!

I have a huuuuge soft spot for SF1. It took me a while to warm to SF2 mainly because I felt the art style suffered a downgrade. Compare Max to Bowie, Zylo to Gerhalt, Ken to Chester, the respective Giant Bats, or even the Bolt animations--everything just feels *cooler* in the first game. I'd say the author isn't technically wrong about SF1's AI being quite weak, but IMO that just makes it an excellent beginner's SRPG. (Who knows if Young Craig would have gotten so into SRPGs if SF1's difficulty had been more forbidding?) SF2, meanwhile, I think overcorrected somewhat. The aggressive AI is nice in some ways, but enemies also have such aggressive stat inflation that the combination essentially requires grinding, which I don't love. That said, SF2 is in many respects the objectively superior game. The interface is *such* a massive upgrade; the plot is deeper; many of the battles are more creative; and the ways in which SF2 offers meaningful player choices are a huge deal. I also enjoy the largely open world, though this does often come at a cost to pacing. I haven't gotten around to playing CD or SF3 myself, so I can't comment on their placement in the rankings. I'll just say that I think every action RPG spin-off should be ranked at the bottom on principle, because I'm curmudgeonly like that.

I’m so glad that people agree with me on SF1 being the GOAT!!

I mostly care for the original titles from Camelot and fell out with the series when they did not develop more. But nowdays i would buy titles like feather to signal to Sega to produce more. From the Camelot games i own all european Originals except for CD (i have a EU and JP Mega Drive Mini 2) and Wisdom (not willing to pay what people ask for this). I also own the GBA Remake and Shining Soul 2, honestly enjoying these and Shining Resonance Refrain... can we agree to burn this with Fire? There are only so many Mega Drive compilations i can justify buying with the same Mega Drive games on it to signal for a rerelease of 3 with all parts or a remake of CD with the 3rd Gaiden and maybe a bit more extra content. In the mean time, let's say i also got myself a copy of SF 3 Part 2, 3 and Bonus Disc in english, i would still buy an original the moment they sell it, likely even 2 or 3 copies, depends on how much it is and if they are unlimited (i'd rather not take away someone elses chance to buy the game).

This list was totally respectable for me, until I realized final conflict wasn't going to be in it. Nice video!

While I haven't finished CD or 3, I pretty much agree with the top 5. I was a little torn about CD being below 1, 2, 3, and Resurrection, but losing exploration really hurts CD. And I really wish Feather got a translation patch.

SF 1 is my number one. SF 2, CD, 3 follow in that order.

I haven't played any of the Shining games post Sega Saturn era. I also still have not played Shining the Holy Ark or Shining Wisdom yet. I played Shining Force III Scenario 1, but not 2 or 3. As far as the rankings go, I am fine with Shining Force II being #1, objectively I feel like it is the best game. I am a Shining Force (1) guy though through and through. I found Shining Force III Scenario 1 to be fun and engrossing, but I really don't like the graphics or the camera angles. I feel like the game would have been better off with super crisp 2D graphics or some better mix of 2D/3D.

SF1 it was the reasion why i bougth a sega megadrive and it was love from the very beginning, i like the art style, story, characters and how the campaign is scripted and directed like a good movie with an even better director's cut. I think its hilarious to rate such an old game with its focus on story, for a bad A.I. script, all TBS games have bad A.I. scripts even now in 2023. There is multiplayer for that nowdays.(and i used to play a lot tactical combat games in mp) That said, i just recently found out SF1 has stolen much from the first fire emblem; Shadow Dragon and the blade of light Never played it, but seemingly both games look very similar and the plot is 1:1 the same. Both games have an evil wizard and dragon, where as the dragon is the boss and obviously the blade of light played a big role in SF1, as well.

Final Conflict not even being on this list is WILD. Whoever wrote this HAD to have forgotten it existed right? Nobody is putting the shitty PS2 action games over FC.

Hey there! As far as SRPGs are concerned, Shining Force will always be one of my all-time fave. Amongst the title, SF2 really shines for me and it is my most fave out of all SF titles. SF3 and the SF1 GBA are a close second and SF1 on my 3rd. I like the Game Gear/Sega CD SF titles as well but as the post on the video mentioned, it lacks exploration like that of SF2. If they remake these games to modern platform, I will probably buy it right off the bat :D

SF2 is a more competent video game. But nothing will ever match the aesthetics, good and bad, of the original Shining Force.

im an old guy from the genesis era and i had a saturn, i played both sf 1 and 2, and i can say with confidence sf 3 is way way more superior in all check boxes. XD

Don't suppose you can say where to get some of these, specifically sf3. Always wanted to play it.

Hayja is one of my favs!

Funny, I said "I'm glad he called it Shining Force instead of Shining Series" at the same time you did lol. But ya, 1 and 2 were right in my opinion, but I would rank SF1 and SF CD as 3 and 4. SF1 to me is better than the remake even though the menu sucks in SF1 because of the art style: it's a gritty game and the remake looks like a cartoon for children, so not fitting. As for the Game Gear games, I'm a sick freak for those lol. I have both the Japanese and US versions of all of them (Final Conflict is in a homemade case and is a rom hack on a GG cart) except for Gaiden 1 as there is no rom hack/translation for that yet, but I do have a case waiting for it :) I would recommend the CD version over the GG ports even though I'm biased towards the GG ports because of the added chapters at the end. They are FUCKING HARD. It honestly would be great content for your channel to play them. I have beaten many, many SRPG but couldn't beat Book 4's final fights.

How do we get them to develop and update on the SF series?

Shining force 2 was such a disappointment to me. i loved SF1 and SoH, but i kept getting lost in SF2. the fact that i have to remember where i put the raft is a huge pain, the game doesn't give you many hints as where to go (eg: i had to look up where to get the old sword inside the tree, because i missed the hint about it being significant because the NPC who tells you about it is behind the tree where i didn't notice him) i don't mind exploring and returning to towns but when a 15 - 20 min battle starts while i just want to return to a town and my boys are getting 1 exp for killing an enemy so i egress back to the last place i rested thats halfway across the island... thats not fun, thats annoying.

my Top 5 list are, Shining Force 2, Shining Force 1, Shining Force CD, Shining Force GBA & Shining Force Gaiden Final Conflict.

I haven’t played SF3 scen 3 or CD or Ressurection on the GBA but here’s my list of the rest: 1. SF2 2. SF3 Scen 1 3. SF3 Scen 2 4. Sword of Hajya on Game Gear 5. Final Conflict on Game Gear 6. SF1 (the only SF game I really don’t like 😮) 😅

3>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>2 tbh

Have you played shining force 3 yet? I cannot call you a shining force fan otherwise and your channel is void to me. You didn't play shining force neo or shining force CD either? A weird choice to open a shining force channel if you haven't played the games... On topic: Shining force neo was the last game of the shining series I bought. It was a devastating experience. This marked the beginning of the end of the true shining force series.