Studying to make Sonic games, deciding to pivot to dungeon crawlers as your first game, three or four more flavors of RPG, and finally living the rest of your existence making Mario Sports games. But hey, does your job have anything to do with your college degree?
Strangely enough, this video is probably the perfect companion piece to your old Golden Sun videos. This time with the added context of Camelot's creation, you went above and beyond on this one. B)
I can't say exactly why, maybe it's the sum of it's parts rather than anything individually, but I feel like this is a great improvement to your format. Great work Kbash.
You know I was just reading a book, and, at risk of giving away too much of my favourite fantasy book series... The death gate cycle (by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman) handles the whole "heroes bettering society instead of fighting evil" angle really well, at least for a short time. Spoilers ahead for one of the later books. So basically, the heroes of the story end up having to fight beings that represent pure chaos and evil, and instead of directly fighting them to defeat them, what actually drives the evil away is the betterment of society and establishment of peace. It's simple, it's cheesy at times, but it's so fucking compelling.
I love first person grid based dungeon crawlers. Shining in the Darkness and D&D warriors of the eternal sun on Mega drive, Holy Ark on Saturn, Shin Megami Tensei Soul Hackers and Strange Journey Redux and also The Keep on 3DS, Dungeon Master on SNES (yes I actually got sucked into this version a few months ago, not bad!!), Grimrock 1 and 2 and The Quest on PC, it just doesn’t get better than this! Best RPG genre, other than grid based strategy.
What I love about the decision to switch to Vandals instead of "demons" (in SF1 through 2) is that it change nothing to the narrative. It feels like an edgy writer that think using demons as bad guys is childish and so make up a new version that is totally not the same thing guys. Don't know if you ever plan on doing the shining force series itself but it's also worth noting that an another clue as to who wrote StHA is that there are direct references to it in SF3 with one of the heroes being a kid in this game, Galm the vampire looking dude being a boss fight while giving major Alex vibes (using both side to shady but never explained ends) and one of the playable character supposed to be one of the fairies you collected. Shoutout to Wolfgangarchive for the maps !
the sega Saturn was $399 but came with 2 controller and a game. the ps1 you had to buy a memory card and a game to play so the Saturn was a better deal in a way.
I think you will get a kick out of playing Dragon Quest 9. I love that games class system and ability to gain constraint buffs to your characters, through the skill tree system. If you ever play it, you pretty much have to change classes and do some metal slime grinding to gain class levels and easy to get skill points. If you don't, the game becomes very frustrating.
now, the shining series has its latest entry, shining resonance refrain, the gameplay is shit at worst and mediocre at best, runs like hot garbage in PS4 and they botched the PC steam release (that's right, I bought 2 copies of the goddamn piece of garbage because i'm a simp for the waifus...) but you can look at the panty-shots of the waifus conjured up by the patron saint of hentai himself, tony taka... so it's an 11/10
I've been recommending this to GS fans for a while. That said yeah worth mentioning that this game's plot is partially to set up Shining Force III where pretty much all of these ideas are way more fleshed out story-wise. You get added context on the creator, thousand-year kingdom, Vandals, Innovators, and the Holy Ark itself. It doesn't do that perfectly but they really created a well fleshed out world in this Saturn saga. Definitely recommend it.
I feel like "People in society becoming lazy and greedy being the source of all troubles" is a very japanese perspective on "evil" and whatnot. In Japan, society *IS* God, and the worst thing a single person can do is deviate from its plans/harmonious, "natural" flow. If society assigns you a role, you should stick to it instead of rebelling or giving in to personal ambitions. And we see that reflected on japanese media all the time. Some Ultraman episodes always come to mind... the ones in which a person becomes "too self centered" for some reason and that ends up creating a monster that in its turn creates problems for everyone. It's kinda interesting. But anyway, I do believe that such neo-confucionist leanings are even more prevalent in gaming. After all, games need to give you an objective, a goal to achieve... and what better goal than to defeat someone who supposedly became "too greedy and corrupted" because of their own failings instead of the failings of a bigger, more broken system? It's easier to hate the villain this way. Great video as always, K-Dude. Keep up the good work.
Let me just state that Shining the Holy Ark has THE most badass combat theme of it's generation. It's absolutely kickass and takes a LONG time of grinding before you get tired of it. (Xenogears gets the best boss battle theme of this generation.)
Shining in the Darkness is great. Shining Force is one the first video games I ever played, and SF2 is one of my favourite games of all time. It's a shame that Shining Force is just generic JRPGs now, instead of turn based strategy. Same with Phantasy Star, people just think of PSO now, while gems like PSIV gets overlooked.
The first Shining Force is a game I'll always recommend to people looking for srpgs on the genesis, its a wonderful lil time and I don't think enough people have given it the chance
Shining Force is my favored over Fire Emblem for the simplicity. I’ve never liked item durability management in games, and as a kid, permadeath felt really bad. So Shining allowing you to spend money to revive characters felt much better and let me get a lot further without screaming “WHY!?”. Golden Sun coming out later, I was exposed to a JRPG on a handheld I didn’t think I’d see at the time, as it was even more graphically sophisticated than Pokemon, which child me had thought “Clearly, this is the pinnacle of handheld RPGs!” I knew Final Fantasy VIII would never run on a GBA, but having something that felt like it could have been a console experience on the GBA was amazing.
I love the content creators in the game critique genre that fall into the camp of "HNGGG EMULATOR BAD". They're too busy reciting "idyllicism" and "ludonarrative dissonance" in the mirror and huffing their own farts to realize that emulation is the future and the only realistic solution to game preservation. Emulation only gets better with time. I remember when the SNES mini and Genesis mini were released and everyone was buying them up like crazy, only to later realize that the emulation accuracy is fucking atrocious. Meanwhile SNES9x for example has had 99.99% emulation accuracy across just about the entire SNES library for an extremely long amount of time now. The "M-MUH OFFICIAL HARDWARE ONLY" crowd turbo-malding and losing their goddamn minds over it still holds a very special place in my heart to this very day. 😌🙏💯
..........Man I hate that Tony Taka took over Shining. How lazy he has been with it. The society becoming corrupt and thus being destroyed seems less like a theological view, and more a very Japanese mindset on society. K-Bash, I REALLY hope you finish up the Shining Series for these videos.
It's a shame that the Camelot that once loved creating all sorts of amazing RPGs is now reduced to making Mario Sports sequels year after year. I'm sure it's more of a stable source of income for them and it keeps them afloat but man, I wish they'd make at least a new Golden Sun or just a new RPG in general.
wait so let me get this straight THE 4 SPIRITS are keeping 4 people ALIVE by fusing with them saying that they are now inseparable and have free will but just kidding it's predestined then 3 of the spirit leave🤔
I was 11 when Shining in the Darkness launched, 13 when I played and beat it. I still look back that experience and ask, "How the hell did I have the patience to do that"?
NONE of the characters in any of the Shining games ever had a very good character growth or really any very decent reason to join your group. I love the games, they're tactical and fun and awesome but the characters are terrible.
I agree, Shining Force III gets the closest and has a few developed characters but most of the cast isn't. Which I am cool with in that game since the characters are fun and charming without the deep character development.
just because the parasite ruling class is automatically corrupt doesn't mean that people themselves are not the ones being corrupt as well. Though massive movements to undermine the working class (movements i think you'd disagree with) are also demonstrable and have an effect. An extremely nuanced discussion to be sure but i think only throwing blame on the obviously evil ruling class is short sighted, at least a little bit.
I audibly scoffed at KBash's discussion about class around 22:45. Not for the statements themselves but in relation to The Holy Arc's story. Corrupt ruling classes are a very basic world building structure in many video game stories: evil kings, aristocrats, etc. Then KBash tops himself around 24:11: "I like games like this for never being mad at God. Ever." My brother in Christ, I *know* you've played many JRPG's. Killing God or the equivalent is a genre cliché. I don't understand people who demand nuance in storytelling when they themselves have a very rigid idea how how the world works.
I don't disagree with him, but I know that it's a belief that people constantly drop if it's directed at groups that they don't like. Otherwise, we wouldn't have large support for sanctions that a ruling class can avoid as laymen starve impoverished. Whether people would like to admit it or not, they will always salivate at hurting the uninvolved for the actions of one leader.
It's on switch as well via the Genesis classics game. If you're a fan of shining or phantasy star, that collection is worth it just for Shining in the Darkness, Shining Force 1+2 and three of the phantasy star games.
Funny how some of the dungeon crawling tropes that makes RPGs in general a pain to play goes back all the way to the paper and pen days of Dungeons and Dragons.
The thing that always got me about Shining The Holy Ark (and Camelot RPG's as a whole) is how stuff never really got explained, Especially the stuff that didn't get xplained in Shining Force 3. I also realise that this game's story is way more disjointed than i remember. Also i never really realised the balancing issues up the wazoo, Like Doyle being OP for like 2-3 dungeons, Only for Basso to outshine the moment he get's the Dragon Axe. As a whole party members have varying degrees of usefulness throughout the game, Like the ninja's not getting any good weapons for a good stretch of the game until the final dungeon or how Forte is obsolete the moment he joins and of course Buffs and AoE healing ae locked behind characters and promotions.
Oh man, you got pretty far without collecting very many pixies in holy ark. Those really cut the length of random encounters down once you learn how to use them I really didn’t do any grinding outside of what happens you would normally encounter in the dungeons. It’s really tough, but idk. Eventually that mithril claw fucking kills
The Saturn had built-in memory and came with a game. With the PlayStation by the time you bought a game and a memory card you were paying the same price or within 10 or $20
Shining the Holy Ark was awesome. Be committed to grinding every so often and you'll feel comfortable against almost any enemies. This game has a great balance of keeping up the pace with needing strategies to take down most opponents, and also keeping you engaged just enough to not mash your way through enemies.
I think your Golden Sun videos kinda made me a bit defensive towards them, and unwilling to consider your point, but with this video, I can see a lot more of your issues in the writing. It definitely feels like there's a potentially more interesting story that could've been told with what we were given Maybe Saturos and Menardi didn't have to act almost comically evil even though they were ostensibly fighting for good. Characters don't really go through meaningful development Still, you did hit on why love for the games persists. I still also think it has some of the most fun puzzle dungeons in RPGs. Honestly, they're what keeps me coming back. Golden Sun is some fine ass RPG food when you're trekking through them
Golden Sun released the same year as Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire and yet they look like they're from opposite ends of the GBA's lifetime. Thankfully Pokémon games have stopped being afraid to push the limits of the console they were released on since then...
I think there's at least an legible ideological base in the idea humans are inherently hierarchal and those hierarchical structures they create inherently decay into being outright dangerous in a world of potentially cataclysmic magic which would be an interesting reason the Creator purges societies. Make the argument even people who outright suffer under these institutions would fight to the last to defend them as the reason it's pointed at everybody? That's how I'd write the creator to at least make him destroying whole societies make sense. A lot of presumptions built on watching and enforcing a cycle like that for God knows how long. Wouldn't make him correct but it's based in a perspective informed from his experiences doing what he's always done over thousands of years instead of the weird moralist bent they took. Maybe write him as a lot more exhausted and hollowed out by doing it for so long as well? Like there's a fascinating character in the premise of the Creator but as written it's not v good.
I still remember your Golden Sun videos. Among the ocean of 10/10 reviews, you're the only one who actually critiqued GS. I've beaten the games a few times and never noticed those flaws and you made it hilarious 😂 so keep KBash'ing!
Golden is a small but nice series, I would love to see it comeback. As for shining force I’ve only played the third game, it’s long but very fun since it’s strategic kind of like fire emblem
Your best video to date, in my eyes. Super-fascinating! Also, good take on corruption, you have these clever digressions sprinkled throughout your videos here and there, and they always warm my heart.
I like that the shot in the dark video on a GBA masher turned into a launch pad for a timely look back at ties to the studio's future works, and how a couple flaws in writing style never really got ironed out in the drawing board along the way The consistency of the series DNA at least in connection by Holy Ark and GS is surprising, but I think the thread of how the videos tie back together is even more interesting. Life truly is a winding road of twists and turns.
