Biased Magazines
Larry Porter
about the CES and EGM.
1) EGM gave Game of the month to LORDS OF THUNDER for the Turbo Duo, but
when it came to their top ten list of best games at the CES LORDS OF
THUNDER wasn't even mentioned. What really upset me however was the fact
the a GAMEBOY game was rated above LORDS OF THUNDER. I honestly think that
no way in hell a gameboy game is going to be better that a SUPER CD.
2) In their preview of Final Fantasy V they said this is sequel to the best
RPG series ever. Now this was really upsetting. I have played and beat
FINAL FANTASY II, and I feel that PHANTASY STAR II and Ys was far better
than FF II in story and in gameplay.
But I do agree that SEGA is "dragging their feet" when it comes to their
support for the system. This VIRTUAL VCR, what is the purpose of this??
You use your controller to make pictures of Prince go in FF or REV??
Stupidist concept I have ever heard of. Being a great SEGA RPG fan don't
hold your breath waiting for DARK WIZARD. I expect this game to be ready by
DEC 1993 the earliest.
The only thing I am looking forward to form SEGA is X-MEN and Shining Force.
Well that's my opinion.
LP
========================================================
Larry Porter
Michael Klauser
LPO...@ELECTRICAL.watstar.uwaterloo.ca writes:
> The only thing I am looking forward to form SEGA is X-MEN and Shining Force.
I don't know why Shining Force is so late to have the English version
available. The MegaDrive Japanese version was released on Mar 92. Such a
long wait!
Shining Force is a TRPG(Tactical Role Playing Game), but it is more like a
simulation war game than a RPG. Never have a high expectation on the story
part.
There are a total of 30 battles in this game, and a total of 30 characters.
Each has its corresponding class, examples are swordsman, warrior, dragoon,
wizard, archer and some other specific classes like hawkman, wolfman, magic
creature, ninja, samurai and a unclassified class. Only five of the characters
are human beings, others are centaurs, dwarfs, fairies, birdmen, giant, wolf,
rat, deer, fox and some other strange creatures. Most of them looks very cute.
At the beginning your group is only consituted of 5 characters, but the number
rises as the story goes. You can only choose a maximum of 12 characters in
each battle. Different characters are needed for different landscapes.
One of the most important parameter is the agility. One can move first and
give attack if its agility is high. This game is special in that only your
side can issue attack if the fight is initiated by you, unlike simulation war
game like Nectaris, Earth Light and Super Wars. This is understandable,
because there is nothing such as surrounding effect and other special effects
like those in real simulation war games, so agility would mean nothing if
both can attack the others when actually one side has the higher agility and
has the power to attack in advance. If both can attack the others at the
same time and there is no special effect which decreases the opponent's
parameters, it could be very difficult to defeat strong bosses. The aim of
this game is to train the characters that you think useful in future fights,
change their careers at the right time(which would cause a drop in all
parameters but once a level is gained, the paramters increase much), use them
at right times, and the most important, move them carefully in the battle.
The background of all fights(not the battle map!) is unexpectedly good. Not
surprising, this is a 12M game. Also, the attacking styles of the characters
and enemies are well worth seeing. The background music(BGM) is appropriate
and not exaggerated. An typical example of RPG with exaggerated BGM is Dragon
Quest V(corresponding to the Dragon Warrior series). It is unnatural that even
the BGM of fights is made orchestral like. However, Dragon Quest V is ranked
to be the top of all games in 92'(31 Oct 91 to 31 Oct 92) by a famous weekly
game magazine. The problem solving RPG part is easy enough even for beginners,
because as I've mentioned, it's not more like a war game than a RPG. Attacking
routes are all predefined. There are nevertheless villages, towns and castles
similar to but simpler than those of RPG. However, it's not a real simulation
war game neither, because you can cast magic spells, use items, equip weapons
and rings, get items, buy and sell, level up,.....etc that are all operations
you can perform in a typical RPG.
The special game I'm currently mentioning is called Shining Force. It is
a sequel of Shining and the Darkness. It worths a try.
_____________________________________________________________________________
***** Flames, bombs, missiles are NOT welcomed *****
***** Michael Klauser h920...@hkuxa.hku.hk *****
_____________________________________________________________________________
P.S. The Game Gear version of a Shining Force sequel (Japanese) is also
released. It is a 4M game.