16-bit Mazes and Monsters

Oddly enough the Japanese name of the game is
"Shining and the Darkness"

Before Shining Force there was Shining in the Darkness - a dungeon crawler in the traditional sense.  By that I mean no automapping, random encounters galore, and a fair amount of grinding.  It's not a bad game, but playing it has reminded me of why I like the SRPG spin-offs that followed a lot better.  You see...every battle in the Shining Force series is a set piece encounter.  This originator of the franchise has room for a small amount of tactical thinking, but for the most part it's about navigating a multi-level maze filled with hazards in the form of monsters and traps.  There's treasure to be had too, although much of it is of little importance.  The goal of the game (as laid out in the opening) is to rescue the princess Jessa who has been kidnapped by the sorcerer "Dark Sol".  It's about as generic a plot as you can get.  Even so, it's presented well.  

The art style for the early entries in the the Shining IP are distinct in that they subtly blend 1980s Disney with a bit of an anime aesthetic.  In terms of setting it's more Narnia than Middle-earth when it comes to demi-humans.  To this day, I must admit centaur knights (complete with armor and lance) look pretty dang cool and are something you don't see a whole lot of in fantasy settings these days.  Unlike some dungeon crawlers, players only go it alone during the early stages of the game.  After defeating a giant crab (and mini-boss of sorts) the hero of the story gains two companions (Milo and Pyra) who can help him on his quest.  At first glance this team of three seems like a fairly standard warrior-healer-mage combo, but in truth the lines between them are a bit blurrier than say...Dungeons and Dragons.  While it's true that the meat-shield warrior protagonist never gains the innate ability to casts spells, his pious looking companion (Milo) hits pretty hard and has magic that overlaps a bit with Pyra the mage.  Meanwhile, she can deal out decent damage while still having a repertoire of AoE and utility spells.  She's also the fastest of the three when it comes to turn order.  Monsters vary quite a bit - ranging from the simple (bats, wasps, slimes, and slugs) to the standard (goblins, ape-men, skeletons, and minotaurs); all the way up to slightly weird foes like ax-beaked ostriches and "clodhoppers" (hat-wearing puppet-like enemies that consist of a head with a pair of legs sprouting from underneath).

The variety is much appreciated, but it isn't enough hold my interest.  As far as old-school dungeon crawlers go, Shining in the Darkness is very well made example of its genre.  It's just not the kind of game I can really get into.  Still, there are plenty of worse ways to spend your time, and if you are the kind of person that enjoys titles like the Bard's Tale Trilogy or the original Wizardry then this Sega classic might be right up your alley...or maybe I should say up you subterranean corridor?  Actually, never mind...that sounds kind of gross.