Loosely following Shining In The Darkness, Shining Force emphasizes war-like battle scenarios over the traditional dungeon-crawling.

Ages before our story begins, after a long and terrible war, the legendary civilization of the Ancients used the Power of Light to seal the evil Dark Dragon into another dimension. Dark Dragon swore to return in 1,000 years but, that being a long way off, peace was restored and civilization prospered for centuries, until Dark Dragon's vow of vengeance slipped from the minds of the people and was forgotten. Now, 1,000 years have passed, and the evil hordes of Runefaust cover the land in chaos. The story centers around Max (default name only; you can choose to call him whatever you like), a swordsman-in-training. The first chapter begins with you being given a secret mission to carry out by the King of Guardiana. To accomplish this, you gather troops and set forth on what seems to be just a scouting mission, but escalates quickly into war. There are eight chapters in total, the characters you meet usually giving you just as much info as you need to understand the next battle — and for the most part, somewhat politely suggesting that you do your job and save the world. New and varied warriors join the Force, leading ultimately to a grand total of 30 — though a few can be arguably harder to find than others.

The graphics are cartoony and cute, but above all else, functional. Each member of the Shining Force has a different icon, and while a few share certain design elements, each soldier is unique and not easily mistaken for another on the battlefield. The overworld map (upon which numerous batles are fought) is decently done, with grass, sand, trees, mountains, brush, water, foothills, and mountains to fight on. The battle sprites are repetitive and boring after even a short while of play, and while the characters become more interesting to look at after class-change, they'll be promoted for much more of the game than not, and therefore you have to look at them longer. In traditional RPG fashion, walking sprites bob up and down and move their arms and legs as though walking at all times.

The music in Shining Force is, in general, tolerable. The soundtrack is made up almost entirely of one basic tune, remixed twenty or thirty times. The battle song alternates between five or so tracks, dependant on the battlefield's type, and since most of your time will be spent in battle in this game, you will find these tunes engraved upon your brain if you leave the sound up for too long. During actual combat, a short, rousing little song plays as two warriors clash — over and over and over and over and... the game is limited to approximately one town theme, and one castle theme, which I suppose is a reason to be at least a little thankful that your time spent in towns will be for the most part brief. Other sounds (either on the battlefiend or off) are virtually non-existent, mostly consisting of a few short bangs, thwops, and crashes.

The controls in Shining Force are simple and easy to learn, very basic RPG-fare. The menu system is uncomplicated and useful; in fact the only problem most people will encounter will be remembering what party members have what items as the Force's numbers grow. Out of battle, you can see only the hero (which is good — 30 people walking in a line wouldn't be good for the Force's reputation) as you wander about and between towns. The rest of your intrepid party can be found in Headquarters, a building which exists in every town in the game. Also occupying Headquarters will eternally be Nova, former Advisor to the King of Guardiana who now follows you around, gives you advice, and manages your growing army. In battle you can only have 12 members out, including the hero who will always be present, and it's generally a good idea to rotate members in and out as necessary to level weaker people, as those who don't attend battle do not gain experience. The command system in battle is equally functional and as easily learned as the normal walking one, from basic actions to spellcasting, and there's a specal sub-menu which allows you to ask Nova for advice, change settings, and Save during battle — which I've always found extremely useful, personally. During battle you find the Force arrayed in a small group on one end of the field, each character's position based relative to who else is present — so choose your warriors wisely! Each terrain has a certain amount of movement hindrance, and only flying characters (such as the bird-folk you gain in the end of the second chapter) can move across water and mountains. Indoor or town battles are formatted slightly differently, with little to hamper movement but less room to fight in. In general, battles are best fought several times; to gain experience, to make off with items from certain monsters (on some fields only) and to determine the best strategies for tackling them and other similar battles — and so long as you leave one enemy alive and cast the hero's Egress spell before killing it, any battle can be repeated infinite times. Battles can also be ended by walking into a town or out of the building in most cases, but this is generally a bad idea unless you're desperate.

I've always been quite fond of Shining Force for it's wide variety of characters, many (but not all) of whom can recieve "Promotions" the first time they reach level 10. It's rather interesting because the characters get somewhat severely dropped in their HP, Mp, and stats, forcing you to be strategic about exactly when you promote certain characters.

Ultimately, Shining Force is a fun, classic, none-too-serious war-style game. It has more than it's share of silly jokes, and most of the battles aren't too hard if you're prepared for them. It's probably more mentally challenging than the typical RPG of t's day where you just run though dungeons and find treasure, but it's nowhere near as complicated as most of the other war games out there. If you're looking for a good story and have a lot of patience for battles, Shining Force is a good way to go... if you want something more hardcore from your war games, it might not be your cup of tea.

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