A move to save the Shining Series

Many of us grew up with the Sega Genesis/Megadrive and this is where we discovered Phantasy Star. But many of us discovered the Shining series at the same time too.

Both series shared the same fate. They both went from awesome to being really...well certain would say aweful.

Lady Moogie from Shining Force Central (every Shining fans should know this site) started a rescue project for the Shining Series, because the 20th anniversary of it is coming really soon. She wants Camelot (the original maker of the game up to Shining Force III) to come back and make a new title, and for that, want to send them all the fan-love she can get. This is not just a tiny fan project, go read her new site about it, it's true dedication, and if you have love for the Shining series too, you should go try and support the cause.

http://sos.shiningforcecentral.com/

Why I'm posting this? Well like I said, most of us grew up with both series, and while I went and focus only on the Classic Saga of Phantasy Star, this is the kind of fan project I would like to see succeed, so that one day, we can also try to resurect our own series from the Doom its in right now. Both series, like I said, have went downhill compared to the old days, and if we can save one, maybe one day we will be able to save the other. So if you can, support her cause with all your heart!

I played Shining in the Darkness a little. I eventually got lost and gave up.

Shining Force was a lot different and much better than Shining in the Darkness. Well, there's a similar atmosphere and art style, but the game play is a completely different beast.

I'd love to see a new entry in the series that is true to the original style of Force's game play. Those were some great strategy RPGs. I don't think Sega is interested in making such a game though. They could have done so by now. Still, I hope the campaign is successful.

While I totally loved Shining in the Darkness (and its much better "spiritual" sequel Shining the Holy Ark), most people indeed get their best memories of the series starting with Shining Force. You should definitely give it a try

The problem is that people have shorter attention spans now than at any previous point in known history. That's the summary of why neither series has had a serious sequel made. Most people these days don't care to level grind for a few hours between boss fights and the very few who don't mind such recreational activity have beeen Square'd into thinking they can't do so without the presence of enticing CGI cutscene summons, special attacks, numerous side quests, and even mini-games within games (example - card game in FFVIII).

What Sega has done with PS during the last ten years was what had to be done in order to expand the franchise's established fan base by sucking in the nigh-zero attention span Gen "Y" humans while blending in enough PS lore to keep the majority of the original PS fan base content that the franchise is at least not dead, that's PSO in a nut shell. PSU Fairly well simulates the modern style of Squre RPG with an enhanced battle system based on the one that was used in PSO, thereby drawing in fans of Square's works but also keeping the fast pace that pathetic Gen "Y" humans brains require to not instantly tell them that the game is to slow to possibly be good.

Like H-Man, I got lost early in Shining in the Darkness and simply never went back to the game. I know the other games in the franchise are all tactical-RPG's, but I've never played any of them to speak of. Nice to see someone caring enough about the way the future games of the franchise play to do something about it though.

I remember my older brother and dad playing Shining in the Darkness and the Shining Force games when I was a kid. I even played them myself when I was little, but never finished them. In college, I did beat the first Shining Force game once, but never bothered with the second. I have both cartridges...but the Shining Force I cart doesn't work for some reason, unfortunately. I also have Shining in the Darkness, which my boyfriend really likes and he has it on his VC.

It is an interesting move by the part of the fans. If that will work or not, I cannot tell. Usually the companies don't pay much attention unless the response is massive.

And massive it means really massive. Even if several thousands write demanding a new game, they already know many of the ones who will write will not buy the game. So they will not develop a new game expecting to sell 2,000 copies, for example.

Anyway, fans are showing their love for the series and trying to do something. Maybe that could have worked in the past, if done to Phantasy Star, but how could we know they'd never make another classic PS anymore?

Well, it's Camelot we're talking about. After all those, years people (and Nintendo themselves) have been asking for a Golden Sun sequel, and now that it's finally released (in Japan for now), I'm almost pretty certain that it will sell well enough based on the IP and the company name alone. In the same way, if Camelot was to step up and really make a new Shining game by themselves (and I would say to put it on a Nintendo console, since Camelot are more associated with Nintendo nowaday, so the fanbase will probably be bigger there) like the DS or the soon to be released 3DS, I'm pretty sure the game will sell like hot cake. Plus, it's not the first time Lady Moogie campaign suceed in reaching Camelot, they even talk about one of them in one of the president of Camelot interview. If if someone can suceed it's her. The goal here is to calm the tension between Sega and Camelot. If that happen, you can be certain that the possibility of it happening would be really big. Because like I said, the making of game like Golden Sun is proof enough for me that Camelot is interrested in making old-school RPG.

But as for the Phantasy Star series, I don't know about you, but Phantasy Star IV nailed pretty much everything right when it comes to a JRPG. Based on that, they could have easily continued to make single-player RPG by improving the already well made formula created for IV. I think it's just the pure BS happening within Sega in that era post PSIV that gave us what we have today. And now, it's indeed a little late to jump back in the wagon unfortunately...but I'm still dreaming, but after the pure failure of PS:P2 to me, I'm sure never touching an online iterations of Phantasy Star ever again

May I remind you that this is where we are right now within the Phantasy Star series





Very "Phantasy Star" is it not? And the quality of the story have gone the same way as the art direction (it will take me years to recover from Phantasy Star Portable 2), so I do believe our beloved series need some saving

From what I´ve read at their page, it looks like Camelot is willing to make another title for the series and they just want Sega to support it, since they are the "owners" of the series. Well, if that is true, it is an easier matter. Another thing that makes it easier is that the series could continue is that the newer Shining titles are pretty recent.

As for Phantasy Star, Sega lost it. Phantasy Star IV was, in my opinion, a step back in the philosophy of the series, but as a commercial product, it has nailed it. Then, I don´t know what has happened, but in the mid 90s Sega seemed prone to ignore its successes and to replicate its failures, they let the ball drop. Sega didn´t have anything planed for a PS sequel if PSIV was successful, so many years passed and the fan base was not so strong anymore. When they released another PS game, it was a different thing, they entered the MMORPG branch, just using their name as a franchise. Commercially, it could be a good move, but for the sake of the series it was not. Nowadays, PS remains just as a franchise and it is too late to use it to develop a brand new RPG because the old fan base is almost gone for a console single-player RPG based on strong storyline. Of course, the game could be great and be a success, but Sega would not have any advantage in labelling the new game as PS; it could even be harmful, alienating the ORPG fan base.

The goal of a Online RPG is to last for years. I'm sure the ORPG crowd could easily survive having one tiny single-player Phantasy Star in the sea of online titles they have. I'm not even asking a big budget title. Give me an original (and good) story on the DS and 3DS with great 2D graphics, and I'll be really happy ...but anyway that's beside the point of this topic. Yes, a new Shining Force have more chance of happening than we can think. It just neeeds our help.