Shining in the Darkness
Description official descriptions
This is a story-driven console-style RPG, and is the first in the three game Shining series for the Genesis (followed by Shining Force and Shining Force II). The Kingdom of Thornwood has been invaded by Dark Sol's men, and it is your job to vanquish them. You will need the Arms of Light to do this.
The game is a first person RPG, with turn-based combat and cartoony graphics. The dialogue is displayed via dialog bubbles appearing above the characters speaking, although the protagonist never speaks. There are no sub-quests - the secrets in the game involve the location and use of special metal for forging esoteric items. There are about 25 to 30 hours of gameplay to be found here, before the final battle and ending sequence.
Spellings
- シャイニング&ザ・ダクネス - Japanese spelling
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Credits (Genesis version)
14 People (12 developers, 2 thanks)
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 78% (based on 27 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 21 ratings with 2 reviews)
Great game and original concept
The Good
Ok so the game's "overworld" is micro-sized. There are exactly 3 places to go to!!! The castle, the town and the labyrinth. BUT the labyrinth is HUGE. Multi-leveled, underground and overground. And the town and castle, small as they are, are fun to revisit to see if the people have something new to say, something new to sell or if there's been some other change. In fact, I think the "socializing" i.e the game's story, told through the characters you meet (there is no narrating, I don't believe) is the best part of the game. I think the characters and the English translation of the script is great. Darksol (Mephisto in the Japanese) is a great villain with lots of humorous arrogance and dramatic language, especially when you fight him at the end. There's a strong dose of family humor running through the story.
As for the first-person, dungeon crawling with turned-based battles (your party of 3 against parties of monsters), well admittedly you need quite a bit of patience to cope with the repetition, but I think that the finding entrances/exits, learning strategies, leveling up, earning and equipping is fun, helped by the nice graphics and animation and great music by Masahiko Yoshimura.
The Bad
As I said the game requires a lot of patience. The dungeons are very long and repetitive. Of course the game is like a modernization of early American RPGs like Akalabeth: World of Doom and Wizardry, with most of the game being in a dungeon, with returns to a castle or village to recover. Many people loved those sorts of games of course, despite that many would've found them unbearably boring. I think that Shining in the Darkness fixes some of the problems with those early RPGs (while no doubt displeasing fans of those RPGs), but it still heavily tests the patience of someone like myself, who I still consider to be a non-RPGer at heart.
The Bottom Line
I think it's great for people who like a good, anime-style story and also like a bit of old-fashioned RPG dungeon crawling, leveling, and equipping.
Genesis · by Andrew Fisher (697) · 2017
The Good
Graphics are done well and fairly colorful. Also some of the character designs are very well done.
Monsters have a nice variety and are animated when they attack.
A good variety of dungeons to crawl through which can take a long time to traverse. Gaming time is fairly high too.
A good amount of items in the game to buy and find.
Difficulty is well adjusted for the most part.
The Bad
Like Graph Paper? I don't. This game has no automatic mapping so for the most part you will have to draw your own map. The map item and spell in this game only works in the section you are in. For the most part graph paper or a map is highly beneficial though if you like this sort of thing it can be a positive.
Some battles can be very uneven in certain circumstances. Especially if you go into a area without being prepared. the fine line between where your supposed to be and where you aren't is sometimes literally one step.
There's only one town. Though this is forgiveable just a nitpick.
Dungeon Crawlers aren't for everybody
The Bottom Line
A Curious Dungeon Crawler type rpg published by Sega. The game is rather good though not one of the best rpgs. If your hankering for a genesis rpg and have finished The Phantasy Stars and don't mind something different then you should give Shining in the Darkness a try. You just might be pleasantly surprised! Overall I give this a 7/10
Genesis · by Mr. Huh (105) · 2004
Trivia
Awards
- Tilt d'Or 1991: Meilleur jeu de rôle console (Best game console RPG)
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Daniel Reed.
Windows added by 666gonzo666. Macintosh, Linux added by Foxhack. Wii added by gamewarrior.
Additional contributors: Oyn, j.raido 【雷堂嬢太朗】, RetroArchives.fr.
Game added July 31, 2002. Last modified April 2, 2024.