Shining Force Gaiden II: The Evil God Awakes

 

A Sequel That Somewhat Shines

When I was a preteen, I was well-aware of the console war between Nintendo and Sega, with no loyalties pledged to either company’s games. The latter pious proclaimed that they did “what Nintendon’t,” and in a sense they were right, since one thing they did that Nintendo didn’t at the time was have a color-based portable game system, the Game Gear, which I owned until the advent of the following console generation. One game I remember playing is Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya, which I was unaware at the time was the English version of Shining Force Gaiden II: The Evil God Awakes, eventually forming Book Two of the Sega CD collection Shining Force CD, and largely providing an experience on par with its predecessor.

The second Gaiden opens with the enemies, led by King Warderer of the Iom Empire, sacrificing a king to their namesake god in hopes of resurrecting him. In the meantime, Prince Nick of Cypress heads out on a mission stop them, ultimately failing to return, which prompts the newest Shining Force to be sent, led by the enigmatic Deanna. Given its relative removal from the narrative of the original Shining Force, the second game’s narrative is somewhat weaker, given the lack of development for the main characters and villains, although it does continue the first Gaiden’s plot decently. The translation is legible, but full of missing punctuation and compressed class names, among other things.

Fortunately, the gameplay is better, being mechanically identical to the first Shining Force Gaiden, except for one point where the game halves the player’s party, and that the absolute final battle doesn’t require the player redo the one before. The same issues as in the first Gaiden come into play such as the need for foresight, given the potential for boss enemies to have multiple turns in succession, and that grinding can be uneven. Regardless, those who appreciate straightforward tactical gameplay will be in for a treat, and there are occasional tricks such as creating tanks out of many physical characters and having allies occupy tiles that respawn foes to prevent them from spawning.

Book Two features generally the same straightforward gameplay structure as its predecessor, with a simple camp/town interface in between story battles, and consequentially, no getting lost whatsoever, never a bad thing. However, the same issues as in the first Gaiden game come into play such as the endless dialogues and confirmations when performing tasks such as saving the game, reviving dead characters (which players can only do one ally at a time instead of all simultaneously), or shopping for new equipment and items (and in the former case, the player can see how prospective gear increases or decreases stats). The second Book was also one of the earliest games to offer mid-battle saving, and in the end, while the game doesn’t interact fully well with players, things could have been worse.

While the soundtrack reuses some tracks from the first Gaiden game, there are several new ones, all of which sound fantastic with their orchestral quality, the final boss theme in particular standing out the most, and the vocal narration during the post-last-battle cutscene definitely got the job done in the game’s time. The sound effects, some of which hail straight from the Genesis Shining Force games, do still clash with the orchestrated soundtrack, but otherwise, the sequel is easy on the ears.

The sequel also looks just as well as the first game, with well-executed combat visuals and dodge animations for units on both sides, although there are still many reskins on either side.

Finally, the second Gaiden is as long as its precursor, nine to eighteen hours, with little lasting appeal, given the lack of sidequests, aside from multiple difficulties.

All in all, Shining Force Gaiden II is for the most part and enjoyable sequel to the first Gaiden that hits most of the right notes in regards to areas such as its straightforward strategy mechanics, the linear structure preventing players from ever getting lost, the excellent soundtrack, and the pretty visuals. However, it does have many of the same issues as its precursor such as the need for foresight in battle especially against boss units, the overabundance of dialogues and confirmations when performing common interface tasks, the rehashed plot, and little replayability aside from different difficulty settings. Despite its flaws, however, I definitely had a decent time with the second Shining Force Gaiden, although there is an off chance that not all may appreciate it.

This review is based on a playthrough of the second Book of Shining Force CD on the Easy difficulty setting.

The Good:
+Good straightforward mechanics.
+No getting lost.
+Excellent soundtrack.
+Pretty visuals.

The Bad:
-Battles still require a little foresight.
-Too much dialogue and confirmations.
-Story somewhat recycled from original Shining Force.
-Little lasting appeal aside from different difficulties.

The Bottom Line:
A half-decent sequel.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: Sega CD
Game Mechanics: 7.5/10
Controls: 6.5/10
Story: 3.5/10
Localization: 5.0/10
Music/Sound: 9.5/10
Graphics: 8.0/10
Lasting Appeal: 6.0/10
Difficulty: Adjustable
Playing Time: 9-18 Hours

Overall: 6.5/10