Help The Sports Guy an article!

[The Sports Guy]

Yo,

RPG's and I haven't got to know each other very well and I am writing an article about my take on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection. So, I was wondering if some of you RPGphiles could write up a short little ditty (like a paragraph-ish, no set length. Don't make it too long though) on these games:

Shining in the Darkness
Shining Force
Shining Force II
Fatal Labyrinth
Phantasy Star
Phantasy Star II
Phantasy Star III
Phantasy Star IV
Beyond Oasis

Just write about whether the game is fun or not and your thoughts on it, try to keep the stories of the game out of it. After that, give me a letter grade for your game (A thru F, pluses and minuses are fine) and PM it to me. Thank you very much! Your name will be mentioned in the article!

[sega fan]

Any specific one you need help on

[The Coop]

If no one minds, I could write up something on Shining in the Darkness, Fatal Labyrinth and Phantasy Star I. I've played them all, but I doubt you want me writing something for them all :p

[InternalPrimate]

Holy cats, I just now found this! I'll shoot you a PM tomorrow :)

[The Sports Guy]

OMG finally! I still have a load of the normal games to write about, but one weekend where I had the place to myself, I sat down and plowed through this game for Xbox 360.

I'd greatly appreciate anything you can help me with. Basically, I would like you do something like this:

Sonic The Hedgehog

If it wasn’t for this game, we wouldn’t be talking right now. You just have to face it, it’s like the game that launched a thousand ships, man. Nearly everything in this game is perfect, I just love the level design (minus Labyrinth) and the ability to just fly through the levels was something that no one has ever seen before. It isn’t my favorite Sonic game of all time, but not beating this game is like never eating pizza. I don’t need to say more. I just don’t like how I can’t spin dash yet, but the game is kickin.

Grade: A

Review:

Achievement: Obtain a Chaos Emerald. (Easiness level: Heinous) – Gamerpoints: 30

... for an RPG. I'll keep you posted on which ones have been done. I would like to get them all covered, but it's not 100% neccessary and you will absolutely recieve credit for them in my article.

Of course, PM me with questions or comments.

Thanks again, guys!

[Baloo]

Shining in the Darkness -

The princess of the kingdom has been kidnapped! You (the hero), must aid the king and journey into the labyrinth of the kingdom, an old testing ground for knights, to save her from the evil Dark Sol in this Dungeon-crawler RPG. But in that labyrinth lies multiple levels that contain many evils, including various monsters that are ready to take you down in random-encounter battles. Along the way you'll meet different people that will give you help along the way, and even add two members to your party. There's not much to explore in this RPG save for a town where you can stock up on weapons and spend the night in case you become weary from your battles. Just don't hang around too much in the bar because there's a princess to be saved! Overall, a great dungeon-crawler RPG with many unique characters and good gameplay, but suffers from no maps for the labyrinth, which can make the game extremely difficult at times. Don't get lost in the confusion that is...the labyrinth!

Grade: B

[The Coop]

Shining in the Darkness


Here's the game that started the "Shining" franchise back in 1991. A first-person dungeon crawler for the Genesis, this game is a bit different from what followed with most of the "Shining" games (save for Shining the Holy Ark). But “different” doesn't necessarily mean “worse”. The game has a charm about it, with a visual style that would be carried over into several of the turn-based strategy games that would follow it on the Genesis, Game Gear, and Sega CD. And like those games, this one also offers up a good challenge. There are weapons to upgrade (both in the labyrinth and in town), spells to gain and power up, and enemies to best as you make your way farther into the labyrinth toward your ultimate goal... finding the Arms of Light, and defeating Dark Sol in order to rescue the princess, and your character's father. A great start to the franchise.


Grade- B+






Fatal Labyrinth


Back when the Genesis was still a young system, Sega brought this little game over from their Meganet multiplayer service. It didn't make much of a splash when it hit The States, but it was notable for one main reason. The dungeons are randomly generated, making each play through at least a little different from the one before it. Actually, nearly everything is randomized in this game, giving it a healthy dose of replayability. Of course, hearing the same very short song for 10 dungeons in a row can get old, as can the reshuffled spell effects and weapon placement (which can lead to long stretches of poor weapons in one play through, while another has great weapons practically everywhere). But even so, it might be worth a look if you're feeling adventurous enough to try and make it through 30 levels to obtain the Holy Goblet.


Grade- C-






Phantasy Star


Some consider this game to be the best 8-bit console RPG to be released in America. Back when Sega was going up against the Nintendo monolith during the 8-bit era, they released Phantasy Star for their Master System. Filled with dungeons that you explored through surprisingly smooth 3-D, and an interesting mix of sci-fi and fantasy traits, it trounced on anything the NES would later have to offer from a technical standpoint. But it wasn't just a “tech demo” of sorts. It still offered a pretty decent story of revenge against a corrupt ruler, solid gameplay, and three planets to explore as you journeyed to the source of the corruption... Dark Falz (Dark Force in later games). Quality stuff here.



Grade- A

[The Sports Guy]

Thanks guys. One more thing, can you find the achievements for xbox 360 on the internet and put them under the review and comment on how easy/hard they are to get? Thanks.

[The Coop]

If I owned a 360, I'd be happy to :lol:

[sega fan]

Thanks guys. One more thing, can you find the achievements for xbox 360 on the internet and put them under the review and comment on how easy/hard they are to get? Thanks.

I got you covered. Everybody, I got the whole acheivement thing down on my own.

[Zebbe]

Shining in the Darkness
This game is the cradle of the world famous and much beloved Shining series, and a great one at that. The genre is the first person view dungeon crawler RPG, similar to the first Phantasy Star, except this one is set in a medieval fantasy kingdom called Thornwood. Being the son of a great swordsman, your mission is to solve the mystery of his absense and later also of the princess of the kingdom. Maybe it sounds like standard stuff, but the telling of the story is very atmospheric and epic for its time, which makes up for it. The game has only the castle, the village and the nine level dungeon on its map, but there is always something new to see or hear when you progress in the game. You will have a lot of fun drawing maps and upgrading your equipment, learning new spells and inhaling the great 16-bit atmosphere that is Shining in the Darkness.

Grade: A-

Phantasy Star IV
Although not being my first RPG, it was the one that made me a mindless diehard fan and still it is the best game ever to me. Phantasy Star IV takes all that was great from the three first games, wraps it together with the maximum capabilities of the Mega Drive. The traditional turn-based combat system has a convenient feature called "macros", which lets you set up pre-determined commands in a specific order to assure quick heals before the bosses attack you or special combo attacks that were later ripped off by Chrono Trigger (another great 16-bit RPG). This gives the game fun and exciting battles, something which should be enough for one who hasn't given the genre a chance yet. I did, and it worked for me with this game, so do it you too, if you haven't!

Grade: A+

[Christuserloeser]

Shining in the Darkness 3/5 complex 3D dungeon crawler, huuge labyrinth, set the standards of later Shining games: orchestral score with lots of PSG usage, great character designs
Shining Force 5/5: strategy classic similar to Fire Emblem by Nintendo, extremely addictive, first 12 Mbit game for MD
Shining Force II 5/5: more of the same, more RPG elements than SF1
Fatal Labyrinth 1/5: very primitive overhead dungeon crawler, released as SegaNet DLC in Japan and on Mega CD collections, see Flicky, Sonic Eraser, etc., no idea why Fatal Labyrinth and Flicky were released on cart in the US, and also why better SN games weren't: see Penguin Land, Teddy Boy Blues, There's no logical explanation why they _KEEP_ re-releasing these games over and over again, and _again_ out of context as the 1 Mbit SegaNet games they were meant to be
Phantasy Star 5/5: not included on SUGC I think because it's a Master System game, only re-released for MD in Japan, extremely progressive and unique game at the time it came out, programmed by Yuji Naka, programmer of Sonic, PS2, etc, and designed by Rieko Kodama, one of the graphic designers of Sonic 1 + 2, later director of PS3 and PS4, Magic Knight Ray Earth, Skies of Arcadia
Phantasy Star II 5/5: first 6-Mbit game for MD
Phantasy Star III 3/5: extremely long game spanning over three generations, visually downgraded from PS2 due to length and limited ROM space
Phantasy Star IV 5/5: best part in the series, 24 Mbit monster, beautiful in every way
Beyond Oasis 5/5: action adventure by Ancient of Streets of Rage 2 fame, plays a lot like Streets of Rage meets Zelda, 24 Mbit, fantastic bosses, Yuzo Koshiro's final work on MD, nice experimental ambient meets classic soundtrack, very different from Bare Knuckle III and Slap Fight MD which were his previous works

[The Coop]

Shining Force 5/5: strategy classic, extrmely addicitve, first 12 Mbit game for MD

Actually, I believe that honor goes to Star Control. It was released in 1991, with Shining Force coming out in 1992.

Unless of course you want to get overtly technical, in which case SC is the first for the Genesis and UK version of the MD, with SF being the first for the Japanese version of the MD a year later.

[Christuserloeser]

I didn't know that Star Control was 12 Mbit! - but yeah: I think what makes SF special is that it was the first 12 Mbit game by Sega of Japan. Each step up usually happened with the release of a remarkable game, ie. GnG, PS2, Strider, Shining Force, Landstalker, Bare Knuckle III.

[The Coop]

I didn't know that Star Control was 12 Mbit! - but yeah: I think what makes SF special is that it was the first 12 Mbit game by Sega of Japan. Each step up usually happened with the release of a remarkable game, ie. GnG, PS2, Strider, Shining Force, Landstalker, Bare Knuckle III.

Then it's a good thing Star Control's a remarkable game ;)

But yeah, it was either in a Mega Play or an EGM back then, they had a one or two page article on SC, showing the rather tall 12 1Mb chips on the cart board before it got shrunk down to 3 4Mb chips (according to the article). Quite a feat that a non-licensed game was the one to take the next step like that, while churning out a near perfect port of an Amiga classic (only the music suffered).

[Phantar]

*bump*

Is there anything you're still missing on this one?

[The Sports Guy]

Lol. Yeah, obviously I haven't paid much attention to this project. I've run into some trouble at a party (I got a DUI leaving the party), and haven't made time to focus on the site.

But, just write one up for an RPG that hasn't been written about yet on here and i'll start it up again.