Chapter 4 was pretty straightforward, I didn’t bother with the thief map because it seemed annoying (you have to turn on lights and do other things to make paths
At the end you fight two of the Rainblood enemies, which were portrayed as almost unbeatable in the previous chapters but they’re actually not that hard when you finally fight them.
Chapter 5 starts out with a fairly easy map and then there are several “trials”. For battle 19 the key is just to stay in the forest, that way not too many enemies spawn. But the forest is annoying because it’s hard to see your characters (or the enemies).
Battle 20 is a gimmick battle; there are statues that move around and switch direction, your goal is to block them with your characters so that they will move to surround Grasia. I’m not sure why this proves that you are worthy to use the innovator power, but I guess it does.
This unlocks a new set of promotions for everyone at level 20.
Battle 21 is vs. an ice mage who gets free attacks that are like the Valkyrie from earlier. It’s kind of annoying because you have to get rid of these ice crystals that she creates, but once you can have Julian or Grasia talk to her it ends the battle and she joins up (I didn’t actually use her).
I thought Battle 22 was one of the hardest battles; Garm gets multiple attacks and has a lot of HP. I had to escape several times before I could take him down.
Chapter 6 is basically defeated the remaining Rainbloods and also dealing with the brainwashed members of Medion and Symbios’ forces (who are much weaker than the enemies).
The final chapter is where I thought things really took a wrong turn. You now have control of all three parties, and the final battle is in two parts. The first part is a massive three-map battle where each party is taking on their own enemy force and you switch back and forth between them. I think this is intended to feel epic, but the unskippable battle scenes and general slow pace of the game made it feel tedious and boring to me, not epic.
Furthermore, you have to do a significant amount of grinding in the Hero’s Test to be able to take on the battles, which increased the feeling of sluggishness. Of course you can instead just try the battles and Return until you can beat it, but the game discourages this by making the massive 3-part battle just part one of the final battle; you then move on to the last battle vs Balzam and if you have to Return from this part you have to play the 3-part battle again.
Finally I had gone through the Hero Test enough to have a good three party setup, and I took on the final battles.
I don’t like how hard it is to see where everyone is in these forest maps.
In the final battle you have to first deal with three underlings of Balzam and then you can take him on. He has ~2400 HP so it’s a long slog of a battle but as long as you get all your guys bunched up together so his attack does less damage, it’s not too bad.
I was pretty disappointed in this game overall. It is without a doubt my least favorite Shining Force game. It’s too long, too slow-moving, and too tedious to play, with a story that’s difficult to follow and an interface that has barely advanced since the original 1991 Shining Force. The 3D maps also are more of a hindrance than a help; it can be hard to move your characters where you want them to be, and it’s not always easy to see where the enemies are. The graphics are not all that good, and the unskippable battle animations are a chore. My main feeling on finishing the game was that I’m happy there are no more Shining Force games in the list (except for the later DS remake of 1). I was never a huge fan of the series to begin with.
This is not only the end of the Shining Force series but also the end of the Saturn SRPGs. There are actually two more on the list (Farland Saga 2 and Device Reign) but I will be playing the Playstation versions of those games instead.
I’m not sure why you had problems with the final battle. I found it quite easy, and I used transfer data from the first 2 discs, where my party was actually WEAKER than the base-leveled disc 1/2 characters you get if you didn’t import data. On my 2nd try, I beat the entire battle and I didn’t grind at all, so your assertion that “You have to do a significant amount of grinding” is not true. IIRC, you only need to kill the main leader of each fight, which is not hard at all — especially when discs 1/2 give you some heavy hitters like Hazuki, Irene, Dantares, Campbell, and some of the strongest mages in the series such as Masqurin, Synthesis, Noon, and Hedva. I only tried the Hero Test after I beat Bulzome, and I was curious to see what was in the Hero Test.
Disc 3 in particular gives you so many gamebreaking characters, so Julian’s section of the fight becomes trivial. Julian is probably the strongest SF Hero. Kate is probably the strongest SF archer. Gracia is completely busted. Donhort has gotta be a top 5 strongest SF centaur. Edmund’s an incredibly powerful damage dealer, and even if you don’t have him, Produn is still solid. Brigit and Isabella are nuts. Honesty is the strongest flier in SF3. Base level Marky is powerful enough for endgame, and she gets even better.
As for your other criticisms, I’ll go over them individually:
> a story that’s difficult to follow
The story is not hard to understand, aside from certain parts of Scenario 1’s beginning. But if you take a few minutes to actually try and understand what’s happening, and who’s who, the rest of it is fairly straightforward. Scenario 3 is especially easy to follow, with a fairly generic “go on an expedition to defeat the big bad evil god of doooooom.” It’s certainly easier to follow than the stories of FFT (especially with its myriad translation errors) or Tactics Ogre.
Do I think the story is of the same caliber as FE4 or Der Langrisser? Probably not. But it was a definite step up from SF2 and SFCD’s infantile storytelling, and you can tell that Camelot was keeping in mind that demographically, the kids who grew up with the Genesis SF games were now ready for something a bit more involved.
> an interface that has barely advanced since the original 1991 Shining Force.
The interface didn’t evolve much, but why mess with a good thing? SF has always had a simple, easily-understood interface. The series ironed out practically all of its QoL problems in SF2, so SF3 didn’t really have a need to change or fix anything.
> it can be hard to move your characters where you want them to be, and it’s not always easy to see where the enemies are
This is why you can rotate the camera. I never encountered an issue trying to see where anyone was in any of the SF3 games.
> The graphics are not all that good, and the unskippable battle animations are a chore.
Unskippable animations suck; no disagreement there. As for the graphics, they were good for 1997-1998 standards, and we should judge the game for the constraints of its time period. Camelot didn’t anticipate that the Saturn 3d graphics wouldn’t hold up as well 26-27 years in the future, but how could they have known this? Can you really blame them?
As for some other things that you didn’t mention, I love how SF3 Disc 3’s cast is so eclectic and colorful. Over the span of the game, you recruit: a centaur, an elf, a turncoat enemy general, a dragonborn, an actual dragon, a unicorn, a pegasus knight, a fairy, a tank driver, a penguin, a samurai, a goblin who rides an ogre, a drunken monk, and more. Pound-for-pound, Julian’s team is easily the most diverse cast in any SF game. It all tied in well with the D&D-esque vibe of going on an epic adventure to lands unknown. I love Motoi Sakuraba’s soundtrack, which IMO is at its best in disc 3 with tracks like “The Lone Wolf,” “The Touch of Kindness,” “A Blanket of Snow,” “Onto The New World,” and especially “The Dragon Graveyard,” which is easily my favorite song in all of SF. I love how disc 3 FINALLY resolves all the political conflict that happened during the first 2 discs. I love how the protagonist of disc 3 is a nobody who first appears as an unnamed NPC in STHA, then goes on to become the strongest hero in the series. I love the tie-ins with the previous discs, like how your actions can allow the likes of Spiriel, Pendolf, and Edmund to be recruitable — it took the transfer bonuses concept of Arc the Lad to new heights. I love the tie ins with STHA. I love the 3rd-tier promotions, which give your characters a feeling of being unstoppable juggernauts. I love the fights with Galm, Bulzome, the Yashas, and the Rainbloods.
Overall, I feel that SF3 still retains the essence of simplicity that the SF series has always been known for, while also taking the series to a more mature conclusion. I don’t think there was really anywhere that Camelot could take SF from here, without unnecessarily complicating things and thereby straying from the essence of what made Shining Force what it is. The series has always been about blending light SRPG elements within a simple JRPG framework to create an experience which was more about childlike wonder and excitement than deep, involved strategy. And I’m okay with that. If I want something complex and strategic, I’ll play FE4 or FE5 or any number of TBS roguelites such as Dread Nautical or Overland. On the other hand, SF occupies this unique niche where it’s a top tier JRPG series while also having enough substance to satisfy a SRPG enthusiast.
Importantly, the series carved out its own identity, and I believe that SF3 is the culmination of everything that the series’ identity had been building towards. The unforgettable journey comes to a climax with a momentous boss fight, and then the main character leaving to lands unknown; it’s as if Camelot is saying, “Alright, our esteemed players: we’ve given you a series full of memories to last you a lifetime. But we’ve done all we can do for you. It’s time for you to go and be like Julian, to live your lives and create your own destinies.” It’s the best ending to any SF game, if you ask me.
Thanks for the response as usual; I appreciate the detail from someone who liked the game a lot more than I did.
As for the final battle, I initially tried with a party where I just moved them up to the level necessary for the final class upgrade, but I was getting beaten up by the grunts — I think my main issue was that that fight was so long to play that I didn’t want to spend several hours on it only to have to retreat at the end and do it all over again. I probably levelled more than I needed to because of that, but it did not seem to me like I could do it at the base level they start you at.
It didn’t help that I was really sick the week I was playing it, though.
Congrats on your service. I long suspected Shining Force 3 wasn’t that good so I was hooting and howlering reading this.
Thanks, but I hope you will also read the comment by Harvey that provides a different perspective.