TGS 06: Shining Force Exa Hands-On

TOKYO--Shining Force Exa is the upcoming entry in Sega's Shining Force series for the PlayStation 2. The game takes the same approach that last year's Shining Force Neo did and offers an action role-playing game experience. We tried out the game, which let us play as one of two characters--a feral warrior and a tome-carrying sorceress--who were joined by an eclectic posse of companions.

The game started us out playing as the warrior who, as you'd expect, was packing a rather large sword. We explored an outdoor area and crossed paths with our book-carrying buddy, although she didn't seem to be big on partnering at the moment and ran off to attend to other business. Left to our own devices, we faced off against a number of different enemies and had to go deal with a generator that kept spewing foes at us. Later in the demo we took control of the sorceress, who relied on her magic abilities as well as a crossbow to deal with enemies. Control in the game is basic, with melee and magic attacks being single button presses, which helps keep the action fun albeit seemingly repetitive.

The visuals are tightened up some in comparison with Shining Force Neo's graphics, and they have a good look to them. The cast of characters looks sharp and features some nice design work. The environments we saw were quite varied and featured some interesting effects. The magic and special attacks also pack some neat touches but don't break any new ground on the PS2. The characters stand out a bit from the environments, though it's not too distracting. Overall game performance seems fine, although there's some inconsistency in the frame rate when the action heats up.

From the look and feel of it, Shining Force Exa feels like a decent next step after Shining Force Neo. What we played didn't feel like a tremendous improvement over the last game, but there's some noticeable refinement, which is good. If you were a fan of Shining Force Neo, Exa will be worth keeping an eye on. The game is currently slated to ship later this year in Japan and hasn't been announced for release outside of the country.