TGS 06: Shining Wind Hands-On

TOKYO--One of the games playable in Sega's TGS booth is Shining Wind for the PlayStation 2, a new entry in the Shining Force series. Sadly, anyone hoping for a game similar to the classic Genesis or Saturn titles will need to keep the home fires burning and the Internet petitions in full effect, as this game is basically a sequel to last year's 2D hack-and-slash, Shining Tears. The demo on display at Sega's booth featured three different stages of varying difficulties, as well as six playable characters.

The demo let us take control of a male warrior and let us choose from one of five different companions. As with the previous game, you'll team up with your artificial intelligence buddy for some straight-up hacking and slashing. The stage we tried had us exploring an area and engaging large mobs of foes that left piles of cash after being defeated. Toward the end of one area, we had to break down the gate of a castle while dealing with a hefty stream of enemies trying to stop us. Once we got through, we faced off against a boss, which was a massive sword that flew around shooting at us.

The gameplay is as straightforward as the previous game, although combat feels a bit tighter. You'll be able to perform simple combos with the square and triangle buttons. Your AI buddy assists you and can be controlled moving the right analog stick when you're playing solo, or by a second player if you want to do some co-op. Besides standard melee attacks, you'll be able to perform magic attacks in tandem with your companion that do copious amounts of elemental damage to anything around you for a limited amount of time. The demo let us summon a fiery dragon that circled us and damaged anything that came close.

The visuals are, for better or worse, similar in style to Shining Tears and don't necessarily tax the PlayStation 2's graphics processor. However, the graphics have seen some refinement and are looking cleaner. The game uses the same perspective as Shining Tears, although the characters look less like the flat, Flash-based sprites seen in the first game and have more of a 3D look to them. The environments still look fairly modest in scope and won't blow anyone away from what we've seen so far. The mobs of foes we faced, as well as the bosses, did have an impressive look to them, though. The magic effects were also respectable but fairly low key.

Based on what we played, Shining Wind seems like an attempt to improve on Shining Tears. In that respect, the game looks like it could do that. Its simple combat system and two-player co-op give the game a more casual, almost arcadelike feel. Shining Wind is slated to ship in Japan next year. Look for more information in the coming months.