Shining Force fans waiting for a return to the series' strategy role-playing roots will just have to keep waiting. The next game in the series, Shining Force Exa, is an action role-playing game just like 2005's Shining Force Neo. But before you get all up in arms about how Sega is ruining a classic franchise, you should finish reading this preview. We played through the first four chapters, and based on our time with the game it looks like Exa is shaping up to be a charming, challenging adventure that fans of Neo should definitely keep an eye on.

The bright, colorful visual style is easy on the eyes and it fits the lighthearted fantasy theme well.

Shining Force Exa opens with the hero of the story, a young boy named Toma, hunting a large boar. After a quick introduction to the combat you kill the boar and are joined by two other characters who are looking to get a share of the meat. There's a noble centaur knight named Gadfort, and a gluttonous elf ranger named Maebelle. After heading back to a small village for dinner you are joined by another adventurer, a young magic-using girl named Cyrille and her little dragon-like pet named Zhirra. After some brief introductions you learn that the four characters have banded together to search for a legendary sword known as the Shining Force. According to the legend, whoever is able to draw the sword from its resting place will become king of the world. It's a setup that you've seen a dozen times before, but the dialogue is entertaining and the characters seem likeable enough to at least partially excuse the seemingly generic plot.

We didn't see any familiar characters in the first few chapters of the game. There were no birdmen or beast men as in previous Shining Force games, but we did only see a small handful of characters. Later in our time with the game two young magic users joined our party. Amitaliri is a feisty girl who uses attack magic and bosses around her friend Faulklin, a boy who specializes in healing magic.

Eventually you and your group of adventurers set out from town to search the surrounding area for the Shining Force. After a short trip up a mountain you come across a cave, and in that cave is (surprise) the fabled sword. Three of the heroes have a go at pulling the sword out of the stone, while Cyrille looks on with apprehension. It seems that the young mage knows something that the others don’t. We won't spoil the scene for you, even though it's immediately obvious which of the heroes will be the one to succeed in drawing the sword.

When the sword is drawn a huge geo-fortress suddenly comes to life and rises out of the ground. A strange dog creature named Zenus informs you that he is the caretaker of the fortress, and that as the heritor of the Shining Force, the fortress is now yours to do with what you please. Unfortunately since the fortress has been buried underground for so long, it's not exactly in working order. Many of the systems need to be restarted, but in order to do that you have to collect special rare metals.

Geo-fortress battles like this one can be ridiculously difficult if you aren't well prepared.

At this point you have to split into two parties. You can control either Toma or Cyrille, and can have up to two other characters in your party. The remaining characters stay back at the fortress while you go about your adventures. When running through the many caves, forests, and fields in the game you'll encounter mobs of enemies. You can control your main character and press the X button to unleash strings of attacks. Toma is proficient with swords, while Cyrille thumps enemies with her magic book. You can hold the attack button to charge up a special attack, and you can also equip magic spells and use them with the Triangle button. Cyrille starts out with a blaze and freeze spell, but you can purchase different books that give her different spells. Toma starts out with a single wind spell, but he's more of a melee fighter, using either light blades or huge two-handed swords.

You can have up to two other characters in your party at any given time, but you only directly control either Cyrille or Toma. The other characters will go about attacking enemies and healing allies as they should, and for the most part the computer-controlled characters hold their own in battle. To give you a bit of control over your backup characters you can find special items throughout the game that you can equip to your computer-controlled characters to get them to behave a certain way. For example, you can equip Maebelle with the magical archer item, and she'll hang back in battle to charge and fire magic arrows. If that's not what you want her for you can equip her with the tender archer item instead, which will make her focus on defending and healing her allies in battle. It's interesting that you have to find these items before you can actually exert any control over your characters, but we noticed a substantial change in the way our characters behaved in battle based on how we equipped them.