Shining force is the basics of strategy RPGs at its best
but Shining force has that little something, it is a really addictive game, you cant stop playing until it is over.
The story is about a little war apprentice called Max, as you are training, evil unleashes near town, and you have to stop it, the army you form is called the shining force, against the evil runefaust dark army. So the story is the base of all the Strategy/war RPGs.
Gameplay mechanics are simple, you move your character thru towns and mountains, asking people stuff, finding items, buying upgrades for your warriors and so on. When it comes to battle as you progress thru the game, you are going to find more and more warriors, so you have more options in battle, and with this, change your strategy in battle, depending on whih class of soldiers you have: melee, healing, long range or magical.
The graphics are simple, but colorful, the map/exploration screen shows little, big head characters, and on the battle screen we have bigger, human-like characters, more detailed. This formula would be seen later on other rpgs, like 1997'S blockbuster Final Fantasy VII.
Music is really enjoyable, but the lack of good sound from the genesis hardware is little disappointing, because the tunes are really cool, but could have been much better on today's cd based system, so, today the sound quality of the tracks is a little obsolete for todays standards, but was an ok experience back on 1993.
Overall I think this game is an incredible 16-bit experience, one of my beloved games that will prevail in my mind and heart for the rest of my life, i hope some day SEGA remake this game, and also the amazing Shining Force III series, which were really underrated.