Shining Force EXA

[Don]

This game should have a warning similar to Azumanga Recycle that says 'Warning, this game contains 90% recycled stuff, do not buy if you're looking for new things.' That is not to say it's a bad game, but it's rather surprising that there is absolutely nothing new here. Basically every enemy model and every map is recycled from Shining Force Neo, and it looks like well over half of the music is recycled too.

This seems to be the first Shining game I'm aware of that does not have a childhood friend who specializes in burning things up. The two hero system forces you to actually play a mage character (or a sword user). I'm at chapter 5 right now and I haven't found anyone nearly as overpowered as Meryl or Chiquitita from Neo. However balance is not a good concept when applied to a game that is all about overkilling enemies with 9 digit damage. In Shining Force Neo you didn't get any cool attacks until after level 30 so maybe this will change (level 26 right now).

I like the setting, which is your classic high fantasy versus ancient technology, except you're the ones with all the ancient technology, even the beam cannon of doom.

[Don]

Finished the game. The level of recycling in this game makes FFX2 look original. There's only about 3 new enemy models (Hell Guardians, Valkyries, and Lotuses), 2 new maps (Gusk, Great Bridge). It looks like all the music is recycled aside from the boss music. The final chapter is basically impossible with Cyrille (at least as a caster, maybe the bow approach could work) and if you saved on the final chapter without somewhere to backtrack with Cyrille as your hero, you might as well start over.

Beyond the fact that Cryille is useless in the final chapter because everything suddenly has 1 million HP and huge magic resistances, the game is trivial, especially with Toma. The elemental damage is way tuned down compared to Neo which means you never have to look at your resists unlike Neo where you need both resists and defenses against the tougher bosses.

This game is strictly inferior to Neo with the possible exception of chapter 14, which is actually quite good (and the game should have started there). If you haven't played either, get Neo instead, assuming you don't mind some challenge (most of Neo's bosses appear impossible at first but generally has a way to beat them that doesn't require excess leveling up).