![]() ![]() ![]() The action-RPG genre is simple at best and, ostensibly at least, the game does try to impress with its proud 90 enemies on-screen simultaneously. Shining Force Neo is tired and basic in its execution. Underneath the pixel clothing things don’t fare much better. The writing is so dismally poor it almost becomes funny. Even the artwork stills which accompany the text - an area where SEGA should gleam and sparkle with imagination and beauty - is mired in tedium, boasting plain designs we have witnessed a thousand times identikit pictorial characterisation that has none of the bristling imagination of the game’s forbears. In yet another case of sloppy localisation, the ham-fisted textual expression is accompanied by dire, lifeless, hammy American voice acting, which grates and irritates like an ivy-clad scouring pad masquerading as an ear-bud. The writing lacks flair, is bloated, long-winded and dripping in clichéd anime embarrassment. ![]() There is some scope for potentially appealing plot manoeuvres but, perhaps predictably, scope's all there is. The game opens when the diminutive town of Greensleeves is overrun by monsters and the scene is quickly set for some interesting interplay as the story establishes its key players: pouting red-haired teenager Max, who is desperately trying to step out from the considerable shadow of his famous warrior father, and Max’s childhood friend/love interest, Meryl. Indeed, this is a traditional western action RPG in all but clothing: those Dungeons & Dragons blacks and browns and scowling frowns are now recast in anime’s primary colour brilliance and wide-eyed inanity. It’s a change that has dismayed the venerable series’ hard-nosed fans the world over and perhaps with good reason: Shining Force is famed as being one of the great orthodox strategy-RPGs and, besides, the Japanese have never been experts at recreating hackandslash Western RPG mechanics. While the transformation of Shining Force’s esteemed turn-based strategy-RPG mechanics into a fast moving Western style action hackandslash game in the style of Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance or Diablo (or, heaven forbid, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel) might not be as high profile nor as drastic a move as the above examples (half of which are lies, in case you hadn't spotted), don’t underestimate it’s significance. Likewise, Final Fantasy is to become a rhythm-action game for its twelfth iteration, Sly Raccoon is turning into a Tekken-esque one-to-one 3d fighter and, Metal Gear Solid is to become a card battling handheld game. You equip your car with incrementally better parts as you tear around the globe in a classic tale of an orphan boy-racer, plucked from obscurity, and his path to showdown with an evil overlord the fate of the world resting on his gleaming sports exhaust. Have you heard? Polyphony Digital is taking Gran Turismo in an unexpected new direction. ![]()
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