Today's entry in the Neverland saga is none other than Shining Force EXA. As you might recall, not even a year ago I covered their Dreamcast Action RPG, Record of Lodoss War. My exact words to describe it were "unbelievably addictive". No game about the world's least interesting man exploring a large featureless world should've stolen 15+ hours of my life away. Unfortunately for myself, Neverland has the secret recipe. During the Playstation 2 years, they'd get a couple opportunities to iterate on it. EXA carried over everything that made their previous game worked, added a bunch of new mechanics, and gave it the most shonen-ass storyline. I'll go ahead and say it: this is believably addictive.
The most shonen-ass storyline involves a hot-blooded young man named Toma. Him and his crew are hunting Shining Force. It's a legendary sword, said to grant kingly powers to whomever can pull it from its resting place. Take a wild guess on who the sword chooses. With sword on wrist, Toma's Arthurian-esque adventure involves more than just battering the nearby orcs, it means resealing an ultimate darkness. The nations of Noswald and Fyrlandt have never been on the best of terms, and their rulers' attempts at gaining control of Shining Force will lead to war, and the revival of a world-destroying fiend. It's a lot to handle, but at least Toma now has a sweet base of operations called the Geo-Fortress.
Also, he's not alone. Alongside his companions is Cyrille. She's a young woman skilled in the ways of magic and mystery. You could even go as far to say that she's enigmatic to a fault. Both her and Toma must sort out their communication issues and learn to place their faith in each other. In a rare spin on the Action RPG, that sweet base they're hanging out in can't protect itself. While one character goes exploring for the necessary materials to upgrade the Geo-Fortress, the other will defend it from invaders.
The first time I played Shining Force EXA was either 2008 or 2009. In that initial playthrough, I had Toma handle the bulk of the adventuring, while Cyrille held down the fort. This was partly due to familiarity, since EXA carries over many of the same progression mechanics that defined Record of Lodoss War. While characters earn experience and level up, the nominal gains aren't enough to keep up with the increasingly dangerous hordes. Mythril, the same crystalline goodness that turned a no-name shmuck into a god killer, is found throughout the world of EXA. Collect it, refine it, and launch stats into the stratosphere. Monoliths located in the wilderness or the deepest depths contain new rune arts for both protags to learn. The game is divided into 15 chapters, or 15 story dungeons, but you're heavily incentivized to take detours. Unlike its predecessor, this game is much more likely to tell you when you're heading towards a location that might be out of your league. Don't worry, whatever might've killed you in a single hit early on will itself die in one hit after you've taken the time to build your abilities.
For Toma, being king isn't enough. He has to be able to slay gods. This is where taking the time to clear out Ancient Arenas and other optional locales starts paying off. Many arenas contain -killer abilities to learn. Level them up to gain a % damage bonus against a certain type of enemy. At first, the most you'll be doing is killing orcs in a single hit instead of... a single hit. Continue investing though, and you'll notice that the effects of multiple -killer abilities will combine. Let's say that you run into a giant dragon that's wearing armor and holding a sword. What should've been a force to be reckoned with is actually weak to at least four different -killers. By the end of the game, yours, mine, and everybody else's Toma is going to be doing millions of damage with every weapon swing.
If you don't mind me getting sidetracked for a second, I have to point out that the gameplay loop is exceptionally satisfying. Sure, it boils down to running through dungeons, crushing all opposition, then warping back to the fortress to exchange useless equipment for cash or mythril. What makes this setup work for me is its agency. Instead of just filling one experience bar, I have several ability bars to fill. Several of them also unlock a new tier once they're maxed out, creating more investment opportunities for my mythril. A good weapon can lead to exponential damage increases, so there's also the allure of getting a rare drop. Most importantly though, I appreciate that there's an actual end. Once the substantial postgame content is finished, then that's it. The end. There's actually a sense of finality to work towards instead of an infinite supply of parallel dungeons or whatever the post-post-postgame is called in titles like Diablo 3, Torchlight 2, or any other Action RPG made after 2010. I'm satisfied with doing millions of damage. I couldn't give less of a shit about billions or trillions.
Oh, Cyrille. My apologies ma'am, I nearly forgot that you're still here. It's not that I don't appreciate your contributions. It's just... well... let's try to break it down a little. While Toma is out in the world mashing foes under the sheer weight of ginormous numbers, Cyrille is drumming her fingers and waiting for the next invasion. These defense missions occur on a frequent enough basis and are generally forgiving enough, so that you don't have to be a master tactician to keep your photon converters or whatever they're called protected. Mythril is shared between both heroes, and Cyrille can also build up her strength in randomly generated "training" dungeons. Lastly, other non-playable companions can assist in battle, and they're no slouches either. Gadfort makes a heck of a tank, Maebelle snipes and heals, Amitalri has spells that'll shread, etc.
However, even as I allowed Cyrille to take the lead in my second playthrough of Shining Force EXA, I still thought that she lacked the capacity for god-slaying. To her credit, she's an absolute demon in defense missions, with fire and ice spells that'll cover the screen in army flattening mayhem. The problem is that her spells don't benefit from the -killers. As much as I think she deserves it, Cyrille isn't getting a fireball that does a few million damage. The only way she can make use of these, and other weapon-based skills is if she's wielding a crossbow. Shame the crossbow isn't much good. It really needed a consistent spread shot, rapid fire, or some other secret sauce to make it as viable as a spell, let alone the hunk of metal Toma is swinging that kills huge samurai zombies in an instant. Maybe there's a secret to the heroine's full potential that I'm missing, but she can still wipe a battlefield clean with the snap of a finger, so I guess it doesn't matter in the long run.
In spite of its age, I believe that Shining Force EXA's moment-to-moment action is still pretty solid. There's something about the screen absolutely cluttered with bodies getting bodied that hits me where the sertralin can't quite reach. The fact that enemy corpses can be juggled for another second or two is the kind of visceral rawness I like to see in all games, even racers. Yes, it's quite possible for either character to get lost in the chaos, especially during defense missions, but I don't mind it a bit. Death usually comes in the form of "You're not supposed to be here yet." rather than the knife in the back nobody could've seen.
The short review is that this is Record of Lodoss War, but better in every way. Having characters that are interesting and worth caring about goes a long way. The improved mechanics and better world-design are also immensely welcome. Plus, I think it's absolutely wonderful to have an Action RPG that can be shelved after 30 or so hours. There isn't this need to permanently attach myself to the hamster wheel, all in the hopes that a large enough number and a shiny enough rare will fill the countless voids within myself.
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| I assure you that this is what peak gaming looks like. |
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