@sonicfools1234January 29, 2025
Shining Force 3 is the pinnacle of tactical RPG's. From dynamic story choices, amazing gameplay, voice acting so bad that it becomes amazing (in English at least), three different storylines all wrapped up into one big finale and the single best soundtrack ever created made by the best Video Game Composer ever, Matoi Sakuraba, all of that together gives you the single best game ever made.
The only thing that stopped this game from being a massive hit is timing. Terrible, terrible timing when it was coming out. 1997 is the start of Segas downfall and terrible decision making. Only the first of three parts even came out outside of Japan because of the quick launch and even quicker death of the Sega Saturn.
It fully came out in Japan and if you had proof of purchase of all 3 scenarios, you could get a special premium disk with all kinds of bonus features and 9 boss fights from Shining Force 3 and other Shining Force games as well, of which I still have them all in their original, Japanese glory.
This was one of the first games I ever played with my Father and it has stuck with me ever since. I will always love this game and I can never recommend this game enough. It's even got it's own dedicated fan translation that you can download so you can experience the entire game in English, with the first scenario being the Japanese translated script so you get all the story beats and name drops that were cut from the original release since we were never gonna get the other scenarios.
Please preserve this game and all of its glory. Share this everywhere and go try out the fan translation. 10/10, VERY highly recommend.