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FANTASTIC!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 24
Date: January 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

First I just wanted to point out that any negative reviews for this game are from old Shinning force fans that can not accept change. Old shinning force games were tactical RPGS think Final Fantasy Tactics. So they cry and cry and don't like the game because its different. I beg of you to say negative reviews for this game were not useful to you

This is a wonderful ACTION RPG with great customization for your main charter. You can lead him down the path of a invincible warrior or a mage. This game plays a lot like DIABLO 2 it has that same hack slash feel with a good story to boot.

This games landscape is beautiful reminds me of secret of mana with a overhaul also has that cute feel at time.. The also has some sadistic moments when you go to the prison and all of the prisoners have been turned into undead bio mechs

I highly suggest this game for any Action RPG Anime Diablo Lover

An average game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: November 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Of course you all know that this Shining Force is not like any of the other Shining Force games. I think Sega did a good job though.
The positives are the storyline, cut scenes, action, and development. The storyline is interesting and detailed. I do not want to ruin anything but it kept my interest. There are several types of cutscenes during the game. One is just a basic conversation with two windows, then there is more like an ingame cutscene where they simply show something happening without changing the environment and finally for the very important parts of the story there are beautiful anime style cutscenes.
As far as the action and character development goes I was very impressed. If you have ever played Record of Lodoss War for the Dreamcast then you will recognize the enhancement system. The fighting follows somewhat of a Gauntlet style system where the monsters emerge from a gate and you keep killing them until you can kill the gate. However, there is a predetermined number of monsters you have to kill before the gate loses its shield and you can defeat the gate. Enemies may still come out but at a much slower rate. Finally I was impressed by the weapons system. As the main character, you can choose which weapon you want to fight with and you can change anytime without penalties. So if you are using a sword and want to try magic, simply switch to a wand and fire away. The only downside to this is deciding which abilities to enhance (i.e. more attack damage or more fire/ice etc. damage).
As far as negatives go I was only really disappointed by the voice acting. The actors seem like they try but they had a bad director. For example, there are a few parts where you think a character is going to have a big, hearty laugh but you get this little chuckle.
So anyways, if you are a fan of hack 'n' slash and you enjoyed Gauntlet, Record of Lodoss War, and the like then this is a decent game to kill some time. I would suggest you rent or borrow it though because after you beat it there is not much incentive to go back and play it again.

Shining Force Neo

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: October 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game based on the review from the 1up website witch gave it 9/10. (Sega also mentioned the review of this game on their website) The game has a Diablo style slash'm theme going for it where you fight hordes of monsters. However, the game goes backwards not forwards from Diablo. For instance, if you fight as a Warrior/Fighter (basically you equip a sword not a wand) you generally do not cast spells. Therefore, you just slash your way though monsters. Forget about blocking, that's automatic. Therefore, the game play can get rather boring of just slash and go back to town. So far I have completed about 15 hours, but there is only one city which you can buy keys. Weapons also? Not so, you find all the weapons on the ground, which makes you spend large amounts of time going through and pawning items.

Finally, with all these fighting you think you would get some good cutscences. Not so. Most of the game story is told by two characters faces and words being shown on the screen. Voice acting is present although the actor's voices don't seem to match the characters personality. Don't worry sound effects occasionally occur, attempting you to get into a scene that is displayed with words. For a game, which makes a significant deal about the Japanese animation, the lack of animated cutscenes is pathetic. Shining Force Neo not a terrible game but I really can't think of any reason to buy this game and not another. In the end, this game offers nothing new and seems like something that was just run through. I really don't know what 1up was thinking with this review but they must have at least made a few bucks out of it.

Dreadful game from SEGA

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 15
Date: October 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Lets list what's wrong with this game, as there are so many things.

1)Awful voice acting that ruins any sense of atmosphere.

2)Very cheap production with events happening in a 2d storyboard.

3)Very Childish with horrible dialogue such as "Sheeesh" "Now hush up young man" and the main character being patronised constantly. Dreadful

4)Awful setting up with the female lead as the girlfriend from the very start. Even though there are much cooler and better women in the game. The hero always gets the "Pluckey tomboy" Cheesy.

5)Dull combat with a single attack button as bad as shining tears. Did SEGA not play Star Ocean 3, when they decided on real time combat.

6)Not great graphics. No widescreen, no prog scan, it looks like a game not a living real world.

7)Bad status screen that has the main character blinking constantly as if he were having a fit.

Forget this game, and don't give SEGA your money and encourage them to produce more generic nonsense.

A fun game, but not your typical Shining Force!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: November 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is NOT a strategy RPG like the other beloved Shining Force games. It is more like the GBA Shining Soul games, and plays in the style of old games like Diablo and Gauntlet.
You take your character and two NPCs on a jaunt from goal to goal bashing giant hordes of enemies and taking their loot.
Part of the fun of the game is collecting all the dropped goodies and taking them to town to identify and sell. Some of the random items are average, and randomly some will have awesome additional powers.
There is a TON of customization in this game with a real large amount of weapon types in four major catagories each potentially coming with a combination of Force powers that add needed effects to weapons. Expect to be swapping weapons a lot in battle!
The character customization also comes of Force powers, in the form of a shop that will use enemy dropped Force money to raise stats in a really large variety of catagories and levels.
Strategy is key in these areas, depending on your personal style of gameplay.

The story is only average, not bad but sometime very sparce. The voice acting is TERRIBLE, but fortunately skippable, with the exception of severely repetitive battle voices that will just phase into background noise after a while.

The game gets HARD. Don't expect an easy run through. It is designed to have you return to town to save, heal, and go through your powers and inventory FREQUENTLY. Within the first few hours of the game if you do not raise up your defence Force, you will not make it.

I am having a GREAT time with this game. When my boyfriend isn't stealing it from me to play it ;-)
But, it is NOT for anyone looking for a strategy RPG, or who isn't into those old hack and bash games... or will be bothered by the inventory and Force management. For me, those were the high points for the game, and I find this a great break from some of the menu heavy, lower action RPGs I've played recently.

Bad game.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 18
Date: October 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The ONLY good thing about this game is the anime sequences, but THAT'S IT!

You control the characters from top far (helicopter view) witch is VERY difficult to see them doing cool action (you can hardly see the characters), the graphics are very cheap, the characters look lame, the fighting COMBOS are very boring and repetitive (is the same attack every time), stupid magic tricks, poor voices actings and HORRIBLE production!

This game is like Gauntel Legends because you fight with many enemies at the same time with different characters, different attacks and you hardly see them fighting.

Anyway, don't buy this garbage unless you only like to see Animes in videogames.

P.S: I prefer to play Secret of Mana than this piece of junk!

Rent this one...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 14
Date: November 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I didn't realize that a new "Shining" game was coming out untill a week beforehand. As a big fan of the Shining Force series, I was excited to hear this. I did a little research and found that it wasn't like the Shining Force games (ie, tactics RPG). No big deal, I thought I would enjoy it nonetheless. Wrong! There are so many things wrong with this game, where do I begin?

1. The enemies would resort to cheap tricks to try to defeat you, such as trapping you into a corner and hitting you so often that you can't even get a hit in yourself.

2. Voices during battle. I hate all the stupid sayings characters have during battle in RPG's. This game is especially bad because the characters do it continuously and repeat the same 3 lines over and over again. Plus, they're very lame (the magic user cast a wind spell and says "Hold on to your hats!"). There's no way to turn them off other than turing off all sound effect from the game.

3. The character's were lame as well. I think there was one charcter that I somewhat liked; all the other ones were just a collection of catch phrases with no personality to them.

4. The plot was very predicable. Enough said.

There are more, but that's all I care to list. This game was so bad that I couldn't even finish it. I played for 27 hours, so I think I gave plenty of opprotunity for it to redeem itself.

On the plus side, the game has fairly good graphics (not great by any means). Also it has an intresting battle system where different weapons can cast different spells when equipped. On top of that you can do different configurations for your main character such as shield and one handed sword, two handed sword or wand. Each has it's pros and cons.

Overall, it's really sad to see Sega make games like this. I remember when Sega made great games; 10 years ago I never would have believed that Sega could make garbage like this. It is all to real now.

A New Era

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

First and foremost - I'd like to state I've played the entire game from beginning to end. Having said that, it's unfair for reviewers to label Shining Force Neo garbage without giving it a chance. Just like you (the angry fan) I had the same preliminary reaction after my discovery of a "hack-n-slash" button smasher. I didn't do my homework, and for once it was rewarding! In the end, I came to love many aspects of the game, despite the fact it's not your typical Shining Force adventure.

About the game: the weapon system is grand. The bosses are difficult and challenging. The game is no cakewalk. You'll spend a good 40+ hours getting through the entire journey if you play through everything (no shortcuts). The cut-scenes are amazing and worthy of your purchase if nothing else. There's major dialogue, but this plays into the superb storyline. This is different from your run-of-the-mill SF turn-based RPG, but in some ways it's a welcomed change. Classic? No. A damn good game? Yes.

I'd purchase a sequel if the Neo franchise expanded, no question.

Outstanding dungeon hack

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

For anyone with a background in roguelikes (Nethack, ADOM, Angband), this game is an entertaining dungeon hack. The voice acting and plot are terrible. However, character advancement, swarms of enemies, and a large selection of weapons make up for the characters' inane babbling.

Difficulty increases in parts of the game, requiring a change in strategy. You are encouraged to change your tactics and equipment to match the enemies that you are facing. After finishing the bonus dungeon twice (level 198, doing millions of points of damage), there are still very dangerous enemies around.

If you're looking for 20--80 hours (depending on your commitment) of dungeon-hack/Gauntlet-style gameplay with pleasant RPG elements, this is for you.

Below Average

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 12
Date: March 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Having played all of the previous Shining Forces, and reading the reviews of the game on various sites, I figured I'd give it a try. After all, sometimes a change is good, such as the newer Metroid games compared to the metroids from the Nintendo... Game wise, Shining Force Neo had potential. The new game mechanics with the typical shining force storylines should have been enough to make any oldschool gamer tuned in and wanting more. Instead, we're faced with a very predictable storyline with weak character developement and some of the worst voice acting I have ever heard. The enemies in the game make for some very cheap encounters as well, as there are times you will run through them with no problems. Other times you will be surrounded or cornered only to die with a couple hits. With so many great RPG's out there, this one works to insult ones intelligence and waste ones time. I would recommend sticking with Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy, or find a copy of the original Shining Force games out there as they are all worth your money. But should you insist on playing this one or love button masher games, waste your $5 on renting it.

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