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Why is this wonderful game getting such low reviews???

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 19
Date: April 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First and foremost I just want to say:
**** Ignore all reviews that says this game is bad ****

Okay, Now for the reasons why I made that statement:

Graphics: The graphics are beautifully done in an Anime style artform. The characters are all beautifully done. I would give the graphics a 5 out of 5.

Sound: WOW! Simply amazing. Especially the battle music. Voice acting is limited to the shop owners and some battle voices. Which I think is great. Since I know how to read I don't need the characters reading for me. I would give sound a 5 out of 5 as well.

Story/Gameplay: The story and gameplay are awesome. You control Xion, a hero with amnesia, through a quest to find out who he is and where he's from. Along the way you will meet a strategist/doctor, a cold sorceress, a heart warming priestess, a strong wolf, a cute and perky ninja cat, and you are found lying on the beach by a bow wielding elf. All the while something sinister is brewing. Also, a cute rabbit girl will tell you about the different game mechanics. All playable characters are completely customizable. Shining Tears is simply awesome. Story/Gameplay gets a 5 out of 5 as well.

So why four stars??? The constant loading screens are a little bothersome, but all you need to overcome them is a little patience. I clocked them around 2 to 10 seconds long. In short, if your into more of the fantasy RPG's, then Shining Tears will not disappoint you.

**** Shining Tears is Classic Role Playing at It's Best ****

Super underrated!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: April 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

If you do research on this game, you will find that it recieved a lot of really low scores. And I am begging you to disregard it. Shining Tears is a really fun game. Especially for it's two player option. I find the story interesting, and battles are fun. It does take a little while to load, but that's because originally and in it's Japanese release it was supposed to have a lot of voice acting. So, the load wait is a little on the extreme, but it hasn't deterred me from the game. You play as the hero, who was found on a river bank. And of course, you have amnesia, and the only thing that can hint at your past life is a ring. You find out shortly after that the ring contains crazy awesome butt kicking power. You will always be fighting alongside a partner, and that partner will always inherit the ring when you choose to put yours on. It then goes on a yin/yang thing. If your partner has an evil soul, you will be good. If your partner is pure, you will become evil. And one of the most enjoyable things in the game is watching your wussy lead character transform in to a blood thirsty maniac. In a way, it reminds me of the very excellent Growlanser. The fighting is just hack and slash "Zelda" fun, but your party is completely customizable, and you can choose which skills to learn or level up. The skills are pretty cool in this game too, and because you will always be with a partner- you get link skills. And even if you play alone, you can control your partner to a certain extent.
This game is just really cool, and it is very unfortunate that it is getting some tough reviews.

Great game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 12
Date: May 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Shining Tears is officially my first Shining series game and I love it! In the Shining series, the games were famous for lots of different races. When I saw how diverse the cast looked, I had to get my hands on it. This game takes me back to playing Albert Odyssey since the party was also diverse in that game. The different characters are quite a team:

Xion, male human swordsman
Elwyn, female elf archer
Ryuna, female human priestess
Lazarus, male dragonian knight (my all time fave)
Neige, female human sorceress
Volg, male wolfman martial artist
Mao, female catgirl ninja

Now that's a diverse crew if I ever saw one!

The graphics are VERY top quality anime. The party members and their facial expressions are simply beautiful. Makes me outright jealous that I can't draw that kind of anime.

The music is similar to Final Fantasy Tactics. You have your standard military themes, normal mission themes and special opera-like themes for grand battles. A beautiful selection of songs, I hope the OST comes out soon.

The gameplay will remind one of playing Secret of Mana and its more recent cousin, Legend of Mana with the real time battle system. You move around a map of an area slaying enemies with two party members. You control Xion (mostly), and you're partner is up to you. You have Charge attacks with Xion and Link attacks with your ally (which differ depending on your friend). The action gets intense from time to time, especially when you end up taking on armies of monsters and enemy races from more than one map.

The story is unique. What intrigues me most are Xion's two rings that are the core of your party's fighting power. A pair of dragon rings grant two characters the power to take on hundreds of enemies at once. That's quite a basis to form a war story! And it seems a kingdom with Rune in its name has once again fit the role of villain. I'm impressed.

All and all, Shining Tears is a great RPG. For some people, the redundancy of training using old haunts may bring the same feeling of mediocrity one may have felt playing Tactics since the systems are similar. However, if this is something you can deal with, this game will be a guaranteed hit for you.

Meh...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 12
Date: June 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Seems I have a huge difference of opinion compared to most here... but anyways... on to why I gave it a low rating. First off (and most obvious) is loading times. It could have been avoided I believe because maps weren't that huge and it didn't look like way too much detail and information being processed. Graphics I don't have a gripe with so I'll skip that. Dialogue in my opinion was terrible. It was extremely static and just felt scripted. Regardless of the fact that it was. It didn't really give me a sense that people were talking as opposed to that they had lines they were supposed to say. Storyline and setup was equally terrible and overused. A main character with amnesia?! And they just left it that way? The main character never even had presence... at all. He just said "huh? ok..." the whole game (with exception to battles when he first puts on one of the rings). Also you don't get to know anything... ANYTHING about the characters until their specific chapter section comes up (which is really sad because I never got to feel attached to anyone) and once their story is done you don't get anything else from them anyways. Next is the way that the plot and surprises were released. Everything was pretty much centered around one lead character and for some reason "he knew everything but never revealed any of it until after it happened". He even says he knew when things were going to happen but chose not to tell anyone. I know some of you will say he had a perfectly good reason but it's quite possibly the easiest way out of giving a good excuse for keeping information back. I'd get punched in the face if I did that to those guys. To end it all, the ending was just... meh. If you want to try a game worthy of my praise, pop in Baten Kaitos on Gamecube and turn off the voices. It's got a fairytale feel to it at first which I thought was annoying and the card system felt awkward but it's a game that makes you think and the style is awesome (although story is kind of predictable).

Snes revival

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: August 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is very reminescent of 2d isometric games we used to see in the late snes games and ps1 games. I like the fact they turned back to this kind of isometric games because for hack-and slash games it's the kinf of graphic that make the most sense. I'm sick of getting lost in 3d games so is my brother... This game will bring us relief for a while.

Shining Tears of joy at least for the most part.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game takes some getting used to. The anime graphics are great but the 2d environment is rather limiting. When I first played it, I thought about quiting it several times. The character movement is rather slow in town.

The battle system is a little strange. You have one main attack and a special charge ability you can fight with. The link ability is also very nice. It allows using both characters to pull off a special attack. I was impressed with how many enemies could be on the screen at once. This caused some lag and a lot of slow load times. The AI on the enemies isn't to impressive though. Often times the enemies would push you rather than attack. The battle system was mostly "hack and slash the enemies" which was quite fun.

The story is decent. There is nothing really impressive there. There really isn't any original idea. There are however a few comical moments and some unexpected turns in the story.

The music in the game is good but, I expected a little more from Sega. You won't be disappointed with it though.

Overall this is a average game that tries to be an above average game and almost succeeds. It is a good 30 dollar game not much more.

Only good if you have a friend

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I wasn't expecting much from this game so I was pleasantly surprised by it. Basically, you just do one not-really-complex battle after another with ample time to set up your characters in between (similar to all the other Shining Whatever games). It's real-time and there's you and one other character doing all the fighting.

At first, I tried the game by myself and it worked fine for a while, but eventually I fought a guy that would just kill my secondary character unless I physically stopped them from running up to him and dying. That's when I recruited my brother to help out.

For both my brother and I, it was fun to run around and fight together. He got the added bonus of being able to play lots of different characters, but got the added burden of sometimes having to play as a support character that was no fun at all. I didn't get much variety, but I did always have the highest level.

I highly recommend cheating your way over to gamefaqs or something to discover how to upgrade your weapon. Quite a pain if you don't.

To me, the only real downside was that I had no idea how to access any of the side missions (which seem to be available only if certain characters like you - which I also wasn't able to tell).

I didn't play the advanced mode since my brother had to leave town, so I can't comment on that.

Pick it up used or otherwise cheap and play it with a friend for a couple weeks.

good but a little strange

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

its a pretty good game all around save the controlls for single player are a little ackward, definately based more for multiplayer then single but other then that its a solid rpg that many zelda esq and diablo esq game fans would enjoy.

Another hack n slash, but it's the Shining Series

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

So if you were a fan of the Shining Series from the Sega Genesis and Saturn. This game is slightly dissapointed. SEGA went a completely new route... Hack 'n' Slash....

But it's a Shining game, I had to try it! And I actually liked it! I can't play it for 20 hours straight. But I can pick it up for a hour or two, beat a few scenarios, get some exp, level up, identify my magic items I got from monsters, and go to the local blacksmith to upgrade my weopons and armor with the ingredients I choose.

As the game progresses you obtain new items, characters, and a couple side quests.

Leveling up introduces a lot of unique skills and customizing your character is always nice.

Now I'm not a big fan of constant hack 'n' slash, it seems like I'm doing the same thing over and over again at times. (that's why I can't play it for 20 hours straight)

Overall I give the game 8/10, just enough to entertain me untill I beat it. But I can't wait untill I play my next NON Hack 'n' Slash RPG

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