After almost a year without contests, due to a busy schedule IRL, SFC is proud to present the September 2004 Contest! Anyone who accidentally entered the contest before it started can enter properly now.
You could be the proud owner of a Shining Tears/SF:RotDD Promotional Fan… good luck! 😀
…and as I type this, the Shining Tears event at TGS should be about half way through now – I wonder what it will bring? :excited:
Many thanks to SFC Forum Administrator Koshums for posting this link 🙂
Gamespot now have a hands-on preview of Shining Tears, read and enjoy!
There’s also a better quality version of the promo vid from Sega’s site, and a video of an interview with the game’s developer. Good stuff!
I must have missed this yesterday, with so many people turning up at my house unannounced I barely had any time online >.<;;
According to IGN, Sega USA has announced that Shining Tears will be released in the USA. Estimated release date is sometime in Spring next year.
There is, as yet, no news on a European/Australian release – though here’s hoping! 😀
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With the Tokyo Games Show upon us this weekend, Sega have updated their Shining Tears site to include more information on the game’s characters and gameplay system – but most exciting of all, a preview video has been added to the download page!
You can watch the video here. It’s two and a half minutes long, and though the quality isn’t great, it certainly gives a good feel for the game.
I must say, watching this and seeing the recent screenshots for the PS2 Shining Force title, Shining Tears seems a lot more Shiny to me, in looks at least. But, we all know that looks are not the most important aspect of a game, so I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve played them 😉
The graphics in the video remind me very much of Shining Force III, quite cutesy and the settings look Shiny enough to me 🙂 Not yet sure about the battle system, obviously not Force-style, but not quite like anything we’ve seen in a Shining title before either. Looks like it could be quite fun 🙂
The music doesn’t remind me of anything previous in the Shining world, but it does seem fitting – I’m looking forward to hearing more when the game’s Theme Song is performed at TGS tomorrow (unless I’ve misunderstood the information ;))
Back to the Shining Tears site – character-wise, Xion and Ryuna’s pages have been updated to include some nice quality pictures which seem to be targetted at cosplayers!
Xion’s front and rear views
Ryuna’s front and rear views
Their pages have also had some screenshots & overviews of their attacks added (click on the second button above the characters’ vital stats). Xion seems to have some attacks or spells named ‘Thunder Blade’, ‘Spark’ (ah, the old faithful!), ‘Gravity Slash’ and ‘Thousands Thrust’ (sp?). Unfortunately, I’m unable to translate the names of some of Ryuna’s attacks/spells, as they are written in Kanji 🙁 But, the first one mentions something about assorted monsters, the second appears to be some kind of support/defensive magic, the third is ‘Cure’ (which restores HP & SP… I still miss ‘MP’, but I guess Shining Soul changed that…), the fourth is ‘Shining’ and seems to be a combination attack/spell with Xion, the fifth I believe is ‘Turn Undead’ (which is another combination attack/spell), the sixth is something to do with light, the seventh seems to be some kind of summon (‘Opal Snake’?)… looks like there are a lot of ways to kill the enemy in this game 😉
Lots more screenshots and information has also been added to the System page (I’ll try to get some translated later today if possible) – Shining Tears seems to be full of options and rich in gameplay… though, the truth of the gaming is in the playing 😀 I’m very much looking forward to giving this game a go in the near future – November’s not far away now!
The first ‘major’ update to SFC since the redesign 🙂
Today we have…
I’ll also try to work on SEE a little more this afternoon, and get a contest ready – the Lik-Sang contest has been delayed for a few months, in order to allow for SFC to receive a review copy of Shining Tears. But, not to worry – I’ll also be giving away my ST review copy in a contest when I’m finished with it, so although the official Lik- Sang/SFC contest is delayed, you’ll in a sense be getting 2 for the price of 1 😉
In brief Shining news, it’s the Tokyo Games Show this weekend, so expect more updates over the next few days!
Many thanks to Aspartate for translating Sega Japan’s Shining Force PS2 info page!
<div class=”border2″ style=”padding:3px;”>
The Shining Series has been a popular Sega RPG series which obtains high appraisal from many users since its release on Genesis because of its high degree of completion and novelty of the system. And among them, the “Shining Force” series, starting from “Shining Force: Legacy of Great Intention”, are the most popular works in the series.
As the first feature presentation of “The Shining Project” in 2004, “Resurrection of the Dark Dragon”, a power-up version of “Legacy of Great Intention”, was launched on Gameboy Advance.
This time, we proudly present the new born “Shining Force”, “Shining Force” for Playstation 2.
“Shining Tears” and “Shining Force” marks the beginning of the rebirth of “Shining Series”. Theme music of the new series is made by the famous composer of MISIA and Neon Genesis Evangelion, Shiro Sagisu. Character design was by the popular manga artist Nishiyama Yuriko, who published “Harlem Beat” and “DRAGON VOICE” on “Weekly Boy Magazine”.
Synopsis
Young Max lived in Yukurist, the realm of thunder. He was attacked by monsters at the Ragail Stronghold when he visited there for training.
In the fight, the holy power “Force” in him awakened.
In order to become a warrior capable of using the Force, MAX returned to his homeland. What greets him are the familiar scenery and his childhood friend Meriru.
MAX received warm welcome from his homeland …… except from Gaia, his father.
MAX repels to Gaia’s harsh attitude and set journey to the holy land to prove he is a warrior worthy of the Force. All of a sudden, an uncanny masked man appears before Max, and dragged Max into the eddy of extreme destiny.
The crisis of the world, followed by the battle to reveal the true power of the Force, is already starting…….
The companions who venture together
– Summary of party
Your team grows when companions join. But the player usually can only make a party of 3, including the player himself. There are also special events that allows a party of more than 3 to fight.
The characters who became companions are always gathered in a place called “headquarter”. It’s possible for the player to change the party member. Furthermore, each companion fight with judgment of his/her individual thought.
– Type of companion
The members who will join are the 10 listed below.
In addition, there’re also characters who become your companion as NPC.
Meriru (human heroine)
Graham (centaur)
Mariel (centaur)
Chikitita(kyantol)
Baron (wolfling)
Rhinos (titan)
Fryea (birdling)
Klein (birdling)
Dryu (dragon)
Adam (guardian)
– The strategy which utilizes the personality of the companion
The companions has their own feature. For example, Chikitita the monk is strong at healing magic and against undead. As for Rhinos of a bare hand attack type, he’s superior in physical strength, but he can’t use any magic and his magical tolerance is low.
Knowing which fields these companions are good at, the player can choose a party that best fits his play style. On the other hand, in order to utilize the favorite companion in the party, adjusting your play style is also possible.
Title: Shining Force
Genre: RPG
Player number: unknown
Release date: 2005 Spring
Price: to be announced
Platform: PlayStation2
©SEGA,2004
Character design: Nishiyama Yuriko
Monster design: Yoshitaka Tamaki
</div>
Sounds like a cross between STHA/SitD & a Force game. Three characters at a time? Only ten in total…? Still reserving judgement here….
Just an FYI to say I’m getting the old contest data imported into the new site. Not very important, but another thing to cross off the list.
Contest details from 2001 & 2002 are now here, and I’ll get on with 2003’s ASAP.
Sega Japan have today updated their Shining Tears site with some information about what will be show of the game at the Tokyo Games Show at the end of the month.
With the magic of Babelfish, I’ve tried to get an understanding of the announcement 😉
It seems Shining Tears will be on display with information about the development and the game’s story. If I’ve understood correctly, the voice actor for Xion (the lead character) will be present, and some kind of Shining Tears theme song will be performed!
Shining Tears will be displayed on Saturday 25th September between 15:00 and 15:30. More info on Sega’s TGS lineup can be found at: http://sega.jp/soft/event/tgs2004/
I really must have been in a rush yesterday, getting the site online… I forgot to add some Special Thanks to the redesign news!
Well, better late than never 🙂
I’d like to take a moment to thank my dearly beloved Lee for his patience during the redesign and for his help with the SFC database and other suggestions.
I’d also like to thank SFC forum member Falz (now known as Flossy?!) not only for getting the member photos page inline with the new design, but also for his assistance with mySQL, PHP, CSS and a few other nuisance pieces of code. I couldn’t have solved some of the problems without you Falzy!
Thanks also to all SFC visitors for bearing with me during the delay getting the site up, and for being so positive about the redesign (for the most part ;)). It seems a few people using the Firefox browser are having problems with the display of the main site – I’m looking into this, however my copy of Firefox loads it all just fine >.<;; I'm also looking at tweaking the main page, following a few accusations of clutterage ;)
Starting from today, our site is proudly sponsored by the nice folks at Lik-Sang.com. This means discounts, giveaways, reviews and possible other options as the sponsorship develops…
Lik-Sang.com has been around for many years and became one of the most trusted places online for import games, gaming gear and other hot videogame stuff. Lik-Sang.com ships the latest import games and systems (including Sony PSP and Nintendo DS pre-orders), thousands of top-notch videogame accessories, game music, videogame toys and figures and other cool stuff. Go here for more.
Greetings all!
Welcome to the new, improved SFC – it’s been a long while in the making (and it’s not done yet ;)) but I hope you’ll think it has been worth the wait.
I’d like to apologise once again for the delay in getting this done and also for my lack of updates of the old site over the last few months. 2004 has been far from a good year for me in real life, but at least it’s been a good year for Shining fans!
Normally I’d not launch a redesign until it is complete – on this occasion however, I have good reason to bring the site online early. A few weeks ago I was contacted by a company interested in sponsoring the site! You may be familiar with them, as they are one of the biggest and best known gaming import shops on the web: Lik-Sang.com.
Not only will they be providing prizes for the forthcoming SFC contest, but they’re also being very generous for SFC visitors in general. Now that SFC is proudly sponsored by Lik-Sang.com and the redesign is live, I am able to give you the following discount code for shopping on their site:
Now, on to stuff about the site (and shortly, I’ll have to get all the latest Shining news typed up too, it’s been a while and a lot has happened!).
Let’s start with the good things – new and exciting features at SFC!
New Stuff:
However, as I mentioned, the new site is not yet complete, so I’ll also warn you of a few things not to contact me (“It’s not finished!!”) about 😉 I’ll be trying to get these finished, or at least further underway over the next week or so.
Things to do:
Also, I’d like to make a little mention of the Shining Force Webring – I started this webring back in June of 1997, but last year another user was assigned as it’s owner, due to my inactivity (real life can get kinda busy, and the webring wasn’t exactly bustling with new entries 😆 ). He has kindly agreed to give me the chance to earn my webring back, so please do sign up if you have a Shining site – if I can prove to him I’ll manage it, it’s mine again 🙂 Unfortunately, though he allowed me to make a new navbar, he resized it and changed it a little, as you can see on the front page of the site. I’ve used my modified version on the main navigation, but have to use his version on the front page. I’ll change it when I get the ring back, meanwhile sorry for the nasty look of it!
Well, I’d best get this posted, as well as my official Lik-Sang sponsorship announcement 😉
I hope you enjoy the new site and will remain (or become!) part of the community.
Well folks, I’m typing this on Tuesday, but you’ll not see it until Wednesday when the site goes live 😉
As you probably know, various real life situations have delayed the launch of the new SFC, and also unfortunately its completion. However, most of the site will be ready and I’ll be sure to keep adding to it, now it’s so much easier to update! Well, it will be when I finish coding the management system – for now, posting news is much faster and I can do it from anywhere too!
Some of the site might still need more pictures and the like. There may even be a few bugs I’ve not yet found… but hopefully I can fix anything that comes up.
Now, I’m off to (finally!) get to work on “SEE”” – the Shining Electronic Encyclopedia
