I finally got around to playing this one proper. At first I was thinking about playing the ROM hack that reduces grinding but I went ahead with the original and played it blind. No cheats, save states or maps.>Total play time:>52 FUCKING HOURSMost of that was grinding, which is a strike against playing this game vanilla. But at a certain point the game still clicked with me in a way that wouldn't have been possible with the anti-grinding hack. You're not supposed to complete each dungeon on the first try. The basic game flow is to spam the View spell at every intersection and make a point to visit every square of the map before moving on to the next one. Egress back to town when your MP runs low and then go back in to fill out the map some more. If you do that, you won't have to grind as much and the game won't feel like you're just aimlessly wandering, you're actually exploring. Also I forgot how much personality and charm this game had despite not having a ton of NPCs and only one town.All that said I would not play this game vanilla again, but the existing anti-grinding hack goes too far with its aim to make each dungeon single visit trips. There needs to be a better middle point that preserves the intended flow of the game while not wasting 30 more hours of your life than necessary.
>>12927451>The basic game flow is to spam the View spell at every intersection and make a point to visit every square of the map before moving on to the next one. Egress back to town when your MP runs low and then go back in to fill out the map some more.Congratulations, you just discovered dungeon crawling. Anyway it's a fine game, basically trying to be Dragon Quest but for dungeon crawlers.The spritiual sequel, Shining the Holy Ark, is fucking great though.
>>12927464>The spritiual sequel, Shining the Holy Ark, is fucking great though.I'm thinking about playing it next but howlongtobeat says it's a 43 hour game and that site is full of faggots who use guides and save states, so probably closer to 80 hours.
>>12927464>Congratulations, you just discovered dungeon crawling. Beat me to it. SitD is a great first dungeon crawler though. If you like it there's a huge world of games for you to enjoy.
>>12927479>so probably closer to 80 hours.Isn't that a good thing if you're having fun?
>>12927479Nah it's less than 80hours. 43 sounds about right.
>>12927510I've been playing almost nothing but Shining Force and related games for the past 3 months, just clocked over 300 hours across all of the Shining Force III discs and was hoping for something shorter. I might still play it though.
Uh, actually it's called Sex AND the City.
>>12927451>The basic game flow is to spam the View spell at every intersection Too much map abuse, you should use at most twice per floor. Its way more efficent to just memorize the layout as you explore. I didnt even need grid paper when I beat this in early 90s as they are pretty forgiving floors. You dont even get the view spell until later in the game and you get by fine without it up to that point through the first few areas. I think there was also a wisdom seed or somthing that also gave you a glimpse of the map before you learn the spell.
For me it's using a one handed pad to play in one hand and map out in excel with the other hand
>>12927451I beat this in the summer, drawing my own maps. Maybe one or two times I farmed for gold for the newest equipment for weak members, but I didn't actively grind. However, I won't say I didn't kill more than necessary.I explored leisurely. Mapping every corner and searching for treasure. I didn't run from most encounters and when I was low on healing, I retreated back to town. I may have revisited floors 3-5 times before completing them. But again, I was methodical in mapping each floor. I may have used the View spell once or twice in my entire playtime and that was to confirm my placement against my cartography.I've seen that reduced grinding hack on rom sites and thought it was unnecessary. Sure, higher floor enemies are devastating but never felt completely outclassed at my pace. Maybe the price of the mid to end game loot could be reduced. But, I don't think they were parsimonious with the Exp.Pretty simple game. Not much depth compared to other RPGs or DRPGs of the time. Yet, I adore the art and music of the Genesis Shining Series
>>12928948thats way more work than doing it by hand
>>12927451Play the sequel for Saturn. Shining in the holy ark has a lot of interesting dungeons to crawl and a nice plot that ties in with shining Force 3. Shining Force 3 is a amazing game also.
>>12930545Not necesarilly, because when you don't know when you are and how big the floor is there is no risk of reaching the limit of the page. Also copy pasting can save time and correcting mistakes is easierThere are mapping programs that are probably faster than excel on account of not having to right click->border every time but I've gotten used to it and I like how it looks
>>12930582>Not necesarilly, because when you don't know when you are and how big the floor is there is no risk of reaching the limit of the page. Also copy pasting can save time and correcting mistakes is easierThat pisses me off, not knowing your position. You can't start mapping from the center because you can be top left of the map and that make everything askew and have the map go off the page. Or if you miss your place at any moment and you won't notice until tiles start touching, then you have to erase and re do the map.I would use a mapping program on a separate monitor for a computer rpg, but not a console rpg. Even with a laptop, it's more convenient to me to use a notebook when not on a desk.
