The Bottom Line: The hack and slash got tiresome, but the "quest for more useless stuff" kept me going and got me through the monotonous gameplay, if only for a short while.
Pika312's Full Review: Shining Soul for Game Boy Advance (GBA)
Long ago, I, with many other gamers, saw this game in its Japanese form and damned the gaming gods for forsaking us-a domestic release was not in the foreseeable future. An even longer while ago, we were already blessed with an amazing series, only know as the Shining series; specifically Shining Force on the Sega Genesis. We wondered to ourselves what we did to deserve such a cruel fate of not seeing the next installment, and finally, our questions have been put to rest. Shining Soul is a Diablo clone-and a poor one at that.
Before someone flames me, let me make it clear that I love the Diablo series, and I have been playing it since it released. I have three accounts for Lord of Destruction, only one of which is a mule account, another unique account for Classic, and three different characters for the original Diablo. I can tell you why you'll never get a legit, full Godly Plate of the Whale, why the Amazon is such a ßitch, how to turn a player's ear into a heart, which Dreamflange is the legit version, why the Amazon is such a ßitch, how Black Death is more nasty than any monster you'll ever meet, how to dupe in either game without hacks or trainers, why the Amazon is such a ßitch, etc., etc., so I'm actually a bit ashamed to call this game a Diablo clone. But the fact of the matter is that it DOES play like Diablo. I sure wouldn't be surprised if someone made a bad joke about it: if it plays like Diablo and has an equally unnoticeable storyline, what is it? Ans: Diab-err... Shining Soul.
Combat is in real-time and is repetitive. Just attack, take a few steps back, rinse and repeat. Notice how I didn't mention moving towards the enemy. That's because everyone comes to you. You can stand in one spot, repeatedly tapping the A Button, and in seconds, you'll watch a whole army decimate itself. The earlier levels are a joke. I didn't take any damage at all until I reached the boss, and even then, he had a memorable pattern, leaving me to just stand there and hack away while safe from his following attacks. And don't even get me started on the AI. I simply turn around a corner, and the monsters get stuck, of which then I proceed to hack away. I don't know whether to cry or laugh. The only challenges these earlier levels provide are to see how much patience you have, how quickly your thumb can tap the A Button, and how much longer your A Button can take a beating (hey, the guys at QA should be able to slack off too, you know) before you decide to rightfully bludgeon yourself to death with your GBA for even considering this game. Or you can try something crazy, like you know, turning the game off and maybe returning it.
Thankfully, the game starts to get more interesting midway (though that's a bit too long if you ask me). The sheer number of enemies is overwhelming. They're more vicious, and have a lot more vitality than whatever you faced before. And-gasp-they don't fall for the corner traps! Or rather they do, but shortly after, they walk AROUND it. The level design also improves ten-fold. Not only are there traps, like rolling boulders and jutting spikes, the objective is changed. In earlier levels, you simply had to defeat every enemy and a staircase to the next level appeared. In the later levels, you have to look for unique monsters (distinguished by more vitality and/or more strength, and a different palette). Slaying these tougher monsters already opens up the staircase, but you have to look hard for it, and you'll certainly meet swarms of enemies on your way.
Well, here you are saying, "Certainly, Sega wouldn't promote genocide. There must be a reason to kill all these monsters." And to you, I say, "Monsters are evil!!!", or when I'm more sober, I'll explain that you get experience from killing monsters. And then you ask, "What does the experience do?", to which I answer, "You sure have a curious mind. Why not put that energy to good use and get me a beer?" Actually, the real reason is to get stronger and simply kill more monsters. When you accumulate enough experience, you gain a level. Gaining a level will net you four stat points and a skill point. The stat points can be put into various attibutes-strength, dexterity, and the like-and the skill point into a skill. My warrior equipped with an axe, for example, absolutely pwns everyone and their moms. So I want to put a skill point into axe mastery (not official name) to make my axe attacks even stronger. But as I do, the requirement of skill points to improve my skill also increases. What originally took only one skill point to improve now needs two, and it continues to be cumulative.
Killing more means more booty. You get items for killing monsters and opening chests, but most of them you won't need. You'll just go back to Prontis (town, and the only town as far as I know) and sell your useless items, or store them in the massive, but needless, inventory storing bank. Your town only has about a dozen inhabitants, and is completely dull. As one townsperson so adequately put it, "I am SO bored!" It must have been a programmer or tester (to the latter: why weren't you testing? If the game is turd, it shouldn't be allowed out the front door).
Your townspeople sure are greedy pigs. They charge you thousands for items you find that you can only sell for less than a hundred. And what if you find an unidentified item? You'll prolly end up paying more just to identify it than selling it. You'll get a profit of 1 G for selling it unid'd.
The final note about items is the Souls, hence the title. These are rare, and not even worth it. You can find them by killing monsters, and when you do find one, you equip it as an accessory. You'll have to amass a certain number of kills to use it, which promptly summons the monster to unleash its raging fury. Unequipping the accessory resets the number, and there's a lot better accessories anyway.
The game features four characters, even with different colors. Each class can equip different items and use different skills, but even playing as every class, the game still wears thin quickly. But in case you get bored, Shining Soul features multiplayer! Grabbing a friend or two or three makes the game a lot more enjoyable, especially if you're all different classes and have items to share.
Like Diablo, you'll die a lot due to-no, not lag-the inability to pause your game! Entering the menu screen doesn't pause your game, and you'll be hit before you even know what hit you. Furthermore, you can only save by quitting-which, of course, sends you back to town.
Graphically, Shining Soul presents decent visuals. They're not the worst for GBA, but they leave a lot to be desired. The backgrounds are simplistic and colorful, but the attack animations are slow and horrendous. Character designs are decent, but monster designs are ugly (on purpose, maybe?) and reused with swapped palettes. Framerate is inconsistent and lags behind the gameplay a bit. Hit collision is often poor. I often missed my enemies a lot, and I don't mean missing an attack, where i swing and a little "miss!" word pops up. I mean I was standing head-to-head with this butt-ugly monster, and we're swinging at each other and not even making any "miss" contact! I promptly walk behind him and proceeded to rip him a new one.
The sound is horrible. I can't even remember any of the tracks. Generic, forgettable music equals crap music. Sound effects are bland too. Turn the sound off.
Controls are well-tweaked, but the gameplay hinders it. It's too simple (tap A until it's imprinted on your thumb) and the item interface is ridiculous. You can't use items until you equip them, and then you hit B to use it. You can equip three different items and three different weapons, which can be toggled through with R and L respectively. Thankfully, it's quick to use and easy enough to reach.
Shining Soul is a disappointing release with repetitive and monotonous gameplay, a forgettable soundtrack, and ho-hum graphics. Even though the game gets tedious quickly, playing with friends spruces up the gameplay a bit. It can be enjoyable if played in small doses, and it has the potential to appeal to wide audiences. Still, if you're waiting for a good action RPG, you might want to wait till next year for the release of Sining Soul 2. Once you hit rock bottom, the only way to go is up.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.