26/30 That moment when Shining Force III derailed
Shining Force II is my all-time my favorite game, so you can imagine that I was eagerly awaiting Shining Force III. And wait I did, for the first third of the game wasn’t released until December 1997 in Japan, three years after the Saturn’s release and more than three years after Shining Force II (released in October 1993 in Japan and the following Summer in PAL regions).
If I had a little more time ahead of me and a few less late posts to deliver, I’d have given you a useless lecture on all the twists and turns that explain why it took so long to release Shining Force III. Let’s instead summarize: Sega is a complicated publisher, Camelot is a complicated developer, and the game was so ambitious that it had to be split into three “scenarios”, pushing the envelope even further than Super Robot Taisen F did earlier that year.
At the time, I can’t hide the fact that I was a little disappointed by Shining Force III: Scenario 1 (December 1997). This was partly on me: I am also possibly the only guy in the world to have been disappointed by Dark Souls, because I’d expected way too much after Demon’s Souls. Sometimes, one unfairly asks for a game (or a place, or a person) to let them relive an emotion which can only be experienced once.
Shining Force III also suffered, more objectively, in comparison with its direct neighbors on the import store racks for the Saturn’s last big Christmas: it didn’t offer the dazzling tactical possibilities of Super Robot Taisen F, nor the presentation prowesses of Grandia, which was a kind of a platonic ideal for the 32-bit RPG generation, with its magnificent 3D backgrounds, expressive sprites instead of the ugly pudgy polygons à la FF7, numerous dubbed scenes and Iwadare’s phenomenal soundtrack (it’s Sakuraba officiating on SF3, but I’ve never been a fan of Sakuraba’s post-Super Famicom work).
Worse still, the game abandoned Shining Force II’s best idea: the player’s ability to wander freely around the world in the manner of a classic JRPG, and thus (re)discover the world at your own pace. Instead, it returned to a more classic Fire Emblem-style Simulation RPG model, with a succession of battles to be completed in order. The only flexibility retained from previous Shining Force games is their much greater effort than the competition on making the village phases between each battle more interesting, with villages much larger and richer in content than average, and often packed with secrets.
Unsurprisingly, the real brilliance of Shining Force III would reveal itself with the next two Scenarios, released respectively in April and September 1998. Not only does the Rashōmon aspect of the three protagonists’ different points of view work wonderfully in the context of an epic conflict between politically opposed kingdoms in a heroic fantasy setting, but the three Scenarios fit together quite well in terms of story progression, avoiding the deflating sentiment of starting the adventure from the beginning each time.
And from point of view of the player’s influence on the game, many of the choices in Scenario 1 (which item you found, which character you saved or spared, etc.) only become important in Scenario 2 or Scenario 3. It’s a cool use of the CD-ROM + internal memory combo, which could never have been achieved back when games were played on cartridges. In retrospect, the complete Shining Force III experience is a monumental Simulation RPG. Mea culpa.
But there was one thing that was obvious as soon as Scenario 1 dropped: once again, Camelot would dig deep and come up with some highly original battles for the genre, with a fun or at least memorable gimmick in almost every chapter. And the most illustrious of these gimmicks, for better or worse, is the game’s infernal eighth battle: saving dem fucking refugees on dem fucking railroad tracks. Pardon my French.
Scenario 1’s eighth battle’s premise is that a band of villagers try to flee the conflict between the Republic and the Empire by hopping like Southern folk’s tale vagabonds onto the next freight train, but suddenly find themselves cornered by zealous militiamen who wish to slaughter them for daring to flee and thus betraying their homeland.
Not only do you have to kill the militia leader, but you also have to save as many refugees as possible, while one train arrives on the track, then a second on the opposite track. Here’s roughly what the map looks like (via Sega Saturn Magazine’s official guide). The starting point is the Tetris “T” at the top of the map.
There are potentially five refugees to save. Most of them die in one, two hits max. Only one of them dumb civilians has brought back a medicinal herb with them. There’s absolutely no need to save these numbnuts to progress into the story. Most players will probably save one or two on the second attempt, after the inevitable “understanding the map’s whole deal” defeat. The real challenge is to save them all, which some people at the time actually believed was impossible, and became a much bigger deal when players discovered almost a full year later that successfully saving all the refugees on this Scenario 1 map unlocks an awesome weapon in Scenario 3.
You may have guessed it from the map, but the fork in the tracks to the south plays a crucial role in the success of the (side) mission; indeed, I don’t think you can save a single refugee without manipulating the tracks. So, part of your Shining Force (for that’s the eponymous name for your band of companions in the Shining Force games) needs to cast safety aside and rush to the middle to activate a lever, while the other members start clearing the map to the west. Here’s the same map in the guide released by Famitsu, with the positioning of the five refugees to the south and an ideal routing (the blue arrows) for the player’s two groups.
Even if you know what you are supposed to do, this is stupidly difficult. Remember that saving these clowns is totally optional. And by the eighth map, you still have very few options and your characters’ stats are still a bit shite. The player is at the mercy of the RNG’s slightest whim. Here’s a tutorial on the ideal execution for this map.
I may sound like I’m only complaining about the map, but this battle is iconic; it’s arguably the most memorable moment of Scenario 1 (apart from the sudden disappearance of an important character who later returns in Scenario 2), and the game very cleverly exploits the train theme over an entire chapter, with this railway map followed by two cute battles in the train’s carriage and then on the roof of the train. And getting to follow the story of these refugees in Scenario 2 then Scenario 3 is a very cool payoff.
I’ll leave you with this nice and lenghty retrospective of Shining Force III by Inglebard Gaming, timed to coincide with the moment they reach this battle.
