Shining Force Neo is the first home console outing for the Shining Force franchise since it last appeared on the Sega Saturn in 1998. And its seven-year absence has seen some changes. Still a role-playing game, Shining Force Neo has taken the jump from turn-based strategy to all-out-action role-playing game. And while purists may be offended, almost everyone else is going to like the changes.

The story for Shining Force is about what you expect in a classic RPG franchise: sword and sorcery stuff. In this case the lead character is Max. Max is just finishing up his training to be a "Force." In this case we’re not talking about some mystical energy field but rather a magical uber warrior who defends the helpless. Our story picks up as Max leaves his master and heads home to the city of Greensleeves in order to face the Ordeal of the Force and become a full-fledged Force Knight. His father, captain of the city’s Holy Guards, is a Force as was his three-year missing brother, Cain. The Force is strong with his family. (I swear George Lucas is going to sue somebody here!)

The world where Shining Force takes place is in a state of wary peace. Just 13 years before there was a major war started by the Clan of the Moon, a group empowered by the darkness. In that war the Light Crystal that protected the land was shattered and the Clan of the Moon summoned a force known as the Legion from another dimension. At great loss, the Force Knights and the regular citizens managed to defeat the Clan of the Moon and seal the Legion in its other dimension. The three largest shards of the Light Crystal were enshrined in three scattered sanctuaries to prevent the Legion from ever returning again. But now signs point to the return of the Clan of the Moon. After Max is only home a short time, monsters appear in Greensleeves and a mysterious (yet familiar to Max and his father) masked man breaks into the sanctuary, destroys the Light Crystal shard housed there, and kills Max’s father. Now Max has to spread the word and prevent the Clan of the Moon from destroying the other shards and freeing the Legion to again wreak havoc in the land.

It sounds like pretty standard RPG fare but the story is not bad. Unlike many text-only RPGs, Shining Force Neo has voice acting for all of the story. There are occasional anime-quality cutscenes that give fair-sized chunks of the story, but the majority is told through static character windows that have both text and voice to tell the story. The voice acting is workman like but unoffensive, and it sure beats the alternative of just having all text with the static character pictures like the recent Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance had. If I wanted to read that much I’d turn off the game and go pick up a book.

When Shining Force Neo starts out it eases the player into the fighting system for the game in the first few chapters. After that the gloves come off and you’ll start to die – frequently. Unlike many RPGs that put just a very few enemies on the screen at a time, Shining Force Neo can have the player and his party fighting literally dozens of attackers at a time. The game reminds me a little bit of the classic arcade game Gauntlet; the action becomes so furious and chaotic. To defend himself and vanquish the monsters, the player will collect a nice array of weapons in his adventures and earn the magic to increase the levels of his attacks and other attributes. This is done through the Force Frame that each Force Knight carries. On the frame is inscribed art that opens new abilities and powers. The art is found during the adventure. Since it is almost impossible to collect enough to make your character all things, you’ll quickly find yourself using your collected assets to either build up Max as a wielder of weapons or magic. Whether your weapons are bladed or magical in nature, all can be upgraded by a trip to the Greensleeves’ weapons smith with enough gold in your pocket. The actual ability to use that upgraded weapon effectively comes from the character stats nurtured in the aforementioned Force Frame.

Of course having all the great weapons, magical staffs and spells don’t do you much good if you can’t easily use them to put a hurt on the monsters that attack you. Shining Force Neo offers a nicely streamlined system that allows the character to use attacks and change out weapons quickly to adapt to the changing situation. For example, a monster spawn point might start out spewing forth easy-to-kill-with-your-bow orcs at the beginning of a battle and toward the end pop out a couple of golems that are near impervious to your arrows. A quick switch to a two-handed great sword or armor slicer, and a change in tactics to getting in close and avoiding the golem’s slow attacks, will make quick work of the lumbering monsters. The game greatly rewards the player knowing his inventory well and employing it intelligently.

Shining Force Neo also has a great supporting cast of characters to accompany Max on his mission. Each plays intelligently and I only once had to backtrack a little in order to free one of the characters, Meryl, from where she had gotten stuck on a wall. And unlike other games I’ve played, her death was not necessary to get her free and back in the action.

Avoiding the cliché of many adventure dungeon crawls, Shining Force Neo has opted for mostly brightly-lit environments. Whether in green forests or snow-covered tundra, all the environments are well detailed and crawling with monsters. Also unlike many Japanese RPGs, the player does not just randomly run into battles during the game. The player generally sees the enemy spawn point before it is too late to back off in order to heal up and prepare himself or even take another route. There is the occasional surprise and at times you’ll have no choice but to charge headlong into the fray if you want to go forward, but at least you usually know what you are getting into.

Overall the game is fun, compelling and addictive … but there are some dark aspects. Most of the time combat devolves into repeatedly hitting the "attack" button to wipe out large numbers of well-animated but pushover enemies and occasionally hitting the "use" button to heal up your party with healing water. The game also allows practically unfettered use of the teleport spell that brings the entire party back to Greensteeves to heal up, enhance abilities and upgrade weapons. A return also allows the player to freely restock his seven healing-water jars and save progress. This means it is to the advantage of the player to return to Greensleeves and save each time he is about to head into battle or has completed a particularly rough fight. There is almost zero danger of actually risking anything by just employing a fast wild-man offense as a first resort in any battle, since reloading your last save is just seconds away.

As mentioned, the voice work of the story telling is okay. The voice work during actual gameplay … not so much. Your companions will say the same phrases over and over until you want to kill them yourself. Graham the centaur kept shouting, "Tremble before me mighty blow!" After the hundredth time of him saying that in a long battle, all I could think about was the fact that the in-game voices, "Blow mightily."