Douglas's Game of the week: Shining the Holy Ark (SS)

I decided to just do one review a week instead of just excessively posting random review topics.

Shining the Holy Ark is in the Shining series, among the Shining Series is the great Shining in the Darkness, Cool Shining Force 2, Highly overrated and crappy Shining Force 1, and the one-button Shining Soul (There are others, but I'm too lazy to list them here). If you ask me, I think Shining the Holy Ark is one of the best games ever, And it rests as my second favorite Sega Saturn title (With the first being Panzer Dragoon Saga and my 3rd being House of the Dead)

The Graphics are BEAUTIFUL! Sure the Dungeon Map screen leaves some to be desired, but the characters and backgrounds...They are too beautiful for words. And when you zoom in on monsters, their expression changes alot and they become more detailed than they already are. It's all seen through Arthur's perspective, though he's got the best design, you don't see him do anything in battle, that's one of the drawbacks. (It IS seen through his perspective) Simply put, these graphics go beyond a lot of expectations, hell, these may even kick the crap right out of some PS2 games like Ape Escape 2. I've got to tell you, these graphics still rule even though the Saturn's outdated.
[img]graemlins/clap.gif[/img]

The Music is another great thing about the game. It is one of the BEST you can ever hear on the Saturn, and some of the best music you can ever hear. A lot like the music in Phantasy Star IV, only better. (The music in Phantasy Star IV truly did rule)

The Storyline's one of the best yet. It's enough to make you keep on playing until end. I'm not gonna tell what it's about because I am Lazy. [img]graemlins/sleep.gif[/img] But simply put, the Storyline will keep have you be addicted to the game. Hell, this was even the first game I wasted a whole spring break playing (I also wasted other Spring Breaks playing other games like FFT, Tactics Ogre the Knight of Lodis, and Snood.)

The game may seem good so far, but almost every game has an Achilles heel. DBZLAG has the short length, Septerra Core has its recycled music, Aladdin has the Final Boss (The game really was great until the Final Boss), and Final Fantasy Legend 2 has the Leveling up system. While we're on the topic of leveling up, In Shining the Holy Ark, It takes a very long while to get your characters to level up. Like around say to the point where it's 1 AM and you're still getting your characters past level 9. The fact that the Characters level up slowly is very annoying.

Playing it a second time, Well, you would need quite a lot of patience to play it a second time. Because not only does no one want to take like 3-4 hours to get through a dungeon and 1-2 of those 3-4 hours are leveling up, but the second time through RPGs, some players tend to rush through because they all know what to do and where to go and avoid battles. Sure the Battle music is at an all time high, which is probably the good thing about leveling up.

Overall, Shining the Holy Ark is indeed one of the best Sega titles ever. Sure it was easily beaten by Panzer Dragoon Saga (Another must-buy for Saturn owners), but it still is one of the best games of all time. If you still have your Saturn on your Game shelf and don't have this game, then take it off the shelf, blow off the dust, and check Amazon or eBay for this game, as it is a must-have for all Sega Saturn owners. 9.61/10

EDIT: Forgot my new Award system that I am deciding to add.

Awards for Shining the Holy Ark:
Golden Game (Score above 9.25)
Stunning Graphics
Great music
Great Storyline
Horrible Leveling up System (It counts here because everyone levels up so slowly)

[ August 31, 2003, 10:34 PM: Message edited by: Douglas Salgoud ]

Originally posted by Douglas Salgoud:
Highly overrated and crappy Shining Force 1,

Douglas gets a big bear hug, and a box of chocolate chip cookies.

And I can't believe my cousin paid $35 dollars for Shining Force when she could have the vastly superior Shining in the Darkness for only $15.

[ September 01, 2003, 05:28 PM: Message edited by: Douglas of the 7 winds ]

I paid about that much for Shining Force, but SF2 only cost me $10.

That Gamestop where I bought Shining Force 2 from also had Shining in the Darkness, but the cartridge was horribly beat up.

^Boo that sucks, Shining in the Darkness is really good (Because they don't attempt to rip-off Fire Emblem), but it can only be beaten by Shining the Holy ark and Phantasy Star IV.

[ September 01, 2003, 07:35 PM: Message edited by: Douglas of the 7 winds ]

Originally posted by Douglas Salgoud:

Highly overrated and crappy Shining Force 1,

PLEASE don't make me go on another Shining Force rant. That game SUCKED! <--Do you suppose we can make that word triple underlined and glowing? It sucked that horribly.