Shining the Holy Ark
Apr 10, 2019 17:36:57 GMT -5
Post by Sarge on Apr 10, 2019 17:36:57 GMT -5
So I found some text I wrote for GameSpite Journal 14 that never actually happened. Figure since it's FPDC month, it might be good to post here! Bear in mind, I don't remember if it's even particularly well-written, but there ya go. (You can also tell it was dated, since it mentions Soul Hackers.)
Shining the Holy Ark
Anyone remember Shining in the Darkness? Camelot’s first game embodied a dungeon crawler through and through, taking more of its cues from games like Wizardry and Might & Magic than Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy, but still infusing enough of the latter two to maintain some console sensibilities. But the game fails to be very good.
Shining Force followed up that effort, and that series is well-known, with fans still clamoring for a new installment. Camelot made great strides in improving their craft after Shining in the Darkness, and it showed when they decided to revisit that format for Shining the Holy Ark.
Shining the Holy Ark proves to be a first-person RPG for people who hate first-person RPGs.
Console gamers probably weren’t quite ready for first-person RPGs when the game came out here. Many likely shied away from the game, given the obtuse nature of PC games of the same ilk. Several ports of those RPGs found their ways to consoles as well, and probably didn’t help sell the nature of a first-person RPG to gamers still rolling on with games like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VII, or others of its ilk. A mostly hard split existed between the PC and console RPG world. First-person games were staid, old-school, obtuse, obsolete.
Except this one wasn’t.
Anyone coming in with expectations of PC-style RPG play likely ended up very disappointed. Despite the shift in view, the battles play out in a decidedly Dragon Quest-ish nature. A smooth difficulty curve helped facilitate well-paced play, something PC RPGs weren’t known for at the time.
The graphics haven’t aged particularly well, having a pre-rendered sprite look common to the era, complete with sprite-scaling issues. However, they are still markedly better than the 3D models in Shining Force III. Much like Soul Hackers, some rather blurry texture work exists as well, but should be expected given the release timeframe. Motoi Sakuraba composed the music, and if you’re a fan, you’ll enjoy the work here.
Soul Hackers' recent release for the 3DS here in the West is especially fitting. Shining the Holy Ark and Soul Hackers were both of the Saturn-era vintage, and they each display some shared design sensibilities, for good and for ill. The combat proves quick and snappy (although probably with less depth than Soul Hackers), but dungeons can be overly large and long, without much interesting to interact with.
There’s also a bit of groundwork here for the Golden Sun series. Poking around for Pixies proves to be a precursor to hunting Djinn in Golden Sun, but unfortunately their purpose lacks as much interest, nor is finding them as fun. Some might also see Camelot’s leanings towards verbosity in Shining the Holy Ark as well.
Still, Camelot may not have gotten it right the first time, but they definitely did the second. If you enjoy console-style RPGs, don’t let the viewpoint scare you away. Shining the Holy Ark proves worthy of the Camelot name.
Shining the Holy Ark
Anyone remember Shining in the Darkness? Camelot’s first game embodied a dungeon crawler through and through, taking more of its cues from games like Wizardry and Might & Magic than Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy, but still infusing enough of the latter two to maintain some console sensibilities. But the game fails to be very good.
Shining Force followed up that effort, and that series is well-known, with fans still clamoring for a new installment. Camelot made great strides in improving their craft after Shining in the Darkness, and it showed when they decided to revisit that format for Shining the Holy Ark.
Shining the Holy Ark proves to be a first-person RPG for people who hate first-person RPGs.
Console gamers probably weren’t quite ready for first-person RPGs when the game came out here. Many likely shied away from the game, given the obtuse nature of PC games of the same ilk. Several ports of those RPGs found their ways to consoles as well, and probably didn’t help sell the nature of a first-person RPG to gamers still rolling on with games like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VII, or others of its ilk. A mostly hard split existed between the PC and console RPG world. First-person games were staid, old-school, obtuse, obsolete.
Except this one wasn’t.
Anyone coming in with expectations of PC-style RPG play likely ended up very disappointed. Despite the shift in view, the battles play out in a decidedly Dragon Quest-ish nature. A smooth difficulty curve helped facilitate well-paced play, something PC RPGs weren’t known for at the time.
The graphics haven’t aged particularly well, having a pre-rendered sprite look common to the era, complete with sprite-scaling issues. However, they are still markedly better than the 3D models in Shining Force III. Much like Soul Hackers, some rather blurry texture work exists as well, but should be expected given the release timeframe. Motoi Sakuraba composed the music, and if you’re a fan, you’ll enjoy the work here.
Soul Hackers' recent release for the 3DS here in the West is especially fitting. Shining the Holy Ark and Soul Hackers were both of the Saturn-era vintage, and they each display some shared design sensibilities, for good and for ill. The combat proves quick and snappy (although probably with less depth than Soul Hackers), but dungeons can be overly large and long, without much interesting to interact with.
There’s also a bit of groundwork here for the Golden Sun series. Poking around for Pixies proves to be a precursor to hunting Djinn in Golden Sun, but unfortunately their purpose lacks as much interest, nor is finding them as fun. Some might also see Camelot’s leanings towards verbosity in Shining the Holy Ark as well.
Still, Camelot may not have gotten it right the first time, but they definitely did the second. If you enjoy console-style RPGs, don’t let the viewpoint scare you away. Shining the Holy Ark proves worthy of the Camelot name.