Trivia / Shining Series

• Dueling Works: Fire Emblem vs. Shining Series. Outside of its cult fanbase, the Shining Force games are only notable for being among the first Strategy RPGs to reach western shores. The series had its golden age in the 90s, and it will never be as well-known or loved as Fire Emblem. Doesn't help that the games are oft seen as pretty bare-bones, extremely forgiving apart from a few key battles, and prone to inducing boredom with the lower level of difficulty and slower speed. But on the other hand, Fire Emblem fans might enjoy actually using archers for once considering that enemies in the Shining Force series don't mindlessly charge forward to their doom, and the UI is far easier to navigate than most Fire Emblem games.
• Fandom Life Cycle: Started off at Stage 4, having been released worldwide before Fire Emblem did until the Turn of the Millennium, and thus becoming the most widely recognized Turn-Based Strategy title of its time. However, it hit Stage 6c due to Sega's handling of Shining Force III, which resulted in Camelot breaking ways with them. This consequentially led to the series taking a downturn in quality and eventually receding back to its home country, with Fire Emblem having since taken its place as the most popular Turn-Based Strategy franchise. The Shining series currently sits at Stage 2, being remembered as one of the more iconic Sega titles before Sonic the Hedgehog, but otherwise not having any noteworthy titles after III to expand its modest cult following.
• No Export for You:
  • Too numerous to mention, but one thing that should be noted is that before Shining Resonance Refrain, the last Shining game released outside of Japan was Shining Force Exa, which was released back in 2007, as Shining Wind, Shining Force Feather and the three PlayStation Portable games were never localized. Sega's announce trailer for Resonance even proudly proclaims that it has been 10 years since the last Shining release in the United States, even though EXA was technically released 11 years ago.
  • None of the PlayStation 2 titles were released in Europe, despite the fact that games in the franchise were released there before. Even the Shining Soul titles were released in Europe.
• Screwed by the Network: As described below. It doesn't help that Shining Force became a victim of Sega's poor business sense all the way up to the Saturn, or that Camelot were always getting jerked around by Sega.
  Hiroyuki Takahasi: "I can tell you this now: At the time of Shining Force III, Sega’s management was, I believe, in a state of complete chaos. It’s probably hard for you to fathom, but what was once a major part of Sega’s market – namely the Shining series – was ejected from Sega’s ‘main line’ of games, and the money we received from Sega to produce Shining Force III was less than half what they would spend on the development of ‘main’ games.”
• What Could Have Been: The series was meant to receive its first mobile title, Shining Force: The Heroes of Light and Darkness, in 2022, with a reveal trailer being released in 2021. Developed by South Korean studio Vespa, the makers of King's Raid, it would have been based on the classic strategy RPGs rather than the newer titles and featured many characters from across the classic era in a new original storyline. Unfortunately, following some dire financial troubles plaguing the company in 2022, the game was pushed back and ultimately cancelled, leaving nothing but its only launch trailer.

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