“Most of us are called on to perform tasks far beyond what we can do. Our capabilities seldom match our aspirations, and we are often woefully unprepared. To this extent, we are all Assistant Pig-Keepers at heart.”
― Lloyd Alexander, The Book of Three

A young lad takes up arms with his trusty companions to stop an evil kingdom from reviving a dark dragon… stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Strategy RPGs aren’t my cup of tea, but Shining Force managed to be fun, if frustrating. The lack of permadeath means all your hard work isn’t wasted, unlike a certain SRPG series. Battles are tough if you don’t grind, but that’s why Egress exists: you can leave and restart the battle while retaining valuable experience. Shining Force enemy AI is pretty dumb and you’re at the mercy of the RNG (darn flying units!) Still, mowing down foes with a centaur gunner, a dragon, a wolfman, bird people, mages, gladiators, and the like is pretty awesome. To conclude, remember these words: he who grinds and Egresses away, may live to grind another day.