Shining Force Feather (シャイニング・フォース フェザー) is a Nintendo DS entry in the Shining series.
Plot[]
Whilst exploring some ancient ruins, treasure hunters Jin and Bail accidentally stumble across a young woman sleeping in status.
After Jin wakes her up she reveals herself to be Alfin, a 3,000 year old core unit android who identifies him as her new master, taking the duo to an airship that she can power up. Thinking they can sell it for some serious cash, Jin commands Alfin to take control of it, but the airship crashes.
During their attempts to fix the broken airship, Jin and his party end up getting involved with a plot against an empire and meeting their various party members.
Gameplay[]
Shining Force Feather's gameplay uses a turn-based tatical battle system.
After choosing to attack an enemy, the game switches to a side perspective. This players turn uses real time button input to activate various attacks. Alongside one on one fights, players can team up their forces for combination attacks between the various party members performing strings of combos.
Instead of using a grid based system like earlier Shining titles, Feather allows players to place their party members anywhere within a circular area to show their attack range.
During enemy turns, players can use the replenishment system, allowing them to actually heal or regain force via a well timed button press prompt when attacked.
The magic system has several elements that are strong against their opposite. Fire and water for example are equally effective against one another, but a water attack used on a water user will be less effective. The elemental match ups are as follows:
- Fire vs. Water
- Wind vs. Thunder
- Dark vs. Light
Alfin has a special 'Dress Up' ability which will provide protection from certain enemy elements depending on the outfit she wears. If a Thunder based enemy for example is proving difficult, having Alfin wear her Tonitrus dress will provide protection to the party.
Development[]
After the release of Shining Force EXA on the PS2, the Shining team began discussing potential consoles for the next release. As it had been a while since the last Shining game on a handheld, they settled on the Nintendo DS due to it having the largest market share at the time.[1]
They realised pretty early on that an action RPG where you mowed down hordes of enemies like in Shining Force EXA would be difficult to perform on the DS' hardware, and so shifted genre back to simulation RPG. After this they settled on Flight-Plan to work with due to their reputation from the Black/Matrix series.[1]
For the gameplay the team wanted to offer something new and fresh rather than falling back on the 'Cinesco Battle' system from older Shining titles (essentially having allied characters in the foreground whilst enemies were in the background, giving battles a 3D effect).
When the basic combat system was complete, the debug team mentioned how unsatisfying it was to have to sit back and watch your team take damage, and so producer Shimosato, began to brainstorm ways the player could take action during that time to make combat more interesting, eventually creating the replenishing system, allowing players to heal or gain force with a well timed button press.[2]
Characters[]
- Jin: A self assured, self interested, rebellious treasure hunter with a good heart, Jin is a war orphan who was taken in by a master swordsman, Osin who taught him the blade. However Jin's rebellious attitude eventually got him kicked out his apprenticeship. He decided to set out on an adventure with his childhood friend Bail, to obtain as much rare loot as he can.
- Alfin: An android designed like a young girl, Alfin's purpose is managing the function of the airship and was built 3,000 years ago, but never activated. Jin, whilst trying to find treasure accidentally activates her and she joins him and Bail on their adventure. As she's been reactivated in her default state, her thirst for knowledge is overbearing at times.
- Bail: A centaur from Jin's hometown, Bail was born into a well respected knight household but was pressured into an arranged marriage around the same time Jin was disowned by Osin. Joining up together to escape their town. Bail is a self styled ladies man, who only lets ladies ride his back. He's often picked on by Jin, but the two are firm friends.
- Miriam: An elf girl who met Jin and Bail during her coming of age ceremony, she felt a kinship and decided to join them on their adventures. She is naive and often cannot stop talking once she's started bombarding Jin, Bail and Julius with unexpected lines of questioning. Monsterous appetitie.
- Teeda: A cat eared quarterbeast, Teeda lost her mercenary parents at a young age and made a living as a fighter, becoming a gladiator in the arena. She became so skilled at combat she began making betting on battles pointless. Due to this success she was targeted by unsavoury characters and almost fell victim to a trap. Jin and his friends helped her out, and she returned the favour against Valvazan's mercenaries before joining the party.
- Julius: A mage with a thirst for knowledge when it comes to the ancient civilization Alfin is from. His fascination with the airship ends up getting him entangled in Jin's struggle with the empire. He joins Jin's gang for no reason other than to be closer to study the airship.
- Rush: An endlessly optimistic treasure hunter who views Jin as a rival. Having met Pipin and stolen his own airship, Rush constantly challenges Jin to contests of skill. When their two airships end up being able to merge into one, Rush joins the party. He has a burning desire for justice.
- Pipin: An android from Alfin's time that takes the form of a cute yellow mammal creature. She is partners with Rush.
- Grizeria: The daughter of the demon city Dhurva's viceroy and a talented wind mage. Extremely shy, she has only just started venturing into the world. It wasn't long until she came across and instantly fell in love with Jin due to the carefree and bold way he lived his life. Jin seems to flip a switch in her personality and she joins the party, making many assertive attempts to show her affection for him.
- Valvazan: The leader of the Black Horn Mercenaries, Valvazan is a minotaur warrior with an impressive history that was hired by Gyaon to fight Jin, but Gyaon's betrayal of Valvazan caused him to defect to Jin's crew, impressed with Jin's combat skill. He becomes Teeda's over protective adoptive parent.
- Cocot: A harmonizer with an angelic appearance, Cocot was sent down to watch over Jin who was believed would bring about the destruction of the world, joining the party for that reason. However Cocot enjoyed herself on the team so much she completely forgot her incredibly important mission!
Trivia[]
- Although Shining Force Feather was never released outside of Japan, an art book called Shining Force Feather Design Works was released in English, complete with screenshots of a translated version, explaining much of the behind the scenes development, character design, interviews with the artists and designers and brief interviews with the characters.
- Shining Force Feather is the only Nintendo DS entry in the Shining series.
- The title Shining Force Wing was considered but was scrapped due to sounding so similar to Shining Force Wind.[1]
- A two volume Shining Force Feather manga adaption was released.
- A Wii version of this game was planned but was ultimately scrapped.
- This was one of the very last games developer Flight-Plan made before going defunct in August 2010.
- The website ran a "This Week's Doodle" section which included various art from Pako and Noizi Ito. One piece was of Jin in a blocky Virtua Fighter art style.
- Production on the game took roughly eight months, but with programming checks and testing it took a year in total.[1]
- There were six 'Sound Drama' short clip released on the official website that were also included on a commermorative DVD. The six stories are as follows:[3]
- Chapter 1: Adventure Awaits Through the Next Door
This piece takes place with Jin and Bail walking through the ruins, just before encountering Alfin. Bail is surprisingly terrified of encountering ghosts despite his usually cooler demeanour. - Chapter 2: Their Time Together
A typical conversation between Jin and Alfin, after Jin wanders onto the main bridge out of boredom. - Chapter 3: Her Troublesome Curosity
Jin runs into Julius, who is troubled once again by Miriam's innocent but difficult lines of questions. The question this time is "Where do babies come from?" - Chapter 4: The Flames of Friendship Burn Brightly
In this chapter Jin, Alfin, Rush and Pipin have been trapped in one of the airship's storerooms due to a mechanical malfunction. Rush tries to bust his way out using brute force, but it doesn't go well. - Chapter 5: The Unknown Heart
This short has Valvazan going crazy. He is furious that Teeda was wounded during the previous day in battle, gathering the male members of the party up into the airship's Battle Room for what he considers necessary training to avoid her being hurt again. - Chapter 6: Gossip Queens
This short takes place roughly at the same time as chapter 5. With the boys called away, the ladies of the group begin to share some juicy gossip. The conversation starts with Miriam's question from chapter 3, moves onto the topic of Jin. As some unexpected revelations about him are revealed, Grizeria has a interesting reaction to this gossip.
- Chapter 1: Adventure Awaits Through the Next Door
- A seventh Sound Drama chapter, Chapter 7: Cooking is Love ♪, was not released on the official website but was released in the commemerative DVD. It focuses on the daily lives of Syuho and Sizma. Lavinia approaches Sizma and requests he try her cooking before she presents it to Syuho. Sizma agrees, but instantly regrets it as Lavinia begins to pull out some truly unusual ingredients and begins cooking with a distinctly eerie look on her face. Syuho meanwhile bumps into Sizma's fiancee and decides to treat her to a lovely tea service complete with treats. The pleasantries are ruined when Lavinia bursts in, having just finished her cooking.[3]
- Two Alfin figurines were released, one based upon her Flamme outfit design and one based upon her Umbrio outfit.