Quote Originally Posted by oddler View Post
SF and SFII are very memorable games from when I was a kid. I'm pretty sure they were the first SRPGs I ever played. Of course, I'm partial to SFII because of it being a little more open as far as the exploration goes and having a more involved storyline.

And this guy...

I actually always wondered if your name came from that game. Great story arch.

Quote Originally Posted by Shattered Dreamer
I love the way this games difficulty was just perfect not too hard but by no way too easy as the AI really did punish you for tactical errors.
That's the interesting thing about the game. On the surface it seems more strategy-lite/less tactical and more accessible than say, Final Fantasy Tactics, partially because there isn't a sophisticated customization system. However, towards the end of each Shining Force you're really focused on group formations and character spacing, whereas at the end of FFT I'm just trying to do as much damage as I possibly can before the enemies win.

Another interesting tidbit about SFI's difficulty is the enemies in the middle chapters do not get progressively harder as they do in the first and last halves of the game. It's been argued it's because some of your characters should start being promoted at that time, and the game compensates for their "Promotion Sickness" (stat-resetting after promotion) by giving you easy enemies you beat in the previous few chapters. Interestingly (SPOILER)you also take a break from Rune at this point in the story to go to an island, it's like a little vacation to send your characters to return to the continent promoted and ready to kick ass. As for (SPOILER)the last battle, Dark Dragon is a little easy, but it was an interesting battle event, story and design-wise, and at that point in the game I'm happy to have completed the epic, classic-JRPG adventure and take in the ending.