Awesome new info On Shining Tears.

[zoothe]

Cool! Thanks for the response <p>Back when Landstalker was first released ere in the US, I just kinda assumed it had a similar relation as the one between Shining in the Darkness and Shining Force (the only Shining games at the time).

[Gboy]

If your into the SHINING games as much as you are a PHANTASY STAR fan then you should <br>check this place out <p>http://www.shiningforcecentral.com/developers.php?m=0<p>It'll give you more of an insight behind the games as well as having a very good community<br>of SHINING FORCE fans. They rate PHANTASY STAR quite highly. <br><p>[size=small][Edit by Gboy on [TIME]1107438436[/TIME]][/size]

[Malakai]

And rightly they should...

[zoothe]

Looks like there's a new Shining Tears project in the works:<p> http://shining-tears.jp/info/home.html

[zoothe]

So, has anyone else gotten this game?<p>I hafta admit that after listening to a bunch of Shining Force whiners for the past few months, I was beginning to think this game was going to suck... but I must say that the game is quite enjoyable!<p>I mean, it certainly has some flaws, but as a whole it is a fun game. Anyone else have any thoughts on it?

[Malakai]

I don't have the game yet. What is the battle system like? That's what I'll be looking at since fighting takes up the majority of your PT.

[zoothe]

Well, it's like a mesh between a strategy RPG and and an action RPG. After a couple of linear battles you are able to enter a "war room" type place where the characters plot out strategies and then execute the attack.<p>You go into each battle with a partner... sometimes you choose who, sometimes it's already selected for you. At any rate, once you enter the battle, it's your basic hack n' slash action RPG. You can use the right analog stck to control your partner or you can have a friend control them on the player two port. Each character has skills (like magic or special attacks) they can use on their own but there are also "link skills" that are used in cooperation with your partner. Those take some time getting used to, but for the most part the battle system is easy to comprehend and adapt to.<p>There are a few times when a large number of enemies on screen will cause slowdown (which in 2005 sounds ridiculous), and there are some controls that could be better, but like I said, you adapt to those kinds of things in time.

[Demon Child]

The game's pretty good, though The Tower of Heaven, after dealing with Lazarus, is driving me nuts right now. 25 floors so far and each one is much harder than the last, so I'm wondering does anyone have any idea of how many floors are in it?

[zoothe]

<blockquote>...I'm wondering does anyone have any idea of how many floors are in it?</blockquote> <p>It has 60 floors.

[Demon Child]

Just out of curiosity do you happen to know what would be a good level for beating the Behemoth? And did you have any issues with randomly dieing after it hurls that huge ball at you? I'm getting rather tired of seeing that I have a few HP left after the attack and dieing without anything hitting me as I attempt to heal.<br>Also, more importantly, how do you make a better sword than Chill Drifter for Xion? No matter what I've tried I can't get it to change into something better so I'm stuck with a crappy +15 weapon that can't even deal 10 damage to anything. >_<

[zoothe]

It's best to wait to attempt the Tower until you're <i>at least</i> at level 50 and have a tier 4 weapon. The Chill Drifter is tier 2, so you'll need to upgrade first. Once Xion is at level 20, you can change the Chill Drifter into a tier 3 by using Mithril + Dark Matter + another material of your choice. Once you're at level 40 you can change to tier 4 by using Mithril + Unmelting Ice + another material of your choice. There are different types of swords in each tier, and you can change to the different types within the tiers, but if you already have a Chill Drifter then that's the quickest way to get to tier 4. And since you need to be a pretty high level to really think about the Tower, I have yet to really try and tackle it. Hope that helps.

[Demon Child]

Yeah that helps. By the way, is there a way to change one tier 4 weapon to another tier 4 weapon? Specificly from the ice (can't remember the name) to anything else.

[zoothe]

Yeah... Here are the recipes for changing within tier 4 for Xion:<p>Soul Breaker = Lightening Fencer+Mithril+Tourmaline+Dark Matter<br>Lightening Fencer = Ice Disperser+Mithril+Unmelting Ice+Tourmaline<br>Stone Crusher = Soul Breaker+Mithril+Dark Matter+Ceramic<br>Ice Disperser = Stone Crusher+Mithril+Ceramic+Unmelting Ice

[Demon Child]

Thanks. <p>Are you sure that's right? It's not working for me.<p>[size=small][Edit by Demon Child on [TIME]1112255963[/TIME]][/size]

[zoothe]

I think it can only be done by the dwarves in the caverns.