Story	6/10	Characters	6/10
	Graphics	7/10	Music	7/10
	Gameplay	6/10	Extras	7/10
Reviewer: Chi Phan Final Score: 6.5/10

Shining Tears marks the introduction of a Shining game to the Playstation 2 console. The Shining Series as a whole is a trademark rpg series from Sega much in the way that the Final Fantasy Series is a trademark rpg series for SquareEnix. The core of the popularity of the Shining Series comes from the Shining Force series within the Shining Series. Not since the late days of the Sega Saturn has there been a true Shining game release, so it's not a wonder that Shining fans of this series were quite excited and eager about the possibilities of Shining Tears. However it's sad for me to report that many Shining fans will be quite disappointed in this game. This game may carry the Shining mark but it doesn't carry the greatness of the Shining mark that Shining fans will expect. We'll break down the key components of this game for you fans out there.

Now, who might this stranger be? The Shining Force has arrived.      In the city of Shildia, an elf name Elwyn, discovered Xion lying unconscious near the beach. Being the compassionate person that she is, she brought him back to the local Inn, where Pios, the local physician, nursed Xion back to health. It was soon discovered that Xion had lost his memory but he carries with him two powerful rings that gives great strength to those that wear them. These rings will soon prove very useful as the city of Shildia soon fell under the invasion from the kingdom of Rune Geist. In a twist of fate, the Inn's owner, Volg, is the leader of a mercenary group, Weissritter, left in charge of defending Shildia from Rune Geist. Volg enlisted the aid of Xion and his powerful rings to help defend the city. Xion and members of Weissritter soon began their campaign to defend Shildia and to discover the true reason behind Rune Geist invasion. As you can see, the story is fairly simple. Its progression is base on different battle campaigns. After awhile the plot start to form an open and close circle on why Shildia is under attack from Rune Geist and the secret that lies within Shildia. And like with previous Shining game, the introduction of the Shining Force and the Shining Sword. The story and world of Shining Tears is connected to the other Shining games, all be it you really can't tell much. The problem with this story is that it's too short and not too interesting. There's also the problem with the plots not connecting to one another as well as it should, and certain things aren't explain too fully to the gamers or at least to myself. The story starts off with the two mysterious rings that Xion has but soon after the rings were no longer a focus and the story never really explain how Xion came upon those rings. That pretty much summed up how the story is presented to us. They throw out possible sub plots at us but none seem to stick very well so they throw out another, leaving the ones that they introduced before left hanging with no real explanation behind such sub plots. And with the lack of any good sensible reason behind each plot, the story becomes uninteresting and confusing. By the time you finish the game, you don't really care much for the story at all. And if you don't care about an rpg story than chances are you're not going to care a whole lot for the game.

My friends and I will stand against you.      In terms of characters in this game, there are 9 main characters with one supporting character. In terms of developing these characters within the story, the story does a somewhat decent job working with each character's bio. You're most likely getting a short mini bio run of each character than an in-depth dramatic mini story within the story line. Some of the history of these characters seem to be added in for the sole purpose of trying to give gamers the shock value of a plot twist but most of these plot revelations don't seem to make much sense overall within the whole story. The characters themselves don't seem to be very interesting characters that will appeal to any gamers in terms of developing a fan base of a particular character. The overall story seems to be light in terms of seriousness of a heavy in-depth rpg storyline and this in terms reflect on how the characters are represented to us. You don't really hate any of these characters but you don't really feel any love for them too. There's no emotional attachment that gamers can develop for these characters. That's not to say the story doesn't try to make us feel for these characters, it's just that it's seem like they are forcing us to feel for these bland characters.

Someone is looking at us, Neige.      The graphical approach to this game is more or less paying homage to the old school style of rpg graphical presentation back in the days of the Sega Genesis system where the Shining series was at its height of popularity. You are basically looking at a somewhat 2-D world where the background environments are nicely drawn and design with rich beautiful colors. The characters in the game are design with the short rounded 2-D artwork sprite look that you normally see from the 16 bit era. This is a far cry from the more realistic polygon look of today's rpgs from the latest and most powerful consoles out there. Even though the game's graphic engine doesn't push the power of the Playstation 2, it's still visually appealing, especially if you enjoy the old school 16 bit rpg look. Keep in mind that even though the overall graphical presentation is that of the old school style, it's done with using the power of the Playstation 2 so you're not exactly looking at 16 bit Sega Genesis graphic. You're looking at a very much improve Genesis graphic. I think the old school graphic approach is a nice change of pace from all the polygons rpg graphics out there but when comparing it to those rpgs on the Playstation 2, it's not as powerful due to the simple approach of using short sprites in a drawn 2-D world.

I'm singing in the rain.      Generally the music is good overall. It does start off very slow but by the time you reach near the end of the game, the music really start to make an impact on the overall importance of the story and your fight to save the world. Within the last few mission campaigns left, the Opera/Beethoven music start pumping you up as you hack and slash your way to the game's end boss. It actually makes the gameplay more thrilling than it is. LOL. In term of themes, most of the musical themes are base on battle maps and town themes. There are a few character themes but none really stand out. It's the battle theme is what gets to you. Story or emotional musical scores don't seem to make much of an impact in this game. Again this is more a reflection on the weak storyline. It's surprising just how one strong Opera/Beethoven musical score can change a person opinion of the game musically wise. For about 90% of the game, the music was less than thrilling but all of a sudden, the introduction of the Opera/Beethoven musical score changes thing to the point where music becomes something you instantly are aware of when you start a battle map campaign. But one musical score won't make the game musical presentation overall great or outstanding, just good.

Massive Chain Combo Hits You're pretty weak for a boss. Game Information    Genre: Action Rpg    Publisher: Sega    Disc: 1 DVD Disc    Memory: 313 KB    Players: 1-2 Player Mode    Analog Control: Yes    Rating: Teen    Release: March 2005      Shining Tears is an action rpg game with battle map campaigns. This is a little bit different than previous Shining games where you either have a true action rpg game or a strategy rpg game. In a sense it's almost a combination of both action rpg and strategy rpg game. Taking the battle map elements from the strategy rpg and then applying the hack and slash elements from the action rpg into it. The end result of this isn't as good as it should be. There are some key features added in this game but not a lot of them. The concept of this game is to enter the battlefield and clear the battle maps base on the criteria that was given to the gamer at the start of the battle. Once this is done you move onto the next battle maps to move the storyline alone. However there will be certain times where you will need to enter and complete a certain number of random repeated battle maps before a story battle map becomes unlock and available for you to do. Outside of battle mode, there are a few towns to travel and explore in but all of these towns are very small and pointless as compare to the bigger towns in a more in-depth rpg game. The length of the gameplay is pretty short too. The gameplay can be played in either 1 player mode or 2 player mode. The recommended mode to play in is 2 players as oppose to the 1 player where your partner is in auto mode. Here's an overview of some of the features worth mentioning in this game. Partner:Even though as an action rpg game, this game provide the feature of a partner to play alongside with the main hero, Xion. The choice of setting the configuration for your partner is Auto or 2 Player. Auto mode is when you are playing by yourself. When you are using this mode for your partner, the PC controls your partner's action and there's not much you can do about what actions it uses. The PC tends to hinder your progress than help you here. 2 Player mode is best as nothing beats a live person controlling another character. Skills:Skills are divided into two categories, single and special skills. Single skills are the more common ones where the player uses these skills as an offensive or defensive move to help them during battles. Special skills are automatic skills that take in effect during battles. These usually help boosts the fighters stats a bit. Skill Points: This is one of the more pleasing features where each time you level up, you are awarded skills points to your Skills and Stats. You can then assign these skill points to boost your fighter's individual stats and increase the effectiveness of the power of their single or special skills. A very good customizable feature in this game. Link Skills: These are the special combo skills that the hero and his partner will perform together. Each fighter will have their own unique special link skills that they will perform with a partner. The link skill that is used depends on the person that is starting the link combo. Appraiser:Pretty much every equipment in this game that drops from monsters need to be appraise first before you can find out it's stats and the criteria that you need to fulfill in terms of a fighter's stats before you can equip that armor or accessory. Appraising items will cost you money. Blacksmith:The best way and really the only ideal way to upgrade each fighter's weapon is to go to the blacksmith and forge new weapon classes. However in order to forge new and stronger weapons, you'll need to get the materials needed for forging. These can be found from chest or just regular monster droppings. Enemy Cards: These are drop off of various enemies and contain information on that particular enemy. Equipping these cards will lessen damage taken from the enemy that the card is base on. Overall not a very good feature since each battle maps introduces a new type of enemy for you to fight. Free Play Modes: Outside of the Story Mode, you can enter two mirrors to access free play modes where you can re-do previous battle missions campaign to collect money, items, and gain extra experience points. This mode pretty much serves as a way for you to make money and gain extra level if you're having problems in the story mode. There are two mirrors, one is for 1 player mode and the second is for 2 player mode. Despite the fact that you have one partner or party member with you at all times, this is still pretty much a solo action rpg game. It's you against a few dozen enemies using your hack and slash attacks. The game is a bit more frustrating than enjoyable. The first problem is the lack of direction on where or how to progress the storyline in this game. There are many times in this game that after finishing a story battle map campaign, the story just stops and you have no idea on how to activate the next story battle map campaign. You talk to everyone in town and still nothing happened. You go out and fight a few random battle map campaigns and still nothing new shows up. Then after re-talking to everyone and fighting even more random repeated battle maps, a story battle map campaigns open up. This ends up getting you all frustrated. It takes a very long time for you to finally figure out that certain stages in the game, you are required to fight a set number of repeated battle map campaign to unlock the next story battle map campaign. The frustration of trying to figure out how many of these random battles you need to do is not very enjoyable; add in to the fact that some people may not even like doing these random battles as well. The last and most noticeable problem is the auto partner feature in 1 Player Mode. Not being able to customize your auto partner a bit more in telling them what to do in battle hurts this game very badly in 1 Player Mode. Most of the time, your auto partner is doing something stupid and useless instead of helping you out. This in turn takes away your focus on just fighting as you need to re-focus on trying to keep your auto partner alive. Your auto partner will be the main cause of that frustrating headache you are getting when playing this game. When facing against overwhelming number of enemies, you want a partner that's next to you fighting side by side or a partner that actually heals you when you're HP is low. Too bad that's not the case in this game. Most of the time your partner ends up dead or you having to waste a lot of healing items trying to keep them alive. Truth be told, it might even be better to just let your auto partner die but you can't do that because letting them die will affect their relationship rating with Xion. That's just how bad the auto partner is. If the auto partner feature was done much better, this game much actually be more enjoyable as it is pretty fun, hacking and slashing against dozens of enemies. Most of the other key features aren't too useful in the game and there aren't a whole lot of unique features introduce in this game. It's pretty much a basic hack and slash action rpg game with a partner. A little bit above average game play here.

Score: 6/10

Finally Tower of Heavens 60th Floor      There are only a couple of extras worth mentioning. The first one is the Card Collecting quest in the game. Basically each monster has a card that they drop that gives the profile of that particular monster. The card itself just give the stats of the monster in the game, however you if you equip the card of that monster, then all damage taken from that monster will be reduce. Of course you will receive a prize after you manage to collect a certain number of cards. Overall I found the Card Collecting quest to be pointless and time consuming. The second and probably the only real extra feature in the game is the 60 floor Tower of Heaven dungeon that you will gain access to about two thirds into the game. The point of this dungeon is to climb all the way to the top to gain access to an accessory that raises the improvement rates of cards dropping from monsters. Again I didn't really find the incentive to climb to the top of the Tower of Heaven very good. And there are some extra bosses to fight in the tower but nothing that is worth fighting that you just have to fight. So in a sense the extras aren't very good. Now the replay value is probably better. The question is whether or not you really want to replay this game again in Advance Mode due to the less than thrilling gameplay. But incase you do, Advance Mode really is for the die hard fans of this game as it really is pretty hard. However to accommodate the new difficulty level, the game allows you to boost all your characters stats to new levels. Now the real reason to replay this game again is to try and unlock the different endings that the hero has with each of his party members due to his relationship with them. So in a sense the value of wanting to replay this game a few times is there, it's just a matter of whether or not you really want to put up with the average to above average gameplay along with it.

In the end, Shining Tears was quite a disappointment of a Shining game. The gameplay was more frustrating than fun due to the lack of intelligence from the Auto mode controlling the second player. While it's not uncommon to have party members being put in Auto mode in other rpg games, those games at least gave better options as to how you want the PC to control those party members in Auto mode. In here there's no such option and the PC tends to hinder your progress than help you. The game might be more fun with a live person controlling the second player than the PC. To top off the frustrating gameplay, the story is very weak and uninteresting. Story and gameplay are the two major components in what makes an rpg game great, and if both are weak than you'll have a very weak rpg game. It's sad that Shining Tears by any means doesn't carry the tradition of what made the Shining series a great rpg series from Sega. Final Score: 6.5/10