Shining Force Character Comparison

In this video I address how to compare Shining Force characters, mostly as a response to The RPG Guy’s video below using data from Tskisoccer’s Character Guide. I appreciate the content from both creators, so please check out their channels/guides!
Edit: Link to my Tier List Comparison video: • Shining Force Tier List
Link to The RPG Guy’s Video: • Shining Force Characte...
Link to Tskisoccer’s Character Guide: gamefaqs.games...

[@kaptainKrill]

Former GameFAQs guide writer for Shining Force, here! (Though I did the GBA remake instead of the Genesis). This video is fascinating! I had no idea that the randomness of Shining Force was up for debate. That was something I wrote about over a decade ago, and not only are level ups random, but so are base stats- I used to get emails from readers that the base stats in my guide didn’t match theirs. I do like Tskisoccer’s guide format, though. I remember leveling up characters several times, just like they did, but it never occurred to me to document the variance on those level ups. That’s a really nice touch.

[@ryang7219]

Loved gamefaqs when I was younger (in Early 30s now). Appreciate what you all did

[@LetsPlayRetroRPGs]

Characters have 'periods' when they get great boosts from levels and others when they get sucky ones. For instance iirc khrys gets high defense shortly after promotion. Anri too. Arthur gets his best boosts towards level 20. Etc.

[@NovaSaber]

I don't think Shining Force Central claims that level ups aren't random, it just considers the target stats the more reliable thing to compare.

[@samuraichamplugen]

My last playthrough I leveled each character as equally as possible, used egress to swap out party members. I found it pretty enjoyable to have all the characters relatively on pace with each other. I also found it nice to do each of these battles with different character sets. I like SF1 & SF2 a lot those are my favorite Sega RPGs along with Phantasy Star IV: End of the Millenium that's a super good RPG as well.

[@kaleeshsynth9994]

Im getting lucky with Zylo Hes been leveling up pretty good good hp, good defense amazing attack

[@davekat]

In my last playthrough, my Hans got 2 +2 attack levels and 1 +1 attack before level 10 pre promotion. By the end of the game he had enough dmg to take out the robotic units in 1 shot. I've also had games where Hans got literally 0 attack before promotion. It all varies.

[@sanjosesharks3534]

I hate how everyone says the healers are weak and should remain in the rear. Screw that. I promote them quickly within 2 chapters and I place them both on the front lines. By the end of the game they can go toe to toe with the strongest enemy's later in the game.

[@LetsPlayRetroRPGs]

Khris gets super defense in the earliest level. Lowe on the other end...

[@sanjosesharks3534]

@@LetsPlayRetroRPGs Kris is a bad Ass with her high defense. But she is also most deadly with the holy staff if you have her hit points high enough. Lowe totally sucks. Granted he has a very high magic count and his healing is good. But his hit points don't increase very much. So in my opinion the best 2 to have are Kris and Gong.

[@LetsPlayRetroRPGs]

@@sanjosesharks3534 if you have two, for sure. If only one, khris

[@sanjosesharks3534]

@@LetsPlayRetroRPGs helps you alot too if you equip here with the white ring her defense gets stronger and he her aura spell. 2 healers with aura spell is great.

[@CosmicCosmo1]

Why does Gong seem so good in the beginning then appear to get super weak after promotion? That makes me sad every playthrough

[@anonimonovids]

Because he cannot equip, if he could he would ve still viable

[@sanjosesharks3534]

If you promote gong within 2 chapters and use the power potions on him ana let him fight you can get him just as strong as your horsemen or main character. My gong is level 20 promoted and he can withstand attacks and return them just as deadly.

[@bobbyrabii6119]

Can’t Gong equip certain rings as weapons?

[@rayplaysgames_RPG]

Power ring on gong and he's top tier

[@erikbell1723]

Generally I think a “casual” play-through is one where a player is just going to play the game at a decent pace and not spend 50 egresses leveling Blue up to match the rest of their party.

[@MAGACOPP]

Yea

[@KnightRaymund]

exactly

[@LetsPlayRetroRPGs]

Correct. I also call that not grinding.

[@bigbromordecai]

Actually disappointed..you spent more time talking about the RPG Guys character comparison than your own character comparisons..

[@Magnus2dead]

I hear you, I am finishing up a video that ranks all characters against each other. I will post it in the description here if you want to see it. Thanks for the feedback!

[@luisreyes1963]

For me, I would only use stat boosting items on certain characters after promotion so as to give their stats a bump up. For the leader (Max), I'd give him the Power Water, Protect Milk, Bread Of Life & Quick Chicken after being promoted to Hero.

[@greek1237]

Who cares about stats, as long as we all agree that Tao is number 1. Tao is number 1. I loved that elf girl. She always has a place on my team, of 12.

[@MochicoArtemis]

actually, Anri is #1

[@LetsPlayRetroRPGs]

All 3 wizardresses are great

[@monkeyspank3005]

Best way for max stats is use an emu with a rewind button

[@noma1079]

I think when talking about the gamefaqs and sfc 'theory'. It sounds more like he is talking about set stats at promotion, not necessarily their overall level. Meaning he is talking about how when you promote at 10, your character will have his stats set upon promotion. The same for 11, 12, and so on to 20. I watched the video and maybe I'm wrong, but ai think he knows levels are sort of random. But promotion stats are set when you promote based on level, regardless of stats beforehand. It's possible I'm wrong and that's not what he means, but that is how I interpreted what he was saying.

[@alchemygal3285]

I interpreted it the same. It’s best in conversation to interpret ppl as intelligent. Good to give the benefit of the doubt and give them the best argument when it’s not 100% clear. Learned this in critical thinking class in college. It’s just super annoying to deal with ppl that don’t do this for you. Your way of interpreting is common curtesy.

[@axel8406]

Good analysis and at the end of the day, shining force is great because you can beat the game using your favorite characters regardless of powergaming. Advice for new players, dont worry about it to much. I beat the game when i was 5. What i usually do is get characters to lvl 10 and then compare them with like characters. For example luke and gort. Ill play with the guy that has better stats at lvl 10. Sometimes i play lvl 10 and promote, sometimes i play lvl 20 and promote. Lvl 20 and promote is a lot easier of a playthrough. Another piece of advice if you like playing with a character and you are worried about them keeping up. Give them all the stat boosting items or powerful rings you get. You get enough characters on your roster that even if your favorite character falls a little behind, the other characters will carry them. Adam gets a bad rap but he is easy to level up and can become a monster. Give him a turbo pepper and attack boosting ring, hell do you solid. I used him all the time when i was a kid and he always ended the game geeling strong.

[@TempYoutubeAc]

Can you compare Gort and Luke? Also Zylo and Hanzo. Amon and Balbaroy and Kokichi.

[@Magnus2dead]

Am uploading a video now that ranks all characters, will be in the description here soon!

[@Cloud971]

That's one of the reason i prefer Sf2 over this one, i'm not fond of leveling up without any stats boost "i mean that's the point of level-up......"

[@LetsPlayRetroRPGs]

It's rare though

[@MidnightBlackandVictoria]

NEVER promote at 10. Wait for 20 (30 in part 2) and you effectively get many more levels.

[@Arthurmagicknight]

It's not necessary at all to promote at 20, though. You can if you want, but you shouldn't have any trouble beating the game even if you promote every character at 10. It's all just personal preference. If you like to see bigger numbers, by all means, promote at 20, but those bigger numbers really mean nothing in the long run. I have NEVER promoted any character at 20 (I'm too impatient to wait such a long time to promote. I always have a fully promoted team by the laser eye bridge battle) and have never ha any issues whatsoever.

[@bladestar2322]

I used to promote at 10. I now wait until 20, running through some battles several times.

[@MidnightBlackandVictoria]

@@bladestar2322 Yeah, they get way more powerful, so its useful, especially on harder difficulties on part 3. Doesnt really work on SF2 though, as it already makes you wait for 20 and there is no viable way to farm to 30 or 40 (without getting massacred). Man I miss this series. I dont know what the hell they were thinking, veering the series off into action RPGs. That genre is a dime a dozen, and so it becomes obscure. But staying as a tactical RPG means instant classic for this universe! Shining Force REALLY needs a return to its roots and a comeback! Hell, a remake of "Dark Wizard" using the same world map with modern graphics and features would also take the gaming world by storm if done right. Its such a waste, and a hollow market waiting for the right developers to fill the void.

[@bladestar2322]

In Shining Force 2 there only seems to be 12 Fantastic Characters and 2 Really Good ones. And most people hate one of my choices, Taya. You stick with her until she gets Neptune 2 and Atlas 2 and she one shots any Villain. Slade the mouse starts out really weak, but becomes a Ninja and is a great character. I keep all 3 Master Monks because of their fighting ability. I convert one dwarf into a Baron. Two Pegasus Knights. I keep the Two Archers as Snipers until near the end when I get Sheela and Lemon. I don't like that Silver Cannon go cart! And I hate the turtle! I've ran him up to level 40 and he still goes down from 1 hit, and his fire breath at the higher levels doesn't do Jack, even when he uses it. I don't even promote him half the time.

[@MidnightBlackandVictoria]

@@bladestar2322 I dont think there are any shining force characters I didnt like. Slade was great. Alot of people just didnt like his initial look, but would have loved him promoted.

[@squirrelbuddi]

Alef lvls faster too. She's super easy to get to lvls 4 bolt. Her lvl 3 bolt especially makes it take no time.

[@patrickellison4234]

Agreed

[@alchemygal3285]

Tao as in the Taoist religion. Not Tay oh. She’s named after the Tao said like ow! Except with a T in front of it. T-ow=Tao like towel without the el.

[@saphcal]

yeah idk how people get that wrong lol

[@bladestar2322]

Tell the truth, I've been playing Shining Force for 25 years and I never really play Alef. I also don't use healers after the Quarry fight. They are just too slow and my fighter characters are all level 10 at this time, and Lowe and Gong are level 5, Khris is level 4. I'm playing the game right now as I speak. I'm at stage 4, just promoted Max/calling him Blade, at level 20. The Centaurs are very strong until the last couple stages. At that point I'm down to Arthur and Ernest. And Lyle of course. Musashi and Hanzou replaced a couple.

[@LetsPlayRetroRPGs]

Pelle is pretty OK up until the end.

[@MochicoArtemis]

Anri is the best, hands down

[@Psychology]

Had a big crush on her back in grade school. Her and Shell.

[@MochicoArtemis]

@@Psychology Anri has been a waifu of mine since 6th grade, which has actually been 4 years, I even shipped her with Max, btw

[@LetsPlayRetroRPGs]

Same! And freeze 4 is great.

[@noteveryoneiscutout]

Great video thank you

[@GwenWynns]

Basically, play with whatever characters you like. Simple as.

[@NobodyNothing-f5c]

Ghey are all the same without much variation if you remove the nothing at level up chance. Just reroll using a save state until something is acquired, not the best but something. Gort and Luke are exactly the same. Birds are better MC's, exactly the same stats as the MC using the agility ring but much better movement. The only truly different characters are the one of a kind, xylo, bleu, musashi, kokichi, etc.

[@mercenaryninja]

what makes adam "bad" in this game?

[@Magnus2dead]

Adam is bad because when you get him he does not contribute to the team compared to any other character you have at that point. His stats are low and you have to grind him in order to make him usable. It's the amount of effort you have to put in and how he compares to the other units throughout the game. Cool character, but bad as a unit.

[@mercenaryninja]

Magnus_dead I really like his character so I’ll grind it out. Thanks for the reply!

[@MochicoArtemis]

@@Magnus2dead I mean, wouldn't people grind for any character that they would want to use?

[@luisreyes1963]

He's a far weaker robot than Zynk from Shining Force 2.

[@LetsPlayRetroRPGs]

Move

[@Urbrainongaming]

Oh hell ya more classtime :)

[@tylerroberts5012]

Hey bro, great content. But overall I think y’all are off on the mark here with the leveling, both you and RPG guy. Overall y’all complicate it so much when it’s really simple. I’ve been playing this game numerous times over my lifetime, and simply put, it’s guided stats for each character to determine their tier, then distributed randomly while you play. That’s it.

[@MochicoArtemis]

to me, Mae is actually the best Spear and Lance unit in the game, idk what anyone else thinks, she's definitely the best spear and lance user, for me

[@LetsPlayRetroRPGs]

Pelle is solid until the end.

[@MochicoArtemis]

@@LetsPlayRetroRPGs Solid and good yeah, but I find Mae to be better. Don't get me wrong, I know how good Pelle is, since he's actually my secondary knight.

[@Vollin.H]

Amazing 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🍺 I ever made LOWE promote to level 05 with Promotion By using HEAL at the first batle But i take Him out for TORASU as fast as I can 😎

[@derekminna]

Great video. Loved it. However, an Ironman means using worst equip, permadeath means no revive. I watched the video that you referenced throughout, and it was painful for me to get through because of his opinions and his mistakes. Still entertaining though. For the record, Im team Magnus lol.

[@jameswarner5878]

I had one odd game in SF2 where Tao was my highest attacker.

[@CosmicCosmo1]

My opinion. The bird men suck and Arthur rocks. I agree with all your other positions.

[@LetsPlayRetroRPGs]

Arthur is unplayable without serious baby sitting.

[@LOADUP01]

Hi magnus, if you like shining force. You must play Aiden chronicle 64 the first mage

[@LetsPlayRetroRPGs]

Or burning Faith on steam

[@GrinninPig]

Darksol did nothing wrong