Shining in the Darkness
From Sega Retro
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System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Virtual Console, Steam | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Genre: RPG | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number of players: 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Shining in the Darkness, called Shining and the Darkness (シャイニング&ザ・ダクネス) in Japan, is a 1991 game by Sega and Climax Entertainment for the Sega Mega Drive. It is the first game in Sega's Shining series — but unlike most of the rest of the franchise, this one is a 3D dungeon-crawler RPG.
Contents
Story
You are the son of Mortred, a warrior who was last seen near a dungeon known as the Labyrinth in the kingdom of Thornwood with the Princess Jessa. King Drake summons you to go find her, but just as that is about to happen, the evil Dark Sol appears and offers a ransom — Mortred and the Princess for the kingdom. It is now up to you to save the two and defeat Dark Sol before he destroys King Drake instead...
Gameplay
The game takes place in three areas — the castle (where you talk to the King and his servants), the town (where you can buy weapons, armor, and items, save your game and heal in the church, and talk to townsfolk), and the Labyrinth (the actual dungeon). In the castle, towns, and buildings, use and
to navigate and
to interact.
The Labyrinth is (appropriately) a 3D maze. moves forward,
and
turn, and
moves backward.
and
open a menu at the bottom of the screen where you can do mundane things to the members of your party. Enemy encounters happen randomly throughout the Labyrinth — the same menu is used to attack. Should you die in battle, you will be taken back to the church in the town, losing half your collected gold in the process.
History
Development
Shining in the Darkness was a joint venture developed by Sega's newly founded Sonic Co. and a team at Climax Entertainment, headded by Hiroyuki Takahashi, a rising stars in the world of RPG development (Takahashi had previously been involved in Enix's popular Dragon Quest series, so were seen as a good fit for the project). However, corporate reasoning gave Shining and the Darkness a minimal development budget, and a small four-man team, meaning Climax were responsible for the bulk of the game's development.
Nevertheless Shining in the Darkness was a success for the company, and led to other entries in the Shining franchise, most notably the next game, Shining Force.
Versions
Localised names
Language | Localised Name | English Translation |
---|---|---|
English | Shining in the Darkness | Shining in the Darkness |
English (US) | Shining in the Darkness | Shining in the Darkness |
Japanese | シャイニング&ザ・ダクネス | Shining and the Darkness |
Production credits
- Written and Produced by: Hiroyuki Takahashi
- Special Effects: Yasuhiro Taguchi
- Assistant Director: Yoshinori Tagawa, Bob Timbello
- Artwork and Design: Hidehiro Yoshida
- Outline and Storyboards: Yoshitaka Tamaki
- Music: Masahiko Yoshimura
- Visual Support: Ryutaro Ishimatsu
- Technical Support: Haruki Kodera
- Director: Kan Naitoh
- Special Thanks: Media Mixture, Mad Cap
- Executive Producer: Sega Enterprises
- Created by: Climax
Digital manuals
Magazine articles
- Main article: Shining in the Darkness/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
also published in:
- Mega Drive Fan (JP) #14: "March 1991" (1991-02-08)[11]
also published in:
- Mega Drive Fan (JP) #15: "April 1991" (1991-03-08)[12]
Artwork
Physical scans
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86 | |
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Based on 19 reviews |
Mega Drive, US |
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External links
- Sega of Japan Virtual Console pages: Mega Drive
- Nintendo catalogue pages: US, UK
- Shining in the Darkness on Steam
References
- ↑ File:CGW US 091.pdf, page 22
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 File:SegaPro UK 01.pdf, page 9
- ↑ File:CVG UK 120.pdf, page 83
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/yCO37nvA4Ck5A7m_G3GEmGBstzt3YuTZ (archived: 2010-11-23 02:24)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 http://www.nintendolife.com/games/megadrive/shining_in_the_darkness (archived: 2017-10-31 18:34)
- ↑ https://archive.is/6BApK
- ↑ https://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/vc/software/03.html (archived: 2018-03-06 00:26)
- ↑ http://vc.sega.jp:80/vc_shiningdarkness/ (archived: 2007-06-10 16:58)
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 http://steamdb.info/app/71161/ (archived: 2013-05-22 20:00)
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 https://steamdb.info/app/71161/ (archived: 2017-05-25 05:33)
- ↑ File:Megadrive Fan 1991-03.pdf, page 2
- ↑ File:Megadrive Fan 1991-04.pdf, page 2
- ↑ File:BeepMD_JP_1991-04.pdf, page 31
- ↑ File:SSM_JP_19950901_1995-09.pdf, page 85
- ↑ File:Joystick FR 022.pdf, page 121
- ↑ File:MegaTech UK 01.pdf, page 80
- ↑ File:MeanMachines UK 14.pdf, page 112
- ↑ File:PlayerOne FR 015.pdf, page 58
- ↑ File:SegaPower UK 46.pdf, page 98
- ↑ File:SegaPro UK 01.pdf, page 58
- ↑ File:SegaPro UK 06.pdf, page 28
- ↑ File:SegaForce UK 01.pdf, page 52
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- Shining in the Darkness
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