New Shining Force To Rustle Its "Feathers" On DS

Once upon a time, when the streets were still filled with rage and axes were still golden, Sega was a company associated with high quality games. Sonic was still fast, and still in only two dimensions, a green man made entirely of balls blasted his way into our hearts, and a tactical RPG called Shining Force broke onto the scene with strategic gameplay and well developed characters. And though Sega has tried its hardest to make us forget those times by releasing hack-'n-slash abominations to the Shining Force name on the PS2 (I'm looking at you Neo and EXA) there are still those of us who remember when Sega was synonymous with RPG greatness.

But it looks like Sega is now trying to recapture its past glory, as it has announced a new entry in the Shining Force series for the DS, dubbed Shining Force Feather. The story centers around a young treasure hunter named Jin as he finds a young girl while exploring some ruins. It turns out that the girl, named Alfeen, is a machine remnant from a war 3,000 years in the past, and the key to controlling a magic airship (which fans of Shining Force 2 might recognize as the Nazca ship). Together with Jin's childhood friend, the centaur Bail, they set off on an adventure which I can only assume will culminate in the saving of the world (as these adventures often do).

Battles play out in a mix between tactical and action elements that will have you moving your characters around an overhead map. The action comes in when encountering an enemy as the game shifts to a side-scrolling view that plays out similarly to games like Valkyrie Profile and the Tales of series. Sega has outsourced development of the game to Flight Plan, who is known for its criminally under-appreciated Summon Night series. Anime fans will also be interested to know that character designs for Shining Force Feather are being done by Noiji Ito of Haruhi Suzumiya fame.

Needless to say, I am beyond excited. Shining Force 2 was the first RPG I ever played, and the quest to find other games like it led me to become the gamer and game news junkie I am today. Without exaggeration, I would not be a gamer without the Shining Force series. Currently the game is slated for a Spring 2009 release in Japan, but please Sega, bring Shining Force Feather to the states. You already broke my heart once by only releasing one-third of Shining Force 3 in English, don't do this again.

New Shining Force Set For DS [IGN]