Shining the Holy Ark
Dungeon Crawler – RPG                                                                                                                                 Sega Saturn
Sega, Sega of Europe, and Sega of America                                                                                                     1996-97

The adventure is about to begin, the quest is set!

 Our hero, Arthur is sent by the King to capture a renegade known as Rodi. He is joined by Forte and Melody, a powerful pair of magic wielding mercenaries.

The outlaw, Rodi has fled to the Desire Mine in an attempt to evade the King’s forces. After arriving at the mine the group discusses the situation with some soldiers outside. After the brief exchange, the trio enters the mine and proceeds to find their quarry. After a pitched battle, Arthur and company finally gain the upper hand and Rodi is overwhelmed. However, just as the final blow is struck a machine of some sort crashes through the ceiling and buries the combatants in debris. While Forte only suffers minor injuries; Arthur, Melody, and Rodi are not so lucky. As the group lies unconscious and in critical condition, an evil spirit attempts to take control of Melody’s body. Fortunately, Forte is not having any of it and blasts the evil spirit with Blazing Fire! The creature is killed and Forte collapses from his wounds. Taking a moment to rest proves a mistake as a second spirit ambushes Forte from behind and takes possession of his body. Both the evil spirit and Forte depart the mine.

 The machine, it seems is some kind of craft, and its occupants return after the evil spirit departs to inspect the three casualties. Arthur, Rodi, and Melody will not survive without immediate aid. The spirits have little choice but to possess the bodies of our heroes, both to heal the fallen and to preserve their own lives as they cannot survive without a host. Unlike the evil spirit that took Forte, these good spirits allow the others to keep their free will, and despite the immediate need to inhabit a host, they telepathically ask permission before settling into their new bodies.

Together they must locate Forte and put a stop to the evil that is beginning in the Kingdom of Enrich.

Shining the Holy Ark is a direct sequel to Shining in the Darkness for the Sega Genesis System and shares many of that game’s key features. Both games are dungeon crawlers and offer a large world to adventure in and explore. All the while searching for loot and attempting to save the world from evil.

Shining the Holy Ark presents itself in a first person perspective and while it is not a “rail shooter” you’re limited in how you move about the world. Think Dungeon Master or Eye of the Beholder. The story does very well when compared to the likes of Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star, etc. and has all the usual elements you’d expect in such a game. The game’s menu system is similar to Dragon Quest but employs a look that reminds us of Wild Arms and similar games. There are the standard rinse and repeat grind that is also present for gaining gold and experience so you can unlock spells (unlike Final Fantasy, you do not buy spells)and purchase better equipment. Due to the high difficulty of the game, you may even have to reenter a dungeon numerous times in order to complete it. It’s always a good idea to keep a stock of Angel Wings in case you are unable to cast Return, this will take you back to the beginning of whatever area you last entered.

The way random encounters behave in this game leads us directly into another fascinating mechanic and further adds to the uniqueness of this game. When encountering an enemy you don’t get moved to a separate battle screen, everything happens in the environment much like a real-time dungeon crawler. Every enemy has a specific way that they appear for example; Trent always spring from the ground, or Blue worms roll in from directly ahead of the players. This is important to note as the player will make use of this mechanic with Pixies.

 The most interesting element has to be the inclusion of Pixies. You get five different types: Fairies, Pixies, Leprechauns, Incubus, and Succubus, there fifty pixies scattered through the game world for you to find and each type can be used to attack enemies before battle. The way it works is enemies all have a direction they will appear from and each pixie type will only engage enemies from a certain direction, so just as a battle begins you have to have the right type selected, and then tap the C-button to launch them into a preemptive strike. If successful you get bonus gold and experience plus an increased chance of item drops!

Combat feels very fun and familiar for RPG fans, and the magical effects are very nice to look at as well. It can be a bit frustrating at times, though, as the animations can take more than a couple seconds to complete, especially when you are trying to flee back to town or just find your way through a maze. These problems are further aggravated with slowdowns during battle due to the special effects and the 3d modeling style used for rendering. This can cause menus to lag occasionally, and the animations to lose a few frames, fortunately, this does not make the combat unbearable and will have no effect on other aspects of gameplay.

The music is high quality with good variety and atmosphere, especially in the dungeons. The way the music increases the tension is very satisfying without being scary or boring. The sound effects are very good quality but, not perfect, there is only one type of enemy death scream and they all use it, every time.

Shining the Holy Ark’s story directly proceeds Shining Force III (in fact some characters make an appearance in that game) which as well as Shining Force II are hailed as the greatest installments in the Shining Series of games. Shining the Holy Ark also has the distinct honor of being the best dungeon crawling turn-based role-playing game to appear on the Sega Saturn, and quite possibly any Sega console in existence. Shining the Holy Ark had it all, great graphics, a fun immersive story, decent sound and music, and moderate replay value (you probably won’t find all the hidden treasures and Pixies on your first playthrough). While it doesn’t add anything new to the genre the game still holds up pretty well even by today’s standards and I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys dungeon crawlers or RPGs in general.

Shining the Holy Ark is available only for Sega Saturn.

 Shining the Holy Ark was first released on Dec. 20, 1996, in Japan and later the UK on June 14, 1997, and the US on June 30 of that year. It was developed by Sonic! Software Planning and Published by Sega, Sega of Europe, and Sega of America respectively.
Shining in the Darkness was originally released on March 29, 1991, by Climax Entertainment and Camelot Software Planning (formally Sonic! Software Planning), and published by Sega. It is available for the Sega Genesis and the Wii.

This has been a fascinating journey for me both because I’m rediscovering a beloved classic as well as taking for the first foray into review writing. I am also currently working on a complete FAQs/Walkthrough for Shining the Holy Ark which I hope you will seek out after reading my review.

I have a deep love for RPGs from the 80’s and 90’s and truly feel like gaming has strayed a bit from the charm and sincerity of that era, everything is for profit these days and we the gamers end up suffering. If you find yourself reading this review and like what you read, please get this game any way you can and try it, you will not be disappointed. Look for more reviews in the future by me.

Utopia570

You managed to write a very good review with "so few" words. I know what the game is about and what I am in for. You gave abundant comparison to other RPGs, which I love since I played most of these games, so I know even more what to expect.

A suggestion, however (in English is your first language): please be careful with punctuation. You separate your verbs and subjects with commas, a big no-no in English. It gets fairly distracting.

janus : Thank you very much for rating my review!

I am very pleased that you found the review comprehensive and helpful. I tried my best to provide as much information as possible without wasting the reader's time. For one brief moment I considered making my review lengthier so I could attain the 2000+ word bonus for Viz, but in the end I felt like doing so would ruin my review and ultimately hurt me.

Thank you for your frank assessment for my lack of English comprehension. I admit I've forgotten a lot of my schooling in the writing department (The irony lies in the fact that I always wanted to be a writer. I have a half-started novel called "The Briar and the Thorn" sitting in a drawer somewhere). I tried to clean up the writing for the review as best I could and I used several text editors to assist me. I will work harder to perfect my writing skills, all I ask is you continue to help me along the way by providing excellent suggestions!

Utopia

Utopia570 : Yeah, I hear you. Even some of my most recent reviews like Sim City (about 1300 words) were short because I honestly could not think of more ways to talk about the game. Besides, "quality over quantity" as they often say .

Okay, so it's been a while since I've been back to this thread but I wanted to come back and fix my review per Janus' observations.

I'd also like to take a moment and thank everyone that comes to read my review. If you've never played the game and my review compels you to try it, great! I'm considering continue to make Reviews and possibly FAQs if people are interested.

Please feel free to let me know what you think. I am always accepting ideas, recommendations and thoughts about any and all games that people might like to see a walkthrough, FAQ or review on.

Thank you all and from the east coast, good night!
Utopia570