Did the Light Shine in the Darkness?

Shining in the Darkness

Well, I thought it was about time to give some idea of what kind of games I've been playing for that little contest I've mentioned. Rather than start at the beginning, I thought I'd start at the end. This was the most recent game I've beaten, number 60 if you're counting, and it was certainly a step into uncharted territory for me.

I'd never played a game like Shining in the Darkness, mostly because I didn't know about it for a long time.
During the Genesis days, my whole library could have easily been counted on one hand, and it mainly consisted of Sonic the Hedgehog, The Aquatic Games, and a few Disney titles. It was only until the PlayStation 3 and a little strategy guide told me about this game did I give Shining a shot.

Now, for those of you unfamiliar with this game, I'll boil it down. Your character, which you can name and which you never see, is tasked with unraveling the mystery behind the disappearance of a princess and your own father. Actually, there's not much to unravel as the evil sorcerer, Dark Sol clears it all up. He has kidnapped the princess and is holding her hostage in his lair, the Labyrinth as something of a trade for her father. Basically, it's her for his crown. So, now, you must brave 4 trials to prove yourself worthy of reaching the highest levels of the Labyrinth to face Dark Sol.

So, what did I think of this game? Well, let's see...

For starters, I thought this was an interesting game for the Genesis era. I've never seen too many first-person dungeon crawlers before, although I've seen my share of first-person games. I generally tried to avoid them because I always walked off a ledge, but that never happened in Shining. Mainly because there are no ledges to walk off of. Although, there were moments where I wanted to.

I don't know about you, but I always found the random encounters a bit repetitive. Yeah, that's the whole point in RPG's, but when you're trying to get through a long hallway, it gets a bit old, and this was especially noticeable on the higher levels. And since you have to repeat that long hallway every time you leave the Labyrinth, which you must do to recover your MP, having to claw your way back just to move forward got on my nerves. Of course, your nerves are probably harder than mine. As I'm fond of saying, my nerves are made of Jell-O.

Now, once you get up a lot of levels, you start to feel more powerful, as a player. I don't know about you, but I felt pretty proud mowing down bunches of enemies without a problem as I reached higher levels. When my character got to about 60, I was real proud of what I could do. Of course, those mini-bosses could sure bring me down to size, and there were plenty of them.

One thing that actually surprised me about this game was what happened after I rescued the princess. Maybe I'm just so used to princesses along the line of Peach and Zelda, but after springing her from her cell, my first thought was, "you spoiled little brat." I'll tell you why too. First words out of her 'mouth' were how she was just dying for a bath. For the first time, I found myself thinking, "Dark Sol can keep her." Your dad's kingdom is in danger, and all you want is a bath. Yep, I don't think you can get more spoiled than that.

All in all, I thought this game had the feel of one of those old-time paper adventure games, where you write down an action and this keeps up. I never played one, but I heard things anyway. For me, Shining in the Darkness felt like what I imagined one of those games be like, just on a screen and with a controller in hand instead of a pencil.

Did I like this game? I did. Will I try any of the other Shining games? Probably. Will I play other games in this genre, the first-person dungeon crawler? Probably not. It's just not me. But I'd say for a first shot, this was a good one.

So, what about you, if any of you have played this game or games like it? What did you think of them? Did you share in some of my difficulties, or did you find it easier?