Any Fans of Shining Force?

[bm2x]

So, I have been toying with the idea of making a Shining Force inspired game.  I like the idea of a game that lets you build an army out of 1/3 of the possible characters and despite the story remaining the same, gameplay wildly varies depending on which characters you choose, grinding, and good old RNJesus!

 

To that end, I was looking at how limited my programming knowledge is literally too limited do this from the ground up.  I was poking around and found this site:

 

http://www.shiningsource.org/downloads/

 

...and I saw they have an engine and battle system.  Was wondering if anyone has ever had any experience with any of this, or either of these 2 dealios, or anything constructive to add.

[myuhinny]

I remember playing one of them I just can't remember which one it took a long time to get anywhere once you started getting more characters and you started leveling up more and getting the mages and magic users attack grid bigger to hit more enemies at one time and then later sending out one character to get the most xp from the battle before zipping back to town to repeat. I remember it had a round creature/dragon like creature that was strong as fuck could take lots of damage and could spew flames but had low health and was a fucking pansy to any magic user which usually killed it in one hit.

[bm2x]

Yeah, that was the second game in the series.  

 

Honestly, the 2nd was easier, because the game let stats go over 100 (the first topped out at 99, equipment and attacks boots were useless) and by level 20 at least 3 characters had over 100 hit points.  Blah blah blah.  

 

The first game I feel like was better overall because of how the division of classes fell down.  Like you could make an entire team of knights ...plus the hero.  Or an entire team of unique sprite characters (overpowered BTW) or magic users or ...you get the idea.  The first game also had the advantage of an endless spawn mechanic at the final battle where you got a half level for each kill.  The second game lacks anything close to this, and at about level 35-40 your characters stop getting anything noteworthy no matter what you kill.

 

I feel like being able to make a similar style rts/deployment style game, but being able to adjust the experience/level gains and all that, I can make a game that is enjoyable and balanced, without the tedium of having to constantly retreat/grind to hopefully finally make that turtle worthwhile.

 

 

...and because I know you care so hard, no, the turtle never got any better. ?