Day Two: The clouds taunt us — rolling in, drifting out, then rolling back in, blanketing the land in a dreary grey made pleasant by the radiant aura shed by our celestial mother. Whilst glimmering frost coats the shingles outside my window, a bitter chill permeates through thin windows and fractured walls. After a long day at work, I settle down into my bed. Likewise, my beloved cat settles down into my arms. With a heavy, satisfied exhale, the breath from my parted lips coalesces with the ever-present vapor in the air to form wispy apparitions. For a fleeting moment, I perceive an eye — or two or three — within the semblance of a face in these translucent visitors, and together we share for a brief moment a sense of understanding of some greater truth. Then, as with all things, my wayward visitors are all too soon gone.

On a happier note, my latest Saturn game arrived in the mail. For a mere $26 plus $10 for shipping (a bargain for such collectible games) I procured my own copy of Shining Force III Scenario 3, at long last completing the series on the Saturn (Shining The Holy Ark, Shining Wisdom, Shining Force III Scenarios 1-3). All in all, the series cost me $100 or so over the years for all five games. The most expensive being the rare Scenario 2 disc.  In spite of what the Saturn haters may say, the Sega Saturn had some of the greatest games ever made. And sure, it’s all in Japanese, but that’s what online translations were made for.

Oh, and for any old fans of the Shining series who are considering the newer games, here is something to bear in mind. Camelot Software Planning — the group headed by Shugo and Hiroyuki Takahashi who developed the Shining series on the Genesis, Game Gear and Saturn, as well as the Mario sports games and the Golden Sun series — stopped making games for the Shining series after Shining Force III, meaning everything from Shining Soul onward was made by outside parties and not considered canon with the Shining universe. Then there’s the fact that the newer games just plain suck. What the hell were they thinking?!

So what happened? While Camelot was developing Scenario 3, they were having issues with the Saturn’s audio hardware. Instead of helping them, Sega told Camelot to give up on the Saturn and focus their efforts on Sega’s newest (and subsequently final) Dreamcast console. Camelot kept it for the Saturn. Consequently, Shining Force III suffered a similar fate as the Super Nintendo RPG Tales Of Phantasia — it was released on an aging system long since abandoned by its parent company and as a result failed to gain its fair share of marketing.  After Camelot abandoned the Shining series, Sega turned the series into an action RPG.

Let’s face it, Shining games without the Takahashis are like Megaman games without Inafune — they’re just not the same.