From: kendrick@nospam.io   
      
   In article <752a9$4647aa2e$4b75f16b$14945@ALLTEL.NET>,   
   dave  wrote:   
   >"Kendrick Kerwin Chua"  wrote in message   
   >news:H_idnVj5ifCqg9vbnZ2dnUVZ_rbinZ2d@io.com...   
   >>   
   >> Anybody play both Shining Force EXA and Shining Force Neo yet? I couldn't   
   >> get into Neo for some reason, but I'm really enjoying EXA. And now I'm   
   >> reading that the one game reuses a lot of the backgrounds and environments   
   >> from the other. This is strange to me, because EXA feels like a brand new   
   >> game and Neo feels like a Diablo retread.   
       
   >   
   >So how is Shining Force EXA?  Is looks similar to Grandia.  Is it something   
   >worth picking up?   
      
   Not quite like Grandia, more like Diablo. On the surface, it looks like a   
   grind-fest with an overabundance of inventory management and customization.   
   But if you manage to get past the first chapter you'll find the best   
   Shining game of the action-RPG variety, with a decent amount of challenge   
   and some nice surprises. If you're looking for a traditional PS-style   
   party RPG or a tactical Shining game, this isn't it. It's an action-RPG,   
   but it's one of the better ones I've played and it's held my interest all   
   weekend.   
      
   One of the challenges of pen-and-paper RPG games is when your party is   
   split up, and your one game master has to alternate between two sets of   
   characters. This mechanism is used pretty cleverly in Shining Force EXA to   
   keep the gameplay from getting stale or repetitive. You always have two   
   parties, one in the field and one at your home base. If your party in the   
   field takes too long to accomplish its goal, then your party at home gets   
   attacked by a wandering random encounter (which is typically a rampaging   
   horde of bomb-throwing, beer swilling orcs numbering in the hundreds or   
   so.) If you lose the base you also lose the game, so you're always racing   
   the clock or paying the price for dawdling. I prefer to let those   
   encounters happen so that I can level up in a nice, controlled way.   
      
   You can switch the characters in each party at will, and sometimes you get   
   a little early warning for those attacks. In those instances, you can make   
   use of a super duper teleporter to warp home and change out your personnel,   
   so that the right combination of fighters are ready.   
      
   I like it so far, a lot more than I did Shining Force Neo. Maybe I'm not   
   spoiled by having played the first game through, but I'm told that EXA   
   addresses a lot of the complaints about Neo. Once I'm done, I may go back   
   and give the first game another chance.   
      
   -KKC, who also got the Bemani game this weekend.   
   --   
   -- ...Durante la batalla, espias rebeldes lograron robar -  kendrick   
   los planos secretos del arma mas extrema del Imperio,    -   @io.com   
   la ESTRELLA DE LA MUERTE, una estacion espacial blindada -   
   con suficiente potencia para destruir un planeta entero. -   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)