Camelot Software Planning unleashed the massively ambitious Shining Force 3 trilogy in Japan over a 12-month span starting December 1997. The trilogy comprises three SRPG “scenarios” featuring 30+ battles apiece, played from the perspective of opposing heroes. Once a scenario is completed, players leverage their save file to begin the next one, preserving choices they’ve made that impact the overall narrative.
Gameplay alternates between in-town sections and grid-based strategy battles with the player controlling a force of up to 12 individual fighters. With a story deliciously more nuanced than earlier Shining games, the trilogy features dozens of characters with complex backstories and motives, stellar visual pizzazz, an excellent soundtrack, and delightful presentation.
The first Scenario was officially localized as part of the last wave of Western Saturn games in 1998, but the story was altered to make it more of a standalone adventure, as the remaining scenarios remained untranslated. However, fear not: Legalize Freedom, Knight0fDragon and team have earned their final promotions — and then some! — by not only translating Scenarios 2, 3, and the Premium Disc, but also re-translating Scenario 1 to better represent the original script. They continue work on perfecting the trilogy in what is unquestionably the longest “labor of love” fan translation project in the Saturn’s history.
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