Together Retro: Shining Force

[noiseredux]

can someone explain Promoting to me, now?

EDIT: starting Chapter 3!

[Jmustang1968]

can someone explain Promoting to me, now?

EDIT: starting Chapter 3!

After level 10, your characters can be promoted to their advanced classes. Characters can only get to level 20 max on their initial classes.

One thing to consider, when getting experience with your promoted class, the game looks at what level you are on your promoted class to give experience.

So if you promoted at 10 or 20, and you are a promoted class level 5, you will get the same exp regardless. However a character promoted at 20 will have 10 more levels of stat growth than the one promoted at 10.

On melee classes it isn't as big of a deal, since more stat growth occurs at the promoted class. You will also run into weapons that need your guys to be promoted in order to use...

For casters, it effects them more. You learn spells based on your overall level which means pre-promoted level + post promoted level. So say your mage learns a spell at level 35. If you promoted at level 10, you have to be level 25 promoted to learn the spell. If you promoted at level 20, you have to be level 15 promoted to learn it. Like I said before, if you promote spellcasters at level 10, you arent likely to get your top end spells before end game.

I would say you can promo at 15ish for melee and 20 for casters to be safe. Can you beat the game promoing at 10? sure, but you will probably be relying more on your few end game elite characters a lot more.

[SpaceBooger]

can someone explain Promoting to me, now?

EDIT: starting Chapter 3!

When your character reaches level 10 you can promote them to a different more powerful and prestigious class. Max, or whatever you named him, is promoted from a swordsman to a hero. By promoting the characters look different and get new stats, some are lower than where the character was when promoted but leveling up after promoted ups the stats much faster than before.
I have read to not promote until level 20 since there is an equation that is used for stats. I do know that if you promote most magic users before level 15 there will be spells that they will not access.

The thing is, it is BEST to promote at level 20. You get a whole extra *10*
levels of stat gains (some very big), and then when you promote, you lose a
small percentage of stats (not as bad as if you promoted at level 10), and have
a whole 10 levels to easily gain (with even higher stat increases since your
promoted) before you're 'caught up' with your level 20 experience cap (and
those enemies once again give you meager experience).

If you promote at level 10, not only will you not get any 'easy level ups'
(because the enemies you're fighting are at your level 10, and by promoting,
you become in essence, level 11, rather than going from level 20 to level 11 at
a later stage), but your stats get really bad for that stage in the game, and
you will have to struggle through a couple fights, and also the rest of the
game will be much harder, as your stats will never peak like they would if you
promoted at level 20...
text from here

[bobbypaycheque]

I am not that far into the game, but so far it is a great little gem I missed because I never owned a Genesis. I'm playing it on the Dreamcast as it is on the Sega Smash Vol. 1 collection and it is so far a pretty fun and engrossing SRPG.

[Jmustang1968]

I am not that far into the game, but so far it is a great little gem I missed because I never owned a Genesis. I'm playing it on the Dreamcast as it is on the Sega Smash Vol. 1 collection and it is so far a pretty fun and engrossing SRPG.

If you like this one, play 2 afterwards. It is even better imo. 3 is great too, many think it is the best in the series.

[Breetai]

Just got through the first battle of Chapter 5. This isn't taking nearly as long as I thought it would. I'm promoting at lvl 14 for everybody. Ken is a beast now.

I was going to promote everyone at lvl 20, but... since I restarted, F-it. I'm promoting at lvl 10!

BTW, Ken sucks after promotion. He rocks before, but after promotion his stats just do not go up much compared to other centaurs. Mae gets good, though. She is an absolute tank. Arthur is definitely the best once promoted (but shit before). Take the time to build him up. You will not regret it. Likewise with Khris (sucks at first, but gets great later on).


I've owned the Genesis cart since it came out in 1993 and have played it through quite a few times. Love this game.


As for spells you miss if you promote at lvl 10, I think it's some of the major ones like aura4. Nothing essential, but mostly awesome spells that take up most of the user's MP.

[kingbuzzo]

lvl 8 Mawlock joined my party at the start of the game. I don't remember that from the first playthrough...

Did you do a new game +? If so, the difficulty is ramped and you get mawlock from the beginning

Yes... yes I did.

The GBA version is superior in every way save for sound and graphics imo. Yes there's a larger colour palette, but it lost a lot of the darker feel found in the MD version.

Also, this might have been posted already but Shining Force Central is a great site for all things shining.

[Xeogred]

GBA version sounds intriguing, but I just started the Genesis version and I'm really digging the look and sound. So I'll stick with it.

Started it up and did the first two battles, I'm really digging the vibe here. Any other tips for a new player? Also when people die in this game, are they dead for good or...? I kind of have to be a perfectionist in SRPG's sometimes or the Fire Emblem games, so I wonder if this game is like that or if characters can be revived at the priest or something? That'll take a load off if they can be killed in battle but brought back later, lol.

What does the Angel item do? Guess I could look that one up.

@noise: I still find it a little funny how you don't seem too big on JRPG/WRPG's (Chrono Trigger took you forever haha) but you really love these SRPG's. If you haven't dude I bet you'd love the first two Arc the Lad games. They connect as one huge game, so you'll have like 30-40 characters in Arc 2, that game you can actually walk around in towns and area's so it's more engaging in that way, and the whole game is just a blast. I think you'd really dig it. It's a bit faster paced than FFT/TO as well so that's nice.

[TEKTORO]

Just got to chapter 7,seems like Im doing a chapter a day which doesnt feel like overkill. Chapter 6 theres a nice little plot twist which I wont spoil,and man that was a long chapter.Probably play something else for the rest of the night and chill for a bit.

[TEKTORO]

GBA version sounds intriguing, but I just started the Genesis version and I'm really digging the look and sound. So I'll stick with it.

Started it up and did the first two battles, I'm really digging the vibe here. Any other tips for a new player? Also when people die in this game, are they dead for good or...? I kind of have to be a perfectionist in SRPG's sometimes or the Fire Emblem games, so I wonder if this game is like that or if characters can be revived at the priest or something? That'll take a load off if they can be killed in battle but brought back later, lol.

What does the Angel item do? Guess I could look that one up.

@noise: I still find it a little funny how you don't seem too big on JRPG/WRPG's (Chrono Trigger took you forever haha) but you really love these SRPG's. If you haven't dude I bet you'd love the first two Arc the Lad games. They connect as one huge game, so you'll have like 30-40 characters in Arc 2, that game you can actually walk around in towns and area's so it's more engaging in that way, and the whole game is just a blast. I think you'd really dig it. It's a bit faster paced than FFT/TO as well so that's nice.

-Stick with the genesis version no need to go out of your way both are great.
-Characers can come back to life at church from the priest cost money.
-Angel Item warps you back to town,you still retain your xp.
-Arc the lad collection is Insane SRPG must have!!