Shining Wisdom - Sega Saturn

I got a great deal on this game almost half the price of what most people are asking for this game CIB a game works and he came right at the perfect time for my birthday thank you

Writing this review because Amazon DEMANDS it. I received multiple emails asking me to review this product, even though it was simply bought as a Christmas gift. So, here you go.

Shining Wisdom is a little collector's gem. From the Shining Franchise it is presented as a "zelda overhead" type of fighting instead of the traditional "animated-cut scene tactical fighting" that the series was familiar using. Because of this, fans were skeptical of this game and often called it the "Black Sheep" of the series, just as fans were skeptical of Zelda Wind-Waker. I think this game has been under-rated because of that, but its a fun game to play. You start out as Mars, the hero of the game who is completely mute (except for one scene where he is thinking out loud in the royal tomb...). Due to your father's greatness, you must become a Knight and so you leave your grandparents to fill your destiny's shoes. However, it's not as peaceful as Mars thought it was.Princess of Odin, Satera has fallen under the evil spell of the dark elf. This beauty has been in a coma ever since and her father is hopeless of curing his daughter. It is up to Mars to save Satera, and ultimately, Odin from the destruction of the Dark Hand.By today's standards the cut-scenes are laughable. You will see bulky, almost play-dough/chibi-like cutscenes of the characters in the very beginning of the game's play. Everything is presented in this almost chib-like fashion, as both monsters and npc's nearly look like midgets running around on-screen. The gameplay graphics itself aren't bad, and were pretty advance for the sega-saturn, especially when Mars uses a special attack with an item. You can stomp on the screen, causing the screen to shake, or call down lighting to zap everything in sight. You can also freeze water, freeze your enemies, and run fast. You can even fly, avoiding ground-like enemies. Mars can even turn into a monkey and climb up vines. So you can choose what you want to tinker with in the game's weapon and item category.The enemies themselves are pretty standard, you have ghost, pigs, snail-things, etc. A couple of interesting enemies are the "mimic" doors you have to fight to advance in other rooms, and on a certain area in odin world-map you can't avoid flying monkeys. These annoying spandex freaks drop bombs everywhere, and the only way to really get rid of them is to use the boxing-gloves. The boss-battles require some strategy, as some battles will be on complete ice or ontop of a towering pillar in the sky.The World-Map and dungeons are wide. You'll have plenty of places to go and visit, and I was pleasantly surprised by the expansion of places to go to. However there are more dungeons that there are villages, and a forest. The dungeons aren't lacking however, in the puzzle department. You'll have plenty of time dragging one item into another room, opening doors, and disabling traps.The music. It's no orchestrated soundtrack but it fits into the gameplay, but if you listen to it too much it can become boring after awhile. Nothing really memorable here.I won't spoil the ending, but at the end of the game it left (me) the player wondering and wanting more. I don't feel like the game wrapped itself up totally, there were some loose-strings left unanswered about certain characters that were in the plot of the game. It was almost as if the game was designed for an upcoming sequel that would never happen...even with "The End".Overall this is a good game and I would recommend it to anyone who is interesting in collecting Sega Saturn games.

I'm not going to post some long review since everyone just looks on YouTube now haha. But I highly recommend this game if you can pick it up at a good price. It's one of those great saturn gems you just have to play. I've been collecting video games for some time now and still play my saturn every day. This game has great graphics for its time and has a wonderful soundtrack. The story is great and it's just an all around highly enjoyable game!