AUTHOR: SEGA RELEASE: 1997 TYP: RPG SPIELER: 1 LEVEL: - SPRACHE: Englisch WERT: 40€

Die Schöpfer der legendären „Shining“ - Serie, Team Sonic, präsentieren das größte Abenteuer ihrer Laufbahn. Ein packendes Epos, in dem Gut und Böse aufeinanderprallen. Ein gigantisches Mysterium in excellenter 3D-Grafik mit atemberaubenden Kampfsequenzen und endlosen Rätseln. Die neue Dimension des Abenteuers für alle SATURN-Besitzer!

SEGA Magazin Ausgabe 7/1997: ^{[Grafik: 84% Sound: 80% Gesamt: 90%]}
RPG-Herz, was willst Du mehr? Wunderschönes 3D-Rollenspiel mit atmosphärischer Grafik, spannenden Dungeons, einer Vielzahl an Gegnern und Zaubersprüchen sowie einem Umfang & Schwierigkeitsgrad, der wochenlangen Spielspaß garantiert.
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Part of the Shining game universe, „Shining the Holy Ark“ is a pure console-style RPG (unlike Shining Force games, that were strategy/RPG hybrids). You play the role of a young swordsman Arthur, who decided to work as a mercenary for various people needing his services. On his first mission, his boss sends him to a mine, in order to find and punish a renegade ninja who has escaped from him. However, an accident occurs that makes Arthur realize that he'll have to do much more than your usual mercenary assignment, and that there is a true evil in the world that must be defeated at all costs. The game features 3D graphics and utilizes first-person perspective for dungeons and battles. The turn-based battles are of a traditional Japanese RPG kind, except the addition of „Pixie System“. In various places in the game you can find pixies who can later be used as allies in battles. www.Mobygames.com

Looking back, Shining the Holy Ark is one good rpg from the people of Sega. When I first got this game, I was happy cause I'm a big Shining fan but then I found out it was a first person view rpg game. I'm not a big fan of first person view games so my happyness turned into disappointment. But to my surprised, this is the only first person view game that I truly enjoy playing. This game is very much like the first Shining game, Shining in the Darkness. Well on with the review. The story starts off with 3 mercenaries (Arthur, Melody, and Forte) heading toward a cave to try and capture a renegade ninja by the name of Rodi. During the initial first fight between Rodi and the three mercenaries, a spaceship crash and knock everyone out. The occupants of the spaceship are spirit beings. One of the spirit however is an evil spirit which decided to repossess one of the human bodies. Forte is the human that was possess by the evil spirit. The new evil Forte takes off. The other three humans were badly injured so the remaining good spirits decided to possess their bodies too but give them free will. With the humans recovering their full health thanks to the good spirits, Rodi, Arthur, and Melody decided to set off to track down Forte to free him of the evil spirit that possess his body. So this is how your story quest begins. The story isn't very strong here. You have a few story cut scene here and there but the overrall story takes a back seat to the gameplay and dungeon exploring. Still there's enough of a plotline to get you by plus an added mystery plot that won't be resolve until Shining Force 3. Shining the Holy Ark gives us many characters and unique ones too to choose from. Unfortunately these characters have very little background developement added to them or originality. I mean 80 to 90% of the cast are all mercenaries here. The characters are great to choose from for fights but not so good in terms of helping the storyline.
The graphics are all in 3-D with animation 3-D characters. The 3-D characters and monsters are excellently done with great detail added to them. The background are done nicely too. The only really downside is the fact that the colors aren't as nice as you want it to be. Still one of the Saturn best graphical games out there.
The music in the game are very good. Most of the tunes are nice and everything but the thing that sticks out the most is the sound effects. Especially the sound effects that the monsters make. Man, those kind of sound just freaks me out sometimes. Very realistic sound and music just right for the key moments in this game. Still, I wish there was a musical tune that really stick out that makes you remember this game.
The gameplay is pretty much basic turn base rpg stuff with two exceptions. Everything is in first person view mode and the use of pixies system. […] In the end the gameplay is very basic turn base rpg stuff. Explore dungeons and fight monsters. Despite this being basic stuff, you can find yourself enjoying this game quite alot.[…]
Shining the Holy Ark may not seem like much compare to today's rpgs but it can still give you a good time. It's definetly a game that can be called underrated. It's a shame that not too many rpgers today will know anything about it. www.rpgdreamer.com (by Chi Phan)