Shining Wind – the other half of the equation
Sega’s latest addition to the “Shining” series – Shining Wind – just went on sale on Thursday last week. Some of you probably also know that there is currently an anime in the spring season line up called Shining Tears X Wind, the names are no coincidence as the two titles are in fact closely related. While the anime tells the story from the point of view of the hot-blooded Souma (Hoshi Souichiro), the game tells the story from the slightly more timid Kiriya (Ishida Akira). Although some minor execution of the story from the different perspectives do not entirely agree in continuity, the two do seem to be designed from the ground up to compliment each other in painting the entire scope of the plot. While these types of simultaneous cross-media promotion had always happened in the forms of anime/manga/drama CD, a cross promotion between anime and game is an interesting evolution to this formula as no doubt they have realised that there is major cross-over between the two demographic of anime watchers and gamers. It’s a hook that worked on us at seiyuu3, as we have found ourselves putting the mediocre anime back on our watch list, and finding the experience much more enjoyable then when the two works were taken separately.
For the gameplay, the real time action-based battle system of the game is fairly straight forward and is easy enough to not punish the casual players, which is a logical move as the point of the game is really about moving the plot forward rather than dwelling in the RPG battle mechanics. There is a visual novel like element which let the player engage in unlocking mini story-arcs of the characters in the team in order to level up the character’s “Soul Blade”, which are said to be a materialisation of the owner’s emotions. The mini-arcs are not even limited to females, so some fangirls who are into pairings will no doubt get a kick out of it as well (though I’m bothered by the beastialities). It’s not an entirely new concept game design wise mixing strategy with adventure, personally I find it like they took some Langrisser and tone down the battle system and topped it off with a little Sakura Taisen. The result is a game that’s neither hardcore battle nor hardcore adventure.
Of course, this franchise first came on the seiyuu3 radar in no small part due to the extravagant seiyuu cast. Practically all of our top favourite names are here – Mizuki Nana, Horie Yui, Kawasumi Ayako, Kuwashima Houko, etc., the list goes on and on. The opening theme song Heart-shaped Chant by Nana-chan (available on the Secret Ambition single), a great song as it is, had now found a permanent spot on the daily playlist. It had also became a ritual to sit through the opening animation whenever the game is fired up for play.
For those wondering about the banner art, it’s a campaign run by Sega which gives sites hosting the banner art a chance to win some seiyuu goodies. Yes, we want those, badly. ;)
November 17th, 2009 at 04:26
I know you’ve already told me what you thought of the game, but maybe you could post a full review of the game in English here, since it’s never going to be localized in English.
Thank you very much for adding romaji versions of the seiyuus you talk about on your blog.
Oh, is there a way to mute that annoying “countdown clock” ad? The ticking noise is infuriating, especially if you use Firefox and try to open up several tabs of this blog at the same time because the noise builds on itself.
Thanks again for your time and effort. Looking forward to seeing news of Shizuka Itou soon.