Shining Force CD

The gameplay mechanics are identical to those of the Shining Force Gaiden games. The player progresses through a series of turn-based tactical battles interspersed with short cutscenes. Between cutscenes, the player is allowed to save the game, promote characters, resurrect fallen characters, and sometimes buy and sell weapons and healing items.

Shining Force CD is divided into four "Books" that can be played sequentially or separately. The first two Books contain the adapted versions of the Gaiden games. The other two Books are new scenarios exclusive to Shining Force CD that continue the story of those games.

The ambassador of Cypress, Woldol, pays a visit to Guardiana (erroneously written as "Gardiana" here) and presents a jeweled box as a gift for Queen Anri. Opening the box places her under a sleep spell, which Woldol declares that only King Edmond of Cypress can awaken her from. Guardiana launches an invasion of Cypress in retaliation, but a month passes and no word is heard from the Guardiana army.

The player controls Nick, a visitor, who is chosen to be the new leader of the Guardiana Shining Force. The party travels to the kingdom of Cypress to rescue Guardiana's captive soldiers and find a way to cure Queen Anri. On their journey, they are joined by members of the Cypress resistance force, who are fighting to free Cypress from the influence of Woldol, who murdered the rightful king and installed Edmond as a puppet ruler in service to the evil god Iom. The Guardiana army also learns that Nick is, in fact, the son of the late king.

On release, GamePro gave Shining Force CD a mixed review. They praised the quality of the strategic gameplay and graphics perspectives but were critical of the fact that the game doesn't significantly differ from its predecessors Shining Force and Shining Force II in either of those elements. A reviewer for Next Generation, while concurring that the game differs little from its predecessors in the mechanics, felt that the new content was enough to keep the game fresh even to fans of the series. Citing the exciting battles, detailed fight animations, and sense of exploration, he deemed Shining Force CD a must-have for Sega CD owners and gave it four out of five stars.

Retro Gamer included this "almost overwhelming" and "epic" title among their top ten Mega CD games. Though Next Generation listed all the Genesis and Sega CD entries of the Shining series collectively as number 77 on their list of the "Top 100 Games of All Time", they made special note of Shining Force CD as "one of the largest RPGs ever made".