2004 · Action role-playing · Role-playing

Shining Tears

PlayStation exclusive

Shining Tears is an old-school Action RPG set in the Shining universe (previous games include Shining in the Darkness and the Shining Force Trilogy). You play Xion, a hero who is drawn into saving the City of Shilidia from a formerly peaceful neighbor due to his possession of the powerful Twin Dragon Rings. This sets the stage for an epic RPG storyline with fun characters and big surprises.

Released: 3 November 2004
Platforms: PlayStation 2
Genres: Action role-playing Role-playing
Developers: —
Publishers: —
Series: Shining
Modes: Single-player
Themes: Action
Country: Japan
Age ratings: ESRB T

About

Shining Tears (シャイニング・ティアーズ, Shainingu Tiāzu) is an action role-playing game co-developed by Nextech and Amusement Vision and published by Sega in 2004 for the PlayStation 2 as a part of the Shining video game series. It tells the story of a mysterious boy named Xion.

An anime adaptation for the game was announced by Sega, entitled Shining Tears X Wind. It was produced by Studio Deen and began airing in early April 2007. A sequel, Shining Wind, was released in 2007, with return appearances by all the main characters of Shining Tears.

Keywords

anime
magic
class-based
amnesia
shopping
bow and arrow
non-player character
melee
adapted to - anime

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Shining Tears is an action role-playing game. In each stage, the player advances by killing all the enemies before advancing to the next area. The enemy side wins if they kill the player character, Xion, or if the player chooses to escape. As with other Shining games, players can grind for levels and items by repeatedly escaping from a mission and restarting it, killing enemies and collecting items each time.

Xion is supported by a partner character. The partner character is largely AI-controlled, but at any time the player can take control of the partner character's movement using the second analog stick, lock them into place, or execute certain simple commands such as link skills. Shining Tears also allows a second player to control the partner character for cooperative multiplayer, but only when replaying previously completed stages.

Story

In the beginning of the story, an elven girl named Elwyn finds Xion washed up on the shore of a river. She checks if he is still alive and as she looks, a ring falls by the water. As Elwyn tries to take it, she sees that Xion is on the verge of death so she takes him quickly to the village doctor, Pios. When Xion wakes up, he finds himself in The Heroes' Hearth, the tavern of the town Heroes' Way.

He is then confronted by Pios and Elwyn, questioning him on what happened. He says he cannot remember and only vaguely remembers his name. The two introduce themselves to him and he finds both his hands have two strange rings. They will not come off his hands as Pios tries to investigate the rings.

Reception

The game received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of one eight, one seven, and two eights for a total of 31 out of 40.