This is another one of those rare RPGs for me where I actually like the gameplay and oddly it became a greater motivator for me to progress through the game than the story. I didn't really have any expectations playing the Shining Force I & II but found myself really enjoying the simple but satisfying turn based strategy RPG gameplay. Each battle takes place on a large map that consists of an invisible grid of squares where one character can occupy a square at a time. Different terrain affects how far certain characters can move on their turns. Different characters can attack in different directions or ranges. It's like playing chess in a way. Eventually you gain a very large team to control as you fight an even larger number of enemies along with the occasional boss. There are no random battles to waste your time and you only engage in story battles (with a possible minor exception in the second game). At first I was wondering how you level up or upgrade stats without random battles. I didn't realize in the beginning that all experience gained during battle is kept up to the point that you escape or die. If you ever need to grind you just repeat the next story battle and escape. Actually the second game does have some areas where random battles can occur but they are completely optional in that you can always just escape or reset to avoid them.

Story in both games is just okay. Both are simple but the second game does at least have a few surprises along the way. Although there is not much characterization, the character designs are cool and varied. Apparently the fact that there is an overworld and towns to explore and NPCs to talk to to progress the story is out of the norm for strategy RPGs. I enjoyed this aspect quite a bit and in the second game all areas are interconnected in one big map so you can eventually backtrack to almost all areas, which is an improvement over the first game. It's in towns that you will recruit more characters and it's possible to miss some if you don't explore or follow-through on the info you get from townsfolk. In the first game it's actually possible to miss one of the strongest characters if not the strongest in the game.

I think both games are worth playing and hold up pretty well even today but the 2nd game while having very similar gameplay has small improvements that actually improve the experience a lot as a whole. Although the second game does have one or two points in the story where one can get stuck which isn't the case in the first game which is very straightforward. I also think the second game has better music too. The first game has some nice tracks but I found that I liked more of them in the second game with a few being especially memorable.