Shining the Holy Ark

The Shining series is one of SEGA's pillars in the RPG genre, and Shining the Holy Ark is its entry onto the 32-bit Saturn. Instead of the tactical battles that made the Shining Force offshoot famous, this time we venture into the dark corridors of a first-person dungeon crawler. It's an atmospheric and often underrated game that carries within it a piece of classic Japanese fantasy magic.

The gameplay is built on first-person dungeon exploration and turn-based combat, in which you face enemies that appear while wandering through intricate environments. You collect gear, strengthen your party and gradually uncover a story interwoven with the wider Shining world. An important role is also played by the so-called Arc Friends, magical beings that assist you in battle and lend the system its own depth. The game places emphasis on atmosphere, music and storytelling, typical of the genre at the time.

In development terms, the game was made by a team connected with the Shining series, and its story is tied to a universe that later installments would develop further. As a platform, the Saturn allowed for a richer presentation with polished 3D effects in the dungeons and elaborate character portraits, which gave the dungeon crawler genre a modern gloss for its time.

Culturally, Shining the Holy Ark is interesting in that it extends the renowned brand into a different subgenre and shows its flexibility. For fans of the series it's a link between the individual installments, and for lovers of Japanese RPGs on the Saturn it's one of the titles that deserve attention, even if they never attained the fame of the platform's biggest hits.

Today it's a game prized mainly among genre connoisseurs and collectors who appreciate its atmosphere, soundtrack and honest dungeon-crawler foundations. It's a piece of history that reminds us how diverse the Shining brand could be and how rich the Saturn's RPG library was.

Why play: An atmospheric dungeon crawler from the Shining universe that shows a different face of the famous RPG brand on the Saturn.