I actually finished Shining Ark several days ago at 38 hours and 45 minutes, but then I spent another 6-8 hours doing the Extra chapter and fighting the bonus boss twice, and that’s why I’m only just getting round to reviewing it it. TL;DR version: the game is good, the story makes sense, I liked most of the characters and I had a blast with the bread-making gimmick but the combat was too easy, which was the only fly in the ointment.

38 hours was a nice good length, but I’m sure the game can be finished in under 30 hours if you ignore the character quests (I did all except one), ignore the bread and fish quests (I did all except one) and ignore Arice’s sidequest shop (I did all except one) so it’s not that long a game if you just want to focus on the ‘meat’ of the story.

However if you do focus on the story you might be slightly disappointed because it’s not all ‘deep’ and ‘meaningful’, just a simple “This is the problem we’re having and this is how we’re going to solve it” kind of story with a little environmental and anti-war preaching thrown in on top. I found it quite refreshing actually, especially the last boss battle, which wasn’t your usual moralizing beatdown but more a plea for forgiveness and understanding. I like the game so I’m not going to spoil, but it was a nice change from the usual. The Extra chapter also clears up any lingering questions about a certain character’s origins, so it doesn’t feel as tacked on as most post-game content tends to be.

While on the subject of endings, another possible source of disappointment might be the fact that unlike its predecessors Shining Ark does not have character endings and is not a harem RPG. It’s easy to assume it’s one because of its predecessors were, but not only does Fried turn out to be a one-woman man but also none of the women except Shannon (his sister who is not related to him by blood) are interested in him romantically. There’s even an optional scene where the ladies review all the bachelors in the game and disqualify Fried for being too much of a pushover.

Still, it’s not like any of the other ladies would have stood a chance anyway. The minute the game forced Fried to hold hands with Panis for story reasons it was all over for the poor boy. You can’t expect a teenaged boy to hold hands with a girl in lingerie all day and not develop an interest in holding other body parts as well. It’s a law of nature.

Luckily I like Panis. I like everyone, in fact, except the creepy robot a-Dam. This is the only Shining game where I even like Sakuya/Maxima/Viola as well, mainly because I’ve already seen her in the other games so I know what she’s up to even when she refuses to tell anyone anything. The cast of NPCs was small and some of them fell through the cracks (Rodrigo who?) but there were little skits and amusing scenes that gave life to the village and made it feel worth saving. Sure we’re saving the whole world, but what we’re really saving is the people we care about, and the game establishes that we all care about each other like one big family so of course we’d put our lives on the line to save them. It’s only natural.

Stuff like voice-acting and music and graphics don’t really matter much to me, but Sega did a good job with all three anyway. The VA cast has been uniformly excellent in all three games anyway, so I don’t expect anything less. The music is good, especially since I’m not forced to listen to terrible J-pop (pronounced ‘j-poop’) songs in the middle of battle any more. And of course, bright happy colors make me happy all day long so of course I’m going to give high marks to the graphics. Which reminds me, look at these:

The bread screenshots I forgot to get last time.

Mm, this stuff looks so good. I can feel my waistline expanding just looking at those sandwiches *drool*. Sometimes you hear of game companies opening special cafes or releasing limited-edition foods to promote their games. Every time I hear such a story I think “Who would be dumb enough…” but if Sega ever opened a Shining Ark cafe the answer would be “Me.”

So really, I liked everything about Shining Ark from a visual and a story perspective. I just wish the combat had been more challenging, because the system really had a lot going for it. Or maybe I should say I wish I’d had the self-control to keep from doing any sidequests and free missions, keeping my level super-low so that bosses would pose a challenge. But I’m opposed to the kind of gameplay that requires you to hamstring yourself to have fun. Sega gave this game a Casual setting and a Normal setting, so would it really have been so hard to add a Hard setting as well? One where the enemies move a little faster and hit a little harder, dodge a little better, attack a little smarter and have a lot more HP, hopefully.

It was sad to have to wait till the very end of the game to get my butt kicked not once but twice by the final boss. And even sadder to realize that with the right strategy he’s not that hard at all. I’ll share the strategy because sharing is caring:

1. Make Pumpkin Pies. You’ll need a minimum of 4, but better still 8 or 12 or more.

2. Dispose of the first form normally. Don’t bother waiting for the Soul Cannon and don’t bother taking out the mooks, just fire, cool down, fire, cool down.

3. When the second form shows up, stay put! Don’t step into the portal in front of you and the boss won’t attack because you won’t be in range.

4. Have everyone spend the first turn or two scarfing down the pies. That should give everyone 4-5 Force gauge points. You can take as long as you like and eat some other buffing breads if you want.

5. When you’re ready, move through the portal in front and immediately attack his hands with your best attacks! Don’t make the mistake I did and waste time with the stomach or shoulders. Hands! Hands! Each hand should go down within two attacks, then you can move to the shoulders, stomach and finally head.

6. Important: don’t stay in the middle after attacking the hands either! Move to one of the other portals and get as far to the left or to the right as you can. If you’re waaay over on the left or right you probably won’t be hit at all. After that it’s just a matter of eating more pies and chopping him to death at leisure. Enjoy~.

How wonderful it would have been if all the other boss battles required the same level of thought and planning. The breads make excellent buffing and healing items (and eye-candy), but you need them so rarely that they just go to waste. If Sega makes a remake I really, really want a Hard option. Please Sega, I’m begging you.

In the interest of fairness and completeness, let me note that this game is hardly perfect and contains flaws such as:
– Panis. If you like her, cool. If you don’t, you’re better off skipping Shining Ark because she’s stuck in your party, she can’t be controlled for most of the game, she takes poor decisions when she’s uncontrollable, she’s selfish and whiny in-story, she just won’t shut up and your mileage may vary as to whether you can sympathize with her or not when the truth about her background finally comes out.
– Fried is kinda pushy with his insistence on making everyone see everything his way all the time.
– Lack of character endings was a real disappointment for most Japanese players. Especially since female characters like Shannon, Kilmaria and Velvet are so amusing.
– The pacing is rather poor. Little happens for the first 30 hours of the game, then a lot is packed into the last few hours. I liked the ‘slow life’ aspect of the earlier parts, but they could have distributed the story better.
– Long and frequent loading times, so long and frequent that Sega uses them for character introductions and tutorials. Blade had the same problem, but precisely because of that Ark has no excuse.
– Low difficulty (already mentioned at length). Easy game is really easy.

But, long story short, I still enjoyed it. You’ve probably figured that out by now. If you’re trying to decide which game to get between Shining Hearts, Shining Blade and Shining Ark, definitely get Ark. Unless the lack of a harem is a deal-breaker, the third time really is the charm in all respects. Better battle system, better pacing, the story doesn’t come out of nowhere after 40 hours like it did in Hearts, there’s more fish to catch and tastier looking bread to bake, the game isn’t chock-full of cameos from past games that will confuse newcomers like in Blade and even the needless fanservice is limited to only three characters as opposed to every female in the game like in the others. Good job, Sega, good job.