Shining Series

[Skateboard]

Shining Force Central is definitely a wonderful place.  8-)

Let me try to sum up the events and please correct me wherever it is necessary, because this whole issue is quite confusing. I will also express a few words that I feel have to be said.

In Japan the “old” and “new” Shining fans have a long-established fight at 2ch. Because of the insider information of one particular poster at 2ch the “old” Shining fans believe this someone is connected with or is directly from Sawada’s team or even is Mr. Sawada himself. This particular poster at 2ch talked very negative about the whole SOS-Campaign. A few fans at Shining Force Central felt the assumption of the old Japanese fans had verified when Mr Sawada suddenly blocked the SOS-Campaign Twitter. A few people from SFC posted their private (rushed and emotionally charged?) opinion at Shining Force Central. The particular 2ch insider later spread rumours about a SEGA blacklist against SFC and acted xenophobe. Curious: Each SOS-Campaign video got 1 thumb down too - who takes his time to dislike every video?

Moogie in person and our whole community at Shining Force Central have now come into the firing line of the old and new Shining fans in Japan. Surprisingly, Mr. Sawada recently contacted Moogie via Twitter and asked what the fans want him to do with the series, but also expressed his low opinion on SFC and Moogie and accused her of trolling.

It’s still to be clarified what makes Mr. Sawada so upset and what the purpose of his question was.
 
a) Is the SOS-Campaign upsetting him? Why? The Campaign is not a personal attack against Mr. Sawada and never was meant this way! Most people don’t even know Mr. Sawada and in the EU for example we only had a remake of SF1 and Shining Soul 1+2 after Camelot left and that’s it. The Shining series has no newer titles here, but the fan base is still good and waiting. Furthermore, there always has been enough room for Shining titles with different genres. The campaign is an important act from fans around the world and shows our love and the potential we see in the Shining series. It was directed to Camelot, Climax and Sega, but mostly to Camelot, because they primarily worked on the legendary titles we know and love. The 20th Anniversary would have been a proper date for a comeback of Camelot and a new SRPG. Again: This is not against Mr. Sawada. There has to be a way for SEGA to work together with Camelot or even work side by side on different Shining titles.

b) Would Mr. Sawada be upset because of some private comments or the heated debate that’s going on? What exactly was said that upsets him so much? We don’t know. Why should he take some rushed postings so serious? It has to be a big misunderstanding and/or the “fighting” of the Japanese fans has escalated in a way that is damaging the art of conversation.

The actions of the international Shining fans were overt as they expressed their love and took their time to write individual letters, make videos or create/buy presents. Our love and thanks are now out there and nobody expected or wanted hate and misunderstanding to be a result of that.

I hope the misunderstanding can be resolved.

[Moogie]

That seems to cover everything quite well.

I must admit I'd not even heard of 2ch until all this was brought to my attention and I certainly didn't know there was a longstanding fight between old and new fans of the series there. That explains a bit!

I hadn't spotted the thumbsdown on the campaign videos - it's not quite all of them, but the majority of Brits and Americans seem to have had it, while only a few of the non-native English speakers have been rated down.

I don't quite understand why old fans of the series dislike SFC/me - and I don't know for sure if that's the case or not. I've no way of knowing which poster is of which 'side' at 2ch. Hell, I can't even tell for the most part which posts are by the same people.

I also hope the misunderstanding can be resolved, but at the moment I'm so busy with the final preps for my wedding (just over 2 weeks away!) and the SFC site relaunch that I can't allow myself to get too bogged down in all this confusion.

[MadeManG74]

I can't imagine any Shining Force fan disliking SFC. I know that if it wasn't for SFC I would never have been able to play SFIII trilogy in English, which is probably my favourite game series of all time after Shenmue 1 and 2. I definitely support any movement to bring Shining Force back to it's former glory.

[Sharky]

I also hope the misunderstanding can be resolved, but at the moment I'm so busy with the final preps for my wedding (just over 2 weeks away!) and the SFC site relaunch that I can't allow myself to get too bogged down in all this confusion.

Congratulations on the Wedding!


"little lost lamb etc etc etc." =D


I'd ignore anyone on 2Chan... It's like the Japanese 4Chan, basically a club for socially awkward teenagers that get bullied in school and really need to get laid.

[Moogie]

In my naivity, I only recently found out what 4chan was too...

Thanks for the congrats I'm having the Princess Elis tune from the SFII OST as my entrance music - couldn't get married without a little bit of Shining in there somewhere

[Sharky]

In my naivity, I only recently found out what 4chan was too...

Thanks for the congrats I'm having the Princess Elis tune from the SFII OST as my entrance music - couldn't get married without a little bit of Shining in there somewhere

Haha, awesome! I was going to ask if there was anything Shining Force related but didn't know how to word it with out making it sound like I expected it of you lol.

I'm glad it will be Shining Force related though!

How does your future husband feel about your Shining force obsession?

[Moogie]

Well in the four years we've been together, my Shining obsession hasn't really been at the forefront of my life - so he hasn't really seen the half of it That said, he's got something of an idea of how much it means to me from the amount of work I put into the campaign, the amount of boxes containing my collection and also the time I've been racking up rebuilding SFC! I don't think it bothers him, as we also have a joint obsession (fishing) which gives us a lot of time together. When I spend time without him, doing Shining stuff, he has his own hobbies to enjoy by himself too. Shining is a part of me, so if he wants me then the Shiny stuff comes with it.

I keep insisting he has to play through at least one SF battle before the wedding That said, he and I dated when we were teenagers and I'm pretty sure he played a battle or two of the original SF back then - but he doesn't remember (how can anyone forget a Shining experience?!) so I may have to get him onto the ol' Saturn in the next week!

I'd love to have a bit more of an SF theme to the wedding, but no-one else at the wedding is an SF nut We're getting married in a castle though, so that's kinda Shiny Let's hope there are no guest appearances from Darksol

[Sharky]

Awesome, have a great wedding!
=D

[Barry the Nomad]

For my wedding I'm going for a simple rounded gold wedding band, mainly because it looks like a Sonic ring.

[Moogie]

Awesome - as long as you're always wearing it, you'll be protected against Robotnik's minions

[STORM!]

　Thanks for the post Skateboard. This makes completely sense now.

 This "fight" exists since long time before I've joined it, but now they are trying to put all the whole thing over me, saying I am the one who "disgraced" the Shining Force SOS Campaign. What?  :roll:  Emi is the one who started it all, since I have never seen this campaign before Emi or someone has posted it on 2ch.

 Someone from Japan has started posting things on 2ch and I have just translated some parts and posted it here, on Segabits. Then, Moogie has appeared. I have never seen Moogie before it...

 I know they are seeing this, so I will tell you, I'm not a friend of Moogie, I'm not supporting the SOS Campaign, I'm a big fan from the original series and I'm not satisfied with the newest games from the Shining series, like Shining Hearts.

 Of course, I'm not an enemy of Moogie, and I completely like what she is doing for the series, especially the SOS Campaign. I was afraid that the whole world had forgot this "brilliant" RPG series from Sega, but now I know they have not  :mrgreen:

 Some people there at 2ch. thinks I am an enemy from Sega and Sawada, but they are just trolls, since I was just giving my opinions about Sega's and Sawada's productions. Only because I'm a fan of the series I have to love everything they does with the series? Oh, c'mon...  :|

 Even a huge part of the 180k people who bought Shining Hearts are not happy with that game. You can see negative comments from a lot of people everywhere.

 Someone told me its just a huge fan of Sawada trying to beat me; ok, that's fine. But he can not stop me from giving my opinions and I'll continue doing what I was previously doing: watching everything Sega is doing with the series, and showing it for the whole world since Sega is not worried about supporting the series worldwide anymore.

 I don't want to see the Shining series joining the hall of dead series of Sega. They have enough series dead at the moment.

 Be prepared, I will make a huge post for the series next month, when I will got some vacation XD

[Moogie]

Glad to know at least one person in Japan doesn't hate me

Seems like things are dying down on the SOS/Moogie front at 2ch now, which is good. Maybe after a while, Mr Sawada will chill out and realise that he's misunderstood things.

[STORM!]

I'm not on the mood to join the campaign, but I hope you continue with this. Till now, I think this and your site are the last thing keeping the original series alive.

 There is also a fanmade remake for Shining Force 2, made by a brazilian fan, and it is really looking great!

 I wish there was more Japanese fans from the original series to help us...  :cry:

[Moogie]

Renatobs game (SFII remake) does look amazing, and I've been waiting to try the demo for a couple of years now. It's the reason I bought a DS - well that and Shining Force: Feather.

There's also a very promising SF style game engine in development which is coming along very well.

Maybe it will come down to fan projects to keep the old style games alive. While I doubt I'll be running any more campaigns (although I said that the last time too!) I can imagine I'll still be running SFC even when I'm on my deathbed

Though it seems the folks at 2ch would hate to see that, they seem to be talking about illegal usage of pictures and getting SFC shut down and stuff. Well, if the law decided SFC has to be shut down for those reasons, pretty much every other fansite (not just Shining) on the web would have to be shut down too. I don't see that happening any time soon!

Years ago (mid 90's) I asked Sega for permission to use artwork from the Shining games and at the time they had no policy regarding the use of these things on websites - the internet was still so young back then. They said they would come to a decision soon. They never asked me to remove the content then, they haven't since. In fact Sega USA wanted to promote the new Shining titles through SFC and offered me the games for free as well as posters etc for prizes. Unfortunately I was never able to take them up on the offer as I was in the middle of a difficult relationship breakdown (in which I lost my home, and a lot of money) and had no time for the site. I'm sure if they had a problem with any of SFC's content they would never have tried to start a relationship with SFC!

[Sharky]

Storm, take a break from 2Chan...