A new Shining Force game is due to be released next year, which will make it the first entry in the series for 13 years. The newest iteration in the series will be an officially licensed mobile-only game.
As reported by gamer.ne.jp (as translated by VGC), the project is being developed by Hive, the Japanese branch of the South Korean smartphone game developer Vespa, and the upcoming mobile game's title loosely translates to Shining Force: Heroes of Light and Darkness. The game will seemingly be free-to-play, supported by microtransactions, although what form they will come in is unknown.
According to a statement from Hive, the company is set to bring back the Shining Force series as a mobile-only game after it signed a licensing contract with Sega to develop a new game under the Shining Force IP. The game will release in Europe and the US as well as a number of other countries across Asia when it launches in the first half of 2022. According to the report, the upcoming game will look to bring the series' "unique worldview and storyline" to players across the world as Hive hopes to impart the "strategic fun of simulation RPG to mobile devices".
Speaking about resurrecting the Shining Force legacy, a spokesperson from Vespa said, “We have prepared a game that will be enjoyed by many people, including existing users who have fond memories of the Shining series, as well as those who are new to Shining Force, and we hope that they will look forward to its release.”
Sega's turn-based RPG series has been dormant for a number of years now. The last new entry under the Shining Force name dates back to 2009 when Nintendo released Shining Force Feather for Nintendo DS and Shining Force Cross in arcades. There have been (mostly Japan-only) Shining spin-offs since that time, but the core Shining Force brand has been unused.
Shining Force made its debut as part of the larger Shining Series on the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis in March 1992 followed by Shining Force II in 1993. The series then continued on to the Sega Saturn where it released Shining Force III in three volumes – though Camelot Software only issued the first volume in North America and Europe. Since then, the Shining Series has returned to consoles a number of times. Notably, the first Shining Force game was subsequently remade for the Game Boy Advance in 2004 under the name Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon.
For more on Sega, why not check out this article detailing how the company is reportedly considering reboots of Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, and other dormant IPs.
Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.