I had been following the development of Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom since its early Kickstarter days. It caught my eye because of its charming art design, characters reminiscent of old school RPGs and platformers, and its flashy combat. Now that it has finally been released, I can happily say that Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom is well worth the wait and your time.
Starting off as an ambitious Kickstarter project, developer Enigami was careful not to make an overly expansive game. Instead, they focused on delivering a shorter, yet well-crafted story, with excellent mechanics supporting it. You play as Chado (yeah, Shadow) who has the ability to interact with the Shiness, a powerful spirit. The story starts off a bit slow, as Chado and his partner Poki crash their aircraft on Gendys, and then get caught up in a sequence of events leading to a larger conflict involving various parties with vested interests.
A few hours in however, and I started getting more invested in the world and the story that the game was telling. I started meeting charming new characters, some of whom joined me, with unique abilities of their own, and that is when the game’s combat system really begins to shine. While the game takes inspiration from JRPGs, both in style and presentation, the combat is real time and in the real world, unlike the turn based or arena based systems that most older JRPGs use. Also, instead of leading a party of members, you fight enemies one on one, and can switch between characters on the fly, even in mid combat, mixing up fighting styles and combat abilities in interesting ways. Its fast, fluid and flashy. The combat does take some time getting used to, and the initial learning curve can be steep. But, once you get the hang of it, it’s really enjoyable. Combining kicks and punches with elemental spells, all the while dodging and parrying leads to some exciting moments, keeping you always on your toes.
The one major gripe I have with the game is that the camera can get really frustrating during combat, specially when you get backed into a corner.
You also switch between party members to solve puzzles in the environment, of which there are a fair amount. In this regard the game feels like a mix of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Tales Of series, and so on. And the game actually does a great job of making all the content that it includes feel well designed and lovingly crafted. The world is not exactly open world, but open areas, interconnected among each other. The locations are varied and look fantastic, and when the graphical fidelity isn’t the highest, the art style, which has a Level 5-esque anime look to it, more than makes up for it. The enemies all have a unique look to them, and there’s enough variety here to make it fun to engage with them.
The game took me about 18-20 hours beat, which I felt was a good length for the story it told, and the price the game comes for. There’s hardly any grind involved, and after the initial slow start, the game mostly maintains a consistent pace. It’s text heavy, but I honestly do not mind that, since it’s all presented well.
Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom is a really great game, and while it does not do a lot, what it does, it does really well. With a carefully crafted world and level design, I enjoyed every moment I spent exploring the land of Gendys. The music also stands out, and adds to the charm of the world. While Shiness takes clear inspirations from other games, it manages to bring those various inspirations to a wonderful and cohesive whole. The vibrant locations, challenging boss battles, and overall narrative reminded me of some of my favorite games from the PS2 era.
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