Shining in The Darkness - Legacy

Legacy

Shining in the Darkness is considered by many gaming historians to be a pioneer of Japanese console RPGs, especially in Europe, which would not see a Final Fantasy game until more than six years after Shining in the Darkness made its mark in the region. One of the game's key innovations was its introduction of an icon-based menu system, possibly inspired by Phantasy Star III (1990). The game also marked the beginning of the successful Shining series, which has since produced more than 20 video games and an animated TV series.

The second game in the Shining series, Shining Force: Legacy of Great Intention, diverged greatly in game-play mechanic; however, many stylistic parts are reminiscent of Shining in the Darkness, including music and art. Other features such as the distinctive menu system, the use of priests for saving games and resurrecting characters, and several magic spells would continue to be used in every game in the series up to and including Shining Force III, with the notable exception of Shining Wisdom.

The game Shining the Holy Ark gave the series a fleeting return to the dungeon crawler game-play mechanic, and uses a remix of the dungeon theme from Shining in the Darkness in its soundtrack.