Shining Force Challenge Mod progress:

[guardians_song]

Currently running around Shade Abbey. Just destroyed the Laser Eye.

This mod does an INCREDIBLE job of improving play balance and adding excitement to battles. I really don't know on any given battle whether I'll survive or limp back in after an embarrassing K.O. I mean - heck, I have to hang back and kite enemies towards me rather than just ROFLRUSHING any given formation. (And this mod cuts back enormously on the number of Gaddamned Bats, thank GAD...)

Considering that unmodded Shining Force is, ah, not what one would call hard, this is a great accomplishment.

I mean, I just beat the Laser Eye battle with three out of twelve party members remaining, and with all of them within a hit of being K.O.ed. (In fact, the hero was hiding off in a corner while I crossed my fingers and hoped the other two could beat the last remaining enemy to death before it could K.O. one of them and run over to the hero on the next turn.) Freaking TENSE. And I have to say, I DID have to use a fair amount of strategy to even get to that point. (The Laser Eye has been de-lobotomized. As have the Runefaust tacticians. You can no longer sit on your rear and wait out the Laser Eye while it flattens half of "its own" army.)

To be honest, this feels like less of a "mod" and more of a "patch". That is to say, not a fanmade alteration, but rather an official-quality improvement of a game that was reasonable but highly imperfect.

Anyway, if you like Shining Force and aren't adverse to getting a Genesis emulator/Shining Force ROM (and you remember to convert to .bin via that WIN BIN thing and THEN patch), get this mod. The quality of the game is vastly improved. And I really liked the original game, so that should tell you something.