Shining Force/YMMV


 * Character Tiers: To list the examples would take ages. Teel;deer version: There's a buttload of differences per each game. Even worse is when there's Tiers within the own classes. (This is due to Loads and Loads of Characters, of course.)
 * Cliche Storm: Most notable in Shining Force II, somewhat less so in the original.
 * Although the first game really looks this way nowadays thanks to the fact that it was made in 1990, around the same time as Fire Emblem.
 * Damsel Scrappy: Princess Elis in SFII for a lot of players, especially because she sinks the Fan Preferred Couple. See But Thou Must on the main page.
 * Demonic Spiders: Chimaeras in the first game. High defense, high HP, high speed (roughly 1 in 12 physical attacks from any party member will hit), and powerful attacks. They are far more common than the blue dragons, armed skeletons, and horsemen that appear alongside them, and far more likely to cause internal bleeding from player blood pressure.
 * Ear Worm: Shining Force I and II are full of short, catchy looping tunes. If you have played either, the battle theme will be with you until the day you die.
 * Awesome Music: The Gameboy Advance remake managed to one up that, just a little: promoted characters were given a wholly separate battle tune that is best described as "heroic."
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Amongst the characters in Tears, Neige is easily the most popular. It helps when you realize just who the hell her voice is.
 * From it's sequel, Shining Wind, we have Rouen. A badass wolf voiced by Tetsu Inada.
 * Zylo from the first game and Slade from the second are both well-liked.
 * Even Better Sequel: The first game was certainly a very good game in it's own right, but there are few who would tell you that the second didn't take every single aspect that made it good and polished it to a shine. (Including balance issues!)
 * Fan Preferred Couple: In the second game, Sarah is generally the favored Love Interest, especially when compared to the canon Elis. Several long-time players were somewhat bitter that the character who's been with you the whole game and loved you from the start loses out to a princess who gets maybe two lines in the whole game.
 * Goddamned Bats: Literal example. They'll surround you, they'll dodge all your attacks, and they'll put your character to sleep for a few turns, or occasionally poison them. Luckily they can't dodge magic attacks.
 * Mary Sue: Arguably Narsha in Resurrection of Dark Dragon. She is Ramladu's daughter, who takes it upon herself to save Runefaust from her now-Brainwashed and Crazy father. She also uses a powerful weapon and owns some of the best healing spells in the game. Though in a game with relatively little character development (not surprising given Camelot's other popular series), it's hard to concretely pin her as such
 * Memetic Mutation: "Now bear my Artic Blast."
 * Most Wonderful Sound: The join theme of II.
 * Polished Port: Shining Force CD
 * Rescued From the Scrappy Heap: The archer class began as nearly useless in Shining Force I, becoming moderately useful with their new-found advantage against flying foes in II, and invaluable team members with improved stats and useful special attacks in III.
 * Scrappy Mechanic: The Dwarven blacksmith in Shining Force II.
 * Evasion rates in earlier titles, especially the first game.
 * Seinfeld Is Unfunny: It can be hard to appreciate the series, especially the Genesis-CD-Game Gear-Saturn titles after having been spoiled by later Fire Emblem games and more in-depth Turn Based Strategy games. The first story had several clichés for the day; but right now it looks like a Category 5 Cliche Storm.
 * The first game also has plenty of balance issues, too. The remake also received some criticisms for many tropes it helped create alongside Fire Emblem.
 * Also, after playing Shining Force CD and Shining Force II, it can be hard to go back to playing the first one again.
 * Tear Jerker:
 * That One Boss: The Chess fight in SFII can be incredibly difficult, in fact it's one of the most difficult bosses in the game, and it's not even at the end but towards the middle of the game.
 * Iom, from Shining Force Gaiden II: Sword of Hayja. Yes he's a Final Boss, but he has to be one of the hardest final bosses in the series. Dark Dragon and Zeon really have nothing on him. First off you have to contend with overpowered Mooks attacking you while you try to fight the insanely over-powered Iom, who not only are powerful enough to be bosses themselves (from the previous couple of battles at least) but infinitely regenerate after you defeat them . Then there's Iom himself, who is invincible until attacked with the Sword of Hayja, and even after that his HP is about 300. His 'demon breath' will easily cost your character 30 HP (and by then most of your best characters will have between 40 and 50 HP), and he's quick enough to be able to do it twice in a row before your character has the chance to heal.