If you are going to play the shining series and don't know where to start, this is the starting point if you want to play them in release order. HOWEVER, I personally wouldn't reccomend this. This game is a dungeon crawler compared to the strategy RPG gameplay of the main shining force series, and while I think this is a rather solid dungeon crawler, I don't think it would make the best first impression for the series. The game centers around climbing a sole dungeon tower with a party of 3 lil hero dudes. Definitely get the graph paper out for this one, since the in game map isn't that helpful. If you like dungeon crawlers, this is honestly a solid one, but if you want to get into the shining series and think you have to play this one first, you don't. Just start with Shining Force!