so Im playing Shining Force CD and I like it so far. Most of

Yeah, you'll have stronger initial stats when you're promoted if you wait until level 40.. At least that's what it was like in the first Shining force

What's the optimal level to promote in Shining Force games (assuming you don't grind or anything like that)? Or is it best to do a mixture (e.g. in Fire Emblem you want to promote most of your units ASAP with just a couple trained until the limit)? Is it any different in Shining Force III?

I remember back in the day people would say to promote early in order to handicap yourself, or would say to wait as long as possible to reap the maximum benefit, but I'd like to hear it from someone who actually knows what they're talking about.

>>3368609
>Yeah, you'll have stronger initial stats when you're promoted if you wait until level 40

that seems really high

>>3368609
Naw, in the first Shining Force it was 20 before you had to promote, not 40. Not sure about part 2 though. It's entirely unnecessary in the first however since the game is very easy but it's also interesting to see how ridiculously powerful you can get your team. Also, certain otherwise weak characters can become more viable if you level them to 20 before promotion.

In the original SF, promoting your characters set their stats to predefined amounts, so taking them above lvl10 before promoting was useless
In SF2, promotions were possible at lvl20 but kept stats unaffected; xp also wasnt capped if you kept leveling chars above that (you could take them to lvl40 on the same monsters), but I think that completely breaks the games difficulty curve
Dont know how it works in SFCD though

I'm playing the game gear version, currently. I started promoting characters around lv20 or a little less. I ran into damage issues, because the weapons you need later require promoted classes.
I have always pretty much gone ahead and promoted whenever it became available and I don't see much difference this time, by waiting. Late promoted characters are as strong as the prepromoted ones you get half way through...which likely have stats akin to a lv10 promo.

>>3369372
>In the original SF, promoting your characters set their stats to predefined amounts
But that's wrong. They just lose a certain amount of stats after promotion, their post-promotion stats are not predefined.

>>3369372
Except that's untrue for part 1. A character promoted at level 20 will have far better stats than a character promoted at 10. Feel free to test it yourself but it has been well documented.

>>3368604
AMAZING
SOUNDTRACK

>>3368604
Holding off on promotions is not worth it in any Shining Force game unless you're a minmaxing crazy. Even then it cripples your short term effectiveness in some games more than others. For instance, every suggests you do it in Shining Force 1, but unpromoted chars get fucked over by RNG so much worse than promoted ones, it's best to get them promoted as soon as possible so that they start gaining stats for real.

Focusing on the long term won't get you far short term, play the game the way it's meant to be played and you'll have a better time.

>>3369372
>>3369667
I believe the lvl 1 promoted stats are fixed based on the level you promoted at (so if you had good/bad rng beforehand, or you used some stat boosting items, that all is ignored). But the question is, is it worth levelling beyond 10 before promoting? You need to consider the game's wonky difficulty curve (enemies get way weaker halfway through and promoting makes you weaker in the short term so you might want to avoid promoting too early), exp gain (you might waste lots of exp if you promote early), etc. I don't know exactly how much non-promoted levels contribute to post-promotion stats or anything like that but I don't think it's quite as simple as "always promote right away".

>>3371317
It varies from character to character, because their stats gain isn't uniform, and some characters get way stronger on late levels, Arthur is the best example.

There's also that thing you said about difficulty curve, the game expects you to promote your characters early, if you wait too much a promotion will make your characters vulnerable as their HP and defense will drop a lot while fighting strong enemies.

For best effort-benefit I recomend you to promote your casters at level 20, your non-weapon users at level 10, and promote the remaining characters when you get a weapon they can't equip, around level 13-14.

Can this game be emulated yet?

>>3368625

generally as long as possible, in the first SF you won't gain any stats after level 20 so you promote at 20, the first game will also have a casters spell level be dependant on the total amount of levels they have gained, a level 20 promotion will be "ahead" 10 levels.

The second game is a bit up in the air, you can promote at level 20, and the difficulty starts increasing more and more you wait, about level 40 is the point where your gains/difficulty becomes too great and you should promote.

>>3371379

yes

>>3371379

why couldn't it have been emulated?

>>3371317
It's true that the stats are preset based on the level promoted at, capped at 20.

I'm playing through Shining Force 1 right now and working towards a file with all characters fully leveled and promoted at 20. A few of the characters that promoted at 20 into better stats, like Hans and Arthur, don't seem to be leveling that well now.

Also, if you can manage to deal with them being unpromoted for that long, the fight with Cain/Kane is an excellent grinding spot to get characters to promotion.

>>3369672
>AMAZING SOUNDTRACK
It's good, but hearing the exact same song over and over again gets pretty tiring. I still haven't started the 2nd part to it.
Having no original theme for the final fight in the first part of the game was quite a let down.
Still, great game, and that fight was lots of fun.

>>3371491
>grinding
Is there ever a need to grind in any shining force game? I thought they were balanced around the amount of exp provided. Doesn't it just ruin the fun?

>>3371517
Of course. I've beaten it a few times normally with no grinding. This is basically just an experiment to see what happens when everyone gets maxed and to get me out of my comfort-zone party.