Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon is one of those GBA remakes that actually gets it right—it keeps the soul of the original Sega classic while smoothing out some of the rough edges. You start off with Max, your typical sword-wielding hero, but before long you're recruiting knights, archers, and even a weird little robot guy (trust me, he's useful).

The battles feel like chess but with more magic spells and backstabbing wolves. Positioning matters—if you send your healer too far ahead, they’re toast. And the pixel art? Still gorgeous, especially the spell animations that make your tiny GBA screen light up.

What I love is how it doesn’t overcomplicate things. No endless skill trees or convoluted crafting—just solid turn-based strategy with characters who actually grow on you (except maybe the centaur who keeps missing attacks). If you’ve ever lost an afternoon to Fire Emblem, this’ll scratch that same itch.

It’s the kind of game where you tell yourself “one more battle” and suddenly it’s 2 AM.