The Shining Force series has a special place in the heart of many a Sega fan, but Camelot Software Planning (previously known as Sonic! Software Planning) - the main company behind those titles - doesn't have a working relationship with IP owner Sega right now. The story goes that the two fell out after the development of Shining Force III on the Saturn - regarded by many fans to be the pinnacle of the series - and Camelot switched allegiances to Nintendo, with whom it created titles like Mario Golf and Golden Sun.

Speaking at “3rd Game Business Archive” conference in Japan, Camelot's Hiroyuki Takahashi shared a few pieces of information regarding the Shining series. Shining in the Darkness - the first-person dungeon crawler which kicked off the series on the Mega Drive - sold impressively, shifting 300,000 units in Japan at a time when Sega's 16-bit console was still struggling to gain attention against the NES and PC Engine in its homeland. He also mentioned that Shining Force CD was created almost solely to gain experience of working on the Mega CD / Sega CD hardware. Finally, he revealed that he would love to work on a fourth Shining Force title.

That last piece of info is likely to be of most interest to fans. A new Shining Force is long overdue; while the series has been active in Japan since the Saturn days, none of the games have had Camelot's involvement. We're sure Shining followers would love to see Camelot work with Sega on this, but we're not entirely certain there's a massive market for a new Shining Force outing. Let us know if you disagree by posting a comment.