Hey, you actually used my recommendation. Very cool TYP. You're now officially my favorite staffer. I'm glad the discussion in the last thread inspired you to look into Shining Force.
I think that Shining Force and Shining Force II are both great strategy games. The biggest difference between the SF and Fire Emblem games are the risks inherent with taking your FE characters into battle - if your SF character dies, you merely need to revive them at a church.
Just to clarify on the SF series:
There were two Shining Force games on the Genesis, and the second one is indeed considerably better than the first one.
SF3 was actually a Saturn title and not bad at all. It's not a black sheep, really. The problem with SF3 was merely distribution - it was a late Saturn title and therefore no one played it. Also, it was a three part title where only the first part was released in the USA. Parts 2 and 3 took you through the same story again from different vantage points, and as I understand it, the TRUE ending was only available after finishing all 3.
There was a really crap SF game for Game Gear that was ONLY battles and no overworld exploration at all.
Also, there was a remake of the first SF for GBA, and it's a fairly faithful remake.
SF1 and SF2 are both available for VC, and worth picking up if you like basic strategy RPGs that aren't terribly complicated.