I obviously think Shining Force 1 and SitD are great -- in fact, I just finished a playthrough of SF1 a few days ago -- but SF3 was set up perfectly for a storyline involving Galm and the Vandals.
I actually prefer Climax's art style to the later games but I think Camelot is the true holders of the Shining series.
To bring it back on topic, I'm glad Sega didn't break off the Shenmue series into a bunch of really low-quality borderline hentai games like they did with Shining. I've long given up hope for a true Shining game but, because of it's continued absence, have never given up on Shenmue.
If all they announce is a Shenmue HD collection, I'll gift a copy to all of my friends who own PS4s (or whatever system it's on).