Shadow of the Beast II (シャドー・オブ・ザ・ビーストII 獣神の呪縛) is a 1992 action game by Psygnosis, originally released for the Commodore Amiga before being ported to the Sega Mega Drive and Sega Mega-CD, and also the Atari ST and FM-Towns computers. It is the sequel to the original Shadow of the Beast and the second game in the Shadow of the Beast trilogy (the third game was an Amiga exclusive, though it was also going to be released for the Mega Drive).
Story
At the end of the first game, you manage to free yourself from a life of serving the Beast Lord, only to find your baby sister has been kidnapped by Zelek to take your place as a Beast Messenger. Infuriated, you set out to find your sister and destroy Zelek.
Gameplay
The controls are simple:
jumps,
fires,
selects a weapon to fire. A flail replaces the punches from the first game. Items can be offered to certain characters by pausing the game, Gimmick sections from the first game have been removed.
The game is now even more open-worlded and non-linear. Due to this openness, limited hints and the failed puzzles not killing the player, it's possible to get stuck easily.
TODO
Versions
- Around a quarter of the screen of the Sega Mega Drive is covered by a black bar that serves no purpose. Reasons for this are unknow, although it can be assumed this is due to the Sega Mega Drive version running at a higher resolution than the Amiga original and the developers not compensation this.
- The Sega Mega-CD and Sega Mega Drive version are largely different, with the Sega Mega-CD having more content, additional weapons, optimized graphics, slightly altered gameplay, cutscenes, extra dialogue options, more characters to interact with etc. It's generally considered to be the definite version of the game.
- Compared to the Amiga original, both versions feature a different player sprite, with the Sega Mega-CD's hero being slightly armored, and the Sega Mega Drive's hero only wearing pants.
- For the Sega Mega Drive version, cutscenes and background graphics were removed.
Production credits
Mega Drive version
- Original Game: Reflections
- MegaDrive Conversion: WJS Design
- Programming: Rob Povey
- Music and Sound Effects: Tony Williams
- Graphics: Lee Carus Westcott, Nicky Carus Westcott
- Bits N Pieces: Noel Hines
- Others Involved: Wayne Smithson, John White, Mike Simpson
- Thanks To: Leo Skirenko, Philip Watts
Mega-CD version
- Amiga Original: Reflections
- Sega Conversion By: Digital Developments
- Written By: Tim Swan, Andrew Bond
- Graphics: Andrew Bond, Lee Doyle
- FM Towns Graphics: Nicky and Lee Carus Westcott
- Sound Effects: Tim Swan, Kavin Collier
- Music: Derek Austin, Jimmy Jaketh
- Guitar: Ray Deefholts
- Music Produced By: Derek Austin, Bob Butterworth
- Recorded In: Roland RSS Stereo at Boxmead Studios UK
- Character Speech By: Tim Bentinck
- Quality Control: Pat Russell, Paul Euason, Graeme Love
- Story and Documentation: Nick Wild
- Project Management: John White, Mike Simpson, Tony Parkes, Steve Cain
- Copyright 1994 Psygnosis Ltd
Magazine articles
- Main article: Shadow of the Beast II/Magazine articles.
Promotional material

PDF
Print advert in
Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #52: "November 1993" (1993-xx-xx)
also published in:
- Game Players (US) #0612: "Vol. 6 No. 12 December 1993" (1993-xx-xx)More...[8]
- GamePro (US) #54: "January 1994" (199x-xx-xx)More...[9]

PDF
Print advert in
Sega Visions (US) #16: "December/January 1993/1994" (1993-xx-xx)
PDF

PDF
PDF
Print advert in
Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1994-09: "September 1994" (1994-08-08)
Artwork
Physical scans
Mega Drive version
Mega Drive, US
|
 Cover
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 Cart  Manual
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Mega Drive, EU
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 Cover
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 Cart
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Mega-CD version
Mega-CD, US
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  Cover
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 Disc  Manual
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Mega-CD, JP
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  Cover
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 Spinecard  Disc
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Technical information
ROM dump status
System |
Hash |
Size |
Build Date |
Source |
Comments |
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?
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456,043,392
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CD (EU)
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T-113045-50
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✔
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606,827,760
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CD (JP)
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T-60034
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References
- ↑ GamePro, "March 1993" (US; 1993-xx-xx), page 48
- ↑ Sega Visions, "November/December 1992" (US; 1992-xx-xx), page 93
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Computer & Video Games, "February 1993" (UK; 1993-01-15), page 76
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Sega Zone, "November 1992" (UK; 1992-xx-xx), page 8
- ↑ Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming, "November 1992" (UK; 1992-xx-xx), page 11
- ↑ Computer & Video Games, "October 1994" (UK; 1994-09-15), page 82
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Mega, "June 1994" (UK; 1994-05-19), page 39
- ↑ Game Players, "Vol. 6 No. 12 December 1993" (US; 1993-xx-xx), page 152
- ↑ GamePro, "January 1994" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 188
- ↑ GamePro, "March 1993" (US; 1993-xx-xx), page 46 (48)
- ↑ Joypad, "Décembre 1992" (FR; 1992-xx-xx), page 98/99 (98)
- ↑ Joystick, "Janvier 1993" (FR; 199x-xx-xx), page 237
- ↑ Mega, "January 1993" (UK; 1992-12-17), page 56
- ↑ Mean Machines Sega, "January 1993" (UK; 1992-12-28), page 58/59 (58)
- ↑ Player One, "Janvier/Février 1993" (FR; 1993-01-10), page 94/95 (90)
- ↑ Sega Force, "February 1993" (UK; 1993-01-14), page 78/79 (78)
- ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "August 1994" (JP; 1994-07-08), page 20 (22)
- ↑ Consoles +, "Avril 1994" (FR; 1994-xx-xx), page 130/131 (130)
- ↑ Computer & Video Games, "August 1994" (UK; 1994-07-15), page 67
- ↑ Next Generation, "April 1995" (US; 1995-03-21), page 94 (96)
- ↑ Player One, "Mars 1994" (FR; 1994-xx-xx), page 114