Difference between revisions of "Shining Force II"
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System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Virtual Console, Steam | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Publisher: Sega | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Developer: Sonic! Software Planning Winds (some graphics) M2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Genre: RPG[1], Simulation[2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number of players: 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Shining Force II, known as Shining Force II: Inishie no Fuuin (シャイニング・フォースII 古えの封印) in Japan, a sequel to Shining Force. It was released in Japan for the Sega Mega Drive in 1993, before seeing overseas releases in the following year.
Despite a multilingual cover and manual in PAL regions, Shining Force II is only thought to have been translated from its original Japanese incarnation into English. The English script, like many RPGs of the era has many inaccuracies and continuity issues with other Shining games, being said to drastically alter plots from Shining in the Darkness and Shining Force in the process.
Contents
Story
In a shrine south of Granseal Castle, a thief named Slade unwittingly breaks the power of a magic seal by stealing the jewels of Light and Darkness; this unseals the demon king Zeon trapped therein. The following day, King Granseal falls sick when he is attacked by an unknown creature. Sir Astral, the court's adviser, along with his apprentices, Bowie the squire, Sarah the healer and Chester the knight, investigate these events at the castle. They find that the door to the Tower of Ancients has been unlocked and stands open.
Greeting their arrival in the tower are devils named "Gizmos" springing forth to attack, though their ultimate intentions are unknown. Upon their defeat, the Gizmo that appears to be the leader flees. It is discovered thereafter to have possessed King Granseal. Sir Astral and the nascent Shining Force visit the king, finding him possessed. Sir Astral exorcises the demon, which promptly flees. The Minister, in place of King Granseal who is looking over a fainted Astral, then orders the slaying of the Gizmo by a platoon of Granseal's soldiers. The Gizmo subsequently possesses the king of the neighboring kingdom of Galam. Bowie and his friends are captured by the Galam military: while in their dungeon, they meet the thief, Slade. When the party breaks out, Slade helps Bowie retrieve the Jewel of Light and accompanies his party back to Granseal, which has been invaded by Galam forces. They find the possessed King Galam inside the Ancient Tower, who has taken Princess Elis as a hostage. In the ensuing battle, Bowie wrests the Jewel of Darkness from him, but he is unable to rescue Elis, and the ground around the Ancient Tower collapses.
With the island is now being ravaged by earthquakes, entire population decide to evacuate the island and escape to the continent of Parmecia, to rebuild their kingdom and hopefully, one day take the Granseal Island back and rescue the Princess. One year later, New Granseal is visited by Peter, a phoenix and a servant of the God Volcanon. Believing that Volcanon can help them take their island back, Sir Astral orders Bowie and others to visit Volcanon and seek his help. Bowie and friends must now travel across Parmecia to gather allies, solve the riddle of the Jewels, obtain the Force Sword, and seal away Zeon once more.
Gameplay
Shining Force II is a tactical role-playing game. The player assumes the role of the Shining Force leader, Bowie, and plays a series of turn-based tactical battles. Battles take place on a square grid, and each unit occupies a single square. Battles are turn-based. Each turn, a character can move a fixed amount of squares along the battlefield, determined by its Move statistic, and perform one action: either attack, cast a spell, or use an item. Some commands, such as equipping or dropping an item during the turn, do not count as actions. The order of turns is determined by the unit's Agility score and a random seed. Characters gain experience points from attacking, using magical abilities, and defeating foes, which allow them to gain levels that increase their statistics and sometimes grant them new abilities. Defeated enemies also drop gold, which can be used to buy weapons and other items. Units are defeated when they lose all of their hit points. They receive a defensive benefit from the Land Effect of the tile on which they are standing.
When not in combat, the player can explore towns and other locales, talk with people, and set the members and equipment of the army. Each town has a priest that can promote characters once they reach a certain level, resurrect fallen characters, and save the game. Some towns have a headquarters where the player can inspect and talk with his allies. Later, the player obtains a Caravan that acts as a roaming headquarters. While traveling through town or moving throughout the world, one can find both visible and hidden treasures and interact with certain objects.
Each ally unit is represented by a character with a background and personality. Some of these characters are hidden, requiring specific events to occur before they join the force. Each ally unit also has a class, which defines the abilities for that unit. These abilities range from what type of weapons they can use to what kind of spells they can learn. Units can become stronger by fighting enemies and performing various actions which give them experience points, which allow them to gain levels. Once a unit reaches level 20, that character has the ability to advance to a more powerful class through promotion. Some characters have two different classes they may be promoted to, one of which is only accessible using a special hidden item.
The battle is won if all enemies are defeated, or if the enemy commander is defeated. If Bowie is defeated in combat or withdraws, the battle is lost and the player is returned to the nearest town, where he can recover his allies and fight the same battle again. The Force keeps any experience that is obtained, regardless of the battle's outcome, but players lose half of their gold if the team leader is defeated.
Characters
Items
- Main article: Items (Shining Force)#Shining Force II.
Magic
- Main article: Magic (Shining Force)#Shining Force II.
History
Development
Despite being preceded by the successful Shining in the Darkness and Shining Force, Sega remained reluctant to back development on Shining Force II, giving it the same limited budget as previous entries in the series and indirectly threatening the break-up of Sonic! Software Planning should the game not deliver as hoped. This put enormous pressure on producer and programmer Hiroyuki Takahashi and his team, many of whom dropped out before production of the game.
“ | We were in a really precarious position at that point because we knew that if we couldn't produce another hit we would have no future. The number of staff we had working on the Shining Force series varied with each game until the Saturn era, during which time the team was pretty settled and didn't change much. We carefully chose our staff from among many candidates, and after Shining Force II the core staff remained and grew stronger together. Shining Force II was an experimental title where we improved the story and enhanced the game's 'RPG-ness'. | „ |
Translation
The most notable translation error is that the three Devil Kings are named as "Dark Sol, Dark Dragon, and Zeon." Shining Force II co-director and programmer Yasuhiro Taguchi has confirmed that the Devil Kings are in fact Darksol, Lucifer, and Zeon.[20] The official translation's assigning Dark Sol and Dark Dragon the relatively detailed history of the Devil Kings not only alters Shining Force II but effectively rewrites the entire premises of Shining in the Darkness and Shining Force, the games in which they are the foremost villains. For similar reasons, the entire plot of Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict is rendered nonsensical, since it is based on Darksol's role as a Devil King and shows "Dark Sol" (actually "Mephisto" in the original script, and an entirely different character from Darksol) being born less than a century before Shining Force II. This mistranslation also creates at least two major contradictions between the English versions of Shining Force and Shining Force II: Shining Force strongly implies that Dark Dragon is a creation of the Ancients, not a devil at all. Darksol is trying to resurrect Dark Dragon in Shining Force, while Shining Force II tells that the three Devil Kings are fierce arch-rivals.
Legacy
Shining Force II is amongst the most successful Mega Drive games in Japan, though also garnered some popularity in North America and Europe. It has since been released as part of the Wii's Virtual Console service and through numerous compilations.
Comic adaptation
Sonic the Comic included "Shining Force" comics strips. The plot followed Shining Force 2 heroes trying to stop followers of Zeon from bringing demon into their world. The comics also brought Max in, the hero of the first Shining Force. The single story arc was called "The Curse of Zeon" (issue #73 to issue #78). It was the last big (6-7 issues) non-Sonic story arc featured in Sonic the Comic, not counting short Decap Attack stories.
Versions
Localised names
Language | Localised Name | English Translation |
---|---|---|
English (US) | Shining Force II | Shining Force II |
Japanese | シャイニング・フォースII 古えの封印 | Shining Force II: Inishie no Fuuin |
Production credits
Japanese version
- Program: Yasuhiro Taguchi, Shugo Takahashi, Haruki Kodera, Kenji Numaya, Yutaka Yamamoto, Tsukasa Tanaka
- Subscript: Hiroyuki Takahashi, Ritsuko Hasasue, Shuji Shimizu
- Map Design: Ritsuko Hisasue, Shuji Shimizu, Tatsuya Niikura
- Character Design: Suezen
- Graphic: Fumihide Aoki, Masayuki Hashimoto
- Music Compose: Motoaki Takenouchi
- Sound Effects: Dogen Shibuya, Enzan Shibuya
- Manual: Naoko Okada, Riko Kushida, Masayo Umetsu, Junko Mikami
- Special Thanks to: Winds Co., Ltd., R.I.S. Co., Ltd., Rit's Co., Chaki, Hiroshi Kajiyama, Satoshi Tezuka, Minoru Yasuda, Akira Takahashi, Satomi Yokose, Daichan Ikejiri
- Directerd (sic) by: Shugo Takahashi, Yasuhiro Taguchi
- Produced by: Hiroyuki Takahashi
- Created by: Sonic Co., Ltd.
- © Sega 1993
English version
- Programmers: Yasuhiro Taguchi, Shugo Takahashi, Haruki Kodera, Kenji Numaya, Yutaka Yamamoto, Tsukasa Tanaka
- Subscript: Hiroyuki Takahashi, Ritsuko Hasasue, Shuji Shimizu
- Map Design: Ritsuko Hasasue, Shuji Shimizu, Tatsuya Niikura
- Character Design: Suezen
- Graphics: Fumihide Aoki, Masayuki Hashimoto
- Music Composer: Motoaki Takenouchi
- Sound Effects: Dogen Shibuya, Enzan Shibuya
- Manual: Naoko Okada, Riko Kushida, Masayo Umetsu, Junko Mikami
- Special Thanks to: Winds Co., Ltd., R.I.S. Co., Ltd., Rit's Co., Chaki, Hiroshi Kajiyama, Satoshi Tezuka, Minoru Yasuda, Akira Takahashi, Satomi Yokose, Daichan Ikejiri
- Directed by: Shugo Takahashi, Yasuhiro Taguchi
- Produced by: Hiroyuki Takahashi
- Producer: Jerry Markota
- Marketing: Jaime Wojick
- English Text: Shinobu Yokoyama, Jerry Markota, Conan Tigard, Blair Bullock
- Lead Tester: Conan Tigard
- Asst. Leads: Blair Bullock, Christine Watson
- Testers: Crisi Albertson, John Amirkhan, Greg Becksted, Janine Cook, David Forster, Lawrence Gibsen, Wesley Gittens, Tracy Johnson, Jason Kuo, Jeff Loney, Chris Lucich, Tony Lynch, Dermot Lyons, Mike Madden, Todd Morgan, Kim Rogers, Ben Szymkowiak, Kurt Tindle, Gregg Vogt, David Wood
- Special Thanks to: Shinobu Yokoyama, France Tantiado, Stephan Patterson
- Created by: Sonic Co., Ltd.
- © 1994 Sega
Digital manuals
- ShiningForceII MD JP digital manual.pdf
Mega Drive Mini JP manual
Magazine articles
- Main article: Shining Force II/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
also published in:
- EGM² (US) #5: "November 1994" (1994-1x-xx)[21]
- Sega Visions (US) #22: "December/January 1994/1995" (1994-xx-xx)[22]
Artwork
Physical scans
Sega Retro Average | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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84 | |
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Based on 33 reviews |
Technical information
ROM dump status
System | Hash | Size | Build Date | Source | Comments | |||||||||
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1994-06-30 | Page | |||||||||||
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1994-06-07 | Page | |||||||||||
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1994-04-04 | Page |
External links
- Sega of Japan Virtual Console pages: Mega Drive
- Nintendo catalogue pages: US, UK, AU
- Shining Force II on Steam
References
- ↑ File:ShiningForceII MD JP Box.jpg
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://sega.jp/history/hard/megadrive/software.html (Wayback Machine: 2020-07-20 09:51)
- ↑ Sonic Times, "Volume 2 Number 9: October 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 8
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Sega Magazine, "August 1994" (UK; 1994-07-15), page 92
- ↑ Computer & Video Games, "October 1994" (UK; 1994-09-15), page 83
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Gamestar, "February 1995" (AU; 1995-xx-xx), page 70
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/_mPdbbrt5K7JaEuqbjVm-swKhUSs5Vfe (Wayback Machine: 2010-11-23 00:48)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 http://www.nintendolife.com:80/games/megadrive/shining_force_ii_ancient_sealing (Wayback Machine: 2017-09-09 21:44)
- ↑ https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Virtual-Console-Wii-/Shining-Force-II-278898.html (archive.today)
- ↑ https://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/vc/software/08.html (Wayback Machine: 2018-03-06 23:35)
- ↑ http://vc.sega.jp:80/vc_shiningforce2/ (Wayback Machine: 2008-07-16 10:28)
- ↑ http://www.nintendo.com.au/index.php?action=catalogue&prodcat_id=41&prod_id=19765&pageID=4 (Wayback Machine: 2012-04-03 02:30)
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 https://steamdb.info/app/71160/ (Wayback Machine: 2019-11-12 23:40)
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 http://steamdb.info/app/71160/ (Wayback Machine: 2013-05-22 20:19)
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 https://steamdb.info/app/71160/history/?changeid=5755275
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 16.7 16.8 16.9 http://steamdb.info/app/71160/ (Wayback Machine: 2019-11-12 23:40)
- ↑ https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/article/024066ce-d840-4af5-a4c0-8e70d94a2667 (archive.today)
- ↑ @NintendoAmerica on Twitter (archive.today)
- ↑ https://archive.org/details/GamesTMThe25GreatestSEGAGames/page/n23/mode/2up
- ↑ [ ]
- ↑ EGM², "November 1994" (US; 1994-1x-xx), page 121
- ↑ Sega Visions, "December/January 1994/1995" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 85
- ↑ Sega Force, "6/94" (SE; 1994-09-14), page 26/27 (26)
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 205
- ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "October 1993" (JP; 1993-09-08), page 24
- ↑ Cool Gamer, "9" (RU; 2002-10-13), page 185
- ↑ Digitiser (UK) (1994-11-18)
- ↑ Electronic Games (1992-1995), "December 1994" (US; 1994-1x-xx), page 152
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "September 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 36
- ↑ Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1, "" (RU; 1999-xx-xx), page 278
- ↑ Game Players, "Vol. 7 No. 8 August 1994" (US; 1994-0x-xx), page 48
- ↑ GamePro, "September 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 124
- ↑ Gamer, "Ianouários 1995" (GR; 1995-xx-xx), page 1
- ↑ Games World: The Magazine, "November 1994" (UK; 1994-09-29), page 14
- ↑ Game Informer, "September/October 1994" (US; 1994-0x-xx), page 8
- ↑ Hippon Super, "November 1993" (JP; 1993-10-02), page 41
- ↑ Joypad, "Février 1994" (FR; 199x-xx-xx), page 134
- ↑ Joypad, "Décembre 1994" (FR; 1994-1x-xx), page 108
- ↑ Mega, "October 1994" (UK; 1994-09-29), page 40
- ↑ Mega Force, "Décembre 1994" (FR; 1994-12-02), page 44
- ↑ Mega Fun, "10/94" (DE; 1994-09-21), page 55
- ↑ Mega Play, "August 1994" (US; 1994-0x-xx), page 62
- ↑ Mean Machines Sega, "September 1994" (UK; 1994-07-30), page 72
- ↑ Player One, "Décembre 1994" (FR; 1994-1x-xx), page 128
- ↑ Play Time, "11/94" (DE; 1994-10-05), page 96
- ↑ Power Unlimited, "Jaargang 3, Februari 1995" (NL; 1995-01-25), page 48
- ↑ Sega Power, "October 1994" (UK; 1994-09-01), page 64
- ↑ Sega Pro, "October 1994" (UK; 1994-09-08), page 60
- ↑ Sega Force, "6/94" (SE; 1994-09-14), page 26
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 85
- ↑ Sonic the Comic, "July 8th 1994" (UK; 1994-06-25), page 10
- ↑ Todo Sega, "Septiembre 1994" (ES; 1994-0x-xx), page 54
- ↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 23
- ↑ Video Games, "12/94" (DE; 1994-11-23), page 101
Shining Force II | |
---|---|
Main page | Comparisons | Maps | Hidden content | Magazine articles | Video coverage | Reception | Region coding | Technical information | Bootlegs
Music: Symphonic Suite Shining Force II (1993) |
Shining series of games | |
---|---|
Shining in the Darkness (1991) | Shining Force (1992) | Shining Force II (1993) | |
Shining Force Gaiden: Ensei Jashin no Kuni e (1992) | Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya (1993) | Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict (1995) | |
Shining Force CD (1994) | |
Shining Wisdom (1995) | Shining the Holy Ark (1996) | Shining Force III (Scenario 2, 3, Premium Disc) (1997-1998) | |
Shining Soul (2002) | Shining Soul II (2003) | Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon (2004) | |
Shining Tears (2004) | Shining Force Neo (2005) | Shining Force EXA (2007) | Shining Wind (2007) | |
Shining Road to the Force (2005) | Shining Force Chronicle I (2005) | Shining Force Chronicle II (2005) | Shining Force Chronicle III (2006) | Shining Road II (2006) | Shining Wind X (2008) | SFCE Tokei (2012) | |
Shining Tears Material Collection (2006) | Shining Wind Fan Fest (2009) | |
Shining Force Feather (2009) | |
Shining Force Cross (2009) | Shining Force Cross Raid (2010) | Shining Force Cross Elysion (2012) | Shining Force Cross Exlesia (2013) | Shining Force Cross Exlesia Zenith (2014) | Blade Arcus from Shining (2014) | |
Shining Hearts (2010) | Shining Blade (2012) | Shining Ark (2013) | |
Shining Resonance (2014) | Blade Arcus from Shining EX (2015) | |
Blade Arcus from Shining EX (2015) | Shining Resonance Refrain (2018) | |
Shining Force Classics (2018) | Shining Force: Hero of Light and Darkness (2022) | |
World | |
Strategy games: Gameplay | Items | Accessories | Weapons | Magic |
Shining related media | ||||
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