SHINING SOUL WALKTHROUGH BY ADK, Final Version : Welcome to my new guide. This time i come back on another support, the Gameboy Advance but always for a sega game. After the death of the Dreamcast i stopped my activities in video games to build my own site and my own community. Now i will be progressively back in the video game community with new walkthroughs on sega machines and sometimes on GBA. Homepage : http:// www.dimensions-sega.fr.st E mail : advanced_knight@yahoo.fr Important Note : Don't e mail me for questions about video games, i have opened a forum on my site to answer to F.A.QS. You can post in my forum freely, but i prefer you register so i can build a community where people will talk of video games. E mail me ONLY for permission to post this guide on your site. UPDATE : (03/07/03) I corrected lot of typos error. The faq is now more readable. Here is the program : 1 : Review 2 : The about section 3 : Controls 4 : Walthrough 5 : Tips 6 : Shining Soul in the " Shining " saga 7 : Credits 1 : Review : The new Shining Episode arrives on Gameboy Advance in silence. The european release, short after the us release is calm. I appreciate the multi language in the game and i suppose it will be a habit in the future for sega games. So i give a special mention to the first episode of the shining saga entirely in french. The presentation is very simple, a music and a title screen. During the game you can see some pictures explaining the story. This game is exactly one year after the old Shining In The Darkness. Lyle former hero of the Shining Force has won the battle against Dark Sol and Dark Dragon but he coudn't imagine at that time that Dark Sol will revive so soon and with him five other generals loyal to Dark Dragon. You are the new hero the one who will beat for the first time some of the greatest evil spirits of the saga. The story in the game is simple and the texts are completely useless. If you have the japanese version you can complete the game without understanding nothing to japanese. Shining Soul is a dungeon exploring. Graphically the layouts are all nice. Some decors remind the main themes used in the shining saga. The monsters are quite ridiculous. The hero can be customized with different skins, faces and colors. You have four different types. The only one not of the original saga is the archer. I mention this cause at the beginning Shining In The Darkness and Shining Force 1 were Climax games and there wasn't any archer in shining in the darkness. The archer appears in Shining Force 1. The animation is terrible. The hero progresses very slowly, there is no way to boost his speed. The game is like an action RPG, but the battles are not fun. A lot of monsters can appear on the screen and after you will customize the hero you will be able to use a special skill. It will be useful in the last dungeon where the monsters are really annoying. I appreciate all the bosses cause they are all (except for the first boss who is original) from the shining saga. The sound is awful, if you don't like the animation you will probably hate more the musics. They are sad, pitifulness, pathetic. Words are missing to describe how much i hate them. I can hardly believe it's the work of sega. The best music is the boss music and i really like this one. The controls are limited to the minimum, you hit, you concentrate a skill or a magic and you use an item. The character is easy to handle but the battles too numerous and not fun will probably stop you from finishing the game. In Conclusion, Shining Soul is probably the badest episode of the saga. Yes the badest. The hero can progress as in a RPG with SP and EXP to distribute in order to build a good character, but it sounds useless most of the time. You have 3 weapons but honnestly using one is sufficient. The shops in town are strange and give sometimes less good weapon than the one you have. The story is poor : " Hey you, go there and kill him. " then " hey you now go there and kill another guy ". Nothing exciting, no interessant dialogue in town and only one town in the game. I was disappointed by this episode and i played it only to not miss an episode of the saga. I hope Shining Soul 2 will be far better than this one. PRESENTATION : 10/20 GRAPHICS : 17/20 ANIMATION : 11/20 SOUND : 8/20 CONTROLS : 10/20 INTEREST : 7/20 FINAL NOTE : 69% Shining ADK. 2 THE ABOUT SECTION : This section will be in each guide i will product from now. ABOUT MY ENGLISH : i know it's an awful one, but it's the only one i have. Correct me if you wish that's the best you can do. ABOUT MY E MAIL ADRESS : Please write to me only asking permission to post this guide on your site. If you have questions as mentioned before, you must post on my forum. ABOUT THIS FAQ : This faq is basically dedicated to my own site and to gamefaqs. If you wish to download it for your own site, ask for the permission but it's not all misters and misses webmasters. Think to update my faq, because when i correct my english or post an update with more informations it's on gamefaqs but never on YOUR sites. THE RESULT IS EASY TO IMAGINE : i receive questions about things that are in an update and some people continue to ask me when i will complete the faq of Skies Of Arkadia... Conclusion : if you download my faqs, be sure to download the updates as you do for an emulator. It will work better for everyone. An other important point from now on is that you will find the best version of my guides in htm format on my site. 3 : Controls A : To hit your ennemies B : To use an item L : To select a magic or a weapon R : To select the item to use Start : To go to the inventory Select : To go to the status menu By pressing and holding A you can use a weapon skill if you have upgraded the weapon in the status menu with skill points. 4 : Walkthrough This will be the shortest walkthrough i have ever written for a game. Sadly there is few to say about this episode. You begin by choosing a character. Next you arrive in town where you talk to the centaur. You can then talk to Chaos and Adam to receive some basic advices. The last of the four guy is unknown until the end of the game. The only thing you will learn about him (her) is that he (she) is a very powerful magician and it was his plan to destroy Dark Dragon. It seems that it wasn't obviously to save Rune (the world of Shining Force). After you talk to people, you will want to wander in town and talk to some people. Last you will exit to the first dungeon. Dungeon 1: Beast Mountain This dungeon is very short. 3 levels. To open the door to the next level you must kill all the foes. Don't forget to take all the chests. BOSS : BEAST KING This boss is easy to beat instead of what you think. You need at least few potions and a good sword. You see the herb in the arena. Hide there (or should i say up of this herb) to avoid the beast while he rolls like a ball. You can hit him without being touch and when he stops moving, hit him by the rear. He will hit you too but you can heal. Go to the town and talk to the ninja. You receive an item. Before you go to the second dungeon or randomly after you come back of it you must catch him while he runs in order to receive another item. Dungeon 2 : Labyrinth Death Shadow This dungeon introduces more powerful monsters. It has also a larger size. 8 levels. BOSS : COLOSSUS Well i know its name is Guardian Warrior but it's the colossus of Shining Force 3 scenario 1 on Saturn. This weapon, later uses by the Hyudols to conquer the world is hard to beat. Go in front of him and shoot the orb. You must avoid its arms and its lazers. Then the orb falls of the colossus and you must hit it. The orb moves quickly and does great damage, so be sure to have a lot of potions to heal yourself. Dungeon 3 : Equal Dungeon I know it's Egual Dungeon, but again, it's a fault in the translation. Equal is simply a character from Shining Force 3 scenario 1 and 3 on Saturn. It's simply a reference to him. This dungeon has 10 levels. BOSS : BULZOM : (it's not Bulzam as they translated it). Bulzom is not loyal to Dark Dragon, he wishes the Huydols conquer the world. You can easily stops him by hiting him and healing yourself, no technique. Bulzom will be fully revived in Shining Force 3 scenario 3. Dungeon 4 : Forest of Another World This dungeon has 10 levels. Another caracteristic is that it has a lot of secrets area. Search carefully for them and don't hesitate to walk under trees and decors. At least an interessant dungeon. BOSS : MICHAELA : Ah lovely Michaela, always loyal to Dark Sol and probably in loves with him. Ahem, she is very hard to kill. As in other shining episodes, she uses the michaela dolls which are clone of herself. However if you are lucky, use your axe and block her in a corner on the right. The dolls will hardly hit you cause you are far of them and the rythm of the axe is so special that a bug will block Michaela in front of you. By the way note that the true Michaela uses Thunder and is easy to follow (she moves more than the dolls). Michaela will revive in 1000 years. Dungeon 5 : Glaybull Temple 10 levels. Nothing Special about it. BOSS : Iohm : From the Sega CD game. Iohm will be killed easily if you are close of him. If you stay far, he will use Demon Breath (the so known magic of evil spirits in the shining saga) and will poison you with the 2 worms he summons. Close to him, on the left or on the right, you will need to hit and heal. Iohm is now dead and will be revived in Shining Force CD on Sega CD. Dungeon 6 : Deol Waterway This dungeon has 10 levels. The monsters are numerous and even if you see the warp to the next level kill all the monsters to earn the maximum of EXP. BOSS : ZEON : Always equal to himself, Zeon cannot be killed in this dimension and especially by a sword. You must be smart to beat Zeon. He appears and disappears randomly, uses powerful spells and especially the poison spell. Don't waste time to cure yourself, heal and hit him as often as you can. Zeon is very long to kill. After the hero beat him, Zeon will be enclosed in a dimension behind the Ground Seal Tower. He will try to escape of it in Shining Force 2 on Genesis. Dungeon 7 : Dark Tower : This dungeon has 9 levels. Teleport devices are of the fest. This tower is in fact the tower of guardiana where all the demon will be enclosed in another Shining episode. BOSS : DARK SOL : Very few is known about him. Sega and Climax agreed to say that he is the most powerful evil spirit of the saga. Dark Sol (True name Melvyl) was a good magician in Shining In The Darkness, and the best student of the great Wizard Xern. Unfortunately he was seduced by the Darkness and dedicated a cult to Dark Dragon. He is very easy to kill, just hit him and heal yourself. You have nothing to fear of his magic which must be inefficient if the hero is upgraded correctly. Curiously, Dark Sol won't say anything special, no menace but he is still confident, all of this is a game for him. The unknown magician of the town will appear and will congratulate you. Dungeon 8 : Dark Castle : This Dungeon has 14 levels. It's time to complete the game. BOSS : DARK DRAGON : As on other Shining episodes, Dark Dragon has 3 heads that respawn each time you cut one of them. The left head uses Freeze, the central head uses Demon Breath or Thunder and the right head Blaze. You have 2 choices : if you are good, you will cut the left head, the right one and then the central one before other heads respawn. If your character is not strong enough to do this in time, you will cut the heads until it stops to respawn. Fortunately, Sega allows this cause it's an action RPG and not an RPG (Shining in the Darkness) or a tactics (Shining Force 1). After you beat Dark Dragon, you enclose him under a sword but he will come back in 1000 years. Enjoy the end of the game and save it. Then reload your file to play the advance mode. 5 : Tips In order to recover fully your HP and SP talk to the centaur. In the game after the first boss, you will see a ninja, talk to him and you hear a shime meaning he will give you an item. Later in the game you will see him running stupidly around. Catch him and he will give you another stupid item. After you complete the game you will access to the advance mode. There are a lot of secret rooms in the Forest Of Another World. 6 : Shining Soul in the " Shining " saga : Shining Force is a phenomenon. It has a lot of related games on several supports. I introduce each game with no special order. SHINING AND THE DARKNESS (true name of the game, Changed in Shining In The Darness by sega of America) : (GENESIS) As a favor to Sega, Climax created a totally new RPG, inspired by Tolkien works and some other guru of the genre, Shining And The Darkness. Princess Jessa escorted by good knight Mortred went on a quest. They were captured by an unknown but powerful magician named Dark Sol. The king asked to Lyle, son of Mortred to save his daughter. Lyle also accepted in order to find his father. About the name of the hero, it's truly Lyle, name we will learn in Shining Force 1 and Landstalker. Lyle met other comrades, Pyra and Milo and a fourth character that could be a wolf ninja (according to decision you take) or a dragon man (looks like more a rhino than a dragon but...). At the middle of the game, Climax introduced the engine of other shining episodes on the Genesis by a battle between Xern and his student Melvyl, AKA Dark Sol. Then Lyle and friends passed a lot of tests, and were forced to kill Lyle's father. After he became a Shining knight, Lyle fought valiantly Dark Sol. Defeated, Dark Sol called the darkness and became Dark Dragon. After a tough battle, Dark Dragon died but both Dark Sol and dark Dragon sworn to come back one day or another. Chronologically it's the last episode of the saga on genesis. SHINING SOUL : (GAMEBOY ADVANCE) Only one year after Shining And The Darkness, Dark Sol appeared again and tried to revived again Dark Dragon. Unfortunately, the Shining Force was no more and people needed a hero. You are chosen to completed this quest. This hero will beat some of the most powerful spirits in this episode. It's also the first time (except for Shining Force 3 Premium Disc on Saturn) that a link is done with the Hyudol, Dark Sol and Zeon. Each of the bosses can be seen in other episodes. Dark Dragon said he will be back in 1000 years. SHINING SOUL 2 : (GAMEBOY ADVANCE) It will arrive soon, and if Sega continues on its way, we will probably see Odd Eye, Galem, Elise and Creed to mention only them. I can't be sure of this but i suppose Sega won't miss the opportunity to re introduce them. SHINING FORCE 1 : (GENESIS) That's where the storyline is unclear. In theory it's 1000 years after Shining And the Darkness for both Sega and Climax. The problem is that the centaur you see in Shining Soul is the father of Mae a heroine of Shining Force 1. A centaur doesn't leave 1000 years of course. The second problem is that Lyle, the hero is in theory the same Lyle as in Shining And The Darkness. In the translation they explain he is a descendant of the original Lyle and also named Lyle as his ancestor. Anyway, this game introduced a beautiful engine for battles with impressive attacks and spells. Climax introduced also the Nazca civilzation and most of the foes reused in other shining episodes. You will see also what Chaos became and you will meet again Adam. Lyle fought his brother Kane and then Michaela and Dark Sol. Again, the last boss is Dark Dragon. This time, Lyle stays to finish him once and for all. Letting as dead for all of his friends, he is known as the hero who enclosed Dark Dragon once and for all in hell. But Lyle is not dead, you saw it at the end of the game. LANDSTALKER : (GENESIS) Lyle heard of a fabulous treasure guarded by a cousin of Dark Sol, King Nol. He chased the king and unlock the door to the treasure guarded by a dragon. It was the last release of Climax for the Genesis but what a release, probably the best action RPG ever made of all time, long, beautiful, difficult with a powerful story. It comes few time before Shining Force 2. Sega and Climax won't work anymore together on Genesis. But Sega secured the Shining Force Licence in order to continue to earn money. Climax decided then to develop for Nintendo two bad games on the Super Famicom, Feda The Emblem Of Justice and Ladystalker. Feda was really bad on SFC, but was reedited on Saturn under the name " Feda Remake ! " by Yanoman and Max Entertainment. The game was excellent and corrected all the bad points of the Nintendo version. Technically however (except for the battles) it stays a genesis game. Later a sequel of the game originally scheduled for Saturn, appeared on Playstation. LadyStalker was as all Genesis remakes a bad game and fall in a forgotten world. The problem was the controls, the SFC has no diagonals meaning as in every games bad controls... SHINING FORCE CD : (SEGA CD) Sega has bought the licence and renamed Lyle in Max hero of the Shining Force. Ten years after Max disappeared a new Shining Force must be built again in order to save (again) Princess Anri. This game was the first 100% tactics without RPG Phases. It also introduces the Synchronicity used on Saturn and you needed a memory card to enjoyed it. On three quests, the first hero must save the country of Guardiana, then the second hero saved the country of Cypress and kill Iohm once and for all. In order to celebrate the wedding between the first hero and Princess Anri, the best fighters of the two Shining Force were reunified to fight Dava. After this tough fight, you could optionally fought all the bosses in the museum to conclude definitely the episode and see the true ending. Unfortunately without a memory card to save all your stats, very few people knows the true end of this game. SHINING FORCE 2 : (GENESIS) In this episode, the hero must fight Zeon. Sega reused the nazca civilization and introduces God Volcanon and Goddess Mitula. Zeon was seconded by a lot of devils : Gueshp and Odd Eye mainly. Creed is only a spectator in this episode and will never appear again in the saga. After a fierce battle against Zeon, they enclosed him in the tower of Ground Seal. After the end of the game you must wait 10 minutes to go in the outer world where Zeon is enclosed and killed him once and for all. Shining Force 1 and 2 on Game Gear were simple remake of the two first scenarios of the Sega CD Game. SHINING FORCE 3 : THE FINAL CONFLICT : (GAME GEAR) Very few people knew this episode cause it stays in japanese and was never translated. In this episode, Adam will build another Shining Force to fight again Michaela who tried to resurrect Lord Dark Sol. Max lost all his power and where seduced by the Darkness as his brother Kane (it's stupid to do this to a hero, Sega wasn't smart this time). The new hero fought Max and saved him, then killed Michaela. The link with Shining Force 1 and 2 is clearly established in this episode because you will pay a visit to both king Ramladu and Galam, and met again Volcanon and Mitula. At the end of the game, Odd Eye found Mephisto spiritual son of Dark Sol, Dark Dragon and Zeon and decided to raise him so he will conquer the world later. The problem stays again the time because Shining Force 2 was 1000 years after Shining Force 1 and this one is after both and Adam and king Ramladu are not supposed to be alive... SHINING WISDOM : (SATURN) This action RPG is the sequel to shining force 2 because you see Kazim and Sarah, heroes of Shining Force 2 in it. At the end of the game, you see also that Pazort the last boss was a friend of Odd Eye (which is supposed dead, so maybe an episode will show how one day or another). This game is not long and not very popular. Related games : Dark Savior (Saturn): In the spirit of Landstalker, Dark Savior is the adventure of Garian a bounty hunter. This game made by Climax is an excellent action RPG but less good than Landstalker. As the hero looks like Lyle, Dark Savior couldn't avoid the comparison and was badly appreciated by people. SHINING THE HOLY ARK : (SATURN) It's the beginning of a new saga with the appearance of the Hyudols and the Innovators. Sabato a mage reunified some heroes to fight the Huydols Rilix, Panzer and Elise. Galem is only a spectator in this game. In this episode you learn that the father of Julian was killed and a girl (Marky) was kidnapped by Elise. It has some recall to Shining And The Darkness (with similar scenes) and in theory it was the first of a long saga. Sega then changed its plan. Shining the holy ark is to be continued. One thing, at the end of the game the hero became an innovator. SHINING FORCE 3 : SCENARIO 1,2,3 and PREMIUM DISC (SATURN) Those 4 four games are the direct sequel of Shining the holy ark, it occurs 10 years later. Julian is now a man and wishes to chase Galem. At the same time the Hyudols tried to revive Bulzom and to divide the Republic and the Empire. At the end of the scenario 3 Julian fought Galem but couldn't kill him. You learn that Gracia was the son of the hero of Shining the holy ark. You saved Marky and killed Bulzom. Then Julian left with Selena to meet the Innovator and to kill Galem. At the end of the game, Galem and Elise sworn to destroy the world soon. In the premium disc it was again possible to jump in the realm where all the demon are sealed to kill them once and for all (zeon, dark dragon, dark sol etc...). A Shining Force 4 is rumored to appear on Game Cube. A remake of Shining Force 1 will appear soon on GBA. Related Games : Ladystalker : The clone of landstalker on Super Famicom. Not really good. Feda 1 and 2 : Game made by Max Entertainment a subdivision of Climax and both produced by Yanoman. Climax Landers : which is an adventure of all Climax heroes, including Lyle and Lady (from LadyStalker of course). This game was developped by Climax for the Dreamcast. Golden Sun 1 and 2 : Designed for the GBA and developped by Camelot, the two games are based on a parallel story as shining force 3 on saturn. A bonus link is offered by the appearance of Durahan as a special boss in golden sun 2. The link is small but it exists. 7 : Credits : Thanks to Sega for this new episode even if it's a bad one. This walkthrough is copyrighted 2003, ask for permission to use it on your site.