Shining Force II

Shining Force II is the sequel to the first Shining Force, set many years after the first game on a completely different continent. The core game is the same with myriad adjustments and improvements – namely, a completely rebuilt AI.

Unfortunately, the game ended up rushed and was programmed seemingly with little care that everything worked exactly as intended. It ended up being a classic despite the many flaws and errors.

Debugging Functions
The US version still has some debugging functions enabled. One is accessible on boot-up by quickly pressing Up, Down, Up, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Up, Right, Down, Left, Up, B as the Sega logo enters the screen. A sound will confirm entry.

Now, when loading a saved game or after entering a character name for a new game, hold Start.


 * Special Turbo: Makes menus and the unit selection cursor in battle move faster.
 * Control Opponent: Places all enemy units under player control.
 * Auto Battle: Makes all player units act under AI control. The AI is incomplete, however, and the game will crash if it tries to move an archer unit or cast an enemy-targeting spell.
 * Game Completed: Presumably sets the game's completed flag in RAM.

Unused Palettes
Although all the enemy models are used, some of their alternate palettes are not. Monster palettes are stored by of monster difficulty in the game ROM; Most of these unused palettes seem to be for intermediary monster types.

Unused Text
Leftovers from the first Shining Force. Items in {curly brackets} are variables.

0f5: Splash hit! 0f6: Critical hit! 0f7: Satisfactory hit!

These lines would have injected some variation into battle scenes.

0f8: Put on a demon smile. 0f9: MP drained!

A line from a special ability some enemies in the first game had. They would use this MP-draining ability rather than attack. Although enemies in this game can drain MP on contact, it doesn't use this message.

0fa: Muttered terrible words. 0fb: HP drained!

This is like the previous pair, but applies to HP. It's more puzzling, however, because enemies can't drain health on contact nor is there any spell effect that does so.

0fc: Said evil words. 0fd: Stunned! Can't move!

This would go with a paralysis on contact effect and enemies can stun, but the stun proc doesn't use these lines.

12b: Everybody recovered {#} hit points.

Sounds like a line intended for a non-battle scene health recovery effect. No such thing exists in the game.

136: {NAME} put on a demon's smile. 137: {NAME}'s MP was drained by {#}.

These lines are linked to the spell SPOIT, and the level 1 subroutine of that is used as the use-in-battle effect of several magic items in the game. However, these lines will only be called if SPOIT itself is hacked into a character's spell list.

139: {NAME} muttered a terrible spell. 13a: {NAME}'s MP was drained by {#}.

A variant pair of lines for MP-draining spells.

19e: {NAME} found {#} gold coins.

With the way the game is laid out, the maximum amount of money that could be found in a chest is a mere 130 coins. Since the amount is so pathetic, all cash is instead gained by killing devils.

150: {NAME} is surrounded by a magic curtain. 160: {SPELL} expired. Magic curtain around {NAME} has vanished.

The casting and wearing-off text for Shield, a defensive buff in the first game which is not present in this one.

Unused Items
The ability to search in battle was removed from the US version, meaning every chest and searchable spot only reachable in battle become useless set pieces. There is no way to gain either of the two following items, short of cheating or hacking. They exist in the level data for the Fairy Woods battle stage, but even with searching re-enabled, they cannot be found.

The Life Ring is an accessory that can be equipped by any promoted character. It has a base shop value of 5000 coins, and does nothing when used. While equipped, the owner regains 5 HP every time their turn ends.

Mistranslated as "Right of Hope", the Light of Hope is a one-use item that casts the spell SHINE in battle. This item restores all MP for every character in the party.

Added Items
In the Japanese version, there was only one Vigor Ball, found in the tree where you find Sheela. In the English version, an additional one was placed in the northwest corner of the Elf Village. The location itself is not reachable in the Japanese version, as a solid tree tile is there.

The addition of the second Vigor Ball gives the player the option of promoting both Sarah and Karna, the only two non-promoted female Priests, to Master Monks instead of Vicars. This allows for a total of three Master Monks when adding Sheela to the equation.

Unused Behavior
Because the ability to search in battle was removed from the game, US players didn't get to experience something that Japanese players did – monsters hiding in treasure chests! The game is programmed such that putting a triggered monster spawn on a treasure chest tile in a battle's enemy data will cause said monster to spawn if the chest is searched. The monster-in-a-box gets to immediately attack when triggered. Upon defeating the monster, the item from the treasure chest will be dropped by the monster.

Title Screen
The title screen underwent some minor revisions. The subtitle was removed since the translated release wasn't branded with a subtitle, the copyright date was updated to 1994, and the trademark symbol was added.

Status Screens
When the game's font was redrawn for the US version, it became standardized with a different baseline than the Japanese font. This puts all non-variable width text 1 pixel to the up and right from the original version, creating tiny gaps and buffer areas not originally present.

The character status screen underwent some minor revisions for readability.


 * The "equipped" label uses pinkish font color tiles in the US version to make it better stand out.
 * Item and spell name strings are aligned to start at the top rather than the bottom row next to their respective icons to make room for two rows.
 * The numbers for Attack, Defense, Agility, and Move were moved one digit to the left so they didn't hug the right side of the window so closely.

The ? marks for enemy level and experience point values were changed to N/A (Not Applicable) in the US version. In Japanese under the magic column it says "Haven't learned" and under item it says "don't have." The English version standardized all of these messages to simply "Nothing" in pinkish font.

The Land Effect window supports two text lines in the English version. Because item names can have two lines, the English version's item use/equip window was heightened by 8 pixels to accommodate the extra tiles.

Because the Japanese version allowed a greater selection of characters in names, the name entry window is of course larger. The original game has a full set of English capital letters for use in specific areas.

The localization team opted to add a full set of lowercase letters in addition to adjusting the capital letters, then added another complete set of both in the pinkish-colored tiles seen in previous comparisons. The port also expanded the maximum name length from 5 to 7 characters – the longest name of any character on the team, which is CHESTER.

The party screens underwent more substantial changes. First, the spell and equipment window uses a different tile entirely to mark equipped items. In the Japanese version, it just uses the English capital E. The port couldn't get away with this same tactic and instead uses a brand new tile, a small colored E. The port also uses two lines per spell to afford more room for spell names. The level number was moved to the second line and its function there spelled out.

The stat window experienced some reorganization as columns were moved and deleted. Character names were expanded to 7 characters in the US version, so the class column had to be moved to make room. The port also cut the HP and MP columns in the first page and expanded the labels for level and experience from LV and EX to LEV and EXP. The second page, toggled by pressing Left or Right, cut the current/max HP comparison down to just maximum HP. Characters are automatically restored to full health if they survive battle, and there is no way for them to take damage while roaming about, so this wasn't needed.

The two tiles for the MAX label are still in the US version, unused.