Sega Japan have today updated their Shining Tears website to include a link to their Sega Voice online magazine, as a new article has been added about Shining Tears.

That’s right folks – it’s been a long time since a full-length manga series was released in a Japanese magazine – over 10 years in fact! Doom Blade (featured in Megadrive Fan magazine) followed the tale of Shining in the Darkness, and now Sega have announced that a new Shining Manga is to hit the streets in Japan, in January 2005.

The Manga is to be featured in Kodansha Publishing’s Magazine Z, and will begin in the issue going on sale on January 26th 2005. The story will follow that of the game, and if Babelfish has not mislead me it seems as though Tamaki-sama will be involved, as well as Yuri Nishiyama (designer for Shining Force PS2, I believe).

Gotta go for now – busy afternoon ahead of me. I should have a day to myself tomorrow, when at long last I can get the new script sections online 😀 Sorry about the delay!

My apologies for the lateness of this news – my other half was off work sick at the end of the week and as such I didn’t get online for a few days – during which time, it would seem that Sega Japan updated their Shining Tears site with some new information and pictures.

Apparently, to celebrate the launch of Shining Tears on November 3rd, Akihabara stores in Japan will be running a little prize draw in-store. Those who purchase the game will be allowed to draw a ticket and if they win they may win various goodies, including autographed artworks by Tony (the game’s artist) himself.

Pictures of the prizes can be seen here. There are three hand-drawn illustrations, five autographed pictures, 50 ‘QUO’ telephone cards (looks like the Sega Direct one available at the SF Remake’s launch, but seems to be a 500 unit version), 500 clear files and 1,000 PS2 memory card stickers (these seem to be on first-come first-served basis).

Lucky people, I wish I could have a chance at those treats, but doubtless we elsewhere in the world won’t be offered anything of the sort by our local stores or Sega.

Meanwhile, those lovely phonecards I reported on recently are starting to appear on the Yahoo! Japan auctions, selling for around US$60 each in price. I somehow don’t think I’ll be getting all 8, if any… unless we have any very wealthy and generous visitors here at SFC, with a PayPal account 😉

More gameplay info has also been added, regarding the freeplay and 2 player modes. The freeplay section mentions something about a magic mirror at the ‘hero cottage’, which Pios tells Xion is somehow connected to a strange world. Apparently if Xion passes through the mirror he becomes engulfed in a strange fog, as shown in the pictures here. At this point, Xion is in freeplay mode, allowing him to re-battle areas already passed, to increase his (or his partners’) experience and collect addition items. The story does not advance in this mode, but will resume when he returns to normal play.

Apparently, in 2 player mode, both may play as the same character if desired – pictures are shown of Ryuna and Elwing, in different colour schemes for the 2 players. Players can trade items, and it would seem that as in freeplay mode, the story doesn’t advance, this is simply an extra gameplay mode for enjoyment. While in singleplayer mode only the partner fighter’s link attacks can be used, 2 player mode gives more possibilities for co-op attacks to be used and even invented. That’s if Babelfish hasn’t let me down, of course 😉

Finally, a new section has been added to the characters page, detailing the Bestia force – presumably the enemy from the looks of things, and designed by Salamander Factory (of Shining Soul 1 & 2). All beastmen (hence ‘Bestia’), the characters include Dain (uncertain of his race), Byakko (a white tigerman), Buraaha (seems to be a warthog/boarman), Ezekiel (a goatman), Diokuresu (Dioclese, a lionman), Bakuuto (a dark-looking birdman), and finally – here’s the real confusing bit for us Shining Chronologists! – a centaur named Arthur. Yup, he’s blonde and very much resembles our dear Arthur from throughout the series. What’s going on here then?!

Now, in SFC news, sorry for the delay in getting the SFIII Sc3 scripts up last week, and also the complete SW USA script. I should have time to add them this week, now most of the upheaval in our home is finished for the time being 😉 I’d do it now, but Lee’s off work again and is doing a bit of work on the new version of Tatakai! Yay! Oh, and the contest winner will be announced here this week, along with the launch of a new contest 🙂 Good luck!

Sega Japan have today updated their Shining Tears site with another streaming video.

The clip is around a minute long and is a bit of a sneak-peak at the bonus DVD which is to be included with all purchases of Shining Tears.

Promotional movies, TV commercials, the game’s intro, and – most importantly, IMHO – the Shining Tears stage event from TGS will be on the DVD. The clip includes a few shots of the stage event, and I must say it’s really wonderful to see and hear the emotion of the theme song on the singer’s face! Beautiful stuff – and not long until the release now 😀

Remember, it’s not too late to place a pre-order and play the game months before its US release – drop by Lik-Sang and take a look – you’ll not only get to play the game early, but also be supporting SFC! 😀

That’s right folks – Sega Direct have today revealed the exact goodies which will be received by those who have ordered the Shining Tears DX (Deluxe) package from them.

Not much time to write at the moment, so expect more tomorrow…

Many thanks to SFCer Synbios1978, for pointing out this little news gem! It seems IGN have had the opportunity to play a demo of Shining Tears – and the verdict is good!

They’ve added some lovely quality screen shots and a whole bunch of gameplay movies. I’ll try to add the vids to the movie archive here at SFC tomorrow, when the other 3 dozen or so finish uploading 😉 The movies are well worth watching, the music, graphics and gameplay all seem quite fantastic!

The preview is very positive about the game itself too – seems like it will be to Shining Soul II what Shining Soul II was to Shining Soul. Watch the vids and you’ll see what I mean 🙂

A couple of quotes which stood out to me, which I think will be equally pleasing to you all:

“… it’s definitely aimed towards the old school crowd. Sixteen-bit through and through, the straightforward gameplay mechanics aren’t as complicated as the majority of today’s more recent role-players…”

“The game’s level-up system promises to be just as customizable as the attack types too, as players will be able to distribute the various skill points they attain to build specific attributes and abilities.”

Go, read, enjoy 🙂

Sega Japan have today updated their Shining Tears site…

There is now information about a new series of Shining Tears telephone cards, illustrated by Tony and available with in-store pre-orders of Shining Tears. The catch is that there are 9 (yes NINE!) different cards and different stores will stock different designs – and you’ll only get one of them! Looks like it could be very difficult to get a complete set of these. I’ll try to contact Sega Japan if possible to see if I can get a set to give away at SFC – doubtful, but it must be tried. I’ve no idea how I’ll get all of them for my collection, but I’m glad it’s not just Messe Sanoh that stock these cards as I thought yesterday! The cards are limited in quantity (though not limited edition as such), and the designs are subject to change. I’ll be adding these cards to the collectables section of SFC this afternoon.

In case it is of any use to you, here is a list of shops which will have the cards available:

Ryuna Card 1: Media Land
Blanc Neige Card: Gamers
Elwing Card 1: Messe Sanoh
Mao Card: Game One
Maple Card: Chameleon Club
Elwing Card 2: Yamagiu Software Mansion
Xion & Keiner Card: Messe Sanoh (2F)
Xion & Elwing Card: Sofmap
Ryuna Card 2: Wander

I think you’ll agree the cards are all lovely – I’ll be sure to make some new forum avatars from them!

Elwing’s character page has been updated to include her skills and, as with Xion and Ryuna, a high quality picture of her front and back views has been posted for cosplayers. Click on the second of the two buttons above her vital stats to view all the pictures and information on her skills. Unfortunately I’ve been unable to translate some of this information, but I can tell you that the third screenshot is called Dryad’s *something*, and is a single (rather than combined) attack; the fourth is Multishot, a combined attack with Xion; Return Arrow is the fifth screenshot which also seems to be a combo attack with Xion; the sixth is Elemental Shot, another combo attack which seems to be able to use fire or water. The seventh screenshot looks like some super attack, unfortunately I can’t translate the name but it is a combo attack with Xion – surely, this will be the most devastating of Elwing’s abilities!

Information about items in the game has been added to the site too. Apparently most items will have an effect but there is also fun to be had in collecting items rather like in Shining Soul. Also like Shining Soul, unrecognised items will be marked with a question mark, and must be taken to the ‘judgement house’ to be identified for use.

In addition, there’s some information about the game’s shop system – from the looks of the pictures, these are also very much like Shining Soul’s shops in design and content: identifier, forge, items & equipment. The item pictures do look very sweet 🙂 As usual, deals will be available at the equipment shop, marked with an exclamation mark – this is one of the ways to find super rare items.

And finally, the download section of the site now features some lovely, high quality original Shining Tears artwork by Tony. The designs include the game’s cover illustration, the promotional poster illustration and a new picture of Elwing at a riverside. Expect some more forum avatars from these later today, and perhaps some desktops & new greeting cards here at SFC!