Well, well, well…
Another Shining day has dawned… it’s been almost a year since we last had a day with so much Shining news!
Before I get on to the SF Neo info I mentioned in the last news article, I need to point out something that various people have contacted me about today (SFCer Three of Nineteen being the first), but I’ve only been able to post about now as I was out this afternoon >.<;; Sega Japan have announced (via their Shining Tears site) that news about the next Shining game is imminent. Just like the news last April when ‘Shining Project’ was announced and Shining World came into existance, a new project has been launched today: “Shining Next Project“. The banner for the project features a logo much like the Shining Tears logo and has the rather promising (or perhaps ominous, if the series is to stray further from its roots) ‘beginning’ written at the bottom, indicating there’ll be more games to come. Various reliable sources have reported that it will be a strategy RPG, but I think another Tears game will come first given how well the game sold in Japan.
I guess we’ll know more in a few days 🙂
When reading this on the website, my eyes glanced down to an article that I’d not noticed before. Although it’s dated from November last year, I have no recollection of seeing it listed before. I suppose I just missed it. Anyway, it seems some kind of Shining Tears game is to be released for I-MODE mobile phones in Japan this Spring. I’m not sure if it’s a total port of the game (seems unlikely to me), or some mini-games, but it is currently titled “Shining Tears Mobile”. Since it’s almost Spring 2005 now, I expect we’ll hear more about this soon.
I wonder if this mobile game could be the first of “Shining Next Project”?
And finally, on to the bit which is of little interest to me I’m afraid. I almost didn’t bother to translate the info (not like it’s much hassle through Babelfish ;)) but I figured I ought to…
The Shining Force Neo site has been updated today with a new video and new info. The video is 5 minutes long and the usual low quality – to save you having to stream this down from Sega’s site, I’ve uploaded it to the SFC video archive. I can’t say I was too impressed with it – though it was nice to see a bit of the towns & menu system, the game itself looks very generic and the overall impression from the video is, in my opinion, nothing like as impressive as the Shining Tears videos. Maybe it’s the video quality… meh.
The first lot of new info is about the Force Frame, and how ‘Force Arts’ can be carved onto it at the ‘Force Art House’, and how the special attacks can be applied/removed from your equipment here too. There is also mention of melting down equipment here to remove the Force energy – presumably to apply to another piece of equipment? Some coloured dots beside the item names indicate what special powers and ‘secret principles’ have been applied to them.
Some more obvious stuff now, about shops in the game – as you’ve just read, there is the Force Art House – purpose already described; the ‘Arms House’ for buying weapons; the ‘Warehouse’ for storing up to 200 items; the ‘Instrument House’ where various items such as keys can be purchased; the ‘Judgement House’ for the appraisal of unidentified items and of course the good old faithful Smithy is around to forge & strengthen weapons (up to 9 strength-increases per weapon).
We’ve at last met the advisor for SF Neo’s HQ, who goes by the name of Rebecca. No new info here for anyone familiar with the series – characters wait at HQ when not in your active party, and if you want to swap them in or check their stats, you can do so here.
Finally, there’s a bit more of the story (along with some atmospheric screenshots – quite a nice one of Chiquitita too)… since there was quite a lot of text here, the Babelfish translation may have garbled it a bit…
When you start the game, Max and Meryl head off to meet Graham at the Rakail stronghold. As leader of the centaur group on the border, Graham has set up a patrol to prevent monsters invading. They pass through Shinisutoribare and journey on to the holy capitol of Fieldland, Kuinshinu.
The page goes on to explain about Shinisutoribare:
It is, apparently, a cave on the border of Fieldland which is very steep with complicated topography. The scenery around the area is said to be very picturesque, with a bridge known as “The Bridge of Determination”.
From here, Max goes on through the country of Fieldland to the Kyantol village. I’m not so clear on the next bit – it mentions monster attacks and a place called Cascade Castle, but I’m not sure whether Cascade Castle is harbouring the monsters that are attacking the Kyantol village, or whether the Castle is having a problem with monster attacks. I suspect it to be the former, given the information that follows about Cascade Castle. Anyway… while there, Max meets Chiquitita who joins the group. He also meets the village elder, Josef, who seems to know Graham from long ago (or is it that they both have knowledge of old times? It’s hard to tell from Babelfish’s mess!).
Then follows a little about Cascade Castle:
The Kyantol village has a very beautiful castle, which prior to the Great War 13 years ago, was the pride of the district. At that time, it was a busy place with lots of people coming and going from the castle and village, but now it is known as “The Castle of Rebellion” in places that hate it.
Well, that’s all the new info I have for today – expect a lot of updates next week when Lee goes back to work (he’s been poorly, but this has been quite good for Tatakai ;)). The SEE has been coming along quite nicely of late too, but there’s still a lot of coding to do.
Off for the night now – Domino’s pizza & a movie (thanks Grommy :D) for a change. Well, even Lee & I need a break from our Shining projects sometimes 😉