In ancient times, a great civilisation was reduced to ashes by the Dark Dragon, the incarnation of destruction. After hundreds of years, a new people settled the land.
But the Dark Dragon arose to once again turn the towns into a sea of fire.
Only a small group of individuals knew of a means to confront the Dark Dragon. They were the descendants of those whose homes were destroyed long ago.These descendants of the ancients went forth and challneged the Dark Dragon, equipped with weapons and knowledge handed down by their ancestors.
Now, the final stage of the war is about to begin.
Will the Shining Fleet, led by the strategist Noah, succeed in defeating the dragon’s Five Generals as well as the Dark Dragon itself…?
– from the Shining Soul box
The game itself is follows the Shining storyline, acting as another plot-joiner, as we see many familiar faces in the game. The plot, however, is flawed – most likely a result of the game being developed by a different company. Indeed, this is the first game in the entire series that the Takahashi brothers did not work on, and I’m afraid it’s blatantly obvious.
It’s similar in style to Phantasy Star Online, allowing up to 4 people to adventure together and exchange items etc. For this reason, Sega have dubbed this game a Communication RPG, which in layman’s terms basically means a multiplayer Action RPG. There are four character classes: warrior, archer, dragonnewt and magician. A reasonably enjoyable game in its own right, but as a Shining game, I’m sorry to say it’s quite poor.
Sega’s Official Shining Soul site is located at http://sega.jp/shining, where you can find various pictures and movie files to download relating to the game.