Regular Update

Regular Update

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, after all the downtime 😉 And I’m sorry to say that it’s not really a complete update, I’ve just been too busy 🙁 But things’ll be back on track soon, fear not!

So for this fortnight, we have a new MP3, new poll (it seems there may be a slight error when you vote at the moment, I’m looking into it… your vote should still get through though) and (finally!) a new contest, as well as the winner of the April-July contest being announced. No new comic strip today folks, sorry 🙁

I’ve got lots of stuff to update here, and rest assured it will be done before long: adding new collectables to the list; updating my collection; updating release info (US Shining Soul cover art, Japanese Shining Soul II cover art); updating the links database etc. I’m sorry I’ve not had time to do those just yet. Oh, and I also need to archive some of the old news!

Gotta go for now, but I hope you like the new contest – I’ve been preparing the prizes for this for months now!

SFC Update Delayed

SFC Update Delayed

Due to unforseen circumstances, today’s SFC update will be postponed until tomorrow – sorry! Yes, I did get the Yog plushies finished off for the contest ;P See the SFC Fanwork Forum for pics 🙂

Shining Soul USA News

Shining Soul USA News

Atlus have put up a page about Shining Soul on their site. Nothing really new or exciting there (though it’s nice to see a decent picture of the cover design), but always good to know they’re still hard at work on it! I hope to be getting a review copy sometime prior to the release, so I will of course keep you as informed as I can 😀

Right, off to finish those Yogurt plushies now, so I can prepare the new contest later today!

Shining Soul II News

Shining Soul II News

First up, my apologies for the lack up updates since the site came back up. I’ve been working on a number of Shining/SFC related projects amongst other things, and have been really busy. There will be an update on Wednesday though, so watch out!

A few days back, Sega Japan added the Shining Soul II TV commercial to their site – I posted about this in the SFC Shining Soul II forum, but didn’t have time to update here. The advert isn’t really anything to shout about, and certainly isn’t as cool as the ones for the original Shining Soul, sadly!

Today, there have been several more updates on the site. The Specials page now features some new desktop wallpapers for download, as well as a set of Shining Soul II character icons you can use on your desktop too.

The Features page has been updated to include information about events in the game. For example, one of the events on the page shows two mummies hiding an item in a grave in the second dungeon. Apparently, if the player approaches them before they finish their task, they can be defeated and the item procured… leave it too late however, and you’ll never get the item! The item in this instance, is the Boken Soul… of unknown use, the page says… but relating to our old friend Boken of course!

Another event is shown on this page, from dungeon three. The translation isn’t perfect, but I gather a young lady is encountered in the prison of a place called Wizari’s Mansion. If the player has found the correct key earlier in the game, they have the opportunity to help the young lady. The story from there on will change depending on whether you were able to help her or not!

On the same page is a new section about ‘Monster Cards’, part of the new ‘Monster Dictionary’ feature! When monsters are defeated, they may drop a Monster Card, with information about that type of monster. If these cards are taken to the Castle Library, they can be added to the Monster Dictionary. If you find multiples of the same card, they can be exchanged with other players in multiplayer mode. The information contained on the monster cards looks like it can be quite useful in a tactical sense – it seems to include details of spell resistance, stats and items carried!

A section about Rare Items has been added too. Like in Shining Soul, rare items such as letters can be found in Shining Soul II. When the letters are arranged in the right way, something interesting may happen. The example shows a letter being found when fighting, being identified and then taken to the sancturary to be combined with other letters. I wonder what will happen?!

On the Characters pages, a new section has been added to show a selection of the monsters which will be encountered in the various dungeons.

In Dungeon 1, Goblin Fort, goblins, pastes (oozes) and orcs will be found, and the boss is the Goblin Colonel, at Gobugo Beach (?). The story reads that the goblins originally occupied only a small nook of the island, but have over the years created a military stronghold. With this in mind, and the recent confusion over strange phenomenon and the change in nature’s balance, it seems likely they will try to take over the castle.

Dungeon 2, Glove Giant’s (Graveyard?), will feature undead type monsters such as mummies, skeletons and also creatures like giant bats. The boss character is the Glove Giant, who is the spirit monster of the graveyard. Apparently, the Wizari’s Mansion is in the centre of the graveyard, using the graves as a sort of barricade to keep intruders out. The locals are quite terrified of this area, and seem to avoid it as much as possible!

Dungeon 3 is Wizari’s Mansion, where for the past few dozen years years or so, the witch Wizari has dwelled in the form of a young woman. She is, however, in reality at least 150 years old! Here, monsters such as spiders, gizmos and armoured spirits (?) will be encountered. It seems the witch may have kidnapped a young girl (daughter of someone important) from the castle town.

Looks as though Shining Soul II is going to be pretty fine game! 😀

Forums Down

Forums Down

Just letting you know, I’m aware that the forums are currently down – there’s something up with the database (worry not, I have some very recent backups if it comes to that), I think it either got too big or someone tried to hack it. Can’t be sure which, but I’ve asked Smoove to look at it and let me know if it can be fixed somehow.I’m out for most of today, so here’s hoping it’s okay when I get back. If not, I guess it’ll be restore-from-backup time… and time to make sure the forums prune more often to prevent the DB getting too big!

UPDATE:
It seems the server log files have filled up all my remaining webspace – perhaps this has something to do with it (I had to delete some files just to upload this page again!). To keep you updated while I’m out for the day, you can keep an eye on my support topic at Smoove’s Forums, here.

UPDATE 2:
Forums back up now, don’t worry, doesn’t seem to have been a hack attempt – clearing some logfiles seems to have made it possible to fix the database 😀 It might happen again if the logs build up before the log rotation system kicks in though. Gotta go for now, see y’all later!

Status Update

Status Update

Well, it’s been a few days since SFC came back online, and I’m now almost done getting everything back up and running. The forums are as they should be, the subsites are all up and running – including downloads (find any problems, please let me know!), and most of SFC itself is back up… if not updated much of late. Just a few more cover scans to upload and we’re back how we were!

Now, here’s what you can expect over the next week or so:

  • New comic strip (finally!)
  • New contest
  • Update to collectables section
  • Update to my collection
  • Update to release info
  • More site links
  • …and more!

I’m also planning on redesigning and updating my Shining Force site, though I do have other projects going on – such as working on my fanmade Yog plushies!

Also, keep an eye out for news about Tatakai – for some time now, my dearly beloved has been working on a game engine in which people will be able to make their own Shining Force style games, relatively easily too I might add! I’m very excited about this project, and have been encouraging him throughout. He’s getting a site ready to explain more about it and has provided a demo to a select few. It’s not yet finished, but it’s not going to be another abandoned project, and I hope will prove to be a popular game development tool.

Nothing else to report at this time, but I will – as always – keep you posted on any Shining developments!

Home at last!

Home at last!

Many thanks to SmooveNET for getting the new server up and running and for all their support in getting SFC back online!

As you may notice while browsing around the site, there are some errors here and there, as are to be expected after a server move 😉 I’m going through the site right now trying to get everything fixed up and working, but please bear with me if it takes a little while longer than expected.

Meanwhile, the bulk of SFC, the subsites & the forums are up and running, so have fun browsing around again 🙂 Oh, and I’ll update the contest page soon… still another 2 weeks left on that really, because of the downtime, so feel free to enter if you haven’t already!

Camelot’s Secret GC Game NOT Shining…

Camelot’s Secret GC Game NOT Shining…

Or they could just be bluffing! 😉

Camelot have updated their website – it seems they have been receiving a lot of emails recently, asking when the next Golden Sun release will be… Camelot talk a little about more recent projects (Mario Golf, Mario Tennis), and explain that although there’s a big demand for a new title, they can’t answer at this time. They go on to talk about about the size of the company and projects etc… but most important is the final line of the update. It basically says (as they have already stated several times) that they will not be continuing the Shining series, and any enquiries about that should go to Sega, since it’s theirs now.

While it’s sad to know they’ve not changed their minds, it does make me all the more sure that the info I’ve received about the next Force game is indeed correct in regards to which console it will be appearing on. But, at this time I can say no more, sorry! 🙁

Shining Soul II Site Update

Shining Soul II Site Update

Sega have again updated (gotta love their little ‘new’ icon, featuring our dear lil’ Yog!) their Shining Soul II Site,with some nice new additions! On the ‘Special’ page, there’s a cool new Yogurt desktop for you to download, and the ‘Power Up’ page has been updated with some new features:

  • In the items section, ‘Santuary of Light’ item information has been added.
    Apparently, items (some of which you would not normally be able to use) can be merged here – in groups of four – to make new (and rare) items. You may find out about such combinations in the towns you visit. Screenshots show a simple proceedure for this – place the four items on pedestools, confirm you want to combine them, and a new item will appear for you on the fifth pedestal at the back of the Sanctuary.

  • The ‘Shine Force’ section now includes instructions for activating the joint player powers…
    If all four players press the A button simulaneously, a ball of light called the ‘Shine Force’ will appear imbetween the players. The ‘Shine Force’ can then, it seems, be used by moving players around… it can open doors which would otherwise not be able to be opened in Single Player mode (without the ‘Shine Force’ power)

  • A new section has been added – ‘Competition Place’…
    A nice new feature to the game – the Royal Competition Place, is a combat ground where one may battle monsters to gain items, or to battle against other players. In Single Player mode you pay 100G to enter the contest. As you defeat the monsters, you’ll rise through the ranks and be able to battle tougher and tougher opponents to win the items shown onscreen. In Multiplayer Mode, there are three different ways to battle – 3 against 1; 2 against 2 or everyone battling one another. When battling other players, recovery magic can only be cast on your own ‘team’ (whether that be two other players, one, or just yourself), attack magic can be used only against the opposing team, and items can be used on any player. The screenshots illustrate a four player all-against-all battle. To start the contest, a judge stands in the middle of the arena and signals for the battle to begin. The third screenshot shows Sachs doing an explosive kick attack (sweet!) and the final shot shows Prim being spun around as a result of one of Ruin’s attacks!

Looks like some great new features – here’s hoping Sega Japan will allow me to preview the game, to give you the full lowdown!

Shining Soul I & II News

Shining Soul I & II News

Since Atlus’ announcement regarding their US release of Shining Soul, RPGFan reports that they have also secured the US rights to Shining Soul II (though they make the mistake of saying Shining Soul is a Camelot-developed title, when we all know that’s far from the case ;)). Atlus have recently updated their website with estimated release dates, and have pencilled Shining Soul in for a September 2003 release. In addition to this, I have approached them regarding possible suggestions for improvements in the Shining Soul script, I was delighted to discover this evening that they are willing to hear me out, and await SFC’s return to the web to fully consider my offer. They may also be willing to announce important news regarding Shining Soul here, if they like the site enough.

In other Soul news, Sega have updated their Shining Soul II product detail page, to amend the release date – it has been pushed back from July 3rd to July 24th of this year. They have also added a streaming video demo, and I must say that Shining Soul II looks much more Shining (in fact, very Shining Wisdom, which isn’t a bad thing!) than it’s predecessor… I’m actually quite excited about it!

No further Shining news at this time, however it seems SFC should be back online during the first week of June – so not long now! Here’s hoping that a speedy restore & these extra few weeks until Shining Soul II’s release date will provide enough time for me to approach Sega Japan for a review copy (and hopefully promotional goodies I can use as contest prizes).

Sort of back up… kinda ;)

Sort of back up… kinda ;)

SmooveNET have re-enabled my account so that I can, for the time being, at least give you news updates here. The other areas of the site will be deleted shortly, when they have finished backing them up for moving to the new server.

The Forums on this domain have been de-activated, as it seems a few people went ahead and started posting there earlier when the domain came back up.
Please do not try to use these forums, use the version here until the new server is ready. Rest assured I am regularly backing up the details at the ‘temp’ forums, and they will be ported over to this site as soon as Smoove move me to the new server.

That’s all for now – gotta go finish the housework 😉

New Temporary Forums…

New Temporary Forums…

Thanks to Volcanon, we’ve got hosting for the ol’ SFC Forums on his server for the next couple of weeks until SmooveNET have their new server ready 🙂
I’ve been able to port over the forum database from my SmooveNET account, meaning that anything that happened when the forums came back up last week is still there 🙂

Better yet, when the new account at Smoove is ready, I can port this database back to them, so anything that happens in the next couple of weeks’ll still be there too 😀

Here’s the URL:
www.hiddengalaxy.net/forums

Not much else to report right now, but come back tomorrow because there’s gonna be a lil’ bit of interesting news 🙂