SmooveNET are in the process of getting a new server ready for SFC! 😀
Our next Ikaika-like server will be online soon… we are currently in the planning stages and will be purchasing it within the next two weeks.
Those who are interested in getting an account on this new server, please notify us so that we may gauge the demand for it. Several sites have already contacted us and secured their spot on this server. If you’re interested, please let us know. Thanks!
Might even be sooner – sweet!!
SmooveNET are currently re-enabling SFC so I can put this page up there – but not the rest of the site at this time. Meanwhile, I’ve just had this email from them:
Hi Moogie,
Seeing that you’ll be paying in advance, we may be expediting the creation of the new server. Every bit of referral helps, especially new Premium members. Plus you get free domain renewals for each referral that you make. Nevertheless, we will try to get the new server up and running for you as soon as possible. Thanks! 🙂 –CE
Since I’ll be paying a year in advance, that’ll help speed up getting the new server 🙂
Also, as was pointed out in the email, if more people want to sign up with them, that would also help get funds for the new server, and make it more economically viable 😉
So, if you need site hosting or are thinking of changing hosts, I urge you to consider SmooveNET. While you may not like that they had to disable SFC, it does go to show that they really won’t allow anything to compromise the stability of their servers (remember, it was a favour to me to try to get the site running on their existing server – they weren’t absolutely certain it could handle it and I was aware of this at the time). Their packages are certainly better value than elsewhere, and many of their hostees post at their forums, so you can enquire more about their services and get opinions from those who use them!
Their standard package is just US$5.75 per month, and includes a whopping 20GB of bandwidth! Most hosts charge at least double that, and won’t offer such feature-rich hosting, flexibility and dedicated support for fansites on a budget. Their premium package is US$25.00 per month and allows even more space and bandwidth for your site – for less than I was paying with my old host, I get three times the bandwidth – 150GB!! Well worth it 🙂
Not only will you be getting a great deal for your site, and saving money, you’ll be helping SFC get back up and running 🙂 For more info, visit their site and feel free to ask questions at their forums – they’re quick to reply, friendly, knowledgable and helpful!
If you choose to sign up, feel free (but not obligated) to mention you were referred by Shining Force Central – it’l lhelp keep the SFC domain registered too 🙂
Alright, it looks like the page I’d put up at my old Zophar.net space, to keep you informed of the situation has either been taken down, or the server is having difficulties.
Here’s the story so far (short version)…
Just over a month ago, my host was due to move servers. Four weeks later my site still wasn’t up, and I’d had no word from my host. He’d up and left with my money… fortunately though, he returned my domain when he finally made contact about a week ago.
So, being without a host and without funds, I set about to get some money together and find a new host. The money came in thanks to some generous contributions from SFC users who I really can’t thank enough 😀
Money ready, I found a host – www.smoovenet.com – who offer a great package and are dedicated to providing low cost, high feature hosting for fansites such as SFC. Big sites such as GamesAreFun.com host with them, and sing their praises.
I was most thrilled to find that despite the notice on their site that they were not able to accept further hostees at the time, they thought they could manage to fit SFC on their latest server 🙂 So, I got my account paid for (just a month to begin with), domain moved over and a lot of the site uploaded (which I’ve been doing all week on this 56k…). Sadly, within a couple of days of the forums being back online, Smoove found that the server couldn’t cope with the extra load placed on it, and as the last site on it, I was the first to be suspended.
But, don’t worry! That doesn’t mean SFC is totally homeless – it just means I need to wait until they have funds for a new server (they hope this will be in a few weeks, but remember, they don’t make much profit, they’re here to help out folks like me), and then SFC will be moved onto that server.
So folks, don’t be mad at Smoove! They did us a favour trying to get the site back up before they had a new server ready… it hasn’t quite worked out. With a bit of luck we may be able to have a little bit of the site up and running until the new server is ready, but no news on that front at the moment.
Rest assured that when the new server is ready, SFC’ll come back 😀
Meanwhile, I’ll use this page as a place to keep you informed, and post any new Shining news 😉 I’ll go grab the Shining Soul II info I posted at the other temp site and post it here (it’ll be further down the page, as the news is old now). Also, you might be interested to know that there are some temporary forums here (though not as busy, or complete, as the usual SFC forums).
I’ve not been able to approach Sega themselves for any new Shining info during this last month, due to my not having a site to refer them to 😉 I hope to try to glean more info soon. In the meantime, a report at The Magic Box has some good news for us – Sega have confirmed that the new Shining Force game is still in development! I thought they’d say something about it soon, as it’s been almost a year since they first mentioned it 😀
And on a “new Shining game” note, I’ve posted the latest Shining Soul II info further down the page.
Well, we’re not quite up again yet, it takes a while on this 56k 😉 But, SFC itself, the SFII site, Final Conflict site and SitD site are up and running now too 😀 Still need to fix and upload the SFI site though. The Forums are back up, though I’m still working to restore some of the features (primarily the Item Shop), and hope to have that sorted by the weekend.
Well, I’ve spent all weekend uploading, and things are getting back up online quite nicely 🙂
Most of SFC itself is now back up, with the exception of a bunch of the cover scans, and the forums (more on these in a bit). I also got the Shining Force II site back up in time for it’s 7th Anniversary (yesterday), though with all this uploading and sorting out of files, I didn’t have time to add anything special to the site for the day. Still, at least it’s back online, eh? Also got the Final Conflict site up yesterday and will work on getting the Shining Force and Shining in the Darkness sites back up in the next day or two 🙂
By the way, if you’d like to thank SmooveNET for their help in getting SFC back online, there’s a topic at their forums – here – which you can post in. You don’t need to register to post, guest posting is enabled 🙂
Now, on to the forums…
Though the basic files for the forums have been uploaded, and I have the styles, avatars and images etc all ready, there have been some problems restoring the database. As you probably know, I’m on a 56k connection (anyone from British Telecom reading? Please, please, please upgrade the Upwey exchange for ADSL!) so my good friend and fellow SFC Forum Admin, Koshums, backed up the forum database before the site went down (since it’s just over 50MB). Last night he tried to restore it, but unfortunately the restore process didn’t seem to work. He has since uploaded the file to the SFC webspace for me to try to get restored. It seems neither phpMyAdmin nor phpBB’s admin panel is happy to restore from a file on the web 🙁 So, at this moment I am downloading the file via FTP (which isn’t going too badly actually, have been downloading for about an hour, and it’s at almost 50% – I guess it’s faster when I’m getting it direct from the server like that, rather than via the phpBB admin panel). Then I’ll try restoring it from the file on my PC… and if that fails, I shall have to copy chunks of the SQL from the file and manually restore all 50MB+ bit by bit. It might take a while, but I’m doing the best I can for you all 🙂 Worst case scenario, I’m hoping SmooveNET might be able to help somehow…
But, there’s more. Having looked at part of what I’ve downloaded of the database backup so far, I’m not 100% certain it has backed up the details relating to forum modifications, such Gold, the Shop, your item collections etc (basically, anything that doesn’t come with phpBB as standard)… I hope it has, because I know a lot of you will be rather upset at having lost these things, and I can’t say I’ll be too pleased about having to spend several days re-creating all these items and hunting out the original install files for these mods 🙁 But, if I have to, that’s what I’ll do. I hope you can bear with me if that is the case. I won’t, however, be able to offer to restore all your Gold totals/items etc – it will just take far too long on top of all the other stuff, and I’ll have no way to verify the information, I’m really sorry.
Well, maybe it won’t even come to that. As soon as the database backup has finished downloading I shall take a look and see what’s there and what isn’t… here’s hoping!
Will try to get the latest Shining Soul II info posted up here as soon as I get the time 🙂
Yup, SFC is finally on it’s way back after over a month of downtime. We’ve got a new host and I’m currently uploading the site again. Bear with me, it may take a few days for me to get everything up and working properly, and the MySQL database for the forums has not yet been set up, so I’m guessing that’ll be early next week now – sorry ’bout the delay!
Many thanks to the folks at SmooveNET for all their help with getting SFC back up and running!
The subsites (SitD, SF1, SF2, Final Conflict) should be coming back over the course of the next week, when my subdomains are ready.
Since I want to get the site up as quickly as possible, I’ll just have to refer you to this page for the latest Shining Soul II news, no time to add it here now!
Sega have put up a mini-site for Shining Soul II, including all sorts of new information and new artwork.
I can’t translate the storyline summary at this point, since it’s an image, not text, but I can get some of the character information down for you…
The characters have default names now:
The Hero is named Alex (oddly enough, what I named my original SitD character… my first Shining Hero!) and he is able to use Swords, Spears and Axes. He is the decsendent of a hero who defeated the Dark Dragon long ago (presumably, the Warrior of the original Shining Soul), but Alex doesn’t know this. A mischevious young adolescent, Alex has been well looked-after and is, as such, in prime condition. He’s always wanted to travel the world as a soldier. He’s an easy-to-handle character, able to use strong weapons, and has a good defence.
The Wolfling is named Sachs, and is able to use Claws and Dantou. As a young wolfling he was raised in a place where he learned a special technique (from the description, it sounds like it may be similar to Zylo’s wind-type attack). Though he has a very high attack, his defence power is low – he doesn’t carry much equipment, in order to maintain his great speed.
The Dragonute is Tieloss, who can use Axes and Flails. Originally, from the Lava Zone of the continent, Tieloss, despite the long period of peace, would like to do and see much more. He has the best attack strength of all the characters, but due to the weight of his weapons, he is a slow-mover.
The Magician is named Pamela, and can use Staves and (light) Magic Books. Palema is Alex’s older (by 2 or 3 years) sister, who though still not fully skilled in the magical arts, has magic in her blood from a legendary magical quest in her descendents past. Her desire is to go on the Kingdom’s first magical quest of recent times, but this goal does not distract her from her studies – day or night! When she specialises in a spell, she can cast it from further away. She can also combine her spells with a partner to create powerful (and colourful!) magic. She does, however, lack strength and defence, meaning you must keep her safe from physical harm.
The Dark Wizard is named Bloodstar, and he too can use Staves and (dark) Magic Books. He’s a human-vampire halfling, who’s past was filled with darkness… and he’s proud of his dark magic skills. He is the older brother of a pair of twins. He uses the Powers of Darkness in his magic, and changes himself into a half-vampire monster, able to fly and poison (or so the translation leads me to believe… I could be wrong…). In addition, if you find a special sword, he is able to fight.
The Kyantol is called Prim (yes, Cull, a Kyantol!!) – a priest who is able to use Staves, Flails and (holy?) Magic Books. She(?) is one of the small Kyantol (half dog) population. She is proud to be of the Preacher of Light bloodline, and though she is not yet a fully-fledged monk, her spirituality and sixth sense are where she truly excels. Although she can use weapons, her recovery and auxillary magic are her main way of helping the party. However, she should of course be protected from attacks as much as possible.
The Ninja, named Raizen is able to use Swords, Dantou and Makimono. Born in a land to the far east, he is a typical ninja, continuously practising the art of ninjitsu (and invisibility? the translation was a bit garbled, at least I’m quite sure he doesn’t have a ‘sorcerer potato surprise’ 😉 ). He has fast attacks and special tecniques (which may be tricky to pull-off). He has the fastest movement speed of all the characters.
The Archer is named Ruin, and can use Bows, Spears and (nature-related) Magic Books. It is not certain whether he is descended from the Archer who originally fought Dark Dragon. He’s been in the area for several years, and has noticed in this time strange, noisy creatures in the forest, indicating that the balance between the Powers of Light and Darkness is deteriorating. He has long-distance spear and bow attacks, but doesn’t have a very good defence. His magic abilities allow him to use the power of the forest animals to attack.
There are lots of in-town NPCs and information about them too, but it would take me too long to put all the information here right now. I’ll list a few of their names, in case you’re interested though 😉 Perhaps I’ll translate more later on when I’ve done some more sewing on these Yog toys 😉
NPCs: King Marchel; Queen Yvonne; Princess Kokotto; Samuel; Deathheart; Boken; Morgan; Borb; Irma, Rin & Ran; Pendorino; Craft; Stella; Jensen; Angela; Fender.
Monsters: Viking; Salamander; Armour Obgaas(?); Ghost; Unicorn; Orc; Reaper(?); Gargoyle.
The artwork, as in Shining Soul, was created by Salamander Factory.
There are 6 ‘power up points’ (features enhanced since Shining Soul?) listed on the site:
Wallpapers and link buttons can be downloaded from this page of the site.
The FAQ section is not yet available.
I’ll certainly try to get more info up on those NPCs shortly. Going to have some breakfast first (why do I always find this stuff as soon as I wake up?!!)
Shining Soul II is now up for pre-order in Japan, at Sega Direct.
There are two different packs available to order, one as the game on it’s own, and one as the game with some extras: a Shining Soul II GBA carry case and a book, the Shining Soul II Data Collection.
Each pre-order will also include a keyring(?), with ‘Shining Soul’ written on it in Japanese, and a little Yogurt hanging from it 🙂
The set including the carry case and book is on pre-order at a price of 6,980 yen (about US$60), while the game on its own is listed as 5,382 yen (about US$45). Apparently, www.ncsx.com will be selling the game-alone set, and also hope to be able to offer the pack with bonus items.
First of all, my apologies for the lack of an update two weeks ago – I was having a mole removed and totally forgot that the date for the surgery clashed with my usual SFC update! Almost fully recovered now, and back to updating 🙂
As usual, this fortnight brings with it a new comic strip (many thanks to Jala for supplying it!), new MP3, new poll and – since we’re in April now – a new contest too. The winner of the March contest has been announced, here. I’ve also archived the old news, comic, poll and contest.
Very little else to report at present, though I will be adding the English Shining Soul script sometime this week, hopefully 😉 Meanwhile it is, of course, still available at the SFC Forums. I also need to update my collection page at some point.
You may or may not remember that a few weeks ago Sega announced a new service for broadband users in Japan, to enable them to download and play various classic Sega games on their PC, for a small fee. The initial lineup of games, according to The Magicbox, is set to include all three parts of Shining Force III – great news indeed!
Sadly, it seems there are no plans at present for a similar online game rental system elsewhere in the world, but here’s hoping this may lead to a PC or next generation console re-release for our beloved games 😀
Sega Japan today announced that their forthcoming title, Shining Soul II, will be released on July 3rd of this year. The retail price is listed as 5,980 yen, which is around US$50.
The game is not yet listed on the Sega Direct site, and so it is unknown whether this game will also include a special gift for those who pre-order it. Meanwhile, Sega Direct have almost halved the price of the original Shining Soul from 5,800 yen to just 2,980 yen, perhaps in a bid to increase interest in the series.