Rumours are rampant that Shining Soul has had a European release date set – Feburary 14th of 2003, apparently. Several gaming sites have mentioned it (many thanks to the various SFC Forum members who made me aware of this), though Sega’s site has nothing to confirm the rumour, and many of the larger gaming sites have said nothing of it either.
Take it with a pinch of salt folks, this could just be a hoax. Either way, I can’t say I’m that excited about the news.
On a positive note, various sources online have stated that the new Shining game (as announced by Sega on May 17th) will be shown at the Tokyo Games Show this September. Unfortunately, the Japanese site from which they all got this news actually lists the game as being unconfirmed. It’s really not much more than an educated guess. While it’s quite possible that Sega will have something exciting to show us, it’s also quite possible they have no plans to show anything of the new Shining game. So, don’t get your hopes up… but just be happy if they do reveal something.
It’s just typical, isn’t it?
The weekend I was busy moving house (which went very smoothly, in case you were wondering… and it’s great to be in a place of my own!), Sega announced a new Shining game is in development… for an unspecified console. Yes, indeed! On May 17th, Sega revealed many of it’s classic titles, including the Shining series, will have new installments. Woohoo!
So, just as the campaign reaches it’s target, it seems almost pointless to send it off. Fear not though, there are still issues we need to raise with Sega about this. We need to let Sega USA & Sega Europe know that we’d like to play these games in English rather than always having to import them 😉 We need to let Sega Japan know how disappointed we were with Shining Soul and that Camelot should work on the new game. We should also let them know about our other ideas for the next game (remake/translation of Shining Force III’s three parts and Premium Disc… remake of the Gaidens… a full compilation, etc…). We’ll still contact Nintendo, in the hope that we’ll see this on GameCube, though I think I’ll only send it off to Nintendo Japan. And of course, we need to contact Camelot to let them know just how much we want to see this game made by them. So, those packs will be sent out this week 🙂
Well, gotta get back to unpacking all these boxes! My apologies in advance that the update due on Wednesday may be late, I’ve got so much to organise in my new home!
Various magazines and popular sites have recently stated that THQ will be the international distributors of Shining Soul … looks like we’ll be able to play it in English then!
Well, I couldn’t let it pass without at least mentioning it…
What a wonderful decade it’s been, and here’s to the next!
I’d hoped to do something exciting for the site for this occasion, but I’ve been super busy, and I think all I can offer will be 6 more sections of the Final Conflict translation, which will be online later today 🙂 Oh, and another section of the Scenario 3 translation, courtesy of Aspartate!
The cover artwork for Shining Soul has been released at Sega Japan’s site! Click here to have a look 🙂
Also, D-Direct have announced what the free Shining Soul preorder gift will be – a GBA screen cover, featuring the Shining Soul logo! I’m so glad my friend Rei has preordered it for me 🙂 (if you’re reading, Rei, domo arigatou!). Click here to have a look.
Thanks to Olivier for posting this news at the forums 🙂
Looks like Gamespot also got a chance to play Shining Soul at TGS, and they’ve put a couple of videos of it online. There’s also a few new screenshots – one of which shows the game’s title screen. Sweeeeet!
Shining Soul Video Clips at Gamespot
Shining Soul Screenshots at Gamespot
I can’t wait to play this game!
Well, there was me, thinking that the Sega site would be the first place to have Shining Soul video footage… didn’t even notice when IGN sneakily put some up 😉 Thanks go to Scott Nichols for pointing me to the following URL, which includes footage of Shining Soul in action, and a little bit of info on how the game plays 🙂
http://pocket.ign.com/news/41257.html
Recent articles at Sega Japan’s online shop (D-Direct) include some extra information about Shining Soul. Though it’s not a lot of info, it’s certainly very exciting – one of the primary goals of Shining Soul will be to reseal Darkness Incarnate… yes, you guessed it – Dark Dragon! There’s no clue as to the timeframe yet… but I’m guessing this is the original fight against Dark Dragon, where the Ancients sealed him in another dimension.
Anyone pre-ordering the game through D-Direct will receive some form of free Shining Soul gift, which no doubt will be quite collectable in the future! Unfortunately, it seems that D-Direct only ship within Japan.
On an unrelated note, I’ve received several emails recently asking me whether I’ve heard anything about a new Shining game for X-Box or PS2. I would like to remind everyone that anything you hear about such things are nothing more than rumours until confirmed by Sega or truly reputable gaming sources. It still seems most likely that the next Shining game after Shining Soul will be on the GameCube.
Just to recap, for those of you who didn’t know, Shining Soul is due for release on March 28th this year, in Japan and has been called a “Communication RPG” (likely to be similar to Phantasy Star Online). The retail price is due to be 5800yen. There’s still no news on release dates outside of Japan.
Development seems to be moving along well, and new – clearer – screenshots are now available at the Sega site:
http://sega.jp/gba/shinsoul/
The pictures seem to show that our heroes will still be saying “…” 🙂 It looks like we’ll also be able to fully equip characters with helms and armour too – yay!
Here’s a rough translation of what’s said on the Sega site:
“The first multiplayer action RPG for the Game Boy Advance is about to appear!
The Shining series, a hit on the Mega Drive, Game Gear and Sega Saturn, has been updated on the Game Boy Advance.
This new game in the world famous Shining series is to be an action RPG with typically charming characters.
The player may choose to be a human soldier, human magic user, elven archer or dragonewt berserker. The name and colours of the character may also be selected, allowing some customisation of the character.
The game is in real time, and you’ll find items in treasure chests and dropped by monsters. Characters must make their way through dungeons, going gown to the lowest level to reach the boss.
Items found will vary in rarity, and can be traded between players. Using the Game Boy Advance link cable, up to four people may play together, however, each must have their own copy of the game.
The character designer for Shining Soul was also the character designer for Shining and (in) the Darkness on the Mega Drive/Genesis.”
Following the announcement from Sega of Japan, regarding the development of Shining Soul, I decided to write to them to see if I could get any further information about the game, so I could keep you all updated. I also wondered if I might be able to sign up to get some promotional items to use as prizes here and perhaps – entirely selflessly, of course 😉 – get a pre-release copy to review for SFC.
Today, I received a reply from Sega. Though it wasn’t quite what I’d hoped for or expected, it was a nice read, so I’ve scanned it in and posted both pages, you can read them here and here (about 140k each, lowish quality for the sake of filesize). I’ve blurred out my address of course!
It’s nice to know that despite their policy to not reply to international letters (this might well explain the lack of response to the Campaign: Phase II), they took the time to reply to me, and even sent back the Japanese stamps I’d sent them and paid for postage (express delivery, no less!) themselves. They also seem to like this site! So, it’s nice to be “semi approved” by Sega 😉 Well, at least they didn’t disprove of my use of their artwork etc here 🙂 The “that’s all for now….” at the end seemed semi-hopeful though – maybe they’ll think to send me information later on as it becomes available. Then again, maybe not, but we can hope, ne? Enough of my babbling, just have a look at the letter if you’re interested!
Well, this is certainly a busy time for SFC! There’s so much going on with Sega and the Shining series right now, I think I’d be best to stop sleeping for a few weeks just to that I can try to keep on top of everything! Anyway, on with the news!
An article posted at GameSpot yesterday (thanks to Chris who also emailed me about this one) desribes some of Sega’s plans for it’s future multiplatform titles. Perhaps the most interesting line is the following:
“The vintage software plan would focus on content created from revisiting established Sega franchises, Phantasy Star Online was held up as an example of how the approach would work out. Space Harrier, Nights, D, Enemy Zero, and the Shining Force series (Kayama noted the recently announced Shining Soul for GBA was a step in that direction).”
So, we were right! There’s more Shining games in the pipeline – Shining Soul is partially to “test the water” and will lead on to more Shining games. Woohoo! Can things possibly get any better?!
Other articles about Sega’s revelations at the Tokyo Games Show imply that they are really making use of the Game Boy Advance to GameCube linking system… perhaps we’ll see a way to link Shining Soul up to the next Shining Force title… which I’m sure will be on the GameCube… only time will tell!