The official Shining Force Neo website from Sega Japan has been updated today with some new pictures and information.
Screenshots have been added to the ‘World’ page, showing the three main lands explored in the game: Yukurist, Ferdland and Elanora (which seem to correspond to Earth, Ice and Fire). Click on the flags to the left on the page to show a screenshot of the location (access more by clicking the arrow on the screenshot) and some information about the area. Unfortunately the only words I can read in the text are character names, presumably the ones who originate from each area.
If anyone can translate the other text, it would be most appreciated.
For those of you who have not seen the translation Aspartate kindly provided for the World setting and Story, here they are:
New Shining Force is born.
Warriors inherited the destined power called “Force” from their fathers,
and carve the trophies of their battles on this stone.
This is a story about people who own the two “Forces” of light and darkness.
All these love will rock the world.
A RPG that wakes your heart.
2005.3.24 ON SALE.
The world of Shining Force Neo.
A gigantic red moon floats in the sky.
Other than human, there are also centaurs, birdlings, and wolflings.
These beastmen live with mankind peacefully in this world.
Deep in forests dwelled monsters that threat humans, such as ogres, goblins, and zombies.
~Dependants of the Moon~
It’s a name given to those who seek power in human’s negative emotion.
They earned this title when their powers rose and opened the Eye of the Moon.
Not only since the Great War 13 years ago, actually the Dependants of the Moon existed for a long, long time.
They summoned vicious monsters, Legion, from another dimension,
through the portal deep in the Eye of the Moon.
The world in then wrapped in chaos and destruction.
Warriors inherited the destined power called “Force” from their fathers,
and carve the trophies of their battles on this stone.
This is a story about people who own the two “Forces” of light and darkness.
13 years ago, there was a great war.
Evil people known as “Dependants of the Moon”
opened the dimensional portal which resembles a gigantic eye in the Moon.
Therefore bio-weapons from another dimension, Legion,
were widely spread on the land.
“Warriors of Force” stood up against them,
and put an end to the war.
The Eye of the Moon was closed; hence Legions were put to sleep.
And now, the Eye of the Moon will be opened by the Mysterious Masked Man.
Will Max be able to stop this?
To look for partners who also own “Force Frame” just like they do,
Max and his childhood friend, Meryl, set out on a quest to protect the land they loved.
The new additions to the Story page tell a little more of the game’s story.
Apparently Max is returning home to his town of Greensleeves after two years away from it and his childhood friend Meryl. His father is the leader of a sacred guard group (the name Gaea is mentioned, this may be the name of his father, the world or the group… or something else entirely), and Max originally fought in the Soldiers of Force in a war 13 years ago having been trained at the Rahkail stronghold.
The Sacred Precints Guard Group was formed in order to protect the large Crystal of the Force which resides in Greensleeves. It seems there may be more crystals at three special sanctuaries, which also need to be guarded against the Dependants of the Moon
The Crystal of Force is known as the “Fossil of the Egg of Legion”, and seems to have rolled into its position in the sanctuary by itself. Max and Merril sneak in to the sanctuary only to find that the Fossil of the Egg of Legion is moving!
Regarding Legion, the page explains that the Dependants of the Moon summoned the monster from a strange world. It passed through the eye of the moon and destroyed seven countries in the great war 13 years ago.
At the end of this section about the story, there is a link to a new section in the System area of the site.
This new section is all about the power known as ‘Force’. In the world of SF Neo, the power of Force is the energy of the natural world. Those who use the powerful phenomenon are called Soldiers of Force. Magic is one possible result of the use of Force energy. ‘Soldiers of Force’ is an abbreviation of the full phrase ‘Of the soldier which works Force’.
A person who shows special ability in using Force powers must pass the ‘Ordeal of Force’ to be designated as a Soldier of Force. The Ordeal of Force involves the attachment of a Force Frame – an item to manage Force powers – to the person’s body.
I’m having difficulty understanding the rest of that bit, from what the Babelfish has spewed out, but it seems that the Force should be used for protection, not for aggression – those who use Force powers do so for their people. There is then something more about the Force Frame, which I’m trying to figure out…
Secret stones are removed from the large Crystal of Force, which is used as a catalyst the efficiently convert the Force power. The power can take the form of vital force, muscular strength and magical powers. It seems these stones are a part of the Force Frame.
An interesting idea for a story perhaps, but I’m not yet seeing how it at all fits in with the other games – has Sega finally taken the leap of moving the Shining games to a new planet, with a whole new storyline?
Next up, the Battle System page has been updated.
The transfer gate is a portable transporter, capable of one-way or bidirectional transit. It was used frequently in the Great War 13 years ago, but because it uses Force energy they are not often used these days due to the decrease in the amount of Force energy available. It seems that once you have a few companions, they can wait in HQ and power the gate for you, allowing you to travel out and back.
An old faithful spell makes an appearance in SF Neo, in the form of Return (better known to many SFers as Egress). Do I really need to explain what the spell does? Hehe 🙂 In a pinch, it allows you to escape from battle. It’s been made a bit more complex in SF Neo, or so the translation makes it seem. Some kind of secret stone is needed to make it work. I tseems that the spell won’t return you to the exact position you were at in Greensleeves, but returns you to just outside Greensleeves. The translation also seems to imply that with the stone, members at HQ can see what Max is doing and allow them to converse. Or something.
Okay, so the info is a little garbled, but you get the gist… I’m still not overly keen on anyting I’ve read, but March isn’t so very far away now so we’ll know soon enough if the game is any good or not. Want to find out what the game’s like when it’s released? You can pre-order it from Lik-Sang now and take advantage on their free worldwide shipping for games offer, here. Buying your imports & peripherals from Lik-Sang helps to support SFC through a little bit of commission 🙂
Ah, and while I remember – something I posted at the forums a while back but forgot to post here – there’s going to be an official Shining Tears guidebook released in English. Amazon USA and Amazon UK have it available for pre-order, and the price is very reasonable. Amazon UK have also reduced the price of SF GBA by UK£9, putting it down to just UK£16 brand new!
Finally in brief SFC news, there are a bunch of things I need to get added next week – new collectables, more scripts, some wallpapers, new midi files and more. Of course, there’s a new contest on the way too (it was held up by the hecticness of Christmas, sorry!)… so keep those eyes peeled, and expect me to be back on track with updates as of next week. I spent a lot of time working on my Tatakai mod over the last month or so to help with a development, and didn’t get much done here 😉 Also expect a review of BaBS in the next week, and at some point soon my full lowdown of Shining Tears. – I should have a few hours to play it this avo 🙂