My first port of call this morning was Sega Japan’s website, where the following page: www.sega.jp/gba/shinsoul2/ would seem to be proof enough that there is going to be a Shining Soul II released in the Summer, this year.
I’ll endevour to translate the information shortly. Meanwhile, there are screenshots and a piece of artwork for you to take a look at on the above link. It looks like there’s going to be a bigger selection of characters to choose from, if nothing else!
…(updated at 10:10)…
Many thanks to Aspartate for translating the info on Sega Japan’s site!
Most of the information on the page talks about and praises the features of the original Shining Soul, but the important details about Shining Soul II are as follows:
- There’ll be 8 classes to choose from.
- The 4 new classes are Ninja, Fighter, Monk, and Wizard.
- Link up to 4 people.
- At least four times more items to collect and trade.
- Enhanced story.
- More events added.
- There will be areas exclusive for events, areas exclusive for traps, and areas for multiple routes. Like mansion, graveyard, desert, and inside a ship.
- New movements like “blow away”, and “toss items”.
- Enemy AI enhanced.
- Combined skills between two characters in multiplayer mode.
- It’s scheduled to be released in Summer, 2003.
From the list of new features it seems like Sega really have made an effort to improve on the areas Shining Soul was lacking in. Oddly, Sega have listed Shining Soul II as being part of the “Shining Soul Series” rather than “Shining Force Series”… I guess that means it’s still a Shining game, but now has a different category within the overall series 🙂
More news as I stumble across it 😉 Then I’ve gotta get a Shining Soul II section added to the site, as well as getting this fortnight’s update ready!