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Shining Force II Encyclopedia

Cover of the encyclopedia, featuring a unique illustration of swordsman Bowie holding his sword towards the viewer with a serious expression.

Scans available at Archive.org.

Published by Shogakugan, this encyclopedia has Hiroyuki Takahashi, the classic Shining series' main producer, as editor, making it the most interesting SFII guide book in terms of extra content. As usual, I'll be focusing on that and glossing over basic gameplay info and walkthrough details.

Navigation:

Sorcerer Summons
Playable Characters
Beta Images
Story

Sorcerer Summons

The book is very excited to be the only one with some backstory of the spirits summoned by the sorcerers:

Special Feature On This Book Only > Words of the producer himself

The Stories Behind the Summon Monsters

We present now some worldbuilding Mr. Hiroyuki Takahashi has shared for this book only!!

Translation notes are under the horizontal line.

Note: Images may take a while to load.

Select a Character
Custom map sprite of Dao.Dao
Custom map sprite of Atlas's fist.Atlas
Custom map sprite of Neptun.Neptun
Custom map sprite of Apollo.Apollo
Cropped image of Dao's section in the book.

Dao -The Wind Genie-

A "Djinn spirit" from within the earth. Has an unusually aggressive temper, doesn't obey others, and usually doesn't appear to anyone. Dao only agrees to show up with the summoning magic used by Sorcerers, to fight their opponents. As an aside, there's a rumor that goes around saying Dao is a cousin of the Genie of the Lamp. Dao is a character of great power, with attacks of the Wind element.

The game only has four magic elements, and Dao indeed counts as an wind spell just like Hellblast. The word for the element is more like "vacuum", but I felt that's not as intuitive and other guides do say wind. Also, because of this Dao does get referred to as a wind spirit sometimes, though the manual says earth spirit instead.

Playable Characters

The "Characters" section of the book has a short profile for each character, plus basic gameplay information such as starting class and items, spell list and stat growth. I have ignored the gameplay info as it is basic stuff already covered in guides and walkthrough elsewhere. The strategy part of the book however also has small info boxes for when a character joins the force or appears in the story. I have translated those in this section as well, to gather all character info in one place, and also because Kazin's destroyed me emotionally. I have noted which part of the story some info boxes are placed, when they depend of context.

Besides the protagonist who you'll be leading the adventure as, there's a total of 29 characters who will become your allies. They'll be a helpful bunch to have around. They are of many different classes and species, but will support you in many ways through this long and harsh war. Among them, some will be hard to recruit. You should find out by yourself how to get them!

This thing opens by telling you all secrets so that's an hilarious line.

As usual, translation notes from here on are under the horizontal line, and the characters' original names in the JP version are noted [in brackets] when different.

Note: Images may take a while to load.

Select a Character
Edited map sprite of swordsman Bowie.Bowie
Edited map sprite of priest Sarah.Sarah
Edited map sprite of knight Chester.Chester
Edited map sprite of warrior Jaha.Jaha
Edited map sprite of mage Kazin.Kazin
Edited map sprite of thief Slade.Slade
Edited map sprite of Kiwi.Kiwi
Edited map sprite of pheonik Peter.Peter
Edited map sprite of ranger May.May
Edited map sprite of wolfman Gerhalt.Gerhalt
Edited map sprite of Luke.Luke
Edited map sprite of Rohde.Rohde
Edited map sprite of knight Rick.Rick
Edited map sprite of archer Elric.Elric
Edited map sprite of knight Eric.Eric
Edited map sprite of priest Karna.Karna
Edited map sprite of warrior Randolf.Randolf
Edited map sprite of mage Tyrin.Tyrin
Edited map sprite of archer Janet.Janet
Edited map sprite of Higins.Higins
Edited map sprite of Skreech.Skreech
Edited map sprite of Taya.Taya
Edited map sprite of Frayja.Frayja
Edited map sprite of Jaro.Jaro
Edited map sprite of Gyan.Gyan
Edited map sprite of Sheela.Sheela
Edited map sprite of Zynk.Zynk
Edited map sprite of Chaz.Chaz
Edited map sprite of Lemon without the mask.Lemon
Edited map sprite of Claude.Claude
Page 10 of the guide, introducing Bowie and Sarah.

Bowie

Human / Male

The protagonist. A boy with golden hair and blue eyes. Humans are weaker than dwarves and centaurs in battle, and inferior to elves when it comes to intellect. But he has greater endurance and fighting spirit than most humans¹. Aiming to become a legendary hero, he became a swordsman and is training under Sir Astral. His father was in the Granseal army² and disappeared during a expedition to slay a dragon³, so he lives with only his mother now.

¹Humans suck. Luckily for you you are special boy

²His father is mentioned as captain of the army in the JP version.

³Curiously, Mars of Shining Wisdom has a dad with pretty much the same story, except he's brought up in game, although unrelated to the whole plot.

Beta Images

A few images in this book do not match the final version of the game and are likely from an early version. This is actually something pretty common in SFII media and advertising (as of this writing, 17 January 2024, even the modern Shining world website still uses beta images in their listing of this game).

May's Portrait

May's portrait as printed in the book, with some minor differences from the game version. May's portrait in the game.

It's hard to judge pixel art from a print, and the image is horizontally stretched compared to the game rip, but a few differences are noticeable in May's portrait. The rightmost part of her hair swirl is shorter and doesn't reach her eyes like in final, her mouth is a single pixel tall instead of two, and there seems to be less shading in the printed version overall, especially in the white parts. There's also a slightly different detail in the collar of her clothes.

Old Names

Ooze stat screen as printed in the book, using a different enemy name. Ooze stat screen in the final japanese version of the game.

There's a screenshot of the Ooze enemy from battle 2 with the name スライム (Slime). In the final JP version, this enemy is called ペースト (Paste) instead. The final name is used throughout the book's text.

Old Sprite Sets

A few scenes are shown with different NPC sprites than the final version, likely placeholders.

The arrival of the Granseal ship in Parmecia as printed in the book. The arrival of the Granseal ship in Parmecia in the final version.

In the arrival of the Granseal ship in Parmecia, two different NPCs can be seen using the bald minister sprite in the book. In the final version, only the minister uses this sprite, and the other NPC uses the generic grey haired man sprite instead.
Oddler's arrival in Polca as printed in the book. Oddler's arrival in Polca in the final version.

The Polca citizen who first sees Oddler arriving uses an Orc sprite in the book. In the final version they use a beastman NPC sprite.
A house in Fairy Woods as printed in the book, with an old lady NPC. The same house in the final version, with a female elf NPC.

The house next to the inn in Fairy Woods is actually Elric's house, according to this book, and the NPC inside is his mom. In the book, she uses the generic grey haired lady sprite, while in the final game she has the female elf NPC sprite, only used here and in Tristan. Curiously, the book refers to her as an old lady, implying it was written with the old sprite in mind, as the female elf sprite seems younger (it is heavily based on Mitula's sprite, who is noted to look young.)

Note: it is true that discussing age gets fuzzy when it comes to elves, but Tyrin is referred to as middle-aged and looks the part, and I don't recall any long lived characters being referred to as old without showing their age, so I do believe she was meant to look old.

Story

The book has a prologue for the game and flavorful narrations for the start of each of the four acts it splits the story into. Besides that, the rest of the walkthrough consists of event and battle pages. Event pages are about the exploration and story developments, so I've translated the main text, as it sometimes contains descriptions of towns and details not in the game. I've glossed over other info boxes though as they only point out important items and other gameplay stuff. Battle pages are entirely battle strategy so I've ignored them, save for their flavorful subtitles.

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