Game Boy Advance

Shining Soul II

Despite not quite reaching the dizzy heights of Golden Sun, Zelda III, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance or even Mario & Luigi, Shining Soul II nevertheless serves up a worthy piece of RPG pie. Sega has struck gold with the sequel to a very average hack 'n slash title and actually managed to show Square Enix and its similar Sword of Mana how things should be done. If you have to choose between those two new titles, then the latest in the 'Shining' series just gets the nod.

With the suckage that was Shining Soul, nobody really thought that there would be a Shining Soul 2. The first entry in the series suffered from a terrible storyline, pathetic enemies, and poor gameplay. However, SEGA , the founders of the SHINING series of games that began with SHINING IN THE DARKNESS in 1991, chose not to give up on the series.

All in all, Shining Soul 2 is a very good game. It lived up to all my expectations. I always wondered if someone could pull off a Diablo-esque game on the GBA, and this proves it can be done, and done well. Even though the dungeons are the same on repeat trips, this hasn’t stopped me from replaying them multiple times hunting for items, hidden rooms, and exp, and having a good tine doing it. Shining Soul 2 is a game that I will be playing for quite awhile, and if you know what is good for you, you should be too!

Ayant effacé les lacunes du premier épisode tout en y rajoutant de petites nouveautés sans oublier de rendre l'aventure plus prenante et vivante, SEGA nous a pondu un très bon hack 'n slash dans la veine de son aîné. Plus long, plus riche et possédant un mode 4 joueurs toujours aussi fun, Shining Soul 2 est sans conteste un très bon titre pour ceux et celles qui savent à quoi s'attendre en démarrant un Diablo-Like. Votre serviteur adhère et en redemande pour sa part.

Atlus' first Shining Soul wasn't well received. Poor single-player and many irritations with the design earned it some harsh criticism. Thankfully, Atlus hasn't been disheartened, recently releasing an altogether excellent follow-up. The flaws of the original have been rectified, and thanks to the game's variety -- not to mention, first-class multiplayer -- it has tons of replay value.

Shining Soul II is everything that Shining Soul should have been. There are eight character classes to choose from (instead of four), hundreds (not dozens) of unique clothing and weapon items to find, 18 huge dungeons to explore (instead of eight), multiple endings to watch, and approximately 40 side quests to complete (whereas the previous game had none). Other improvements include a new, charge-based attack setup, an enhanced fusion system that allows you to combine a wider variety of minerals together to form new weapons, a challenge arena with 10 successively tougher levels, and a monster dictionary that you need to fill up by collecting the cards that monsters leave behind. Variety and customization are what people enjoy about the dungeon crawler genre, and Shining Soul II offers both in abundance.

By the time the original Shining Soul hit the US market last year, Japanese owners had already been enjoying the sequel for months. This had two real negative effects for Atlus: not only did it have to release an aged Sega original well after the import release of the sequel, but it also had to release a game that many gamers knew was going to be followed up with a far improved sequel a few short months later. Shining Soul II offers the same multiplayer focus as the original, but it at least fixes a lot of problem areas of the original game design with a much more involved single player quest, but the storyline drags on with an enormous (and unnecessary) amount of unskippable text.

Business time, business time, we'll stop on a dime when it's business time. This game can be businessed for about $29.99 from a GameStop or EB Games, and I'd say it's worth every penny.

Shining Soul II was definitely built to be a good GBA multiplayer experience. The game has crisp graphics, good sound quality, and an improved user-interface. The game is definitely enjoyable with a few friends, but alone, this dungeon crawler can be your worst nightmare. So unless your friends are all willing to get a copy, it'd probably be best to pass on Shining Soul II.

The first Shining Soul wasn't necessarily screaming for a sequel, but far be it for me to argue with Atlus or Sega. Besides, it was a decent game with a few ideas that could use some time to be fleshed out. This is exactly what the above-mentioned companies did, and Shining Soul II is a better game for it. Not a great game, mind you -- especially among the plentiful harvest of GBA action/RPGs -- but definitely a better game.