Shining Soul II

Story

Shining Soul II's action is placed in the Land of Klantol, where the vision of chaos threatens peace by spawning cohorts of monsters ravaging the land. To make things worse Camille - the princess of Klantol - is kidnapped. Luckily the thing happens during a tournament announced by her father - King Marcel - so finding a hero able to rescue her from the forces of evil is quite easy. You are that hero.

The Dark Dragon was defeated, and Light returned to the land. The four heroes hailed for banishing the Darkness. The People were thankful that peace had returned, and the legend of the Hero of Light was passed down. Buta as time passed and people's lives improved, the legend was forgotten. So, too, dod their gratitude fade, and people began to take Light for granted. In a peace filled town, an old man stood preaching a seditious prophecy...

"Brothers and sisters, look! The crystal is cloudy! According to legend, Darkness was defeated! But, Light will grow out of control, eventually giving rise to Darkness once again. The clouding of the crystal foretells this future. The balance of the world will soon collapse!"

The old prophet continued to speak to the passerby, and his voice rang through the town square. But, those who forgotten about the legend took no heed of the prophet's words. Sadly, at that very moment, the end of peace and prosperity was near. As the prophet had warned, the balance between Darkness and Light has been lost. Light had become too strong, and Darkness stirred again. An alchemist, a servant of Darkness, appeared...His name was Gillespie. Gillespie lured the old prophet to the outskirts of town, shattered the crystal that told of the Darkness and robbed the world of one virtuous man.

As a member of Dark order known as the Chaos Knights, Gillespie had another mission to complete...And so, he traveled to Klantol Castle...He cunningly befriended the knight Deatharte, whom King Marcel trusted above others, and he gave to Deatharte the "Forbidden Fruit." With that accomplished, Gillespie left those lands. Deatharte was suspicious of Gillespie, and so he did not eat the fruit, until one day...when his curiosity got the better of him...and he tasted the "Forbidden Fruit"..

Overview

Shining Soul II is a Dungeon Crawler Action RPG game with a fantasy setting. The game features a wide variety of interesting features such as: 8 different character classes, challenge arena, collectible monster cards, crafting system, charged attack system, 2 difficulty levels, different endings, multiple side quests and a lengthy story that can be played over and over again due to dozens of unique class-specific items to find (each character can equip up to 3 weapons). Just like in almost any other game of the genre when the character levels up it is up to the player how to distribute strength, dexterity, intelligence, stamina and skill points. A wise character build is crucial when players want to swiftly move through the quite lengthy campaign that gets gradually tougher or try to beat the game at advanced difficulty mode in which monsters get noticeably stronger. The soul items, which can be equipped by every character, may serve as a great aid in defeating stronger enemies. In practice, they are similar to Final Fantasy's summons. In almost every moment during the campaign, the player can be transported to the city, where he can change the gear, browse through his card collection, talk to the NPCs in order to find side quests, fight in the arena for prizes etc. The game also features a multiplayer mode.

Character classes & skills

There are 8 basic character classes in the game varying in appearance (with additional color scheme customization for every class), skills and equipment they can use. Here's how they appear on the character selection screen:

Archer - long-range attack expert.

Skills:

Bow - bow power up & charge ATK

Spear - spear power up & charge ATK

Range - increases throwing range

Enchant - makes an enemy an ally

Anti-flying - damage to flying enemies up

Summon - summons a forest creature

Critical - increases critical hit rate

Healing - HP recovers over time

Brawler - strong and dexterous, but has somewhat low defense.

Skills:

Claws - claws power up & charge ATK

Knife - knife power up & charge ATK

Evade - increases evasion rate

Critical - increases critical hit rate

Counter - counter with a kick

Guts - stronger with lower HP

Stun - stuns enemies

Healing - HP recovers over time

Dark Wizard - half vampire, half-human. Uses Dark spells.

Skills:

Rod - rod power up & charge ATK

Demon Breath - spell: Darkness attack

Venom - spell: Poison explosion

Darkness - spell: Ring of Darkness

Morph - spell: Change into a monster

Dagger Dance - spell: Summon sword

Drain - spell: Absorb HP

Meditate - speeds up HP recovery

Dragonute - crushes enemies with powerful blows.

Skills:

Axe - axe power up & charge ATK

Flail - flail power up & charge ATK

Shield- shield power-up & parry

Armor Up - equipment defense up

Brak Armor - lowers enemy's defense

Breath - counters with a breath attack

Weaken - weakens nearby enemies

Magic Resisitance - increases resistance

Ninja - tricks masters with quick movements very fast.

Skills:

Sword - sword power up & charge ATK

Knife - knife power up & charge ATK

Critical - increases critical hit rate

Debris - spell: Falling object

Shadow - spell: Paralyse monster

Speed - spell: Increases speed

Replace - block attack with wood

Ansatsu - increases damage from behind

Priest - helpful and brave. Uses healing and support magic.

Skills:

Rod - rod power up & charge ATK

Flail - flail power up & charge ATK

Heal - spell: Healing

Protect - defense up

Resist - resistance up

Bless - stats up

Shining - spell: Shield of Light

Meditate - speeds up MP recovery

Warrior - expert at close range combat. Well balanced.

Skills:

Sword - sword power up & charge ATK

Axe - axe power up & charge ATK

Spear - spear power up & charge ATK

Shield- shield power-up & parry

Armor Up - equipment defense up

Efficacy - increases item effectiveness

Counter - powerful counterattack

Tactics - ATK up

Wizard - expert at spell attacks. Uses a variety of spells.

Skills:

Rod - rod power up & charge ATK

Blaze - spell: Fire attack

Freeze - spell: Ice attack

Spark - spell: Lightning attack

Blast - spell: Cyclone attack

Inferno - spell: Scorching attack

Magic Shield - defense up

Meditate - speeds up MP recovery

After successfully completing the game another variation of Dark Wizard becomes available as a playable class.

Dark Wizard - looks vaguely familiar, but little is known about him (he actually uses the sprite of Gilespie).

Bosses

Goblin Fort:

- Captain Gully

- Colonel Gobovich

Giant's Graveyard

- Grove Giant

Wizari's Palace:

- Wizari

Fairy Spring:

- Clione

Robert's Pirate Ship:

- Captain Robert

- Giant Squid

Driazhek Desert:

- Giant Worm

- General Oswald

Koldazhek Cave:

- Yeti king

- Vaitali

Demon's Tower:

- Clone (of player's class)

- Dark Angel

Hottazhek Volcano:

- Gillespie x2

- Holy Guardian of Fire

Chaos Castle:

- Gillespie

- Deatharte

Chaos' Domain:

- Chaos