Introduction

Those of us who played Shining Force 2 back in the day know it as a generally easy game, outside of a handful of fights. Well, this isn't the Shining Force 2 of those days. Hacked by Obob, this romhack takes Shining Force 2 and raises the bar to new heights.

Now, this isn't the only ShF2 hardtype hack out there. Honestly, I haven't even played any other hardtype hacks for this game, but Obob's has a very elegant simplicity to it. For the most part, the original game is mostly preserved and the difficulty is raised by fiddling with numbers. Monsters have higher attack and defense all around, along with much more HP. Without radically altering anything about the game, this romhack forces you to manage resources and plan ahead without ever feeling like it's putting you up to an unfair situation (with the exception of one fight, but that fight is bullshit in the original too). If you'd like to spoil the changes for yourself, you can read a mostly complete changelog here.

DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NOT YET ACTUALLY BEATEN THIS GAME. I got to the final boss and then my computer melted down. My hard drives seem to enjoy doing this.

For the record, I will be almost completely glossing over the plot of this game. Transcribing text is a gigantic pain in the dick, there's already a complete LP of the game that covers the plot here, and frankly the plot of the game isn't that interesting anyway. I'll spoil the entire thing for you right here: Kid hero with a sword falls into an adventure that involves him sealing away a demon king and he succeeds. Bam, you now know everything interesting about the plot of ShF2.

Oh, and to prove that this game isn't fucking around?

That's the first fucking fight, no critical hits or anything. Just wait until I get to a boss.

Oh yeah, there's also no egress in this hack. You're committed to every fight. No running, you sissies.

Since this LP is concerned with gameplay over everything else, I'll be regularly cracking open the ROM with SF2Edit to provide some insights into the mechanics of the game that nearly nobody knows. In addition to that, I'll be recording videos of every boss fight just so you all can get a good sense of just how hard those things hit. Finally, I'll be sprinkling in some side updates with Shining Tactics, another ShF2 romhack that has a some good ideas buried in a heap of terrible ones.

Are you ready? I'm sure not.

Also, I've gone through the trouble of uploading the symphonic soundtrack. Give it a listen, it's really good.

Warrior of the Reviving Light (Title and overworld theme)
Welcome to Our Town (Town theme)
Princess Elis (Elven town theme)
The Warrior's Awakening (Medley: Castle, unpromoted attack, and battle themes)
Dwarf (Dwarven town theme)
Wings (Mitula's shrine theme)
People of the Demon World (Medley: Dungeon, boss attack, cave, and promoted attack themes)
Ancient Temple (Ruins theme)
Caravan (Tactical base theme)
I Miss You (Sad theme)
The Devil's Advent (Zeon theme)
Finale (Credits roll)

The Let's Play Archive

Shining Force 2

by inthesto

Introduction

Table of Contents