you've heard of drawing two right hands on the character by mistake, now get ready for
ROM hacking two right hands on the character! after making multiple notes on how that would be a likely mistake and i should pay attention at this point!
also, fun thing. darksol here is enormous, so naturally he isn't a regular map sprite like the other characters. his body is drawn as part of the map tiles, and then his hands and head, which act as separate enemies, have sprites on top of it.
for the hands, this allows for the cool effect once you defeat them. the sprite disappears, leaving only the tiles behind, which are already drawn in this brown/dead way from the beginning.
the head however? there's nothing like that, the tiles and the sprite are basically identical, save for the glowing eyes and a stray pixel in the eyebrow that might be a mistake. which means I can probably save a lot of ROM space by just. erasing the whole head aside for four (4) eye pixels
Authentic Story of the Shining Force - Saint Fencer Max - Chapter 5
Translation notes:
All enemies so far were recognizable from the game, but here they seem to be original.
This might be Boken?? The only character in the game with a big backpack and hair. And he does show up in Dragonia in-game.
About the Ancient names. Mega Max is clearly alliterative in both languages. Giga Cain is almost that. K sounds in japanese become g sounds once you add a dakuten (ﾞ), so they're associated. And in english it kinda works out accidentally, because a G is basically a C with extras too.
Vega Darksol though? No link. The pattern is lost. I'm kinda mad about it.
From an author's comment:
"These two also appear in Tanuma-sensei's Shining Force (lol). Are they official members?"
Yuichiro Tanuma is the artist for another Shining Force manga, Descent of Great Intention, whose scans I only found today (warning for a lot of ecchi/nudity/nsfw, i'm still going through but what i've seen is pretty horny already). And yes, these background characters also appear there. This manga was published before that one, though, so this is their first appearance.
"But Claire you're dodging the main topic, Cain just did exposition of the whole lore" yes yes, the similarities between it and the GBA version are what made me interested in this manga to begin with, but I've decided there's so much to compare between all versions of Max and Cain I'll make a whole huge ass post about it instead. Look forward to that.
I will mention however that Cain's bodysuit here reminds me a bit of the manual picture with Max being brought into Guardiana for the first time.
I did say we had to talk about Prompt (and then promptly forgot it in the first draft of these notes). Like Waral, Prompt is not seen anywhere in the beta map. And here, it is depicted as only ruins instead of the country it is in the final game. That in itself wouldn't mean much, however, Chapter 7, where Prompt is, has a lot more weirdness in it. It has peculiar unused content implying a whole deleted cutscene with Cain, Adam, Chaos and Darksol in Metapha, and it freezes the Debug Mode's Battle Test any time you Egress (also, Chapter Selection won't even load it from a save file of another chapter, which doesn't happen for any other chapter). Of course, I don't know the actual code of the game, but this gives me the impression that this Chapter 7 had some other Egress point that got removed later. Basically, if there's one part of the game you can expect to have changed late in development, it's Prompt and Metapha, so it could have been only ruins as the manga depicts here, and as I mentioned in the last chapter, some place or machine called Tenochtitlan could have existed.
Oh boy I keep forgetting notes this time! The goddamn chapter title. Both times the Chaos Breaker is mentioned here, it is written with the usual katakana, but also the kanji 対暗黒魔法剣 (Anti-Darkness Magic Sword) as furigana. I felt it was too clunky to mention both sword names in the dialogue, especially when Cain was already pushing the limits of a lot of speech bubbles this chapter. But anyway, yeah, it's supposed to be a bit of a title drop there.
I. forgot. yet. another. note. When Otrant recognizes the robot using an explosion spell, the manga actually says 核爆烈, a mix of 核 (nuclear) and 爆烈 (explosion). However, I couldn't find this exact wording in dictionaries, only fictional works, so it might just dramatic flavor, since nuclear explosions Don't Work Like That. I kept it ambiguous in the translation to not raise questions in the middle of the action, but it's worth noting since both the aforementioned Descent of Great Intention manga and the UK Sonic the Comic version of Shining Force bring up nuclear themes at some point.
Someone on Neocities told me yesterday he's playing Shining Force for the first time following my translations, and you can kinda imagine the impact this had on my ego, so i rushed to finish a few more scenes that I consider important:
The intro (prologue and meeting Simone)
Darksol's jerkass moment above from Chapter 8 (this one had mistranslations last time I posted it, do check it out again, I'm a stronger person now)
The epilogue with Simone
With this, I'm fairly sure I've done all the important story beats, we're just missing a lot of NPC dialogue of course, and a few less relevant battle moments. At the very least, I don't remember any emotional moments left out by now, so my main goal is done. Not sure I'd ever commit to a complete translation one day because it's daunting, so we'll see.
The Runefaust army planning to take over the world, led by Emperor Ramladu, is organized as seen in the diagram below. They have brought suffering to peaceful countries and also to the force standing against them. The five subordinates of Ramladu listed below are also all cruel and strong opponents!
Emperor Ramladu - Emperor of Runefaust [the diagram shows Darksol and Elliot under his direct command]
Darksol - Runefaust's advisor [the diagram shows Balbazak, Mishaela and Cain under his direct command]
Balbazak - General of the Runefaust Army
Commander of the Magic Beast Corps - {Priests, Hellhounds, Brass Loaders, Skeletons, Sea Bats}
Mishaela - General of the Runefaust Army
Commander of the Monster Corps - {Dullahans, Manarina Mages, High Priests, Horsemen, Belials}
Cain - Runefaust Army
Commander of the Silver Knight Squadron - {High Priests, Dullahans, Manarina Mages, Gargoyles, Golems}
Elliot - Runefaust Army
Commander of the Cavalry Corps - {Brass Loaders, Priests, Skeletons, Pegasus Knights, Lizardmen}
[Note: the Brass Loader was localized into Artillery in the english, and Priest into Dark Priest. The change in this last one is kind of interesting and happened with other enemies so i decided to not use the localized names and point it out.
Also, there's no enemy called Manarina Mage in any version. It's either a mistake or an implication that every mage you fight in the game is from Manarina, which feels kinda nonsense.]
A being completely shrouded in mystery!
Darksol
Occupation: Runefaust Army's advisor
Species: Unknown
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Height: 236 cm
Weight: Unknown
Place of Origin: Unknown
Starting Level: Unknown
Starting Weapon: Unknown
The emissary of darkness who obtained Ramladu's favor and authority
One year ago, he suddenly appeared in the country of Runefaust, ruled by Emperor Ramladu, and became the real authority behind its politics and military affairs. There is pretty much no information on him, all that is known is that he is researching how to resurrect the incarnation of evil, Dark Dragon. While his whole identity is shrouded in mystery, there are rumors that he is capable of using the dark magic "Demon Breath".
The swordsman with a tragic past
Cain
Occupation: Commander of the Silver Knight Squadron
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Height: 181 cm
Weight: 83 kg
Place of Origin: Unknown
Starting Level: Unknown
Starting Weapon: Unknown
The rumored strongest swordsman among Runefaust's knights
An amazing swordsman who hinders the force in their way, challenging them to battle. He hides a power representing darkness that is necessary to stop the awakened "Legacy of the Gods". He is caught up in Darksol's plan, being controlled through the power of a cursed mask, but in reality he is someone with a huge connection to the protagonist.
He has the Sword of Darkness, and ordinary swordsmen have no chance to put up a fight against him. Remarkable skill will be needed to defeat him.
_____
Dark mage of bewitching charm
Mishaela
Occupation: Commander of the Monster Corps
Species: Dark Elf
Gender: Female
Age: 198 years old
Height: 180 cm
Weight: 55 kg
Place of Origin: Dold Forest
Starting Level: Unknown
Starting Weapon: Unknown
She attacks the force with high class techniques!
The Commander of the Monster Corps, she set off from Guardiana to monitor the movements of the Shining Force, by orders of her direct superior, Darksol. However, angered by the defeat of her "Marionette" built with a piece of her own soul, she went to face the force herself.
She's the only woman in the Runefaust army, but her magical power is among the greatest there!
A real soldier who stick to his principles of justice
Elliot
Occupation: Commander of the Cavalry Corps
Species: Dragonewt
Gender: Male
Age: 231 years old
Height: 255 cm
Weight: 324 kg
Place of Origin: Garth
Starting Level: Unknown
Starting Weapon: Unknown
A brave commander who acts thinking of his country and people!
The highest ranking swordsman in Runefaust. Tales of his deeds as a soldier have reached all the way to the distant Guardiana. While he knows of Darksol's ambitions, he worries for the people in his country, and thus challenges the Shining Force to battle.
He is not a man of many words, but is a genius when it comes to
battles.
_____
A bio-magical beast of unknown species!
Balbazak
Occupation: Commander of the Magical Beast Corps
Species: Unknown
Gender: Male
Age: 79 years old
Height: 193 cm
Weight: 206 kg
Place of Origin: Surgo
Starting Level: Unknown
Starting Weapon: Unknown
Frenzied and merciless! A challenging powerful fighter!!
The Commander of the Magical Beast Corps, who fights with an artificial body, made several times stronger than a normal one by Darksol's magic. He came to Uranbatol, north of Guardiana, to support the invasion of West Rune building a fort. He is the strongest warrior among the Runefaust army's commanders, his fierceness in battle knows no bounds. Even his allies don't know how to deal with him.
[The other guide had no qualms claiming Balbazak was a human. But perhaps that doesn’t matter much anymore when you’ve become a bioweapon of the unholy sciences.]
Dwarves
Muscular warriors who attack with huge axes. Their distinctive beards grow independent of gender, and they strike with superior strength.
Snipers
Masters of the bow who shoot down their prey with surefire accuracy. Their precise, calculated attacks leave opponents at a loss.
Skeletons
Dead warriors brought back to life through magical arts. They attack with fast, hard to follow movements.
Huge Bats
Their strength lies in their fast movements and sharp fangs. They intimidate opponents with their huge wings, creating openings for attacks. Their area of action is very wide.
Dark Mages
Dark mages skilled with magic. Can cast high level spells with the staves in their hands. They have no physical strength, and thus only attack with magic, but since they can strike in a wide area it's tough to approach them.
Armed Skeletons
Skeletons of giants upgraded with machines. They've been remodeled for field battles. The strongest enemy soldiers, built by Darksol with technology of the Ancients.
[This is the only enemy here where I stuck with the localized name, because I can't make sense of their japanese name, ブローバー(buroobaa), and I've yet to see someone who does. As you can see the romanization given here is "biouber" which, ??????]
“But Claire didn’t you have a world book to translate?” Yeah! And then I had to check a tiny detail on another book, and saw something weird, and TCRF wasn’t helpful, so I went down a 140+ page long forum thread and downloaded a ROM editor. It happens. And now you’re gonna hear about it.
So, usually i gloss over the gameplay data on these guide books because I assume people have this information elsewhere already due to hacking and FAQ and the like. That might have been a mistake though, look at this peculiar entry on the encyclopedia’s monster data:
Mephisto
Movement: 6
Weapon: none
Uses Demon Breath. As a boss monster, regenerates HP every turn.
If you don’t know/remember, Mephisto is the JP name of the Shining in the Darkness final boss, later revealed to be Darksol and Mishaela’s kid. Looks like he skipped on helping his dad here.
The encyclopedia notes the HP regen of every other boss, but none use this specific phrasing of “as a boss monster”. This makes me think he was gonna be a boss on some battle, and then a regular enemy later on.
The cut feels understandable to me though, he and Darksol are pretty much identical, no point in having both in a game. And if there was any idea already of establishing a lore/connection between the characters as well, putting him as a regular enemy would ruin that. Given that there’s no artwork to go on, it’s also possible that this was actually a generic demon enemy, and the name was just a coincidence and would be confusing. I kinda doubt this possibility though since there’s plenty of other connections between this game and SitD, at least when it comes to design. Hard to believe they’d forgot or ignore the big bad.
Sadly that’s all the info we have to go on for this guy. I’ve looked over with the editor and found no trace of him. Most I can say is that there are a couple Yogurt placeholders among the enemy map sprites, and a couple unused data entries for Dark Mages. But that could be anything. Unless there’s some oversight with the editor, Mephisto was either fully removed, or never implemented to begin with, and the guide book just published out-of-date info by mistake.
The next monster is the opposite, though
Green Golem
Movement: 4
Weapon: none
Can move on water, and has high attack.
I’m legit afraid that this is an enemy from the game that i just forgot and am embarrassing myself here, because the beast is complete. Graphics, data, you name it.
By graphics I mean it is just a color swap of the regular Golem, as its name implies. Stats wise, it has -3 attack and -2 HP compared to the Golem, meaning it’s an weaker enemy. Makes sense since it’s likely made for the naval battles in chapter 5, while regular Golem debut in chapter 6. Still, with how hard Golems are to hit in the regular game, i’m very glad they did not put a thing with the same defense in the previous chapter.
Well, not that glad. On the other hand, according to the editor...
Its localized name is Weed.
And I kinda need to see this in an actual screenshot right NOW.
I do need to finish this post first. Here’s the last, smaller oddity in the encyclopedia’s monster data:
Storm Rover
Movement: 6
Weapon: Swords
Be careful as it can attack with lightning.
Storm Rover is the JP name for the Shellfish enemy of the naval battle. In the final game they can poison, not attack with lightning. It seems the naval battle went through a lot of changes at some point.
Saying they equip swords is also weird but there’s a lot more mistakes about weapons in this guide, like saying the dragonewts use swords and the conches uses spears, so these might be just mistakes. Anyway still shows that this list is goofed and was probably printed by mistake.
That’s it for enemies, but there’s a few more unused NPC sprites, i think.
I don’t remember any of these in game, but do let me know if i’m wrong, it’s hard to remember all NPCs. I will be kinda mad if the cat is in and i just forgot, given that it’s cute as heck, and cats were my first act of hacking in a Shining game. Why was the SF2 cat not like that to begin with.
Now, on to text data. The thing about text data is that it is a list of 2000+ strings. And even though the event data is beautifully organized in diagrams in this editor, I cannot emphasize enough that it is a very elaborate editor, it’s still tough to sit and comprehend all that, especially in a single day. So I can’t say I have fully checked everything out for now, but you know me by now, i definitely did try. Here’s what I’ve noticed.
Lines 41 and 42 here from Simone’s introduction seem to go unused. To be fair, they don’t add anything.
Alef has a line set up for the boat HQ, even though she isn’t available until after the boat battles. The other late game characters (Torasu, Lyle, Bleu, Musashi, Hanzou, and Adam) all have empty strings for this instead. [Update: I have since investigated and this is an issue in the english version only. Shoutout to whoever in the localization loved Alef very much.]
Khris seems to have a surprised line set up for if you manage to enter Alterone’s castle before the merchant puts in a good word for you, which should not be possible in regular gameplay. [Update: I have since investigated this one too and it can be seen with walk through walls cheats, showing Khris is also in a different position of the map as well. The JP version is even more scandalous.]
Anri also seems to have an extra line to continue to reject Max when they meet for the first time, but from what i recall, Nova immediately comes up to convince her he’s telling the truth. Perhaps you were meant to do something to convince her instead.
Otrant also seems to have a line reacting to Max being turned into chicken, however from what i recall, his room is inaccessible when that happens.
Plenty of other inaccessible NPCs seem to have lines set up for this as well, however they are just reusing lines from the NPCs you do talk to. Those generic lines like “what’s a hen doing here?” and such.
Update: I’m sorry for Spreading Misinformation Online, you can explore all of Manarina as a chicken in this game so these lines are not unused, you can even heal yourself off the chickening by leaving Manarina or entering the next battle. The GBA version fixes this oversight by locking you out of a good chunk of the map so i got confused.
But enough of these minor details. We’re here for deleted content. We’re here for plot lines being dumped in the trash. Bring in the kings.
That’s right baby, it’s Adam and Cain losing plot lines again, it’s not just the localization that did it to them. Ever noticed how Adam do not get the usual “character has joined the force” message, and kinda just appears in your team during the Chaos battle? Yeah, that might have been a hasty fix. There are traces of a bigger scene here with Adam, Darksol and Cain, upon which Adam would join the force with the proper message.
Only a single line of these events has survived, in which Adam urges Max to take the Chaos Breaker. This might mean you would have the sword before fighting Chaos, as the pre-battle dialogue with Chaos is right after this in the data. The remaining lines have been wiped, though the code referring to them remains there along with the code for loading character portraits, which is how we get the handy diagram above.
Unfortunately I don’t know enough of this editor to check if there’s leftover animation data on this cutscene. Sprite data relating to it does seem to be present in the map though, check it out:
does this remind you of something?
:)
put this one in the pile of “the GBA version is just what the devs intended all along” with the others. Granted, “intended” might not be the correct word since they did cut it. Why? Who knows. One possibility I see is that they might have felt a flashback would be confusing, the game doesn’t do any kind of perspective change, unlike the GBA version which does hop between Max, Narsha and Ramladu’s POVs every chapter. While Adam loredumping in the og version might be a more boring way of conveying the plot, it is also more in line with the game’s presentation. A flashback might have also posed technical difficulties, like adding a sepia tone to the screen when no other scene requires it, etc. Though SF2 does have a sepia scene, so if that was the case they figured it out eventually.
Another reason might be that avoiding this scene helps hiding how messy it is. Cain and Chaos get beaten up and corrupted, which makes sense. Max on the other hand also gets beaten up enough to get amnesia, and yet does not get captured or killed, but instead, blown across the ocean??? Somehow???? The GBA version adds the concept that Cain’s armor can warp space and teleport, though seemingly putting a heavy strain on the user’s body. While it’s not explicitly said, we can assume Max’s armor is the same, and that he used it to escape, making his injuries and amnesia not just from Darksol. I’m still connecting a lot of dots on my own here, but it’s something of an explanation, while the classic game had no foreshadowing for this. Even if the deleted dialogue here explained, it would feel more coming out of nowhere.
That’s all speculation though. There might be more clues on unused lines of the japanese version, but i don’t have an editor for that. I have heard tales of a debug mode though, so i’ll look into that. For now i leave you with this monster of a post
What if I stopped crying that SF2 doesn't have as much cool stuff to translate as the first game and just posted it anyway. Who could stop me. Anyway here's the prologue and character info from the manual.
A big island to the west of the continent of Parmecia, Grans. In this island lie the countries of Granseal and Galam, and they were allies.
A long time ago, in Grans Island, stood three demon lords. One was a fallen angel of supreme magical power, Lucifer, another was a skilled general of great wisdom, Darksol, and then there was one who surpassed both in power, the savage devil, Zeon. In the place where currently stands the castle of Granseal, a place called Arc Valley, the three fought a deadly battle to conquer the evil power that gathered there. But Zeon, who boasted being the superior force throughout the whole conflict, had his magic sealed in a jewel by Darksol, and having lost his power, sank into the ocean of flames in Arc Valley. The remaining two lords were also at the end of their strength, and were driven out of Arc Valley by the gods.
The evil power that gathers at Arc Valley was sealed in the ancient tower in the northeast of Granseal's castle. It is said that, should the seal in that tower be broken, that evil power will immediately resurrect Zeon. The tower is sealed by the two jewels in the ancient shrine... the Jewel of Darkness that represents the devils, and the Jewel of Light that represents heroes.
Well now, plenty of treasure hunters have heard rumors of these jewels, and dared to come to the ancient shrine. However, as they tried to take them, a mysterious power prevented them from even touching the jewels, and they went back home empty handed. Having heard of that, the noble thief Slade attempted it as well, and somehow! He could touch the jewels, and succeeded in getting both of them.
But, because the jewels were taken out, the seal of the ancient tower was broken. Dark clouds covered Grans Island, and lightning struck the tower as a terrible storm poured. And the shadows of devils drew near Granseal's castle...
Notes so far:
I didn't bring up Lucifer in this blog before because I thought it was a known localization problem, but I'm a nerd who spent my teen years in fansites so perhaps a have a skewed vision of how well known things are in a fanbase. Anyway! Lucifer and this lore are brought up in game in the lore dump at Tristan. It's no wonder why the western version had to do away with a name like Lucifer, but they complicated matters by replacing it with Dark Dragon's, who supposedly has nothing to do with this.
The rest of the lore itself is not that off in the official translation, but I'm already here, so:
"Arc Valley is an impure place! Evil power gathers there.
One who rules over Arc Valley shall become the king among kings to the devils.”
“Lucifer, Darksol and Zeon fought as they all desired Arc Valley.
Their battle was extremely fierce, scorching the land, staining the ocean, and parting the skies.”
“Zeon was victorious, and all devils called him the king among kings.
The other two lords envied him, and attacked, sealing his power in a jewel.”
“With his powers lost, Zeon was swallowed by the ocean of flames in Arc Valley.
Zeon's wails torn apart the mountains, and he was buried along with the valley.”
“A wise god lamented the devils' conflict, and created a righteous power.
The righteous power chose a young person, and that person forged a sword at the wise god's mountain.”
“Given power by the wise god, the young one fought the two demon lords with the forged sword.
The sword shone with a pure light, and the devils were driven off of Arc Valley.”
“The impure place of Arc Valley was sealed with the ancient shrine. It should never be violated, lest the great demon lord revive.”
“Should by any chance the evil power return, the power of the gods will choose another young one.
Trust that righteous power! Take the sword and strike it into the devil's mouth."
[ignore the graphical differences in the english version i just used an unfinished sprite hack]
So unlike the english version, the original leaves it ambiguous if the "righteous power" created by the god is the Jewel of Light, but it's still not hard to infer that. Specifying a mountain also makes it way more obvious that the god is Volcanon, but, no surprise either. The whole lore about the sword does imply it was not meant to be the Chaos Breaker (since that one sounded specific for sealing Dark Dragon), but who knows, maybe light swords get around. Final Conflict is better anyway so it has the right to retcon whatever it wants to.
Anyway none of this is too worth noting, what I actually wanted to note was that Lucifer is the antagonist for the novel, though that's basically all I know on him.
Enough shallow lore, let's head up to shallow character bios. While I usually stick to the characters' english names, this game did the weird decision of sharing names with english Gaiden 2, so for once I'll use the JP names at first and comment on this stuff.
Protagonist (Bowie)
A boy from Granseal. He has trained to be a swordsman as a pupil of the sage Astral. As Granseal becomes isolated after the incident with the ancient tower, he sets out in a journey to deepen ties with the other species.
Species: Human
Class: Swordsmen
As I've mentioned before in my playthrough, the japanese version puts a lot more emphasis on Granseal being unfamiliar with other species, even generalizing it as a human country sometimes. It makes no sense given you starting team and the countless centaurs in Galam's army, but it's there.
Sarah
A pupil of Astral's. The big sister kind of girl who enjoys taking care of others. Skilled with healing magic.
Species: Elf
Class: Priest
The Gaiden 2 priest is also called Sarah in the JP version, making this a rare case where the names were already repeated in the original versions.
Huey
A pupil of Astral's. A boy with a lot of pride that relies on his leg strength to act in the battlefield.
Species: Centaur
Class: Knight
The Gaiden 2 archer was the one originally called Chester.
Jaja
Yet another pupil of Astral's. Scatterbrained, but his physical strength is huge.
Species: Hobbit
Class: Warrior
Yes, "Jaja". The english version was fully right to tweak it a bit, actually english Jaha is superior in all ways. Meanwhile the Gaiden 2 warrior was called Aaron in the original.
Kazun
A mage that tries to look calm and collected, but can't help being juvenile at times.
Species: Elf
Class: Mage
Yet another minor name tweak I barely remember, having to pay extra attention to this. Anyway this description is everything to me.
Jippo
The true culprit behind the incident at the ancient tower. A noble thief that steals for the poor.
Species: Scavenger
Class: Thief
The Gaiden 2 priest was originally called Sain. Slade is thus a name fully made up by the english versions. And it's a great name! I just wish they hadn't given it to both the best and worst character at once!
Also, Slade's species. The term スケイブン (sukeibun) seems to come from Warhammer's skaven race, which is pronounced a bit different than the word scavenger (which would be something like スカベンジャー(sukabenjaa) in katakana instead). However, the term first showed up in this series for those rat enemies at the start of Gaiden 1 and SFCD translated it as Scavenger so I'm going with that. Honestly, I'd rather just call him a ratguy.
Kiwi
A mysterious character. Somewhat of a mascot for the Shining Force!? It's unclear.
Species: Green Turtle
Class: Green Turtle
I usually stick to the official class translations but, TORT has always been a weird one.
Peter
A phoenix chick. He's a boy brimming with curiosity, who was raised by the god Volcanon.
Species: Phoenix
Class: Phoenik
Matilda
A wild and free ranger who loves nature and runs through the hills and fields. Skilled with a bow and arrows.
Species: Centaur
Class: Ranger
The Gaiden 2 wizard was called Marian in the original. The name May was likely taken from the SF1 knight, and then romanized different, and, given to a foxling mage as well?? Good localization™
Gerhalt
A beastman with little body hair, looking just like a human. Has a strong sense of justice, and fights enemies head on.
Species: Beastman
Class: Beastman
Ludo
The prince of the birdmen country, Bedoe, and a great friend of Peter's. The mobility he gets thanks to those wings is his strong point.
Species: Birdman
Class: Birdman
The Gaiden 2 monk was called Bill in the original, and as most know by now, SF1's Luke was originally Lug. That's right, we went from zero guys named Luke to three of them. Still not the worst name situation yet! Hold tight to your seats!
Lloyd
A middle-aged scholar who joins the force because he wishes to drive an ancient vehicle, the Caravan.
Species: Human
Class: Brass Gunner
Rohde is actually a pretty clever adaptation of "roido" that also kind of puts a "rode" pun in the middle. But the "Lloyd" romanization is so much more common and stereotypical for a studious guy I felt like pointing it out. Meanwhile, the Gaiden 2 dwarf was originally called Games. Not like the word "games", more like gah-mes. Does anyone even remember who I'm talking about? I'm having trouble remembering the guy myself, all dwarves are generic in this series but the CD ones take the cake.
Mick
A knight who lives in the town of Hassan. Timid, but shows his power once brought to a few battles.
Species: Centaur
Class: Knight
Yes, Mick. They changed one letter of it.
His description here, despite repeated in guide books, is a bit off compared to the game, where he has just arrived at Hassan, and has no plans to stay. Describing him as timid is also very off from the wakuwaku yahoo funny boy we get in game.
Most you can say is that in JP he isn't as hyped in HQ, but it's still more of a focused thing than timid:
"We centaurs are the main fighters in a battle, so we can't ever let our guard down."
now you know why he has the best defense among knights. Not that my screenshot reflects that lmao. Also a rare moment of the localization adding exclamation points instead of robbing them.
Polnaref
A resident of Fairy Woods. He is rescued by the protagonist while struggling and stuck in a spring.
Species: Elf
Class: Archer
Elric
A calm and courteous knight, who has been shrunk due to certain circumstances. A noble.
Species: Centaur
Class: Knight
Congratulations. You have reached Worst Name Situation.
That is not a typo. He was called Elric in the original. They changed it to Eric, and then gave the og name to a different guy in the same game. Meanwhile, the Gaiden 2 knight who also got the name Eric was called Kreid in the original. Little did they know that a single game after there would an actual Erik, who I romanize with a k in a futile attempt to minimize this mess.
But it doesn't even end there. There's Shining Soul 2. In japanese, the warrior's default is Alex.
Guess what they changed it into for the english version
Twiggy
A female priest with a kind heart and a good head on her shoulders. Yet another one who has been shrunk down due to circumstances.
Species: Human
Class: Priest
You read that right, human. Both this manual and every guide book I know lists both her and Taya as humans despite the ears. This happens to Ruburan as well in the Final Conflict manual (and you can note his overworld sprites lack pointy ears), but the guide book lists him as elf. The novel apparently goes around this by calling her a half-elf.
Dongo
Another one shrunk down. A rough and rowdy sort, but has a nice side as well. His destructive power is huge.
Species: Dwarf
Class: Warrior
The Gaiden centaur was the one originally called Randolf.
Piper
A high-minded middle-aged mage who has been shrunk down. Has more physical strength than expected for his class.
Species: Elf
Class: Mage
Janet
A resident of Fairy Woods. A girl whose skill with the bow is on par with Polnaref's.
Species: Elf
Class: Archer
Higins
Captain of the army of the country of centaurs, Pacalon. His mobility and strength are nothing to complain about.
Species: Centaur
Class: Paladin
I don't think i need to tell you that the Gaiden 2 ninja was actually Hanzou, right? It certainly wasn't a ninja called Higins, that's for sure.
That's not what matters here. What matters here is that a japanese onomatopoeia for horse clopping is "pacaran pacaran".
They live in clopclop town.
If I have to know this fact you have to know it as well.
Fielder
A birdboy with a strong body and wings boasting outstanding movement. He's modest and polite.
Species: Birdman
Class: Birdbattler
Not exactly a name repeat, but the name Skreech is likely inspired by Gaiden 2's Shriek, who did have that name in JP as well.
Linda
A shrine maiden who turned to stone by orders of the goddess Mitula. She can control spirits of nature.
Species: Human
Class: Sorcerer
Sharol
A priest of Moun, of pretty old age. Can use many kinds of healing spells.
Species: Hobbit
Class: Vicar
Hobbit discourse! Some guide books call him human instead. His proportions are very different from the other hobbits/dwarves in the series so I'm willing to believe that more.
Also, I never brought it up before as I don't know much on religion but guess I'll do it now. The word used for the priest class is 僧侶 (souryo), which refers to buddhist monks. The word for the promotion, officially translated as vicar, is 司祭(shisai), which means catholic priest.
The word describing Frayja here is 神官 (shinkan), which is apparently a shinto role.
I don't think it's just my lack of religious knowledge making this look like a mess.
__
Anyway, look at that totally inconspicuous repeat of Bowie's art randomly in this page! Exactly in the position another character bio could go! And we have an even number of characters, so there was no reason to break this display of two side-by-side, right?
In case you haven't heard, Jaro is basically non-playable in the japanese version. There was an oopsie in the code as he joins, and he never stops being AI controlled like in his first battle. Guide books straight up refer to him as a NPC.
This game was A Lil' Rushed.
So yeah, my bad, Jaro doesn't get lore. Not that anyone is getting lore, but he really gets nothing. His japanese name is Falcon, if you're wondering.
Gyan
A hot headed man who can't stand still when others are in trouble. His strength is terrific.
Species: Hobbit
Class: Gladiator
More hobbit discourse! Gyan calls himself a dwarf in-game, i’ll just use the english screenshot since it’s accurate.
Told you to not care about this. Some guide books do call him a dwarf as well.
Also, the bear beastman from the Gaiden games was called Teddy in the original games.
Sheela
A former pupil of Astral's. She joins the force to avenge her lover, killed by Galam's army.
Species: Human
Class: Master Monk
Bacchus
He was once just junk lying around in the ancient pathway. A highly-skilled fighting machine.
Species: Robot
Class: Robot
Rude, manual, rude.
The wording is a bit ambiguous here as in, maybe he was made of junk found in the pathways. But he remembers ancient times, so I doubt that's it. Unless he was already made of junk material back then, which makes this some pretty resistant garbage. I love recycling.
Oneia
A rare kind of mage, active and enthusiastic. Lives in the town of Yeel, currently in danger.
Species: Human
Class: Wizard
I don't think it's that rare for mages to be enthusiastic in this setting, and he doesn't even act much like it in game, but he does seem to be confused by his own feelings in HQ:
"I usually seem gentle but, I'm thrilled when in battle. Perhaps it is in my nature to like conflict?"
Lemon
The commander of the Galam army. An enemy general who was possessed by a devil and committed one slaughter after another.
Species: Human
Class: Red Baron
Mud
An inorganic creation given life, that is, a golem. Skills are yet unknown. A curious existence.
Species: Golem
Class: Golem
Final name discourse. According to the dictionary "mud" is more commonly written as マッド in katakana instead of マード here, but I still don't see anything else it could be. The Gaiden birdman was called Barry in the original, so Claude is fully a localization name, though I suspect it was initially thought for the birdman since, you know, sounds like cloud.
Sage Astral
A retired sage who lives in Granseal. Teacher to the protagonist, Sarah, Chester and others. He awaits their return while helping to rebuild the country.
Astral is mostly referred to as a sage in game, or by some honorific like -sama or -dono. The localization lumped all of this into "sir", like it usually does. It's not perfect but I struggle a lot with adapting honorifics as well so I tend to go with it.
King Granseal
The king of Granseal. Has suffered greatly since the incident of one year ago, as he lost his beloved Princess Elis, and faced against the neighboring country of Galam that used to be his ally.
Princess Elis
The daughter of King Granseal. When the seal of the ancient tower broke, she was taken by King Galam, who had been possessed by a devil, and dragged to the Demon World.
Volcanon
The great god who lives in a volcano at South Parmecia. Also a father figure to the phoenix chick, Peter. He is angry at the people of the surface who revived Zeon.
Oddler
A boy met at the village of Polca. His eyes are injured, and he doesn't remember a thing from his past. At the village chief's request, he begins to travel with the protagonists. Is being targeted by the devils.
Creed
A misanthropist great devil who lives in a mansion in the Devil's Tail in the Parmecia continent. He comes to know of the demon lord Zeon's revival, and to help stop it, lends some of his warriors to the force.
Yeah. One of them.
The term I translated as great devil is 大悪魔, different from the one used for Oddeye, Cameela and Zalbard, 悪魔軍隊長, which the game adapted as Greater Devil, but is more like Devil Army Captain.
