Let's get this translation party started. There's nothing too new in terms of character backstory compared to the other guide i translated, but there are small details such as character ages and some new named locations. Sadly, not all characters are here. Perhaps they didn't want to spoil the late game, but at the same time, Lyle is here while Earnest and Domingo are not, so who knows.
Shining Force - Member List
The Shining Warriors who have the courage to face the forces of darkness
Max, the hero who sets out in his journey as if guided by fate. He and his comrades challenging the forces of darkness will come to be known as the Shining Force. However, they are not a military organization like the Runefaust army, and more like a group of allies with the same goal.
___
The swordsman of incredible skill, and a secret
Max
Class: Swordsman
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Height: 173 cm
Weight: 65 kg
Place of Origin: Unknown
Starting Level: 1
Starting Weapon: Middle Sword
A young man who displays power sometimes beyond his own understanding
A young man with amazing swordsmanship skills. While being a human, inferior in physical strength, his abilities in battle are on par with those of the centaurs.
He is not a citizen of Guardiana. He drifted ashore, unconscious, and was rescued by Lowe. Despite having lost his memories, he seems to be used to the battlefield judging by how he moves in combat. His skills have even the royal knights' jaws dropping in awe.
A fast learner whose role is to deal the finishing blows
Being a swordsman, he attacks with his incredible sword skills. At first his defense and agility can be a problem, but he grows quickly so it's not much of an issue. In particular, his strength grows incredibly fast. He's not one to put in the front line to pierce the enemy lines, and is better suited to deal huge damage to the enemies with follow up attacks. It's easy for him to become the focus of attacks so be careful.
A young knight with an honest heart
Ken
Class: Knight
Species: Centaur
Gender: Male
Age: 17 years old
Height: 185 cm
Weight: 158 kg
Place of Origin: Guardiana
Starting Level: 1
Starting Weapon: Spear
His distinctive trait is a playfulness unusual for centaurs
A member of Guardiana's Royal Order of Knights. Though he's still in training. He's the youngest in the order, and Mae treats him like a little brother.
He's a rare nice fellow amidst the prideful and noble centaurs. He has seen the protagonist's skill with the sword, and honestly respects him. However, because he secretly likes Mae, he doesn't let this respect show.
Let him fight battle upon battle to see his abilities grow
At first he doesn't have much HP, and is thus weak to the enemy's attacks. Take out the enemies with teamwork utilizing his movement and strength. Because he's still young, he grows fast. You want to raise his level and keep him in the main team. His HP in particular grows remarkably, possibly becoming the greatest in the party. Using him as a shield is a strategy as well. Although his defense doesn't grow much.
____
A man who doesn't like fighting
Luke
Class: Warrior
Species: Dwarf
Gender: Male
Age: 64 years old
Height: 136cm
Weight: 75kg
Place of Origin: Guardiana
Starting Level: 1
Starting Weapon: Short Sword
A bright and fun guy even amidst a dark world
A bright, friendly, childlike guy. Also kind of an airhead and careless, not the kind of personality you'd expect of a warrior.
The reason such a guy became a warrior is because he was attacked by monsters as a child, and rescued by dwarf warriors. He became enamored with the brave image of warriors since then.
It's kind of a lukewarm reason, but when he heads to the battlefield his personality changes completely, and he shows fierce fighting power.
Valuable at the start but slow to grow, the late bloomer type
As a warrior his agility is unreliable, but his other stats are quite high. His attack and defense in particular are great so he's a character you want to put in the very front. His stats all grow slowly. He might be hard to use through the mid game. Only his HP grows steadily, so don't worry about it and raise him patiently. If you do so, he becomes of great use in the late game.
[Note: Japanese notoriously makes less distinction between singular and plural, so it’s unclear if he was rescued by one or many warriors. I went for plural to be vague, but it might have been just one guy and possibly Gort, as it would match the other guide.]
Archer who doesn't flaunt his real power
Hans
Class: Archer
Species: Elf
Gender: Male
Age: 126 years old
Height: 196 cm
Weight: 63 kg
Place of Origin: Guardiana
Starting Level: 1
Starting Weapon: Wooden Arrow
A pacifist to the end, no matter what others say
An archer of Guardiana's army. Despite being an official soldier, he dislikes fighting. The kind who chooses peace over hurting one another. Because of that, he's terribly mocked by his fellow archers. However, he's certainly skilled with the bow, and his peers value that only.
He is to support his allies with attacks from the back
As an archer, he's specialized in ranged attacks. You want him behind the characters who do close combat. None of his stats are too low, but none are high either. His attack is okay, but because his weapons aren't too strong you can't expect much. Since he's weak to enemy attacks as well, he should stay strictly as support. Since he tends to improve with time, the best thing to do is to raise him steadily.
____
His best skill is taking care of others unnoticed
Lowe
Class: Priest
Species: Hobbit
Gender: Male
Age: 100 years ago
Height: 132 cm
Weight: 48 kg
Place of Origin: Guardiana
Starting Level: 1
Starting Weapon: Wooden Staff
A young man whose exterior doesn’t match the inside
He joined as an apprentice in the church of Guardiana in order to become a priest. While taking a stroll at the beach near town, he found the protagonist on the verge of death, and brought him to the church. After that the protagonist started living in the church, and became good friends with Lowe. Once he became a soldier, Lowe was determined to go along.
He's really foul-mouthed and overly familiar, but a good guy. The kind who is easily misunderstood, but he doesn't care.
A helper to the others with different kinds of magic
As a priest, he's average. His magical skill is average. If you raise him, he learns new spells. The rate at which he learns them isn't too fast nor too slow, in any case, he eventually becomes capable of using a variety of spells. You can also count on him for support spells other priests cannot use too well. Someone you definitely want in the back during boss battles.
still on my quest to hunt every possible drop of lore from shining force and this book actually has some cool stuff, so long post incoming
Unlike the other arrogant centaurs, Ken honestly admires the protagonist’s strength. He’s an apprentice of the knights of Guardiana. Since he’s young, Mae treats him like a little brother, but he actually has a crush on her.
On one hand it is extremely cute that he has a crush on Mae (who wouldn’t lmao), on the other I sure hope this isn’t the series saying “haha yeah Mae doesn’t show up in SFCD because she got married and housewifed like all female characters do”. I will kill something if that’s the case.
Dislikes fighting. Hates even the thought of getting hurt, from the bottom of his heart. Because of this personality, he’s often made fun of by his companions. Despite that, he remains a soldier because of his reliable skills, which everyone recognizes.
Hans baby i’m asking for the billionth time... why are you a soldier. Why did you choose this job. Did you even choose this job. I need answers, including a 1000 page essay on how you then found peace and never stepped on a battlefield again.
A priest training in the church of Guardiana. Has a good nature and a foul mouth, easily misunderstood. He found and rescued the protagonist, who was lying unconscious in the nearby beach, and since then they became great friends, living together.
oh my god they were roommates
It seems he was once captain of the knights of some country from another continent. A man of many mysteries.
You’re just gonna say that and not ever elaborate at any of the sequels huh
Guntz: A huge guy from Rindo. He’s an apprentice of the inventor Crock, working as his assistant. His hands are surprisingly dexterous, and he has helped with several inventions. In particular, the invention of the magical steam engine and the magical superconducting motor were thanks to him.
Lyle: A resident of Rindo. He’s from a race of centaurs without the mobility required to become a knight. He became a pupil of the inventor Crock, and learned to fight with an assault cannon. He has an easygoing personality and a bad sense of direction. He was meant to join the force in Pao along his fellow pupil Guntz, but ended up all the way in Rudo instead.
I desperately need more of these two being buddies.
Vankar: In his youth he was a knight of a great nation, but then, while drunk, he kicked the minister so hard he went flying. After that, he became a wanted fugitive, and wandered elsewhere working as a bodyguard. Despite this sloppy personality, his pride as a knight is bigger than anyone else’s.
dude what the hell
Kokichi: Dreaming of flying, he researched flying machines for fifty years. Even when taken to the quarry by the Runefaust army, he was more worried with his machines than with himself. He says he’s actually of a noble lineage, but no one believes him.
So glad to finally find somewhere that 1) acknowledges Kokichi was one of the dudes enslaved to work on the quarry, and 2) confirms he didn’t care at all.
Yogurt: He was once the pet of a Guardiana artist called Tamaaki. A mysterious creature. One day, they had a big fight over how to split some food, and he ran from home after that. The helmet he boasts about is Tamaaki’s favorite, that he stole when running away.
Character of all time.
Earnest: A descendant of the royal family of the small country Samal. He hates Runefaust for destroying his homeland. To defeat Commander Balbazak, who led the attack, he led his troops to break into Fort Uranbatol.
Not nearly as exciting as the last ones but I don’t remember the game or manual stating he’s royalty. Not unusual in this series but it’s something. Also I don’t recognize the country’s name from anywhere so I hope it’s okay that I just made the romanization.
(Edit: I have since learned that Thermal might be a more accurate romanization.)
Domingo: An artificial creature created by the mages of Manarina, hatching from a “Domingo Egg”. Has a gelatinous body, can understand words, and also cast magic, so it is treated much like a mage.
Again not much but confirms Domingo is a jelly. A fun blob. Though that might be just the white part? The dark parts still look like fur to me. Could it be fur-like jelly? I have no clue what that would even be like.
Since I don’t wanna deal with the SFCD official guide much I might as well just post here that Domingo is also capable of mitosis or something similar and that’s how Amigo happened. I don’t like that piece of lore but it’s there.
Today I bring you the classic electric pokemon with black tipped ears. That’s right. Alef.
Alef [Foxling]
Class: Mage -> Wizard
Burn the enemies to ashes with lightning magic!
***
A sage from Prompt, the country of the Ancients' descendants.
She used to live in a small country that was invaded by Runefaust, but she found out Darksol's ambitions and sought help in Prompt. And thus she settled down in the country. Her specialty is the Bolt line of magic.
***
High class mages can use many kinds of magic, but generally speaking, they have a single line they specialize in. For Tao that is Blaze, for Anri and Domingo it's Freeze, and Alef here specializes in Bolt spells.
Usually, Bolt magic uses Mana (the source of magic) to conduct lightning discharges from the skies. It is an exceptionally strong type of offensive magic, but because it consumes a lot of Mana at once, it is hard to control. Alef however was born with the peculiar ability to generate electricity by amplifying the bioelectricity in her whole body. Using that as an auxiliary source of electric power, she can cast Bolt while consuming less Mana.
_______
Lowe [Hobbit]
Class: Healer -> Priest
He chants healing spells to protect the protagonist
***
An apprentice priest from the church of Guardiana. He was the one to rescue the protagonist when he laid unconscious by the coast, and after that they became great friends.
When he heard the protagonist was sent to the Gate of the Ancients, he decided to join the party, and later became a Shining Force member.
***
Compared to mages, who join the team little by little, three priests join you in a short span of time (Chapter 1).
Lowe's woes start there. There's no problem with his healing and fighting abilities (if you wait for the best weapons he's stronger than Gong) but, he loses to Khris when it comes to cuteness, and to Gong when it comes to looking strong, so he's always in danger of being dropped off the team.
Even in headquarters, you won't hear great things about him (especially from the girls), he's like the bumbling country bumpkin type turned into a troublemaker. With a best friend like this, the protagonist is in trouble, isn't he? Well, things are fine if you don't toss him out...
_______
Notes on Alef:
I'm sad that they didn't elaborate on it here, but the japanese manual states that Alef foresaw Darksol's plot, implying some sort of precognition power from her as well. Her backstory here in the guide book is very vague and says nothing on how she came to know of Darksol. From how it is worded, I'm not even sure if she went to Prompt before or after her country was attacked.
Notes on Lowe:
*sigh*
As mentioned here, Lowe harasses the girls in HQ in the japanese version. It's a character archetype that pops up in pretty much every game in the series and i'm very annoyed so I won't go in depth about it.
I'm also unsure on the country bumpkin line since it seems to be referencing a specific character from japanese TV, and I couldn't find much on it, and was also a bit tired on the topic here so didn't try that hard. Basically, take that with a grain of salt.
Actually loving the whole dialogue and getting increasingly sad that sf2 didn’t get any of this treatment. I like that they’re bringing up how Max didn’t expect in any way to have all these new people hopping aboard
