#sf mae

[kirinaddsion]

Mae

More shining force fanart

Centaurs are hard yet fun to draw!

[claire-starsword]

Reconstruction of an early portrait of Mae, and then some extra blinking and talking frames, and extra expressions closer to her final ones, because I'm glad her personality turned into what it is, but this pose looks a lot more dynamic. More comments on the website.

The original print from MDFan December 1991:

[claire-starsword]

Need everyone to know immediately that Mae is almost 2 meters tall

[claire-starsword]

Found scans of what I think is the best Shining Force guide in terms of lore, so I’ll be translating and discussing some stuff here for the next days. Let’s start with the two characters you’d expect:

Protagonist [Human] Class: Swordsman -> Hero

The young hero who faces battles, spurred on by destiny

*** As protagonist of the game, he's the young hero who leads the Shining Force. One year ago, he lost his memory, and was found unconscious by Lowe in the coast near Guardiana. After that, he continued to train his swordsmanship in there. His real identity (?) is descendant of the family entrusted with the duty to protect Dark Dragon's seal. ***

As revealed in the later half of the game, he is the younger brother of Cain from the Runefaust army, and the two were fated to fight Dark Dragon.

The black armor (reinforced clothes?) he wears after changing class to "hero" were designed for this mission, much like Cain's white armor. It seems the armor itself has been among his belongings even when he was still in Guardiana, but before becoming "hero" class, he didn't know how to put it on, and thus could not use it in battle. _____

Mae [Centaur] Class: Knight -> Paladin

The crimson fighting spirit galloping through the battlefield! Shining Force's offense captain!

*** The only daughter of Varios, captain of the Guardiana knights. She's very proud of her class and species. At the start she was prejudiced against the protagonist because he was an outsider, but once the castle fell she realized their duty, and vowed to cooperate with him. After that she became the Shining Force's main fighting power. ***

In the game she's the focus of the event with Varios, and thus it isn't mentioned anywhere, but of course, Mae had a mother as well. Her name was Allia, and she was a female knight who fought alongside Varios in her youth. However, she died of an illness when Mae was young.

Her popular (?) strong personality is in part due to having her parents in mind. Ever since she was young, she dreamed of becoming a knight like her mother and helping Varios in battle.

_____

Notes about Max:

The armor thing is a detail mentioned only by this guide, but Max's backstory and family are explained in the original game, the english localization just did away with all of it because it is uh, Bad, to put it mildly.

"My name is Adam... I am a mechanical soldier created to help you in battle... You and Master Cain have the blood of the ancients in your veins... You were fated to fight Dark Dragon since you were born... Darksol... He plans to resurrect Dark Dragon, and found out about the both of you. He schemed to manipulate you in order to obtain the key to the seal and the Book of Secrets. Master Cain fought to give you a chance to escape... But he was defeated by Darksol... And you suffered terrible wounds. Because of that you lost even your memory."

[The official translation uses "manual of the seal" for ひでんのしょ, but "Book of Secrets" (used by the GBA version) is a more accurate translation.]

Lowe finding him at the shore is mentioned both in game and in the manual from what I recall, and the interesting thing is, the manual contains a pixel art illustration of Lowe carrying him into Guardiana. It's the only time I've seen a pixel art scene in these extra materials, so I wonder if it was made for an intro in the game itself and got cut.

Notes about Mae: Mae's initial distaste for Max is also clearer in the japanese version.

“Don’t get too full of yourself just because you’re training with my father. You’re still an outsider!”

Mae talks about her mother in the GBA version, and it matches this backstory perfectly, with extra details on how she became a knight and married Varios. Her name was however changed to Arisa (アリサ in the JP version). I chose to romanize the original name here as Allia to avoid bad implications, but throwing アーリア in the online dictionary gave me a lot of result related to aryan race and similar things, so this might be why they changed it, and I deeply support that change. The new name might also be an homage to Alis of Phantasy Star, but that's just me speculating.

[claire-starsword]

[claire-starsword]

all of Mae’s HQ dialogue from the GBA version. As I’ve just posted, this one seems heavily based on a guide book from the original game.

[claire-starsword]

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.

[claire-starsword]

I will replay it to confirm but I don’t remember SFCD saying a thing about Mae which is a sin, she’s clearly so so important to the Force and Guardiana.

cool he’s bound by fate to fight after fight against the darkness in return for this miraculous survival, but let him at least see his friends once more. Maybe send a letter? Come on Simone this isn’t as nice as it sounds.

...if Simone has a book about it how long has it been. Assuming Simone lives in a world and not just straight atop the fourth wall.

*looks at a dude whose head is clearly floating with no neck* funky armor man

why didn’t Egress affect Adam too? I can fully understand that as an ancient robot he might have wanted or had a duty to watch over the sinking castle but Max is the one who cast the spell to save everyone. Did he know Adam would stay? Are heroes even in control of Egress or are they like “i’m the fated hero, spell, save my ass!” and the spell does what it wants.

i could ramble more about the fourth wall shenanigans but i’ve said enough, i love this ending. Yeah buddy I named you at the beginning. And then you saved the world. Player & protagonist partnership. A shame Final Conflict just uses the canon name instead of him running up to you like “oh yeah and my name is...” prompting you to use the same name you did before.