#ssoul2 alex

[claire-starsword]

Shining Soul 2 - Prologue and Character Bios translation

While to my knowledge the game’s story is the same for all the characters, they all actually have their own backstory behind the scenes, and it’s a shame that nothing gets brought up, especially since one of them seems linked to the main antagonist, if we can even call Gillespie that.

All the info here is taken from the official guide book, which is sadly kinda poor, and from the old official website. Everyone say thank you Internet Archive real quick, because while I’ve seen a backup from sega around it already had broken pages.

Prologue [this one is the same in both the book and the website]

The time when the warriors of light defeated the forces of darkness is now in the very distant past.

The world was at peace.

However, an incident slowly inched closer.

Sometimes the sun's light would be blocked by thick clouds, while at others there'd be continuous drought, and water supplies would dry out, making the people suffer.

Finally, monsters began to appear, and the world fell in despair...

King Marcel of the Klantol Kingdom felt how dire the situation was and, besides building a fortress and strengthening the country's defenses, declared open a fighting tournament in the Colosseum, in order to find heroes powerful enough to exterminate the monsters.

"...Heroes who have inherited the light, you’ll save this world covered in darkness!"

Characters

Warrior Alex [Eric in the english version]

Guide book:

A descendant of the Legendary Warrior always aiming to be strongest

A descendant of the warrior that defeated Dark Dragon long ago. While traveling throughout the world as he practiced his sword skills, he decided to take part in the fighting tournament.

Website:

Alex descends from the warrior who defeated Dark Dragon in the distant past, although he doesn't know that.

He's still growing up and thus has a huge appetite. A mischievous boy going through puberty. He wants to travel the whole world as a warrior one day.

A specialist in close combat - His balance of offense and defense is exceptionally good

A warrior who uses strong melee weapons. He balances that well with great defensive equipment and is thus an easy to use character.

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Magician Pamela [Premiera in the english version]

Guide book:

A heroine of legendary blood hiding magical power behind that beauty

A descendant of the magician who fought Dark Dragon. Contrary to what you might assume from her looks, she's a hard worker who doesn't hold back in her efforts. Sensing the incident in the island, she took part in the fighting tournament.

Website:

A girl a little (two or three years) older than Alex.

While her magic skills are still getting there, she's descendant of a legendary magician. She aims to become the greatest magician in the kingdom, and trains day and night with no skipping.

A specialist in offensive magic who can use a variety of spells

She can attack enemies from a distance with many types of magic. Of course, since she has no physical strength, her physical attacks and defensive equipment are not very great.

Archer Rwinn

Guide book:

A kind forest guardian of flawless skill with the bow

One hailing from the elven race that lives traveling throughout the forests of the whole world. After a certain event he became good friends with the family that runs the item shop. Feeling the unusual incident impacting the forest's creatures, he came to the fighting tournament.

Website:

It is unknown if he's a descendant of the archer who defeated Dark Dragon.

In the past years, he noticed that the forest has been restless and unusual incidents have been happening to the creatures there, and thus felt that the balance between light and darkness was crumbling.

Skilled in long distance attacks with bows and throwing spears

He is skilled at long distance attacks but, in counterpoint to that, is exceptionally bad at close combat. He can also attack borrowing the strength of the animals that live in the forest.

Dragon Warrior Tyroth

Guide book:

Number one in destructive power! A brave beast warrior

A young dragonewt of strong body and mind. Has a troublesome but inseparable relationship with the drunkards of the tavern. Sensing the incident in the island, he decided to take part in the tournament.

Website:

Originally, the dragonewt race used to live in regions of the continent with lava, but as this peaceful era went on, plenty of young dragonewts began wanting to know more of society and be active throughout the world. Tyroth is one of these young people.

This heavy soldier has plenty of openings but his attack power is number one

Using heavy weapons like axes and flails, he deals strong blows to his opponents. Naturally, his weak spots are the time he takes to attack and his slow movement.

Priest Prim

Guide book:

A novice priestess who wields the light and banishes evil

She's a girl of the race known as cantaul, and both her parents are priests of light famous throughout the world. Having a sharp sixth sense, she felt evil energies and came to the island.

Website:

A girl of the cantaul race, which is few in numbers nowadays.

She descends from preachers of the light doctrine skilled in light magic.

Her skills as a priest are still developing, but she has excellent control of her spiritual aspect, and her sixth sense is far better than that of a human.

She saves the party with healing and support magic

Despite being able to equip flails, her attacking capability is still shaky. However, her real strength is in helping the party with skills like healing and support magic

Brawler Zachs

Guide book:

A solitary grappler who shreds his enemies with swift attacks

A wolfling man skilled at hand-to-hand combat. He usually never misses a day of his training. And in order to put his skills in service of the people, he joined the tournament.

Website:

The wolfling Zachs was an orphan.

In his youth, Zachs learned a special form of hand-to-hand combat from someone, and was then raised by a martial artist who had mastered the spiritual power of sensing the flow of ki.

He has no defense but attack and speed are outstanding

With superior speed and high attack he can defeat monsters in an instant. However, in order to preserve that speed, he has limitations on what he can equip, so his defense is a bit worrisome.

Dark Wizard Bradster [Armand in the english version]

Guide book:

A mixed race of human and vampire blood who bends dark magic to his will

A half human half vampire man skilled at dark magic. Due to his mixed blood, he's weak to light. He came to the tournament looking for his missing twin brother.

Website:

Bradster was born from a human and a vampire. His magic is tied to the darkness. He is very skilled in this dark magic.

He has a twin brother, and seems to be following after his last whereabouts.

A half human half vampire skilled in magic

A character skilled at magic that uses the powers of darkness to transform into monsters, spew poison and so on. He can also fight summoning special swords.

Ninja Raizen

Guide book:

An assassin swift as the wind, from the land of the rising sun

He uses the arts known as "ninjutsu" from a small island country to the far east. Following the duty written in the Prophetic Scrolls passed down by his ancestors, he joined the tournament.

Website:

Raizen was born and raised in a small country to the far east.

He belongs to a class known as ninja who utilize arts called ninjutsu.

Right from the moment of his birth he has undergone harsh training away from people's eyes, and his arts are on a level any magician can respect and admire.

He makes full use of swift attacks and special arts

He makes a fool of the enemies with fast attacks and ninjutsu tricks. He is also notable for having the fastest movement among all characters.

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Notes:

I talked about it only in the tags but it might be worth noting it here, the conflict against Dark Dragon mentioned here is that of the first Shining Soul game, not Shining Force. Shining Soul does attempt to have some connections to the classic games but those are shaky at best.

As I mentioned in the beginning, the dark wizard’s missing twin is Gillespie, the game’s main antagonist which has basically zero lore or even much relevancy in game, something that boggles me to this day.