The Actually Becoming Comprehensive Shining Soul Guide version .03 (Jaha) Last updated: 4/03/2002 by Dais (shinysoul@superdeformed.com) "Kim! Kim! Kim! Kim! Kim! Kim! Kim! Kim! Kim! Kim! Kim! Kim! Kim!" * *** *** ** * * * *** *** * * ** * *-- * @ *** * **** * * * * **** *** **** *** *** * * **** * * *** *** * * * * L E G A L H O O H A These are the rules by which ye shall abide: -This work and all that is in it may not be reproduced, rewritten, reworded, edited, or any similair act, WITHOUT THE AUTHORS PERMISSION. -This work may not appear on ANY other site than the following four: www.cheatcc.com www.gamefaqs.com, www.rpgclassics.com shining.retrorpg.com NO EXCEPTIONS WILL BE MADE. If you are found to be using this FAQ on your site, without given permission, you can and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. You may not put this up on your site, even if you have credited the author, if you do not have the AUTHOR'S PEMISSION. If you have found a site besides the three above that contains this work, notify the author as soon as you can. On second thought, that sounds really harsh...oh well. -This work cannot be featured in any magazine, technological media (CD, diskette, etc), written book, or any other item which will goes toward ANYONE's monetary gain. The author WILL NOT give his permission on this, and anyone who violates this will be prosecuted. -This work may only be used for PUBLIC CONSUMPTION. Any act of limiting access to it, changing the work itself, or the like, will be met with legal action of the furthest extent. -You may distribute this work ONLY if you do not edit it, remove any section, remove any references to the author, and/or remove these warnings. Failure to observe and comply with this will be met with harsh prosecution. -If you note anyone/anything who does not obey the above, please notify the author as soon as you can. Your help is appreciated. As for co-authoring/translating/whatever, I'd need to get some offers first before I write a section on that. :6 And a final note.....don't ask permission to put it on your site, unless your site is....well.....super. Way above average. Mondo spectacular, even. That means: no dead links, no webrings, no crappy web providers (Xoom, Angelfire, Geocities, etc), no hate shrines, no pornography or illegal content (except for _very_ rare ROMs and gaming mp3s :6), or such and such and such. Nyah. IMPORTANT NOTE: In the case of "Shining Soul" specific sites that I allow this FAQ to be used with, disregard anything about editing - as long as the whole FAQ is in some form on the site, parts of it may be used on the site, although they need to be credited, especially if it was not I who contributed the information. This work is copyrighted- April 2002, Dais (shinysoul@superdeformed.com) VERSION HISTORY (and whatnot) Version .03- More...stuff. A -lot- more, thanks to the generous people who have offered translation help ^_^ Version .02- Figured out some of the skill stuff. Did the first dungeon walkthrough. Still haven't unlocked the Ninja Class. Version .01- This is just an early release. Format was ripped off of my unreleased Seiken Densetsu 3 guide. Ironic.. ________ / | TABLE OF CONTENTS \________ I. Introduction -What is Shining Soul? -Controls -FAQ II. Gameplay Mechanics -Menus -The Four Character Types -Skills -In The Dungeon *COMING SOON* -Soul Max *COMING SOON* III. Town IV. Dungeons 1: Beast Mountain 2: Death-Shadow Dungeon 3: Cave of Igoll 4: Dimensional Forest 5: Grabull Temple 6: Doull Waterway 7: Dark Tower 8: Dark Castle V. Weapons, Spells, Armor, Items -Usable Items -Unequippable Items -Soul Max equipment VI. Enemy Guide (sort of) VII. Credits/Contibuting FIRST OFF!!! I would like to give a big THANK YOU to Kevin Koh/Yamikarasu, Elemental Magician, and Critical Mass....these people helped A LOT! *************************************** * * * I. Intro * * * *************************************** WHAT IS SHINING SOUL? Simply put, Shining Soul is a dungeon-crawling action-RPG for the Gameboy Advance. As the name suggests, it does have a relation to the Shining Force series - it's basically a prologue, setting the place 1,000 years before the first game. (thanks, Yamikarasu) The game itself hasn't recieved a whole lot of attention, perhaps because it has been overshadowed by other announcements (Square joining up with Nintendo, etc), and possibly some early feeling of alienation by the Shining Force fanbase. :\ Whatever the case may be, the game itself is a damn fine release, even if it lacks a few things here and sticks a few strange things in here. And there's not a lot of information out about it, so...I try to fill the gap. I, and all the helpful people I meet, that is. ^_^ CONTROLS I'm not sure why I picked to put the controls here, but for some reason it makes a bit more sense. To me, at least. The directional pad does just what you would expect it to, unless you're expecting it to sing. Although that would be pretty cool. NOTE: "IN ACTION FIELD" refers [A] - Confirms choice in menus, selects an item IN TOWN: Initiates conversation/enter shop IN ACTION FIELD: Uses currently selected weapon/spell (ie, ATTACK!) Also picks up items/treasure chests/blessings [B] - Exit menus (or bring up the choice to exit a menu...) IN ACTION FIELD: Uses currently selected "quick" item [Start] - Opens basic four-way menu (anywhere) DOES NOT PAUSE GAME [Select] - Used to cycle through item description in inventory and shop menus IN ACTION FIELD: Uses summon when you have "Soul Max" status [L] - Used to scroll through menus IN INVENTORY/ACTION FIELD: Used to cycle through weapons/spells [R] - Used to scroll through menus IN INVENTORY/ACTION FIELD: Used to cycle through "quick" items F.A.Q. Or rather, Questions Nobody Asks But Are Answered Nonetheless (QNABAAN). They are to address any matters not yet raised in the main guide. Q. I'm gaining less EXP than before from this monster/why is the strong monster giving the same EXP as the weaks one did? A. The amount of EXP you recieve is determined by your level, apparently. Just gotta live with it.. Q. Why do you list the EXP given by bosses, if enemies give less EXP depending upon the character's level? A. Because they still give you the same amount of EXP no matter what level you are. I might be wrong about that, though.. Q. Every time I throw away something, I get a little green healing herb thing... A. If you do, please mail me and tell me whether you're playing an import or a ROM, as well as when you first began to notice this happening. Thanks! Q. How much of this stuff did you rip off Onikage's guide? A. None of it. It got posted about half-an-hour before my FAQ went up. So don't anyone bug me about it. Q. How do I save my game without quitting to the title screen? A. You can't. Q. What is 'ZAP'? A. It's Lightning in a compressed space. Q. This guide is a mess! A. Waaah! *************************************** * * * II. Gameplay * * * *************************************** M M M M M M ENUS M M M M M NOTE: MONSTERS DO NOT STOP MOVING TOWARDS YOU OR ATTACKING WHEN YOU ARE IN A MENU. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. 1. Two-choice menu at very start *Normal Game* *Network Game* 2. Normal game menu There's eight save slots (use the directional pad to scroll back and forth between the first four and last four). Select any one of them (with [A]) to either create a character (if it's blank) or load a character (if there's already one there). Character Creation: When you choose a blank slot, a 'Knight' type character will appear in it, with his default stats below. Press left to scroll through the four classes (Knight, Wizard, Archer, Dragon). And right to go back again. Duh. Press [A] to choose a class, and then you'll be presented with another four options to scroll through - this time, it's the color of the character you chose (the black Dragon looks like a wolf...). While that seems just like personal choice right now, it would be much more meaningful in network games, something I don't want to mention at all in this FAQ. When you select the color, a naming screen will come up, with lots of intimidating Japanese symbols. Use [Select] to scroll between Hiragana, Katakana, and good ol' English letters. Yes, you can do this with the cursor, but....eh. Naturally, press [A] to select a symbol, [B] to backspace, and use the shoulder pads to move the actual typing cursor around, if you're that damn lazy. As soon as you've entered a symbol, the little head in the lower-right will begin nodding, you can select it (or hit [Start]) to get the game to ask you if you want to finalize the name. This is important, because once you select 'Yes', you'll be put straight into the game. Sort of. Press 'B' at any time to cancel the last action you took, of course.. Oh, and when viewing a save game, the little number next to the Japanese word is the last dungeon you unlocked (for example, when you've been through two dungeons, the number is 3). Finally, you can delete a character by pressing [Select]+[A]. As far as I know, there is no way to copy a save slot, although I can't really see the point in doing so.. 3. Sub-menu that appears when you press [Start] *Inventory* *Status* *Options* *Save game* 4. Status menu It looks something like this: _______________________________________________________________________ / | HP Current/Maximum (controls in Japanese, which you don't know) | (stupid little bar) Current level ____ Current EXP ____________ | (stupid magic bar*) | SP Current/Maximum_____________________________ ____________________ | / Nodding face | Points to | / Same deal, except | Here is your | if you have -> | distribute | | with little :)'s | character |----------------'------------' |-------------------- | standing | STR(ENGTH) _____ | |Skill 1 (level) | around doing | | |Skill 2 (level) | nothing | VIT(ALITY) _____ | |Skill 3 (level) | except | | |Skill 4 (level) | sometimes | INT(ELLIGENCE) _____ | |Skill 5 (level) | being | | |Skill 6 (level) | attacked | DEX(TERITY) _____ | |Skill 7 (level) | | | |Skill 8 (level) | \_____________________________/ \____________________ | | Resistance to fire ____ Attack power _____ And your | Resistance to ice ____ beautiful | Resistance to ZAP ____ Defense value _____ call sign |________________________________________________________________________ | | Japanese explanation of the various stats and skills \________________________________________________________________________ *Only the Wizard class has a magic bar and SP Whew! Sorry about how ugly that looks, but I'm not an artist, and I had trouble fitting it into the 75 character per line rule. On this screen, the only things you can select are the two faces above the lists; when you select one, you can either read what each stat improves/ skill does, or you can increase them (if you just leveled up). I think the rest is pretty self-explanatory, except... That big box with all the things to the right of your four basic stats is your 'skills' box, and how much you've put into each skill. I'll go more into that in the 'skills' section of this part of the FAQ. 5. Inventory menu Okay, here we go.. _______________________________________________________________________ / | HP Current/Maximum (controls in Japanese, which you don't know) | (stupid little bar) ________ G (cash) | (stupid magic bar*) |--------------------. __________________________ | Left (Armed)|Equip | / \ Three more | _______| 1 | | This is the 5*5 square | squares for | |Equip |------' |--------------------------| some usable |------| 2 | | your items call home | items over |Equip |------' '-----' |--------------------------| here! | 3 | |Head | | when not equipped or | |------' '-----' |--------------------------| __________ | Character | stored in the bank | / \ | '-----' |--------------------------| | DROP? | | |Other| '-----' | | | Y/N | | '-----' |Armor| \__________________________/ \__________/ | '-----' | Fire resist. __ +/- __ Attack power __ +/- __ STR(ength) __ +/- __ | Ice resist. __ +/- __ Defense value __ +/- __ VIT(ality) __ +/- __ | ZAP resist. __ +/- __ DEX(terity) __ +/- __ INT(el) __ +/- __ |________________________________________________________________________ | | Japanese description and details about the items themselves \________________________________________________________________________ *Offer valid only with select retailers Yikes. That's pretty bad, especially with the lack of room on the right side. I wasn't able to show how there's another three 'equip' slots, but for healing/etc items only. And various other things are off... The two spaces beside each stat are what you currently are in that category, and hovering over equipment will show what stats it might increase or decrease, and by how much. Pressing [Select] will cycle the bottom 'display' through the name, specifics, and what I think is a description (like, "This is the fabled sword of Rat Death"). If an item is outlined in red, you cannot equip it. If it has a red question mark over it, it is unidentified, and you can't equip or use it. Bummer. When an item is selected, the cursor picks it up. You can now: *Put it over the character and hit [A] (for healing items) *Move it to the appropriate armor slot (for armor, duh) *Move it to one of the three slots on the left (for weapons and spells) *Move it to one of the three slots on the right (for usable items) *Move it into the drop box, causing it to drop to the dungeon floor 6. Weapon/Armor/Misc shop menus The easiest way to picture a shop menu is to look at an inventory menu. All the buttons do the same thing (mostly), but there's a few changes. *First off, the drop box and right-hand item slots are replaced by a "SELL" menu of the owner's inventory. *Your money in the bank appears above your own item box. *When the hand cursor is over an item, it will show how much that item will sell for (unless it's in the shop menu, which is how much you can buy it for). *Dragging an item over to the right will stick it in the 'SELL' box, and pressing [A] will sell the item, WHICH IS NOW GONE FOREVER. *Dragging an item from the store's inventory to yours will buy the item. You cannot select items you can't afford (the price will show in red) *Pressing the right shoulder pad button quickly puts your cursor in the shop owner's window, perhaps in case there's some secret that you get by only pressing so many buttons in the course of the game. (Hmmm...) *Pressing [B] when you have nothing selected will give you the choice of leaving the store. 7. Identification menu Basically the same as the shop menu, except instead of buying and selling, there's only your 5x5 inventory, and a cursor which shows how much identifying an item will cost. Basically, if you don't have any items with a big question mark on them, don't come here. 8. Storage menu Like a shop menu. Instead of selling items, you can store them in one of four 3*5 (15 square) boxes, for a total of 60 storage slots. Press the right shoulder pad button to cycle between boxes. Note that putting a bag of gold into the storage will put that much money into your 'bank', but the bag still takes up a slot in the storage. 9. Options *Turns the music on and off *Switch the functions of the [A] and [B] buttons *Change the window background color 10. Save Not really a menu, but when you get the Yes/No option, select Yes to save. The game then resets to the title screen. Hey, if you didn't want to stop playing, why are you saving? It's not like the game has much of a penalty for death...besides a sudden cash flow problem. That should be all the menus...whew! CCCCC C C HARACTER TYPES C CCCCC Thanks to several very generous people, who are a lot more literate than I, these skills and their uses have been translated almost completely.. Thanks, guys! TYPE ONE - KNIGHT (or Warrior) Starting stats: HP 32, STR 15, VIT 15, INT 0, DEX 15 Starting equipment: Sword (9 attack) Axe (15 attack) Spear (9 attack) 2 Herbs (heal 30 HP) Angel Wing (escapes dungeon) Skills: Soodo/Sword Up *Raises Attack with Swords, allows Sword Charge attack Atsukusu/Axe Up *Raises Attack with Axes, allows Axe Charge attack Subia/Spear Up *Raises Attack with Spears, allows Spear Charge attack DEF-kyouka/Raise Defense *Increases the character's basic defense rating Kusuri-kouka/Medicine Effectivity *Makes healing items heal more HP Seishin-Ryouka/Mental Concentration? *Effect unknown, as of yet Koori-Taisei/Ice Resistance *Increases the character's basic defense against Ice attacks Kaminari-Taisei/Lightning Resistance *Increases the character's basic defense against ZAP! attacks Strengths: Balanced character, easy to use Weaknesses: No ranged attacks, rather dull TYPE TWO - WIZARD (or Magician) Starting stats: HP 22, SP 40, STR 5, VIT 10, INT 20, DEX 10 Starting equipment: Fire Spell (14 'attack', 3 SP) Ice Spell (13 'attack', 4 SP) Basic Cloak (+3 DEF) Goddess' Teardrop (restores 30 SP) Herb (heal 30 HP) Angel Wing Skills: Bureizu/Blaze Furiizu/Freeze Subaaku/Spark Heruburasuto/Hell Blast* Infueruno/Inferno Reshisuto/Resist Hiiru/Heal Surou/Slow *As you might guess, these are all spell names. Each of these skills allows you to charge up each spell (*Or maybe just 'Tornado'... :P) Strengths: Can use magic! Very useful ability, that. :P Weaknesses: EXTREMELY weak at start of the game, and almost useless without SP TYPE THREE - ARCHER Starting stats: HP 26, STR 13, VIT 12, INT 0, DEX 20 Starting equipment: Bow (3 attack) Spear (9 attack) Basic Cloak (+3 DEF) 2 Herbs (heal 30 HP) Angel Wing Skills: Boe/Bow Up *Raises Attack with Bows, allows Bow Charge attack Subia/Spear Up *Raises Attack with Spears, allows Spear Charge attack Hikiyori/Inside-Out *Increases the range of your Bow and Spears Keriteikaru/Critical *Increases the chance of a Critical attack Hiiringu/Healing *Gradually recovers health over time Taiku/Anti-Air *Increases damage against flying (ie, winged) enemies Honoo-Taisei/Fire Resistance *Increases the character's basic defense against Fire attacks Koori-Taisei/Ice Resistance *Increases the character's basic defense against Ice attacks Strengths: All attacks are ranged, HP regeneration skill Weaknesses: Low HP, low damage compared to other classes TYPE FOUR - DRAGON (or DRAGOON KNIGHT, or DRAGNEWT, Beserker, etc) Starting stats: HP 36, STR 16, VIT 17, INT 0, DEX 12 Starting equipment: Axe (15 attack) Flail (20 attack) Basic Cloak (+3 DEF) 2 Herbs (heal 30 HP) Angel Wing Skills: Atsukusu/Axe Up *Raises Attack with Axes, allows Axe Charge attack Fureiru/Flail Up *Raises Attack with Flails, allows Flail Charge attack Yoroi-Hakai/Armor Break *Your attacks decrease enemy's DEF (maybe?) Buresu/Breath *Raises chance of flame counter-attack DEF-Kyouka/Raise Defense *Increases the character's basic defense rating Antetsudo/Undead *Increases damage against undead enemies (or possibly railroads) Honoo-Taisei/Fire Resistance *Increases the character's basic defense against Fire attacks Kaminari-Taisei/Lightning Resistance *Increases the character's basic defense against ZAP! attacks Strengths: Strong, high HP, 'Breath' counterattack Weaknesses: Slow movement and attacks SSSS S SSS KILLS S SSSS Okay... *cracks knuckles* ...where to begin.... See that list of things next to your stats on the inventory screen? Those are what I like to call Shining Soul's 'skills'. Essentially, those are the things you beef up to make your character sing and dance, tralala, etc. Thanks to the wonderful contributions of some...uh, contributors... I now know what almost all of them do! Whenever you gain a level, not only do you get four attribute points, but one 'skill level'. This can be plugged into one of those skills, which will raise that skill to level 1, and activate it. Note those little faces, though? They represent how many skill levels you need to get to the next level of that skill. Confusing, I know.. Think of them as tokens. When you use one up to boost a skill to level one, a second 'token required' face appears. Now you need TWO tokens to upgrade that skill, and you'll need three at the next level, four at the next, etc. Don't worry, the 'tokens' are cumulative. Each skill has a total of five levels, meaning you'd need... *thinks* 120 'tokens' to max out each skill. So I don't think you can max out all of them. Now, on to skill specifics CHARGING At leaast a few of the skills for each character fall under this class, which I dub 'Charging'. It's probably most akin to the weapon attack system of Final Fantasy Adventure and it's sequel, Secret of Mana. Each character class has their own unique set of equipment they can use (although in some cases it overlaps). And for each type of equipment, they have a skill which allows them to 'charge' up the weapon. What is Charge? Basically, when you have a weapon/spell equipped that you have some sort of Charge Skill with, holding down [A] will cause a little circle and number to appear above your characters head - and holding it down fills the circle up. The number next to it goes up every time the circle fills, but it only goes up to your current Charge Skill level. Once the circle is full at the level you want, letting go of [A] releases a devastating attack! Well, not always. Some of the Charge Skills, like the Knight's Axe Charge, really suck. Some are also kind of useful, like the Dragon's Axe Charge. Most are only so-so. Each charge goes up five levels in power, naturally. CHARGING AND MAGIC I thought it was odd that none of the Wizard's spells seemed to cost SP, even if they did suck tremendously. The case turns out to be this: To have a spell's regular power unlocked, you need to charge it up to level one. At that point, however, it begins to cost SP. However, it doesn't seem that the higher your charge, the more it costs.. All of the Wizard's spells have a corresponding Skill, as you can see in the character class entry. Likewise, all of the Wz OTHER SKILLS The rest of the skills fall under the following three categories: *Increase a character's natural defense (or elemental resistance) *Increase the damage a character does to certain enemies *Unique skills that are usually fairly useful. Or not. *************************************** * * * III. Town * * * *************************************** (actually, it's more like a camp) I have no idea how to properly show an isometric map, so... ________________________________ \xxxxxxxxx 1 2 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx\ \xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx\ \xxxxxxxxxx ? xxxxxx 3 xxxxx\ \xxxxxxxxx @ ?xxx\ \xxx 8 ~ xxxxxx 4x\ \xx 7 xxxxxx x\ \x ? ? Nx\ <--9 5 x\ \xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxx\ \xxxxxxxxxxxx 6 xxxxxxxxxxxx\ \xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx\ -------------------------------- Yes, I know, the map sucks. Sorry. 1. General Centuar guy. This is where you start, he apparently tells you what to do. He also heals you, and tells you how much EXP until your next level. 2. Decidely evil looking robed dude. 3. Identification 4. Weapon Shop 5. Armor Shop 6. A birdman just sitting around. He's actually a blacksmith if you have three of 'Mithril' items (stone worth 1250 GP), or one 'Orihalacon' (which I've not yet gotten :P) 7. Item Shop. And that's a bell, not a beard. 8. Bank/Storage 9. Exit to 'world' map ?. Apparently random person @. Warp back to boss battle (if you were beaten by a boss) ~. This is where the 'angels' appear if you use an Angel Wing or are beaten in a dungeon (they take you back to the level you left from) N. Ninja. Appears after first dungeon, talk to him and he leaves. Changes posistion after each dungeon you beat. Ninjas rock. Critical Mass sez: "Ninja: This guy appears every time you go back to town right after beating a boss. He's in a different, preset place each time. You talk to him, a chime sounds, you get an item, and he disappears. Positions: 1 - Between the weapon and armor tents 2 - Running around the town; just run into him 3 - He's invisible; it's near the south end of the town, around all the brown disks on the floor that I'm assuming are really badly drawn tables and chairs. Just run around pressing A. I'm too lazy to go out and find the other places he's in, but you should be able to find him by just running around pressing A. After each boss it gets harder to find him." I'll finish up this list when I can...thanks, CM! *************************************** * * * IV. Dungeons * * * *************************************** Not a walkthrough, really. Information on the dungeons and their bosses. The numbers beside each enemy are how many you will fight on that level. My count may be off, of course. You can thank Yamikarasu for the dungeon and boss names! ~~DUNGEON 1 - BEAST MOUNTAIN~~ Three levels Minimum challenge LEVEL ONE ENEMIES: Blue Slime (18), Red Goblin (8) UNIQUE ENEMY: Green Slime You get a little space to move without being attacked, so use it to make sure you're familiar with the controls. This is a very easy area, and there's just enough enemies to give you one level. I suggest spending the points on VIT to get yourself an extra 10 HP for this level-up. The green slime and the level exit are both in the NE corner of the map. LEVEL TWO ENEMIES: Blue Slime (10), Green Slime (3), Red Goblin (20), Spirit (2) UNIQUE ENEMY: Purple Goblin This level starts out with two blue slimes coming at you, so be ready to fend them off. Note that this will happen in pretty much every level from now on - at least two enemies attack you as soon as you enter. This area is also very straightforward - even more so than the last one! The spirits have a slightly larger attack range than the other enemies so far, but that's nothing to worry about. The Purple Goblin is in the SE corner, along with the exit. LEVEL THREE ENEMIES: Green Slime (7), Red Goblin (29), Purple Goblin (4), Spirit (22) UNIQUE ENEMY: Green Troll Last level already! Well, this one is a great deal more complicated than the previous two, and the navigation is made harder by the fact that the enemies really start to gang up on you (although nowhere near as bad as later dungeons). The open section to the right of where you start is the biggest trouble spot. If you've been destroying everything you can find so far, you should get another level soon, which I now suggest goes into your STR (unless you're a Wizard, where you need all the HP you can get). Make sure to fully explore this level, because if you're going for one full run (ie, without using an Escape Wing or dying), you'll need all the stuff you can find for the boss up ahead. The troll is at the far East side of the map, and the exit is just past him - there's only one way to it. He has a lot of HP, and a powerful attack, so make sure to use a hit-and-run fighting strategy. / BOSS 1 / BEAST KING (JYU-JIN OH) ---------' HP: ~650 (changes attack mode at 350) Not a fuzzy and lovable Beast King like Seiken Densetsu 3, but an EVIL one! Anyways, after the basic boss spiel (every boss has a little introduction, so get used to it), he'll.......ATTACK! (Note the water, which you can't move over, but he apparently can..) During the first phase of this battle, he'll walk into the middle of the 'arena' and shoot out four 'energy waves' which hit mainly to the side, but can also hurt you if you get too close. When he does this, just stay out of his way (unless you have a ranged attack to hit him). By the fourth 'wave', make SURE you're as near the bottom of the screen as you can get. You should be only able to see the top of your character's head, preferably because you're under the tree there. He'll roll into a ball and move in a pattern around the 'room', DON'T try to attack him while he does this. Too dangerous. His pattern of movement is as such: South, NE, West, NW, SE, Center, N....or to put it another way: Bottom, Upper-Right, Center Left, Upper-Left, Lower Right, Center, Upper Center (I hope at least one of those makes sense....) Once he's done rolling, he'll pause a moment, then slowly lumber back to the center to start over again. Now is the time to attack! You shouldn't have any trouble getting in several attacks without him ever touching you. Then run back to your safe spot (unless you have a range attack, in which case you can continue to pepper him until he begins rolling). When you've taken off a bit over half his health, he'll enter the second, more frighteningly deadly phase of the fight. Now, whenever he stops rolling, he'll lift his arms up and shoot four homing shots at you, five times for each stop. These are actually quite easy to avoid, as long as you're not trying to start Charging a weapon/spell or something. It also gives you a better chance to deal damage to him, since he stands in one place. So once you get him firing these, you've gained the advantage (well, another one). Once you've beaten him, he'll lament his foolish ways or something, and give you 120 EXP and a treasure chest. Step into the blue glowy thingy to warp back to town. Congratulations! You've beaten your very first Shining Soul dungeon! But are you a bad enough dude to go to the next one? ----------------------------------------------------- ~~DUNGEON 2 - DEATH-SHADOW DUNGEON~~ Eight levels Now it's beginning to get a bit challeging Guide coming next release, I so SO promise that! / BOSS 2 / GIANT WARRIOR GOD (KYOSHIN-SENSHI) (aka Colossus?) ---------' HP: ~950 (and 200 HP for it's 'second form') This guy looks a LOT more impressive than the first boss....strangely, though, he's also a LOT easier...at least, at first. First off, when I refer to this guy's eyes, I'm referring to his "right eye" or "left eye" based on YOUR right and left, ie, what you see as right and left on the screen. Essentially, the boss has two attacks, both of which he can do on the right or left side of the screen. His primary attack is to fire a laser beam from one eye, which will go as close as it can to you, and leave a short trail of fire behind (which can also hurt you). He also occasionally sticks an arm in each side and waves it around, you don't have to worry as much about this. His 'weak point' is the little point between his two eyes. Since it nevers moves, you should use any attacks that hit more than once (Knight's Spear charge, Archer's Bow charge) to really damage it. The trick is this: If you're standing right in front of the eye on the OTHER side, his other eye can't hit you (although you have to go a bit further to the right then you have to go to the left). Then you can just move to the other side. As for the arms: If you stick close enough to the boss, they shouldn't be able to harm you at all. Also keep in mind that an arm always attacks before an eye does.. ..that may help you a little bit. HEAL WHENEVER YOU ARE HIT AND CAN AFFORD TO USE A HEAL ITEM. Once you've damaged the boss enough, he'll start to explode! Good jo- ...whooops. Seems the core or something popped free, and now it's rolling around and lookin' to kill! THIS is the difficult part of the battle, and why you needed to heal. The core's movement is so erratic, and you're moving in such a small space, that it's pretty much inevitable that you'll be hit at least once. You don't have any time to take a break during this battle. Just keep trying to hit the core. It will occasionally stop and launch itself at you, so watch out! Once you've beaten it, the core will also blow up, and you'll earn a good, healthy 240 EXP and a treasure chest. Step into the blue glowy thingy to warp back to town! *************************************** * * * V. Items, Weapons, Armor, oh my! * * * *************************************** Not sure how I'll format this part, but here goes.. / |ONE USE ITEMS \ Cake (?) LOOKS LIKE: A cake. Hot damn! USE: Heals 10 HP. Rare, I think. Herb (or Medical Herb) LOOKS LIKE: A green flame-like plant USE: Heals 30 HP Healing Raindrop (Cloud of Heal?) LOOKS LIKE: A blue drop of water USE: Heals 100 HP Healing Water LOOKS LIKE: A jar full of blue water USE: Heals 300 HP -- Goddess' Tear Drop LOOKS LIKE: Small green ball USE: Restores 100 SP Light of Hope LOOKS LIKE: Big green ball :P USE: Restores 300 SP -- Angel Wing (or Angel Feather) LOOKS LIKE: A minature white wing USE: Returns you to town (it's a round trip ticket, too) Antidote LOOKS LIKE: A jar of orange liquid USE: Cures poison Scroll of Identify LOOKS LIKE: A little bitty scroll USE: Use on an item with a question mark to identify that item Soul Return LOOKS LIKE: A brown bag with a little flame on it USE: Apparently ressurects dead allies in multiplayer..thanks, jonnyram! Bread of Life LOOKS LIKE: A loaf of bread USE: Raises VIT by 1 point permanently Fairy Dust LOOKS LIKE: A drop of honey. Or an onion, in my opinion. USE: Raises INT by 1 point permanently Power Potion LOOKS LIKE: Potion, color unknown :P USE: Raises STR by 1 point permanently Wine of X (with X as a stat) LOOKS LIKE: ....? USE: Raises stat by 1 permanently...more info when I find one myself. / |UNEQUIPPABLE ITEMS \ Jogurt Doll LOOKS LIKE: Jogurt. A hamster with a helmet. God. USE: Revives you when you die? Or just looks cool...? Mythril LOOKS LIKE: A grey rock that sells for 1250 GP USE: Give three of them to the birdman to have him forge something for you Orihalacon LOOKS LIKE: Green crystal? USE: Equals 3 Mythril, so you only need one to forge with Dark Matter LOOKS LIKE: Black-ish Mythril..? USE: Uh, makes cursed items? Maybe? Rose LOOKS LIKE: ...... USE: Look pretty, Mommy! (ie, none) Umbrella LOOKS LIKE: Weather obstruction device USE: Uh, none? / |SOUL MAX EQUIPMENT \ I'll do this next time, I think... -_-; *************************************** * * * VI. Enemies, Nasties, and Baddies * * * *************************************** I'm questiong whether I should even have a section like this, since the enemies aren't all that elaborate. I might use it just as a random section to list their HP, but not until I have more time to spend on less important parts of the guide. *************************************** * * * VII. Credits/Contributing * * * *************************************** The three people who made this FAQ useful! These people rock! *Kelvin Koh (yamikarasu31@hotmail.com) His translations and information helped make a lot of this FAQ worthwhile and helpful. Very generous. *Elemental Magician Also gave time to translate and add to my meager information. So awesome. ^^ *Critical Mass (Critical_Mass@battle.zzn.com, ICQ: 49024465, AIM: Lord Bagu) Gave me a huge load of gameplay info I did not know...thank you. Contributed a lot of item information. Specific thankupos: *jonnyram, for the info on the Soul Return. *Rally Vincent, who explained Hiragana and Katakana to me. I keep forgetting.. *takusama, for incidentally telling people useful things, and for finding a Jogurt Doll. Hero! Prophet! *Vypr, for muddling through this and that and finding some new things in the process. *Sega. Now make another Panzer Dragoon shooter, damn you *CJayC, just because Contributing: Found something not listed in this FAQ? Send it on in to the email address listed at the top of this FAQ, please! END OF FAQ....FOR NOW.