Shining Soul 2: Character Guide 1. Intro 2. The Characters a. Warrior b. Archer c. Sorceress d. Dragonute e. Priestess f. Dark Wizard g. Brawler h. Ninja 3. Hints 4. Outro -------- 1. Intro -------- This guide is pretty simple: characters in SS2. While it's not exactly a hugely in-depth subject, knowing what each class is like before picking one means that you won't have to sit through the overly-long intro and play for a while before realising that class wasn't for you. Every class plays slightly differrently, in the tactics that are required and the level-ups that you'll be using. May as well pick one that you think you'll like. Plus, it's kinda interesting in it's own right to people thinking about buying the game. Well, I wanted to know, anyway. So, what's this all going to look like? ****** Class: *The name of the particular class* Stats: STR *Strength. Used for equipping items and dealing damage using weapons* DEX *Dexterity. Affects how well you hit enemies and dodge their attacks back* INT *Intelligence. Affects how much damage you do with spells and how often you can perform Charge attacks, which use SP. Your max SP is double your INT* VIT *Vitality. Your max HP is triple your VIT* *Note: Each class starts with a total of 50 points spread between their stats. HP *Hit Points. These are equal to (3xVIT)* SP *SP. These are equal to (2xINT)* Equipment: *Starting weapons. Every character also starts with a Robe (Defense 3), three Herbs, an Angel Wing and the Force Ring* Skills: *Each class has eight skills. This is their names and the game's description of them all* Name: *The class's default name* Description: *The two descriptions of the character. The first is from the manual, the second from the game's character select screen.* Gameplay: *A rough guide to what playing with that class is going to be like. This ISN'T a full-on class guide, so I'm not going to go into that kind of detail on what every skill does. Just a quick description of roughly how you'll be fighting through the game* ****** Simple enough? Legalese time. This document is FREEWARE. Copy it and spread it as you like, but don't change anything or charge for it. It took me a few hours to write this all up, so I'd like the credit for it :) This guide is copyright CyberElfSlut, 2004. If you need to contact me about the game, my email address is itra_darkblade at hotmail dot com. Don't ask me for help on playing the game though- that's better taken to the message boards, where there's people more knowledgable than me. Version history Version 0.50, 22.03.04: First release. Doesn't feature any info on the secret character, but otherwise I've done them all. Version 0.6a, 23.03.04: Added the "Gameplay" sections. Thus far I've done Archer and Dragonute. The rest are on their way. Version 0.6b, 24.03.04: Not as productive today, only got the Sorceress done. Played up to fourth boss, though. Version 0.6c, 26.03.04: Played Shock2 yesterday, so no work done. Have done the Warrior, Brawler, and Priestess. Version 0.6d, 28.03.04: Almost done with this accursed guide. Someone remind me to NEVER consider doing something like this again. Got the Dark Wizard and Ninja done. All that remains is to unlock the secret character. This may take a while, as the R button of my GBA has just (ie, like five minutes ago) died. Replacement GBA time. Version 0.70, 28.03.04: Posted this version. May as well give it it's own version number. 1.00 will be when I unlock the secret character. Now, the data. ----------------- 2. The Characters ----------------- ********** Class: WARRIOR Stats: STR 15 DEX 15 INT 5 VIT 15 HP 45 SP 10 Equipment: Short sword (8), Short Spear (12), Tomahawk (15) Skills: Sword- Sword power up & charge ATK Axe- Axe power up & charge ATK Spear- Spear power up & charge ATK Shield- Shield power up & parry Armor up- Equipment defense up Efficacy- Increases item effectiveness Counter- Powerful counterattack Tactics- ATK up Name: Eric Description: Well balanced expert at close-range fighting. A warrior can use powerful close-range weapons. This character is well balanced with a strong defense. Expert at close-range combat. Well balanced. Gameplay: The Warrior is your standard fighter-type character. Sword attacks in a slashing motion straight in front of you: it's charge ATK is a wide charging slash that will knock enemies out of your way: useful in corridors or against groups rushing you, although you'll have to make sure it doesn't run you into more trouble. Spear is a simple jabbing weapon: very useful in confined spaces. It's charge ATK is a multiple jab, which is very effective against single monsters. The Axe attacks in a forwards chop, but it's charge ATK is your best anti-swarm weapon: it hits all enemies around you and knocks them back, allowing you to make your escape. Armor Up enhances the DEF value of your armor, raising your already high DEF still further. Shields are only affected by the Shield skill, but they also provide a parry, that will occasionally prevent ALL damage from an enemy attack (You'll see a little shield symbol over your head to signify that). For hits that do connect, Counter will provide an appropriate punishment. Efficacy will drastically increase the efficiency of your healing items. Tactics provides a small boost to your ATK value, regardless of weapon equipped. The main stats for you to boost are going to be STR, to equip heavy items and to boost your ATK, and DEX when you start to miss too much with your normal swings. Remember that charge ATK's hit a lot more frequently than normal attacks, so a few points in INT (Not a huge amount) can help avoid embarassing whiffing situations and running out of SP's during combat. You're going to take damage, even through your high DEF, so VIT is a good category to put points in. ********** Class: ARCHER Stats: STR 12 DEX 18 INT 8 VIT 12 HP 36 SP 16 Equipment: Wooden Bow (6), Short Spear (12) Skills: Bow- Bow power up & charge ATK Spear- Spear power up & charge ATK Range- Increases throwing range Enchant- Makes an enemy an ally Anti-Flying- Damage to flying enemies up Summon- Summons a forest creature Critical- Increases critical hit rate Healing- HP recovers over time Name: Rwinn Description: Skilled at long-range attacks with bows and spears. Although this character can attack effectively from afar, he is not good at close-range fighting. Also, he can borrow the power of forest animals in times of urgency. Long-range attack expert. Moves swiftly. Gameplay: Your skills lie in keeping the enemy away from you, and putting enough pointy sticks of varying kinds in them to kill them. Pretty simple, really. Range and Critical are your friends, for keeping the enemy away from you and inflicting larger amounts of damage on them. Enchant is useful against swarms, when it works, and Anti-Flying is handy against bats and things. Your most useful skill, however, is Healing. This WILL save your life on countless occasions, the extra few HP coming in *useful* in the middle of battles, but possibly it's best use is that you never need to start a new battle at less than full HP/SP- just wait a few seconds to rest up, and you're away. You'll still need to buy a few healing items, but much less than other classes- you'll only really need them when you're swarmed and can't get to a convenient point to rest, and they're useful during boss battles as well. You'll obviously be advancing Bow and Spear- both autotarget the closest enemies, so you don't need to line up precisely. Also, most enemies can only attack straight ahead, so you'll have an advantage in avoiding them. Bow fires multiple times when charged, while Spear fires a stronger single shot that pierces through multiple enemies. For your stats, they're all going to be useful. DEX is your main concern of course, for your accuracy. VIT isn't too important, as you can run from battles to heal (And your high DEX will help you avoid attacks, too). You'll want points in STR though, for the ATK bonus and to use better weapons. The odd point in INT will help, obviously, but don't go overboard- you won't be charging into battles anyway, if you're using Healing to rest, so a huge INT isn't absolutly required as you'll be starting most with a full guage. ********** Class: SORCERESS Stats: STR 9 DEX 9 INT 23 VIT 9 HP 27 SP 46 Equipment: Wooden Staff (10), Blaze L1 (3), Freeze L1 (3) Skills: Rod- Rod power up & charge ATK Blaze- Spell: Fire attack Freeze- Spell: Ice attack Spark- Spell: Lightning attack Blast- Spell: Cyclone attack Inferno- Spell: Scorching attack Mgc Shield- Spell: Defense up Meditate- Speeds up SP recovery Name: Raine Description: Uses a variety of spells, but specialises in attack spells. She can attack with magic from a distance, but her physical strength is low, so she is not good at hand to hand combat. Her defense is low, too. Expert at spell attacks. Uses a variety of spells. Note: The game refers to her as "Wizard" on the character select screen, and Sorceress in the manual. Gameplay: You don't have the HP or armor to take lots of damage, so you're going to be playing a movement game, doing your best to stay away from monsters and avoid getting swarmed. Rather obviously, your main weapon in the game is going to be your magic spells. Blaze is a simple Fire spell that pierces through a number of enemies, and occasionally sets them on fire. Freeze isn't quite as powerful, but does sometimes freeze enemies in a block of ice, preventing them from fighting or chasing you. Spark calls down lighting, which has a very short range in front of you but, if there are multiple enemies nearby, will strike multiple enemies. Blast summons a tornado that tracks enemies and will hit multiple times. Inferno summons pillars of fire that attack nearby enemies and inflict heavy damage- very useful against swarms, but the pillars take a second to damage their target, and it has a large SP cost. Mgc Shield is useful if you know you're about to get swarmed and can't get away, or against single, very powerful monsters (eg, bosses!). Meditate is an essential, because you need all the SP's you can get. Rod isn't an essential, but it does help to have a fall-back weapon in case you somehow manage to run out of SP. For your stats, most of your points will be going into INT, to power up spells and for the SP's you'll get. Drop the odd point into VIT for if you get hit (And you will). Only put points in STR if there's a specific piece of armor you want to equip. DEX isn't required- you can't afford enough points to get a good evasion rate, and your spells hit automatically, so don't bother with it. It's better for you to avoid being hit entirely my moving out of the way than to have to rely on your DEF or DEX to soak the blow. Keep on the move, and stay away from monsters. All of the attack spells have their uses, but it's easier on your Skill Points to concentrate on a couple of spells- a main offensive one, and a backup for monsters that are strong against your main spell. ********** Class: DRAGONUTE Stats: STR 16 DEX 13 INT 5 VIT 16 HP 48 SP 10 Equipment: Tomahawk (15), Short Flail (20) Skills: Axe- Axe power up & charge ATK Flail- Flail power up & charge ATK Shield- Shield power up & parry Armor Up- Equipment defense up Break Armor- Lowers enemy's defense Breath- Counters with breath attack Weaken- Weakens nearby enemies Magic Res- Increases resistance Name: Tyroth Description: His attack power is unmatched, but his heavy blows can leave him off guard. He uses heavy weapons such as axes and flails to deal great damage to foes. But, he's vulnerable after attacking, and his movement is rather slow. Crushes enemies with powerful blows. Gameplay: You are a tank. No, seriously. Your purpose in life is stand right in front of enemies, and inflict huge amounts of damage on them. You've got a huge amount of HP, you'll have enough STR to equip the strongest armors (Plus you can use the Shields category, which provide better armor than most gloves), and you've got the Armor Up and Magic Res skills to boost that even further, plus Breath for counterattacking when you're hit. Break Armor and Weaken soften up your enemies, and your high ATK and powerful weapons (Your STR allowing you to equip the heaviest weapons, and providing a big ATK bonus) easily finish the job. Put most of your stat points into STR, a few in VIT and INT (You'll have devastating Charge ATK's). DEX isn't so much of a concern, as you almost want to be hit (For Breath), but if you find yourself missing too much it might be handy. Use Axe charge ATK against swarms, and Flail against individuals. ********** Class: PRIESTESS Stats: STR 12 DEX 10 INT 15 VIT 13 HP 39 SP 30 Equipment: Wooden Staff (10), Short Flail (20), Heal (3) Skills: Rod- Rod power up & charge ATK Flail- Flail power up & charge ATK Heal- Spell: Healing Protect- Spell: Defense up Resist- Spell: Resistance up Bless- Spell: Stats up Shining- Spell: Shield of light Meditate- Speeds up SP recovery Name: Paige Description: Helps the party out with healing and support spells. Although she can equip a flail, hand to hand combat is not her greatest asset. Her ability to cast healing and support spells is her true strength. Helpful and brave. Uses healing and support magic. Note: The game refers to her as "Priest" on the character select screen, and Priestess in the manual. Gameplay: The Priestess is more of a support character than the rest of the characters, not being particularly effective in combat. Neither of her physical attacks are particularly useful against swarms: Rod inflicts a single heavy blow, and Flail inflicts two rushing hits. The Priestess really does excel at magic. Her spells are quite self-explanatory: Healing heals a good amount of damage, Defense increases your low DEF rating (The magic characters all sharing quite weak armor), and Resist is useful against elemental-attack monsters. Bless provides a good stats boost, even if it doesn't last forever: your increased VIT and INT also provide extra HP and SP. Shining produces a powerful magical shield around you, which damages enemies nearby and knocks them away. This is your anti-swarm attack, and it does the job well, but the shield doesn't last very long. As a mage-type, Meditate is important obviously, but not so essential, as you have a better physical attack to fall back on. All of your stats have important uses: STR and DEX are necessary for your melee attacks, as you lack powerful ofensive magic, but you still need INT for your buffs, and you're going to need to be in combat in so you'll need some VIT too. An alternative is to ignore STR and DEX, and focus on Shining, Meditate and INT: while this will (just about) work, it'll be a long game. I'm sorry to have to bring my personal opinion in so bluntly, but of all the characters, the Priestess is the only one that I did not enjoy playing with. Her skills lie in the multiplayer mode: she is something that every party will find useful, but few will want to play as. ********** Class: DARK WIZARD Stats: STR 10 DEX 9 INT 21 VIT 10 HP 30 SP 42 Equipment: Wooden Staff (10), Demon Breath (3), Dagger Dance (3) Skills: Rod- Rod power up & charge ATK Demon Breath- Spell: Darkness attack Venom- Spell: Poison explosion Darkness- Spell: Ring of darkness Morph- Spell: Change into monster Dagger Dance- Spell: Summon sword Drain- Spell: Absorb HP Meditate- Speeds up SP recovery Name: Armand Description: Half vampire and half human whose speciality is spellcasting. He can change shapes, create Poison clouds, and use other Dark spells. He can also summon a special sword to fight as he commands. Half vampire, half human. Uses Dark spells. Gameplay: Like the Sorceress, the Dark Wizard is fragile physically, but makes up for it with powerful spells. It goes without saying that Meditate is going to be an essential skill. Rod, again, is a neat fall-back weapon: it strikes in front of you, does low damage but knocks opponents a good distance away. Demon Breath fires a blob of darkness that does nice damage and affects multiple enemies. Venom inflicts low initial damage, but poisons most enemies so they'll take more later. Darkness hits all enemies nearby, and is pretty similar to the Sorceress's Inferno- same heavy damage, slow charge and SP cost. Morph is interesting: it transforms you into a monster, gradually getting more powerful as you level up the spell. monsters ignore you while morphed, and you can attack with their physical strike. Dagger Dance summons a sword that floats around you, and will strikes multiple times: good range, although each hit doesn't do a huge aount of damage. Drain does damage and heals you: while it's not particularly much, and there's a short wait between the damage and the healing, it's still better than nothing. Stats are the same as the Sorceress: pump INT sky high, put points into VIT for the HP, and increase strength when there's something neat you want to equip. ********** Class: BRAWLER Stats: STR 16 DEX 17 INT 5 VIT 12 HP 36 SP 10 Equipment: Claw (7), Knife (5) Skills: Claws- Claws power up & charge ATK Knife- Knife power up & charge ATK Evade- Increases evasion rate Critical- Increases critical hit chance Counter- Counter with a kick Guts- Stronger with lower HP Stun- Stun enemies Healing- HP recovers over time Name: Zachs Description: His defense is low, but his speed and attack power make up for it. Quick and strong, this character uses limited equipment so he is not weighed down. However, for that reason, his defense is low. Strong and dextrous, but has somewhat low defense. Gameplay: The Brawler is a close-range finesse fighter. Claws are your single-character attack, their charge being a rushing multi-hit combo. Knife is weaker and even more short-ranged, and is your swarm defence: it's charge ATK is a spinning slash that hits anybody standing next to you. Both of your attacks are quite quick. Critical lets you score more critical hits, helping rack up the damage still further. Healing, like the Archer, is again an essential, and allows you to rest between battles so you're always at full strength. Guts kicks in after you've taken enough damage, and boosts your attack power for a short period of time: you can tell when it's active by the flaming halo over your character. Stun occasionally, well, stuns, your enemies, preventing them from moving or attacking for a short period of time. Evade will help you dodge enemy attacks, useful as you'll have quite low defense compared to the other fighter-type characters. When you do get hit, counter will again prove useful, but it's really a situation that you want to avoid having happen to you. Most of your stat points will be going into STR and DEX: you'll need the ATK and evasion bonuses that these attributes give. VIT isn't too useful, as you have Healing, but it's still a good idea to bump it up, as you'll be in the thick of combat and will definitly take damage. INT isn't a big concern if you're going to be resting between fights, but you may as well drop the odd point in there for the SP bonus. Keep on the move, and make hit-and-run attacks against the enemies using your superior speed and good offensive power. If you're running low on resources, rest and heal before running back into the fray. ********** Class: NINJA Stats: STR 13 DEX 18 INT 7 VIT 12 HP 36 SP 14 Equipment: Short Sword (8), Knife (5) Skills: Sword- Sword power up & charge ATK Knife- Knife power &charge ATK Critical- Increases critical hit rate Debris- Spell: falling object Shadow- Spell: paralyze monster Speed- Spell: Increases speed Replace- Block attack with wood Ansatsu- Increases damage from behind Name: Raizen Description: Quickly finishes off enemies using swift attacks and spells. Monsters are easily confused by his ninja tactics. The fastest of all the characters. Tricks monsters with quick movements. Very fast. Gameplay: The Ninja is, like the Brawler, a finesse fighter, but is better at coping with multiple attackers. Sword twirls your sword around in front of you: it knocks enemies away, but the twirl lasts a few seconds and you can move while doing it, to inflict multiple hits. Knife fires a shotgun-esque volley of knives in front of you: while individually not as strong as your normal knife attack, if you're right next to your target they'll take some serious damage, and it's useful against swarms. Critical again just enhances your critical hit rate, and is still a great skill. Debris has a large SP cost, but summons a number of objects that fall on anything nearby, and inflict good damage. Shadow stops monsters from moving: you'll see little spikes around their feet when you cast the spell, but it only lasts for a certain period of time. Speed increases your already good movement rate. Replace sometimes lessens the damage you take from attacks. Ansatsu increases the damage you do, if you strike an enemy from behind. You'll want to put points into your STR and DEX, as your primary focus is melee combat. VIT also: you have low defense and, while you should be dodging instead of evading, you will definitly get hit sometimes. The odd point in INT won't hurt, either. -------- 3. Hints -------- * While you don't start off with any Resistances, you can build up Fire resistance easily at the start of the game. Just outside the castle is a woman standing by a fire. You can walk into the fire and, while your character will appear to take damage, no HP are lost. You can build your resistance up to 20 in this way. * Effectively, you start the game at Level 2, giving you four extra stat points and one skill point to spend. * You can't use magic spells until you've put at least one skill point into them. Otherwise, you simply hit monsters with the spellbook for a tiny amount of damage. * The first level of a skill costs 1 point. The second costs 2, third 3, etc. To fully master a skill takes 28 points in total. The level cap (200) gives you a maximum of 199 skill points you can spend, so you cannot fully master every skill for your character. You can advance four skills to 7 and four to 6, or seven skills to 7 and the remaining one to 2, or other combinations thereof. -------- 4. Outro -------- Kudos to Sega for producing the game, and CJayC for running GameFAQ's and posting this. Also kudos to the SS2 team, for producing a game that's much more fun to play than it's predecessor. A list of random other credits too, without whom none of this would have been possible- Rachel, Finance Dawn, Matthew, Shane. And Rachel again, for she is lovely (l) That's it. We're done here now.