History VideoGame / ShiningTheHolyArk

* DualBoss: The two Evil Spirits you fight near the climax of the game; it quickly gets [[DifficultySpike a lot tougher]] when Rilix joins in (who was observing the fight in the background).

* DualBoss: The two Evil Spirits you fight near the climax of the game; it quickly gets [[DifficultySpike a lot tougher.]]

* {{Mithril}}

* PaletteSwap

In game three mercenaries Arthur, Melody, and Forte are tasked with hunting down a ninja called Rodi who has holed up in an abandoned mine. When the group finally catch up to the ninja, a space-ship smashes through the roof mortally wounding everybody involved. In order to save their lives the Spirits inside the ship possess Arthur, Melody, and Rodi. While still retaining their free will they gain additional skills. During this however Forte gets possessed by an evil spirit and goes missing.

Arthur, Melody, and Rodi decide to temporally combine forces in order to escape the deadly mine, find Forte and find out just what is going on with these mysterious Spirits. Along the way they uncover an evil plot to revive a powerful Vandal that would doom the world to an age of darkness.

In game three mercenaries Arthur, Melody and Forte are tasked with hunting down a ninja called Rodi who has holed up in an abandoned mine. When the group finally catch up to the ninja, a space-ship smashes through the roof mortally wounding everybody involved. In order to save their lives the Spirits inside the ship possess Arthur, Melody and Rodi. While still retaining their free will they gain additional skills. During this however Forte gets possessed by an evil spirit and goes missing.

Arthur, Melody and Rodi decide to temporally combine forces in order to escape the deadly mine, find Forte and find out just what is going on with these mysterious Spirits. Along the way they uncover an evil plot to revive a powerful Vandal that would doom the world to an age of darkness.

To help them out they meet up with female paladin Lisa, dragonman Basso, female ninja Akane and the half-wolf ninja Doyle.

!!''Shining of the Holy Ark'' Contains the following tropes:

* DualBoss: The two Evil Spirits you fight near the climax of the game; it quickly gets [[DifficultySpike a lot tougher]].

* GlassCannon: Forte, playing the classic SquishyWizard. He has the most powerful area-attack spells in the game (bar Inferno), but has pitiful HP and melee defense.

* HalfHumanHybrid: Basso and [[spoiler: Panzer]].

* HeroicHost: Arthur, Melody and Rodi with the three spirits.

* InfantImmortality: Julian. But averted with stories of Elise eating children [[spoiler:and one scene where she actually does it in front of you]].

* KickTheDog: The first time you meet Elise, you witness her knock a dog unconscious after [[EvilDetectingDog it barks at her]].

* NeverSayDie: The party members and the monsters you fight never die, they are just 'exhausted'. [[spoiler:Averted at the very end, as Rilix does explicitly die, confirmed by Elise in the dialogue, while it's pretty obvious that Panzer dies too, although the only implication of this is him collapsing to the floor at the conclusion of the final boss, and then Akane kneeling in front of his grave during the credits]].
* NominalImportance: A big clue as to the importance of characters early in the plot is if they have [[CharacterPortrait portraits]] or not. For example, in Desire Village, the only three with portraits are Basso, Lisa and the Halfling (later revealed to be Doyle) [[spoiler:who all join your party later on at different times]].

* SealedEvilInACan: the Vandal that the bad guys are trying to release. In fact Vandals in general, only the weakest ones weren't sealed away with Galm being the exception.
* ShiftingSandLand: The South Shrine [[spoiler:and Mirage Village outside the Tower of Illusion]].

* TempleOfDoom: The three Shrines [[spoiler:and the Tower of Illusion]].

* {{Wutai}}: Far East Village.

* SwordOfPlotAdvancement: The Sacred Sword.

* GuideDangIt: To find Doyle you have to revisit the first village and search a "suspicious looking tree", but only after a set point. Also the infamous stone puzzle.

* FauxFirstPerson3D

* ColorCodedStones: One dungeon has the player collecting different coloured gem stones to use in a SoupCans puzzle. The only way to figure out what gem went where was were was if you knew what the stock colours of the gems where.

''' ''Shining of the Holy Ark'' Contains the following tropes:'''

''Shining The Holy Ark'' was the ninth installment of the ''Franchise/ShiningSeries'' but the gameplay shares more in common with the original ''ShiningInTheDarkness'' than any other title in the franchise. It was a first person Dungeon Crawler rather than a strategy game. It’s also an indirect prequel to ''ShiningForceIII''; several characters reappear in that game, and the continuing conflict between Spirits and Vandals is central to its plot.

''Shining The Holy Ark'' was the ninth installment of the ''Franchise/ShiningSeries'' but the gameplay shares more in common with the original ''ShiningInTheDarkness'' than any other title in the franchise. It was a first person Dungeon Crawler rather than a strategy game. It’s also an indirect prequel to ''ShiningForceIII'' as several characters reappear in that game.

* HeroesPreferSwords

* UnitsNotToScale: When Arthur is on the WorldMap.

* DualBoss: The two Evil Spirits you fight near the climax of the game; it quickly [[ItGotWorse gets a lot worse]].

* ShiftingSandLand: The South Shrine.

* TempleOfDoom: The three Shrines.

* ClimaxBoss: The first fight against Rilix, complete with unique music.

* GlassCannon: Forte. He has the most powerful area-attack spells in the game (bar Inferno), but has pitiful HP and melee defense.

There are some minor differences between the European and the American versions. In Europe, the "God's Wind" spell is known as "Divine Wind" (a direct translation of the Japanese name of the spell... "Kamikaze"), "Restore" is known as "Life Line", and Rodi's "Sleep" spell is called "Illusion". Also, the "gray knight" (the Time Warrior) is known as the "clockwork knight" (and one of the messages in the US version still says 'clockwork knight', but is seldom seen). In an interesting change, in the European version it is the Reapers that summon lingering ghosts, not Mirages.

There are some minor differences between the European and the American versions. In Europe, the "God's Wind" spell is known as "Divine Wind" (a direct translation of the Japanese name of the spell... "Kamikaze"), "Restore" is known as "Life Line", and Rodi's "Sleep" spell is called "Illusion". Also, the "gray knight" is known as the "clockwork knight" (and one of the messages in the US version still says 'clockwork knight', but is seldom seen). In an interesting change, in the European version it is the Reapers that summon lingering ghosts, not Mirages.

* KickTheDog: The first time you meet Elise, you witness her knock a dog unconscious after it barks at her.