[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shining_force_ii_box_art_0.png]]
''Shining Force II'' (シャイニング・フォースII 古えの封印 Shainingu Fōsu Tsū: Inishie no Fūin?, lit. "Shining Force II: The Ancient Seal"), is a tactical role-playing game for the Platform/SegaGenesis console developed by Sonic! Software Planning in 1993. The storyline is not directly connected to the original ''VideoGame/ShiningForce'', although a Platform/GameGear title ''Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict,'' links the two games' plots.

''Shining Force II'' shifts the focus of the first game to the kingdom of Granseal, where an even ''greater'' demon lord named Zeon ([[VideoGame/Disgaea2CursedMemories no]] [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam relation]]) is sealed off by two jewels. A thief named Slade steals one of them and thus breaks the seal on the monster. Zeon possesses the king of the neighboring Galam nation, causing him to do all sorts of freaky EvilOverlord-type deeds. This time, schoolkid Bowie and his three friends (Sarah, Chester, and Jaha) form the core of the new Shining Force and are sent to track down the jewels before Zeon can wreak any further havoc on the world. Takes place in the same world as the first game, although at the time there was only a ContinuityNod to prove it. (This game also suffers from the naming problems of the previous ones, referring to Darksol as Dark Sol, and Lucifer as Dark Dragon, an unrelated enemy from ''Shining Force I'').

The game is much longer than the first and more free-roaming. There is no chapter system, so the player can return to previously visited parts of the world. There are also two different ways of promoting many characters.

This game was released on the Wii Virtual Console in Europe on October 3, 2008, and in North America on October 6, 2008. The game also appears in ''Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection'' for Xbox 360 and Platform/PlayStation3, and in ''Sega Genesis Classics'' for the Platform/PlayStation4, Platform/NintendoSwitch and Steam.
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!! Tropes:

* ActionGirl: Sheela the Master Monk gains recognition even outside of the fan base. Her ditching of the WhiteMagicianGirl persona (with the exception of useful healing spells) to temper her body and eventual opening of her own dojo won her many a fan back in the day.
* AdultsAreUseless: Sir Astral is boasted as being one of the best magic-users in the kingdom. He's even your teacher at the school. But he ''never joins your party for combat,'' not even when Bowie, Sarah, and Chester are fighting against the first in-game battle.
* AllInARow: Party members follow the leader as a rubber band, but they move diagonally.
* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: The American and European box arts.
* AnnoyingArrows: Archers can easily be replaced by mages (who do GlassCannon better) or birdmen (who do FragileSpeedster better). May is the exception, as a HorseArcher with [[StuffBlowingUp explosive shells.]]
* AWinnerIsYou: Not for the story, but for the secret battle ; win it, and your only rewards are bragging rights and a message that says "Game over!".
* BalanceBuff: Compared to the original game, healers are a lot more useful. Master Monk is now a PrestigeClass that can equip weapons, meaning that they can more than just ScratchDamage, making them way more useful than Gong ever was.
* BattleCouple: The party rescues Elric, an elven archer, around a third of the way into the game. A few battles later, Elric's girlfriend Janet, another elven archer, shows up and decides to join the party to be near him.
* BeefGate: The Kraken, who can be challenged once the player receives the raft, but is best fought when the the player is ''required to'' fight it to advance. Also counts as ThatOneBoss for some players, as it is one of the hardest bosses in the game.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Zeon is [[SealedEvilInACan safely sealed away in his home dimension]] once again, but the now-vampiric Lemon [[HeroicSacrifice had to seal himself away in order to drag Zeon back into it]]. To make matters worse, Zeon still possessed King Galam's body before he was sealed, meaning that [[FateWorseThanDeath the poor king was sealed too]]. Princess Elis is put into a coma for two years, but is revived with a TrueLovesKiss from Bowie; however, this leads to [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Sarah]] being heartbroken as she had feelings for Bowie.]]
* BlackoutBasement: Any of the cave levels are essentially this. Spreading your force over a larger area will help you see in the dark better.
* BossRush: A hidden stage accessed after beating the game puts you up against a force consisting of all the game's bosses at once.
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler: Lemon, who is possessed by a mask.]]
* BringMyRedJacket: Sir Lemon (Red Baron, before he exits the HeelFaceRevolvingDoor) can revive himself from death after a battle, and wears armor that is ''precisely'' the color of blood -- because it's ''painted with the blood of his dead enemies.''
* BrutalBonusLevel: A secret battle after the TheEnd screen pits you against every boss in the game at once, and it's just as hard as it sounds.
* BurningTheShips: The people of Granseal when they flee the original city, although the ships are torn apart for lumber to build a new town rather than a declaration to never go back (which you do, at the end of the game).
* ButThouMust: Most egregious moment in the whole series, where [[spoiler: Thou Must go kiss the Princess Elis, the DamselInDistress who you've known for maybe all of two minutes, and later get the implied StandardHeroReward. Sarah, the [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Unlucky Childhood Friend,]] is heartbroken and runs off, leading Kazin to go "[[PairTheSpares comfort]]" her. Needless to say, [[FanPreferredCouple many fans prefer the girl who's stuck by you the whole game and loves you dearly]] to the princess who barely gets one line in the game.]]
* CharacterSelectForcing: New members of the force are spread out a good deal more than in the original. Particularly noticeable with Sarah, the first healer you recruit and also the ''only'' healer for roughly half of the game.
* ChessMotifs: One battle takes place on a chess board. The pieces move like regular enemies though.
* ClownCar: The caravan, which holds the members of the force between battles. [[JustifiedTrope It magically shrinks anyone who enters.]]
* CoDragons: Odd Eye is repeatedly talked up as the strongest of the Greater Devils (and he is, though [[BigBad Zeon]] and [[DemonicPossession King Galam]] are even stronger), but he's not involved in directing Zeon's forces - that job is held by Geshp. Odd Eye serves as Zeon's [[TheBrute personal hammer]] instead - when Zeon finally gets tired of Geshp's screwups [[spoiler: and incinerates him, he assigns Odd Eye to personally capture the Jewels from Bowie.]]
* CognizantLimbs: The Kraken boss.
* CoversAlwaysLie: Once again, the American and European box arts. They depict a man in Bowie's clothes that doesn't resemble him (looking considerably older, having brown hair, and having a more realistic western style-design) or any character in the game.
* CrutchCharacter: Kiwi, who is {{permanently missable|Content}}. Although his defense is stellar right from the start, making him a useful StoneWall if nothing else, defense has no effect on magic, and his HitPoint gains are always tiny, making him increasingly useless despite the ability (once promoted) to fly and breathe fire.
* DamselInDistress: Princess Elis is pretty much the perfect hackneyed stereotypical example. All she needed was for Zeon to [[ChainedToARailway tie her to the railroad tracks]].
* DeathSeeker: Lemon. However, it later turns out he's [[OurVampiresAreDifferent a vampire,]] and can't end his own life by conventional means (even if he's killed in battle, he automatically resurrects if you win or retreat).
* DemonicPossession: The first enemy, the Gizmo, is described as a devil that possess people. One escapes in the first battle, possessing King Granseal early in the game, until the demons decide King Galam is a better host.
* DevelopersForesight: If your save file is corrupted in ''Shining Force II,'' ominous music plays while the witch informs you that it's corrupted. Yes, they designed the game to play appropriate music for ''losing your file.''
* EquipmentSpoiler:
** Subverted: Taros can drop his sword, which can only be used by the Giant class. No Giant ever joins the team.
** Camella can also drop her Iron Ball, which absolutely nobody can equip either.
* EvilAllAlong: [[spoiler: Oddler, the blind boy who travels with you for about a while, later [[TheReveal reveals himself]] as Odd-Eye, one of Zeon's top fighters.]]
* {{Expy}}: Sir Astral is quite clearly based on [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Gandalf.]]
* FromNobodyToNightmare: A certain Gizmo / Dark Smoke demon from the start [[spoiler: who possesses King Galam as TheUnfought DiscOneFinalBoss, then resurfaces near the end of the game as the next to final boss. For context, this is still a Mook possessing an old man, who turns into the second strongest enemy in the game.]]
* FurryConfusion: Slade is an anthropomorphic rat, but later in the game there is a boss that is a real rat.
* GodIsDispleased: [[BigGood Volcanon]] claims that he is forsaking the humans in their war against the devils. [[spoiler:It's revealed that this was just an act he put on in order to mislead Zeon, and he was subtly assisting the party.]]
* HealerSignsOnEarly: Played straight with Sarah. She is one of the first characters to join Bowie. In fact, she is the ONLY healer you have until Karna becomes available at Creed's Mansion (and she is an optional character). After that, you don't get any more healers until Frayja and Sheela late in the game.
* HeelFaceTurn:
** Halfway through the battle in which he first appears, Jaro decides he's fed up with fighting for the villains' side and joins Bowie and co.
** When Lemon finally escapes his demonic possession, he joins the heroes to [[TheAtoner start down the path to redemption.]]
* HelloInsertNameHere: Bowie can be renamed as the player wishes. There's also a cheat that allows the player to do this with every playable character.
* HeroicMime: Played with through Bowie, in which he has a few brief one-liner acknowledgements, but is typically mouthpieced by his [[ExpositionFairy Exposition Phoenix]] Peter and [[TheStrategist Sir Astral.]]
* HufflepuffHouse: In the original Japanese version, the FlavorText notes three Devil Kings: Darksol, Zeon, and Lucifer. While Darksol is the BigBad of [[VideoGame/ShiningForce the first game]], and Zeon that of this installment, Lucifer isn't seen or mentioned in any of the other ''Shining'' games. The English translation [[AvertedTrope averts]] this by replacing Lucifer with Dark Dragon, which instead creates a ContinuitySnarl in depicting it as an enemy of Darksol, when that clearly wasn't the case in their debut game.
* IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels: Normal, Hard, [[HarderThanHard Super]], and Ouch.
--> '''Witch''': (When picking Ouch) "What? Do you wanna die?!"
** And it even lies to you! Super is actually harder than Ouch!, due to every enemy receiving an attack boost. Ouch! makes the enemies smarter, but doesn't give out the same attack boost, and the enemy AI is already difficult enough in Super that you probably won't notice.
* InterfaceSpoiler: This game opted to spell the names of all the Force members in all caps, so you'll always know who has the capacity to join you. This includes [[spoiler:Lemon]]. There goes ''that'' [[HeelFaceTurn surprise]].
* LandmarkOfLore: There's a [[LostTechnology hidden]] [[CoolShip airship]] that has the same outline as the Nazca lines.
* LastChanceHitPoint: Carried from the previous game. This only works on Bowie at Full Health due to being the main character. If Bowie is at full health and the opposing attack would have normally defeat him, he would be left with 1 HP.
* LightIsGood: Two of the main {{Amplifier Artifact}}s are the Jewel of Light and the Jewel of Evil, not Darkness.
* LightningBruiser: While Peter has the best movement in the game and among the highest agility, he's also very durable and one of your hardest hitters
* {{Mithril}}: You'll find Mithril in different places, and if you hold onto them for the whole game near the end the Dwarven blacksmith will forge powerful Mithril weapons for your force.
* MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers: Karna, Randolf, Tyrin, and Eric. [[spoiler:The first time you meet them, anyway.]]
* {{Ninja}}: Slade can be promoted to the ninja class, and his most powerful weapon can kill most non-boss enemies in a single blow, whatever their HP total.
* {{Main/Nerf}}: [[spoiler:The Force Sword, formerly known as the Chaos Breaker. While it may seen it has higher attack, it is actually the same considering that most other weapons coming back also have the same increase multipler, making it even. What nerfs the weapon is that it no longer has an additional effect, meaning no more free Freeze 3 usage.]]
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Also qualifies as CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot and EasilyForgiven. Slade, stealing for the poor, stole 2 jewels that triggered the events of the game. [[spoiler: Zeon was resurrected. His powers awakened greater devils. King Galam was corrupted by a [[FromNobodyToNightmare weaker spirit]] and so was the kingdom. Lemon, one of Galam's soldiers, transformed into a vampire as the Red Baron, And, well ... everything went downhill from there. Had it not been for that, countless lives would not have been wasted, including King Galam and Lemon.]] Oops?
* NonLinearSequel: To the first ''Shining Force'' game, barring a single reference to Max and Guardiana and the return of the Chaos Breaker (which has, sadly, been renamed to the far less awesome sounding name of Force Sword). Zeon is also [[{{Retcon}} retconned]] into being a devil related to Dark Dragon but sealed away far outside of Rune.
* OneManParty: Healers can gain XP every time they cast healing spells, even on characters with full HP. Combine this with the Master Monks' high attack levels, and Sarah, Karna, and Sheela (if you wait to get the second Vigor Ball to promote both Sarah and Karna to Master Monk) can all become absolute wrecking machines. High Attack + Aura + Boost = A character who will level up very, very, ''very'' fast.
* OurCentaursAreDifferent: Most of the centaurs in this game -- Chester, Rick, Eric, Higins, and Jaro -- are knights. The lone exception is May, who is an [[HorseArcher archer]].
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Gerhalt the "[[InsistentTerminology wolfman]]" starts out looking like just a hairy human, but after he gets a promotion he turns into a proper werewolf.
* PermanentlyMissableContent: While this game no longer does chapter-based segments and allow you to backtrack to a certain extent, there are at least 4 things that can be missed: 2 Mythrils, Kiwi, and Skreech.
* PrestigeClass: Thanks to the game's various {{Upgrade Artifact}}s, the option is present for alternative classes upon promotion. Knights can become Pegasus Knights instead of Paladins, Healers can choose Master Monk over Vicar, Warriors can choose Barons over Gladiators, Archers become Brass Gunners instead of Snipers, and Mages can become Sorcerers instead of Wizards. There are benefits and drawbacks to each choice. Some classes sacrifice stats for unique abilities, for example.
* RedemptionDemotion:
** Lemon is significantly stronger when you fight against him (in fact he's almost ThatOneBoss) than he is when he joins your team. HandWaved by the fact that he's no longer being controlled by a demon spirit, but still.
** Jaro becomes weaker when he switches sides mid-battle, for the same reasons as Lemon. Luckily though if you leave him alone in the battle until he switches sides you'll never have to fight him, so most players won't notice the demotion.
* SceneryPorn: The backgrounds of a few of the maps that have sky areas.
* SealedRoomInTheMiddleOfNowhere: When the Shining Force gets shrunk at Mr. Creed's residence and put onto a desk with an entire community of people who had the same thing happen to them. (The Shining Force gets away eventually of course, but for the other potential party members they must remain there until pre-departure on the Nazca ship, but it could still be like AndIMustScream as the others would be harder to level up at this point). The NPC's who have made a kingdom of their own are actually ''thankful'' to Creed for their Desktop Kingdom.
* SheCleansUpNicely: A lot of the female characters get [[FanservicePack surprisingly hotter]] when they get a promotion. This is most blatantly the case for Master Monks, who go from priestly garb to {{Stripperiffic}} belly-dancer wear when they promote.
* ShoutOut:
** [[Music/DavidBowie Bowie]] and [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Zeon's]] names, possibly.
** Kiwi pretty much turns into a mini-Film/{{Gamera}} once promoted.
** The ''Force'' Sword looks a lot like a [[Franchise/StarWars lightsaber]].
** One of the bosses is a rat named [[Literature/RatmansNotebooks Willard]].
** The map for the secret battle is shaped like Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog.
* SimpleSolutionWontWork: When the party finds out that [[BigBad Zeon]] wants the [[ArtifactOfDoom Jewel of Darkness]] to regain his powers. As the party currently has the jewel, [[TheLancer Peter]] suggests they just keep it forever. Unfortunately, [[RetiredMonster Creed, a retired demon,]] informs the party that the location Zeon is at is slowly gathering evil energy, so they will have to go confront him.
* SmokingIsCool: Bearded historian and cannoneer Rohde holds a pipe in [[http://lparchive.org/Shining-Force-2-(by-inthesto)/Update%2025/3-rhode.jpg official art]] and his in-game portrait.
* StandardHeroReward: ''SFII's'' ending shows [[spoiler: Bowie using a TrueLovesKiss to wake Princess Elis from her coma. It's implied the two of them ascend to King and Queen of Granseal eventually.]]
* StraightForTheCommander: While many battles have a boss character, (killing them will instantly win the battle) the chess battle more or less forces you to adopt this strategy. Unless you've done a ''lot'' of grinding and leveling up, the chess army is too numerous and powerful for you to defeat all the units, (especially since, unlike so many other battles, they're not spread out all over the map in small groups) so the best way to win is to concentrate on killing the king, probably after either killing or incapacitating the bishops who can heal him.
* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: Sir Hawel, the first mage available in ''Final Conflict,'' is killed off by mooks near the beginning of ''Shining Force II.''
* SummonMagic: This is the specialty of the Sorcerer class, an alternate promotion of the Mage class.
* TheStrategist: Sir Astral.
* SwordOfPlotAdvancement: The Chaos Breaker is required to complete the game, as it is the only weapon that can harm Zeon.
** The Achilles Sword is needed in this capacity as well, being the only weapon capable of harming Taros.
* TankGoodness: The Brass Gunner class, which has better movement range and defense than a Sniper (standard promoted Archer). Slightly subverted in that a Sniper is actually ''has more firepower than a tank,'' judging by attack stat gains.
* TeamPet: Kiwi the turtle is basically a cute tagalong once he is recruited into the party (at least until he gets promoted, at which point he looks remarkably like Film/{{Gamera}}, complete with flight and fire breathing).
* TimeSkip: After the survivors of Granseal settle on Paramecia, a year long timeskip occurs.
* TooAwesomeToUse: Shower of Cure can become this, as well as Level 4 magic attacks (you want to save your MP so you can keep attacking of course).
* TrueLovesKiss: [[spoiler: At the end of the game between Bowie and the princess.]]
* UpgradeArtifact: Certain items allow a few of your party members to promote to ''different,'' usually significantly more powerful, classes than their normal evolution. There's only one of most of them, though (the exception being the Vigor Ball, of which ''two'' are known to exist).
* UnendingEndCard: Subverted; the TheEnd screen hides a secret battle if you wait long enough, and the game returns you to the Sega logo after the battle ends.
* YinYangBomb: The Jewels of Light and Evil, though they have no effect on gameplay.
** [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement The Chaos Breaker]] makes its return from the first game, though it's been given a different (and less awesome) name.
* YouDirtyRat: Slade the Rat is the cause of everything that goes wrong in the game. Though it is mentioned that he was more of a Robin Hood-type LoveableRogue who [[NiceJobBreakingItHero simply had no idea what he was unleashing]] when he stole the jewels of Light and Evil. He does later join the Shining Force and redeem himself. He eventually becomes one of the best members of the force, barring [[TheHero Bowie]] and Peter. He's also the only member, when promoted, to be able to [[OneHitKill slice things in two]] without damage rolls (except a boss) if he lands a critical. [[spoiler: Guess that's what [[TookALevelInBadass being promoted from a thief to a ninja]] does for you!]]
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