Here be the characters from Shining Force II: Ancient Sealing. Beware - there are numerous characters.
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The Shining Force
Bowie
- Badass Cape: Wears a green one during the start of the game, and wears a red one after promotion.
- Badasses Wear Bandanas: He starts wearing a white bandana after being promoted to Hero.
- Can't Drop the Hero: He's the only character who is completely mandatory and cannot ever be booted to the Caravan. Justified, since he's the Shining Force's leader.
- Color Motifs: His cape before promotion is green, a color that is sometimes associated with youth and inexperience. After he gets promoted, his cape turns red, which is typically a masculine color and is associated with courage, passion, and war.
- Expy: After his promotion, his hair gets longer and he gets a more serious expression, making him look similar to Link.
- Generation Xerox: According to supplementary materials, he's the grandson of Kane, making him part of a lineage of chosen heroes.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Has blond hair and Innocent Blue Eyes, which mark him as The Hero.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Just like Max before him. This is a Shining Force game, after all.
- Kid Hero All Grown-Up: His profile pre-promotion is younger-looking (probably an adolescent or pre-teen), had a Wide-Eyed Idealist look, and had much shorter hair. His profile after promotion physically aged him up to his late teens, gave him longer hair and a more serious expression, and a white bandanna.
- Magic Knight: Like Max from the first game, has access to the Egress spell from the get go. He can also learn Bolt spells as a Hero.
- Meaningful Name: His name is a Shout-Out to David Bowie.
- The Quiet One: Unlike Max, he does speak at various points in the game. However, Astral and Peter tend to do most of the talking.
- Shock and Awe: Learns the Bolt spell in all four levels.
- You Are in Command Now: Like most Shining Force protagonists, he's just the leader of a simple mission at the start (and a band of children at that), but ends up the de facto leader of his country's military, as well as the Shining Force, after things go to hell and the regular army is decimated.
Sarah
- Action Girl: If the player elects to promote her to a Master Monk. Even if not, her staff can still be used to deal a little bit of damage, and she's surprisingly resilient.
- Blue Is Heroic: Her hair and robes are blue, and she's one of the core members of the Shining Force.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Had a crush on Bowie the entire time. Unfortunately, she had to suffer him kissing Princess Elis at the end.
- Did Not Get the Girl: A gender-inverted example in the end, when Bowie ends up with Princess Elise.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: If the player decides to promote her to Master Monk, she gets to wield gloves and later various knuckle weapons.
- Our Elves Are Different: It's far from obvious from either her sprite or her character portrait, but art of her
◊ confirms she's an elf. - The Smurfette Principle: Starts out as this, until it's subverted when other female characters like May and Janet are recruited into the Force.
- True Blue Femininity: Has blue hair, and wears blue healing robes prior to her promotion.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: It's revealed that she's sported a crush on Bowie that goes unrequited at the end of the game. When Bowie was ordered to perform a True Love's Kiss on the comatose Princess Elis, Sarah runs off crying, completely heartbroken.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Gives Slade a tongue-lashing for being the reason why Zeon's running amok.
- White Magician Girl: Starts off as a Priest, but after promotion she can either become The Vicar or a Master Monk.
Chester
- Can't Catch Up: He's useful in the first quarter of the game but as more and more centaurs start signing up, most of whom do what he does better, it gets harder and harder to justify keeping him on the Force.
- Dub Name Change: His Japanese name is Huey.
- Expy: He's one of the first members to join the Force and is a low-defense, high HP Knight, much like Ken in the first game.
- Glass Cannon: Much like Ken from the first game, Chester is a knight with high health, decent attack, and poor defense.
- Javelin Thrower: When equipped with a Spear, his attack animation has him throw a spear.
- Mage Killer: His Glass Cannon status makes him specialized for absorbing magic spells, then retaliating for decent damage.
- Pegasus: Becomes this when promoted to Pegasus Knight.
- Verbal Tic: In at least one line (where he teases Jaha about his height) he whinnies mid-sentence.
Jaha
- Blue Is Heroic: His Baron sprite primarily wore blue.
- Expy: Can be seen as one for Luke/Lug from Shining Force I in appearance, skill growth, weapons, and classes.
- Late for School: He has a habit of coming to Sir Astral's classes late. This is what causes him to miss out on Bowie and co.'s "adventure" in the beginning of the game.
- Lightning Bruiser: As a Baron, he compensates for the defense he would have had as a Gladiator with increased mobility.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: His sprite as a Baron carries a small shield with him, which he uses to protect himself in his defense animation.
- Mighty Glacier: As a Warrior and Gladiator, he has an impressive defense and good attack, but poor mobility.
- The Pigpen: Apparently his hygiene leaves a bit to be desired. While the young Force is taking apart their ship to build the town of New Grans, Jaha humorously falls into the ocean, prompting Sarah to remark that it's okay because he needed a bath anyway.
Kazin
- All Love Is Unrequited: In Shining Wisdom, he's fallen in love with Sarah, who was in love with Bowie. At one point, he told a lie to impress Sarah, but quickly regretted it and admitted the truth. The English translation of the game, however, deliberately averts this trope by having him and Sarah romantically involved.
- An Ice Person: Gains an additional Freeze spell when equipped with the Freeze Rod.
- Heroic Fatigue: Like Kiwi, he complains of tiring easily, though in his case it's a result of overexerting himself with his magic.
- In the Hood: Wears one as a Mage, though his concept art doesn't have one. When promoted to Wizard, he wears a head wrap similar to the keffiyeh, a headdress fashioned from a scarf that is worn in the Middle East. Averted with his Sorcerer sprite.
- Kill It with Fire: Kazin's primary attack spell as wizard. All his other spells are auxiliary/debuff spells.
- Love Triangle: Becomes a part of one - Sarah is a childhood friend of Bowie who loves him, and is heartbroken when she sees him kiss the comatose Princess Elise at the end. Kazin runs off to comfort Sarah, and falls in love with Sarah by the time of Shining Wisdom. He ends up becoming Sarah's boyfriend (in the English translation at least).
- One-Hit Kill: Desoul, which he can use as a Mage or a Wizard.
- Our Elves Are Different: Like Sarah, he's an elf whose status is hard to discern if you haven't seen his All There in the Manual character art.
- Playing with Fire: His Blaze spell, which he uses to toast his enemies. He retains it if the player decides to promote him to Wizard.
- Power Parasite: Can steal enemies' magic points (MP) when equipped with the Indra and Supply Staffs. Inverted with the Demon Rod, which steals your magic points (along with lowering your defense by 10 when equipped) every time you use it.
- Red Is Heroic: He wears red as a Mage, and is a member of the Shining Force.
- Summon Magic: As a Sorcerer, he gains spells such as Dao, Apollo, Neptune and Atlas, that allow him to summon Greek Gods.
- What the Hell, Hero?: In Shining Wisdom, he angrily chews out a pair of guards for belittling the game's main protagonist Mars and poking fun at his Heroic Sacrifice.
Slade
A Robin Hood-type thief who steals treasures from all over the world so he can give them to the poor. His theft of the Jewels of Light and Evil releases Zeon from his prison and kicks off the game's plot. His initial class is Thief (THIF), but can be promoted to Ninja (NINJ).
- The Atoner: Joins the Shining Force to redeem himself for accidentally releasing Zeon.
- Blade Enthusiast: His main weapons consisted of knives and daggers. He starts using swords once promoted to Ninja.
- Dub Name Change: In what is probably the touchiest case among the original names, Slade's Japanese name is Jippo, a not-so-nice British term for a Romani/gypsy.
- Expy: Can be seen as one to Hanzo from Shining Force I, who is also a ninja who fights with a katana and has similar spells, and can be recruited into the party.
- Easily Forgiven: For triggering the entire events of the game, many characters seem to forget that he caused this after apologizing once.
- Glass Cannon: As a Ninja, he excels in mobility and attack while possessing powerful but limited magical capabilities. As expected, his defenses are frail even after leveling him up, and is intended to ambush enemies rather than tank them.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: When promoted to Ninja, he gains the ability to use swords, among them the katana.
- Katanas Are Just Better: One of the weapons he can use when promoted to Ninja is a katana.
- Loveable Rogue: Despite being a thief, he genuinely cares for the poor, and even shares his spoils with them.
- Magikarp Power: As a Thief, he's near-totally useless, lacking any spells and doing measly damages with his knife pokes. Players will have to patiently whittle down enemies for Slade to kill off to level him up, but once it's promotion time? Like the mighty Gyarados, Ninja Slade is one of the most singularly fearsome characters in the game. Top-notch speed and attack, excellent spells with wide AOE, and to top it off, his attacks have a random chance of causing a One-Hit KO.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Accidentally freed Zeon from his prison. To be fair though, he honestly thought the Jewels of Light and Evil were just very rare treasures for him to nab, and didn't know about the story about Zeon until it was pointed out to him.
- Playing with Fire: Earns the Katon spell after being promoted to Ninja, which he uses to toast his enemies.
- Shock and Awe: Earns the Raijin spell after being promoted to Ninja, which produces lightning bolts.
- Took a Level in Badass: When promoted to the Ninja class. He even learns spells typically held by Mages!
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He didn't know that stealing the Jewels of Light and Evil would release the Big Bad Zeon.
Kiwi
- Action Pet: He's more or less Bowie's pet turtle.
- Armored But Frail: He has very high defense and even literally wears armor but his HP is very low. That's no problem in the early game when enemies will all hit him with physical attacks, but when spellcasters come along...
- Breath Weapon: After his promotion he will gain the ability to randomly breath fire.
- Cool Helmet: Wears one when he is first recruited. After his promotion, he grows a new one.
- Crutch Character: He's useful in the early game when most enemies attack physically, but as the game goes on and more and more spellcasters start crawling out of the woodwork Kiwi becomes for most players a sad casualty of Changing Gameplay Priorities. His promoted incarnation can be put to good use, but even with maxed out stats he's still a liability against spellcasters (aka most of the game's bosses).
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Like Bowie, the player can choose a name for him, as he's rescued from a destroyed pet shop.
- Heroic Fatigue: Seems to suffer from this, as if Bowie speaks to him at headquarters he will tell his dear friend that both fighting and speaking tire him out.
- Improbable Weapon User: As a Tortoise he attacks enemies by throwing his helmet at them.
- Informed Attribute: It is mentioned at one point that while Kiwi himself is unique (having been magically altered) that his species is not and in fact is common in Parmecia. You never meet another tortoise in the game but him, magically altered or otherwise.
- Joke Character: Downplayed; unlike Jogurt or the penguins, Kiwi is a useable (if unorthodox) character that can serve his role as a Stone Wall from the moment he's playable. He also gets one of the greatest promotion bonuses in the game, which includes the ability to hover (that is, fly while still receiving terrain bonuses) and breathe fire. Unfortunately, his attack is still terrible, as is his magical resistance, which makes him liable of being a Crutch Character even after promotion.
- Loyal Animal Companion: He loves Bowie faithfully and will defend him with his life.
- Magically Inept Fighter: An extreme example, as he is not only incapable of using magic, but he is in fact extremely vulnerable to it. Most spellcasting enemies can easily one-shot him.
- Miracle-Gro Monster: After being promoted he transforms from a tiny turtle creature into a hulking Gamera Expy, complete with Flight and a Breath Weapon.
- Permanently Missable Content: If you don't save him in Granseal you'll never have another opportunity to recruit him. Which is understandable, since Granseal is almost immediately after rocked by a cataclysm, and if you left him behind in that pet shop...
- Rolling Attack: As a Monster he attacks enemies by rolling at them Sonic The Hedgehog style.
- Stone Wall: His attack and HP are very low, but most physical attacks only do 1 point of damage to him.
Peter
- Born Winner: His species is a legendary one created by the god Volcanon and venerated by Birdmen. And from a gameplay standpoint, he's easily the strongest character in the game.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: His goofy appearance as a Phoenik belies the powerful party member he becomes after his promotion. And even before promotion, he still kicks ass.
- Blow You Away: His attack animation when promoted to Phoenix has him flapping a tornado at his enemies.
- Humble Hero: He's very self-conscious about being a "Legendary Phoenix" and would rather people treat him normally. He enjoys his time with the Force so much because, unlike Birdmen, they don't venerate him.
- Lightning Bruiser: 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
- Meaningful Name: Peter is a name seen as sacred in Christianity and is often associated with various saints in religious history. Likewise, his class after promotion is Phoenix, a creature that is revered in Asian cultures.
- One-Man Party: At higher levels, Peter can simply fly up to most bosses and one or two-shot them, making most of the rest of the Force redundant.
- Powers Do the Fighting: In his unpromoted state, he'll attack with a sonic scream. Promoted, he'll throw a wind tornado. What he won't do is make any attack with a conventional weapon.
- Resurrective Immortality: Peter can be killed in battle, but the moment the battle is over he will always resurrect himself.
- The Phoenix: He has all the traits associated with the legendary bird: Fire-based (and, therefore, resistant to fire magic) and able to come Back from the Dead.
- Super-Scream: His attack animation as a Phoenik has him unleashing a loud sonic cry that damages enemies.
May
- Country Mouse: Her one bit of character. Shortly after joining the party, she asks Bowie what Grans is like, saying she really like cities since she's from the country.
- Dub Name Change: Her Japanese name is Matilda.
- Expy: Of Lyle from the first game.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She has blond hair and Innocent Blue Eyes to indicate her being a recruitable party member and a hero of the Force.
- Horse Archer: She's a centaur armed with a bow and arrow quiver along with (once promoted to Bow Knight) a large crossbow.
- Red Is Heroic: Her concept art and game sprite pre-promotion are depicted wearing red armor. Averted with her Bow Knight sprite, where she wears blue armor.
Gerhalt
- Beast Man: This is literally the in-game name of his species, though his class of 'Wolfman' is far more appropriate a descriptor. It's not revealed if all Beastmen are effectively Wolfmen, or if there are different types.
- Blood Knight: Amusingly wants to be one, but he's just a bit too nice for it. If you talk to him at HQ he'll be growling to himself before explaining that it's just him trying to sound brutal.
- Expy: Of Zylo from the first game.
- Heroes Fight Barehanded: He and Claude are the only non-Master Monk members of the Force that can fight with bare hands, a thing he attributes in his case to 'being truly strong'.
- Little Bit Beastly: Pre-promotion, he just looks like a bearded guy wearing fur sleeves.
- Nerf: While he retains Zylo's attack and ability to navigate through forests and mountains unhindered, he loses Zylo's mobility and durability, making him a Glass Cannon in contrast to Zylo being a Lightning Bruiser. Gerhalt's also not the hardest-hitting member of his own Force, not because of weakness on his part, but because that spot goes to Peter.
- Manly Facial Hair: He has a beard to be reckoned with, complete with Hot Blooded Sideburns, and it stays with him when he promotes.
- Noble Wolf: He's a Beastman who becomes a werewolf upon promotion, and is a member of Bowie's Force.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: He starts off as just being a particularly hairy man until promotion turns him into a werewolf proper.
Luke
- Bird People: One of two which join the Force.
- Death from Above: As a Birdman this is his specialty, and If Bowie speaks to him at headquarters he'll even proclaim how much he loves "swooping in for the kill."
- Dub Name Change: His Japanese name is Ludo, a German name meaning "fighter" that was clearly picked alongside Gerhalt.
- Goggles Do Nothing: Wears a pair of goggles on his head in his character portrait that don't seem to have any purpose.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: And so do Birdmen. Unfortunately, Luke isn't quite as strong with his swing as Bowie.
- Master of None: As a swordsman, he's outclassed by Bowie, who has higher stats all-around and can use the Bolt spell. As a flyer, he's outclassed by Peter, who also possesses better stats and has resistance to fire magic. Later in the game, the Pegasus Knights also outshine him with their increased mobility and access to ranged weapons. While he possesses more defense than Skreech, this is rendered moot by his lack of Geo Effects and weakness to arrows. He can't even suffice as a Fragile Speedster, as this installment, for some reason, nerfed the mobility of Birdmen. His only real niche is his versatility in being able to aide other characters in combat, either in the air or on the ground next to a wall/ledge; he has difficulty standing on his own.
- Prince Charming: He's the prince of Bedoe and is specifically noted to have an observant and sensitive personality, being the only Birdman to treat Peter like a friend and equal because he knows adulation embarrasses the humble phoenix.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Of all the sword-weilders, he has the least to lose and the most to gain from equipping the Dark Sword. Being forced to keep the weapon equipped won't burden him as much as other sword-weilders, as his strongest alternatives are far weaker than what's available to Bowie (the Levanter and Force Sword), Slade (the Gisarme), and the Barons (the Ground Axe (for additional movement) and Rune Axe). If the inherent power of the sword isn't enough to take out enemies, he has Desoul for the ones above his weight class. This is reinforced with his inherent flying ability, which allows him to strike from angles unavailable to any of the aforementioned characters. Unfortunately, this requires the player to use him diligently up until the very last chapters when the Dark Sword becomes available, as he will be a Master of None to numerous other characters before then.
- Unreliable Illustrator: His character art shows him carrying a shield, but he doesn't carry one in game since the game doesn't include shields of any kind.
- Warrior Prince: He's a prince but is quite willing to get his hands (talons?) dirty.
Rohde
- BFG: Fell in love with one of these, a big cannon, after he used it once, and became a Brass Gunner to use it battle.
- Dub Name Change: His Japanese name is Roido/Lloyd, which isn't too far off from his dubbed name.
- Gadgeteer Genius: He knows how to operate all kinds of ancient equipment, such as the caravan and the cannon.
- Goggles Do Nothing: Wears a pair of goggles on his head in his profile and concept art that don't seem to have any purpose at all.
- Insufferable Genius: He has a very brusque and irascible personality and only join the party when they have something he wants.
- It Must Be Mine!: He won't give the Force the time of day until they come to him with the Achilles Sword.
- The Load: He's not exactly helpful to start with, and even after joining the Force he's the worst of the three Brass Gunners.
Rick
- Dub Name Change: His original Japanese name makes a single letter difference, being Mick instead of Rick.
- Javelin Thrower: When equipped with a Spear, his attack animation has him throw a spear.
- Jumped at the Call: He is bored of his small town life and eagerly joins the Force.
- Lightning Bruiser: Becomes this late game if he is kept on the Force and properly leveled, as he experiences a sharp Speed growth in his later levels (though unfortunately the rest of his stats do not follow suit).
- Pegasus: Becomes this when promoted to Pegasus Knight.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: If Bowie speaks to him at headquarters he brags about centaurs being the main fighters in battles and proudly proclaims them to be awesome.
- Scarf of Asskicking: It's hard to make out on his sprite, but character art reveals that he wears one of these ala Android 17 of Dragon Ball Z fame.
- Stone Wall: Downplayed; while his attack isn't bad, it's stil lower than that of either Chester or Eric. However, his defense is far and away the best of his class, and is roughly on par with Baron!Jaha. Combined with his agility and movement, he can reliably hold down chokepoints at a moment's notice.
- Youthful Freckles: His character art has him with these to emphasize his youth, though of course his sprite is too small to properly display them.
Elric
- Battle Couple: With Janet, if both are active in your team.
- Death from Above: If Bowie speaks to him at headquarters he boasts that enemies in the sky are his and that his arrows will always get them.
- Distressed Dude: When the protagonists meet him, he's trapped in a pool by some Harpies, who mean to eat him.
- Dub Name Change: His Japanese name is Polnaref, and it was probably changed for not sounding "archer" enough rather than for evoking a much more famous character by that name.
- Expy: Of Hans.
- Gathering Steam: He has terrible starting stats and terrible early growth but has the highest end stats out of any of the archers.
- I Owe You My Life: The reason why he joins the Force.
- Stronger with Age: As an Archer he's quite a fragile character but after being promoted he experiences a sharp HP increase. He still remains somewhat soft defensively, though.
Eric
- The Ace: Like the other recruitable characters in Creed's mansion, he's statistically the best of his class.
- Can't Catch Up: If he is not chosen initially and only recruited later he becomes this, as his level remains static during that time period.
- The Fighting Narcissist: If Bowie speaks to him at headquarters he claims to have trained a lot when he was younger before arrogantly proclaiming that style is more important than strength.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Why would he be interested in "looking for the legendary sword" if he can only equip lances?
- Gathering Steam: He's not very impressive at first and many players will be tempted to pass him up, but if promoted to the PGNT class he will eventually surpass Jaro as the strongest Pegasus Knight in the game.
- Graceful Loser: If he is not chosen to join the Force initially he takes it with reasonable grace, calling it a pity but wishing happiness to the Force just the same.
- It's All About Me: "There are many centaurs in this force, but I think I'm the most valuable one!" Really sums it up, doesn't it?
- Lightning Bruiser: Balances Chester's HP with Rick's Defense, and has greater Attack than either of them.
- Javelin Thrower: When equipped with a Spear, his attack animation has him throw a spear.
- Magically Inept Fighter: As much as Eric likes to brag, there's at least one thing he can't do, and that's use magic.
- Mysterious Past: His backstory is somewhat cryptic, as he claims to have been "there during the disaster" (which might refer to the collapse of Granseal early in the game) and to have been "looking for the legendary sword" (which might refer to Bowie's legendary Force Sword).
- Optional Party Member: Is one of four characters on this type that can be chosen from Creed's collection, though the remaining three can be recruited later in the Force elects to return to Creed's mansion.
- Pegasus: Becomes this when promoted to Pegasus Knight.
- Undying Loyalty: He bizarrely claims he would do anything for Creed, even though he also claims earlier to hate living in the Desktop Kingdom.
- Unreliable Illustrator: Like Luke, he carries a shield in his character art that he'll never get to use in the game proper.
Karna
- The Ace: Like the other recruitable characters in Creed's mansion, she's statistically the best of her class. Exaggerated if she's promoted to a Master Monk.
- Action Girl: If the player elects to promote her to a Master Monk. Even if not, her staff can still be used to deal a little bit of damage, and her defense gets a sharp increase at higher levels.
- Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: She'll angrily call Bowie a "snot-nose" if she is rejected from joining the Force.
- Blow You Away: Possesses the Blast spell.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Gives off shades of this, between her penchant for childish insults and bragging about how she achieved being a priestess at such a young age.
- Can't Catch Up: Downplayed, as she actually has an easier time catching up to the party than the other characters from Creed's if she is not chosen initially.
- Dub Name Change: Her Japanese name is Tsuiggii.
- Easy Level Trick: She can level up extremely easy via (ab)use of the Boost spell.
- Elite Tweak: In the original Japanese game, there is only one Vigor Ball, forcing players to choose between promoting Sarah or Karna to Master Monk (and given the Ball's location, it's possible the developers intended for Sarah to be the most common promotion choice). The American version adds a second Vigor Ball, making it possible to promote both Sarah and Karna into Master Monks.
- Expy: For Khris from the first Shining Force, though she's an elf rather than a dog-girl/Kyantol.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: If the player decides to promote her to Master Monk, she gets to wield gloves and later various knuckle weapons.
- Meaningful Name: Her Japanese name, Tsuiggii, translates to "twiggy". Her concept art shows her to have a skinnier build than the other female party members.
- The Medic: Seen as the best one in the game, and not without reason. She's just one of two characters to learn Aura 4, and while the other learns it earlier than she does, she joins the party much earlier. She also has the highest MP growth among all the game's healers.
- Optional Party Member: Is one of four characters on this type that can be chosen from Creed's collection, though the remaining three can be recruited later in the Force elects to return to Creed's mansion.
- Pink Means Feminine: Perhaps to contrast with Sarah, she has pink hair, though it's lavender in her profile and concept art.
- White Magician Girl: Aside from the Blast spell, all of her spells consist of healing and status buffs.
- Who You Gonna Call?: If Bowie speaks to her at headquarters she boasts that she ain't afraid of no devils and asks when the next battle is going to be.
Randolf
A strong dwarf warrior who led an exodus out of the Desktop Kingdom of Creed only to be stymied by the perils of Floor World. He is one of four Optional Party Member characters that can be recruited after the adventure in Desktop Kingdom. Like Jaha before him, his initial class is Warrior (WARR) and he can be promoted to the Gladiator (GDLT) or Baron (BRN) classes.
- The Ace: Like the other recruitable characters in Creed's mansion, he's statistically the best of his class.
- Blood Knight: If spoken to at HQ, he proudly proclaims he'll face any devil at any time.
- Can't Catch Up: If he is not chosen initially and only recruited later he becomes this, as his level remains static during that time period.
- Cowardly Lion: Despite his Floor World followers admiring his bravery, Randolf warns the Force not to try going through the hole in the wall, implying he tried it once before and failed.
- Expy: Like the original Shining Force's' Gort, he's an old dwarf who is very strong.
- Glass Cannon: He has the weakest defense of his class type, but the highest attack.
- Haughty "Hmph": If not chosen by Bowie to leave Floor World he'll give the player one of these before remarking that he has a comfortable life there anyway.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Like Jaha before him and Gyan after him, Randolf is a dwarf lacking spellcasting ability of any kind.
- Mighty Glacier: Like the other dwarves his mobility leaves something to be desired, and he gains speed more slowly than Jaha.
- Non-Indicative Name: His Japanese name is 'Dongo', which means clay. In a game where Claude exists, it's downright baffling that they gave this character that name and not him.
- Optional Party Member: Is one of four characters on this type that can be chosen from Creed's collection, though the remaining three can be recruited later in the Force elects to return to Creed's mansion.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: When making his pitch for you to recruit him the first time, he claims to be known as the strongest warrior of his people.
- Rebel Leader: In Floor World, Randolf leads a breakaway group (including Tyrin) that left the Desktop Kingdom in search of freedom.
Tyrin
- The Ace: He's a better spellcaster than Kazin as either a Wizard or a Sorcerer, despite the latter being much more important from a story perspective.
- Awesome, but Impractical: The spells he learns as a Sorcerer are much more visually impressive than his Mage/Wizard spells, but they're also weaker as Sorcerer spells lose damage when striking multiple targets, unlike Mage/Wizard spells. Because only one of the two Mages could promote to the Sorcerer class, Kazin is the preferred choice due to having a worse spell pool as a Wizard, and thus having more to gain as a Sorcerer than Tyrin.
- Can't Catch Up: If he is not chosen initially and only recruited later he becomes this, as his level remains static during that time period.
- Dark Is Not Evil: His character design is very reminiscent of a Black Mage and new players would be forgiven for thinking him a bad guy, but he's not evil and can be a great asset to the Force.
- Dub Name Change: His Japanese name is Piper.
- Expy: Like Anri from the first Shining Force, he's the mid-top tier mage of the game, though Tyrin ends up more powerful than her since all his spells can go up to level 4.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: As a Mage (and later a Wizard if players choose that promotion) he can use the Blaze, Freeze, and Bolt spells, though it takes him quite a bit longer to acquire Freeze than the other two.
- Forced Sleep: In addition to the three spells detailed directly above, he also acquires the Sleep spell if he is kept as a Mage and/or promoted to a Wizard.
- Luckily, My Powers Will Protect Me: "My powers should be a great help to you!"
- Lovable Coward: When first encountered he's loitering around in Floor World claiming that the devils that live in the tunnel are too ferocious.
- Playing with Fire: Like Kazin, he starts out with the Blaze spell.
- Optional Party Member: Is one of four characters on this type that can be chosen from Creed's collection, though the remaining three can be recruited later in the Force elects to return to Creed's mansion.
- Our Elves Are Different: Ambiguously elvish and dwarvish in his case.
- Sore Loser: In contrast to the graceful Eric, he cannot hide his disappointment if Bowie does not choose him to join the Force initially, remarking that his powers could have been a great aid to the Force.
- Summon Magic: He can be promoted to the Sorcerer class and summons the same gods Kazin and Taya can, though he loses his other spells and it is generally not considered a sound idea due to his Mage/Wizard spells being more powerful.
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: He has golden eyes, reflecting his status as an elf mage.
- Support Party Member: Given what he says when spoken to at base, and his quote in Floor World, it's not too hard to assume Tyrin sees himself as one of these.
Janet
A female elf who is the lover of Elric, a member of the Shining Force. Her initial class is Archer (ACHR), but can be promoted to either Sniper (SNIP) or Brass Gunner (BRGN).
- Battle Couple: With Elric, if both are active in your team.
- Expy: Of Diane.
- Pink Means Feminine: Wears pink and is a girl.
- Tank Goodness: She rides a tank as her weapon when promoted to Brass Gunner.
- The Straight and Arrow Path: When promoted to Sniper or Brass Gunner, she has the option of using the Robin Arrow as opposed to the much more powerful Buster Shot or Hyper Cannon.
Higins
- Gathering Steam: He's among the characters who have crap stats and slow stat growths early on but experience sharp growths (in attack and especially defense) later on.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: Like Lemon and Peter, he can't die. Unlike Lemon and Peter, he does not auto-revive when killed, playing Gameplay and Story Segregation straight.
- Javelin Thrower: When equipped with a Spear, his attack animation has him throw a spear.
- Left Hanging: One of his lines of dialogue hints that he became a vampire ala Lemon thanks to Geshp's possession attempt. However, this is averted in gameplay as he lacks Lemon's auto-revive ability (as well as being a sub-par character in general). Perhaps it was dropped because of the Plot Hole it would have created (if being possessed turns anyone into a vampire, how come King Granseal isn't sucking blood?). It's not removed entirely, though, it's just... Left Hanging.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Just like Chester and Rick, Higins has no ability to cast spells.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Ambiguously vampiric in his case.
- Worf Had the Flu: The reason Geshp is able to get the drop on him is that he's injured. He somehow recovers after being rescued by the protagonists. Maybe it was the demon being expelled?
Taya
- Crutch Character: Taya is only around to be a Sorcerer to players who couldn't bear to promote either Kazin or Tyrin to Sorcerers, or simply haven't figured out how to do that, and both characters blow her out of the water as Sorcerers.
- Dub Name Change: Her Japanese name is the downright boring name of Linda.
- Informed Ability: According to the people of Tristan she can control the elements, but she actually summons gods and has no elemental spells of any kind.
- Optional Party Member: She's among the game's optional characters and can only be recruited by speaking to an NPC and then examining her statuefied form.
- Squishy Wizard: As a Sorcerer, she already has powerful spells and doesn't need to be promoted. On the other hand, she has horrible defense. Indeed, she has the single worst defense of any character in the game.
- Summon Magic: She's a Sorcerer by default and can summon the same gods Kazin can as a Sorcerer.
- Taken for Granite: Someone or something (possibly the Devils) turned her into a statue. After Bowie and co. defeat Zalbard at Mitula's temple, Mitula herself releases her from her stone prison to help the Force.
Skreech
- Bird People: One of two which join the Force, though unlike Luke he is an optional character who can very easily be missed.
- Convenient Replacement Character: Can be used to replace Luke if the latter falls too far behind later in the game (which is very likely to happen).
- Dub Name Change: His original Japanese name is the much cooler sounding Fielder.
- Gathering Steam: He starts off completely inferior to Luke, but has a sharper Attack growth late game, meaning he will eventually outpace the older Birdman if he is properly leveled.
- Glass Cannon: He's the more fragile of the two Birdmen characters but hits harder eventually.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Like Luke, Skreech uses swords exclusively. Unfortunately he's even weaker with a sword than Luke is.
- Heroic Build: His character art◊ shows he's actually one of the more buff characters in the game.
- Humble Hero: If Bowie speaks to him at headquarters he admits he isn't as strong as the Force's leader, but vows to support him from the sky nevertheless.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Like Luke, he is purely a swordsman and has no spellcasting ability.
- Not the Fall That Kills You…: Falls on top of Bowie if the latter is standing at the right place at the right time; this helps him survive the fall and join the Force when he grows up.
- Permanently Missable Content: A disturbing example, as he can only be recruited if Bowie is there to break his fall as a chick.
- Rapid Aging: Is seen earlier in the quest as a chick, but can appear later in the game as a fully-grown adult. How long that span of time was is ambiguous, though NPCs do mention that Birdmen chicks seem to be growing up fast for some unexplained reason.
- Secret Character: Him and Claude are the two most easily-missed characters in the game. In his case, you can only get him by standing in one specific tile at one specific point in the game, and then going back to his hometown later in the game.
Frayja
- The Atoner: He feels deeply guilty about closing the gates of Moun, protecting the mainland from invasion but condemning Moun's citizens to devil rule. Joining the force is his way of atoning.
- Dub Name Change: His original Japanese name was Sharoru and apparently the decision to change his name to Freyja came very late in development, as the US game manual names him as Sharol.
- Gender-Blender Name: Freyja is actually the name of a female goddess from Norse mythology.
- Light Is Good: As a Vicar, he wears a spotless white priest's outfit.
- The Medic: This is his primary utility to the Force. Aura 4 is a hell of a thing~!
- My Greatest Failure: He considers himself to have sinned by sealing the gates to the town of Moun to save the rest of Parmecia from the devil invasion.
- Nonstandard Character Design: In a game where most of the characters play Beauty Equals Goodness straight, Frayja is... well, not particularly attractive. Bald, fat, big red nose and perpetual scowl. For this alone most players pass him up.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Frayja's problem is how late he joins. At the point where you get him, the Force already has two healers (three if you picked Karna), making Frayja redundant. That said, people who stick with him find themselves rewarded with Aura 4, an amazing spell to have that only he and Karna ever learn (and he learns it much earlier than she does).
- Squishy Wizard: He is the weakest of the healer characters as a fighter and is very soft defensively as well. Makes up for it in MP and spells.
- This Is Unforgivable!: If Bowie speaks to him at headquarters he proclaims that he can't forgive the devils and that evil must be purged from the earth.
Jaro
- 13 Is Unlucky: The first battle you meet him in is the only one across the entire game to feature a 13-member Force, the Force normally having only 12 slots. There is actually a slot for a 13th member in the game's code, but the battle in which Jaro is recruited is the only time the slot will ever be used. The trope itself is subverted, though, as Jaro has no evil intentions and joins the Force entirely in good faith.
- Big Eater: The one thing that gets him to shed his stoic professionalism is free food.
- Consummate Professional: He's a battle-hardened soldier with a very stern and serious nature.
- Crutch Character: A minor example, as he starts out superior to the other centaurs but his stats are inferior to any centaur characters that have been promoted to the Paladin class. His flying ability still makes him a valuable party member, though.
- Dub Name Change: His Japanese name is Farukon, which as you might have guessed translates to 'Falcon'.
- Expy: Like Pelle in the first game, Jaro is a centaur who switches sides and joins the party. The only difference is Pelle probably wishes he had those wings.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: He has a cross-shaped scar on his left cheek befitting a professional soldier.
- Heel–Face Turn: He switches sides to join the Force mid battle.
- Javelin Thrower: And like most video game Javelin Throwers, his always seem to come back to him.
- Lightning Bruiser: He has the movement speed of a flier but is not nearly as fragile as the Birdmen characters. Veteran players often replace Luke or Skreech with him as he does everything they do better.
- Logical Weakness: Being a Pegasus Knight from the start, he's more vulnerable to spears than the other Centaur characters.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Like the centaurs before him, Jaro is a purely physical attacker and cannot cast spells.
- Our Centaurs Are Different: They have wings, for one thing. And Pointy Ears in the elven tradition.
- Pegasus: He starts out with this class, unlike the other knights who have to be promoted to it with the use of an Upgrade Artifact.
- Permanently Missable Content: The game intends for Jaro to be a Required Party Member, as he will join the Force even if you kill him before he betrays the Devils of his own volition, but if you save in Tristan and cast Egress after the battle it is possible to skip the Road to Tristan battle, in which he becomes this.
- Redemption Demotion: When he joins the Shining Force, his stats decrease.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: "I'm tired of this. I can no longer fight for devils."
- The Stoic: If Bowie speaks to him at headquarters he asks why the rest of his new comrades are so excited all the time and claims to fight only for himself.
- Token Evil Teammate: Subverted — He is your enemy when you first meet him and is fighting for the devils, but that's just because he's a Consummate Professional from Galam who was conscripted into the Devil Army. After seeing an opportunity to desert the devils, he takes it.
Gyan
- Expy: If Jaha is Lug/Luke, Gyan is Gort.
- I Have a Family: Has a wife and son in Ribble, but opts to stay with the Force instead of go home to them.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Like the dwarves before him, Gyan is just a hardy warrior and cannot cast any spells.
- Mighty Glacier: He has low movement but excellent defense. Indeed, he will end up with the highest defensive stats of his class if he is properly leveled.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: If Bowie speaks to him at headquarters he'll brag about how tough dwarves are and request to be put in the vanguard of the Force.
- Walking the Earth: Travel is his hobby according to him, and while that doesn't seem to square with being a family man apparently he picks up souvenirs for his wife and son wherever he goes.
- You Can't Go Home Again: He's given the opportunity to return to his home town of Ribble but joins the Force instead. It's not that he doesn't want to see his family again, but he believes defeating the devils is more important.
Sheela
A Master Monk (MNMK) from Granseal. She is a former student of Sir Astral whose fiance, a priest from the neighboring kingdom Galam, was killed by Lemon, aka "Red Baron". Since then, she has been training herself in martial arts so she can avenge her dead fiancé. Because she joins the party already promoted, she cannot be promoted again to a different class.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Considering her cool character design and backstory, it's depressing how bad Sheela actually plays. She combines Sarah's bad MP growth with Karna's bad attack growth and her spells are lackluster as well. Her saving graces are that she can abuse her Boost spell to gain levels quickly and that she is a Master Monk which is one of the best classes in the game.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: As a Master Monk with no promotion, she already comes equipped with various gloves and knuckle weapons for Good Old Fisticuffs action.
- Blow You Away: She possesses the Blast spell.
- Expy: Like Gong from the first Shining Force, she's a strong barehanded fighter who also serves as a healer, though she's only human compared to Gong who is a half-giant.
- The Lost Lenore: Her fiancé, who was killed by Lemon.
- Meaningful Name: Her name is an Australian slang term that refers to a girl or woman.
- Motive Decay: She forgets all about her grudge against Lemon apparently, or at least she never brings it up by the time the Force encounters him. More than one fanfic has been written just to explain this inconsistency.
- Ms. Fanservice: Despite the booket or the official artwork of her showing her with a tanktop and pants, her battle animation, like the other female master monks, still wears a Stripperiffic outfit. Also, her introductory cutscene shows her taking a bath outdoors, before jumping into the air completely naked. It's only thanks to the overworld sprites' low level of detail that the game didn't get a higher age rating...
- Optional Party Member: She's among the games optional characters and can only be recruited by visiting her pool at the Monk Dojo, although she can be recruited at any time.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Being a Master Monk makes Sheela pretty good by default. However, by the time you get her and even through speeding through the game, it's hard to deny that Sarah and Karna are just better Master Monks.
- Revenge: She has major beef against Lemon, who murdered her fiance when he was the Red Baron, and has been training herself to fight ever since. Strangely, she doesn't react to Lemon's recruitment into the Force in any way, despite her grudge towards him.
- Spirited Competitor: She has an aggressive personality befitting a fighting monk and even claims that no one is a match for one of her class, but she's not aggressive to the point of Blood Knight territory.
Zynk
- Chest Blaster: His special attack, which he will randomly use.
- Do-Anything Robot: Ish. He was built for multiple functions, including piloting the Ancient-built ship the Nazca, and combat.
- Extendable Arms: His attack animation shows he is capable of this, though not to great extents. He can still only attack whoever is in front of him.
- I Am What I Am: He literally says the line word for word when asked by Astral what he is.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Naturally, since he's a Robot.
- Mask Power: He wears a mask over his face for some reason, possible to conceal the fact that he is a Robot.
- Meaningful Name: His original Japanese name was Bacchus, who was the Roman god of agriculture.
- Mighty Glacier: He's slow but his attacks are fairly strong.
- Obstructive Code of Conduct: At some point he was programmed with "restrictions on fighting" (but fought before at some point, since he claims to have fought devils in the past). This is why he drags his feet so long in actually joining the Force, but after the devils killed Sir Petro Zynk overrides his fighting restrictions to finally join the Force proper.
- Really 700 Years Old: If Bowie speaks to him at headquarters he claims to have been fighting the devils "since ancient days."
- Required Party Member: Like Astral and Oddler, he tags along with the Force for a time, not participating in battles but not taking up any fighter slots either. Once he becomes playable, of course, he will start taking up a slot.
- Terse Talker: He's not really much of a conversationalist. Conversations with him are straight and to the point.
- Unnecessarily Creepy Robot: He's a gaunt and forbidding character, despite being one of the good guys.
Claude
- Can't Catch Up: An unfortunate consequence of him being such a latecomer to the Force. Though he is strong, by the time you recruit him most of the Force is as strong as he is, if not stronger.
- Evil Counterpart Race: Golems appear as enemies well before Claude is recruited, and except for not having legs they're pretty much identical to the big lug (though not as strong, thankfully).
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: In the original Japanese, his named is Maado. Yes, he's literally named Mud. No wonder they went with a Dub Name Change...
- Fetch Quest: You have to find his arm before he will join you. You can find him without the arm, but if you do all he'll do is complain.
- Golem: A giant rock being that serves to protect his master (Bowie if he retrieves his missing arm).
- Good Old Fisticuffs: He fights with his fists and cannot equip any weapons.
- Late Character Syndrome: He's a neat character but who's going to bother wasting a slot on a slower Kiwi so late in the game?
- Magically Inept Fighter: Cannot cast spells of any kind.
- Mighty Glacier: The most extreme example in the game, as he has the highest defense and one of the highest attacks, but is also the slowest character in the Force.
- Optional Party Member: It's a bit difficult getting him, given that you have to find his arm first.
- The Pigpen: Apparently he doesn't smell very good. Not surprising, since he's a mud golem and of course has never washed (or likely can wash) his body.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Averted. He has red eyes but is a good (if bland) character.
- Riddle for the Ages: Who created him? How did he lose his arm? How did he end up getting stuck in a Pocket Dimension? These and all other questions will be answered never!
- Secret Character: Unless a player stumbles across the entrance to his pocket dimension, they'll never hear about him. And even then, you have to bring him his arm before he'll bite the bullet and join the party.
- The Unchosen One: If Bowie speaks to him at headquarters he claims it is his destiny to defeat the devils, though all the evidence the game presents indicates that title belongs to Bowie himself, not him.
- Weak to Magic: If not to the same extent as Kiwi, Claude does have mediocre HP, making him more susceptible to magic attacks.
Chaz
- 11th-Hour Ranger: Joins the Force late in the game, something that is shared by Lemon. And because he joins so late, he suffers from...
- Can't Catch Up: Like Claude, he joins the Force too late for many players to bother with him. When properly leveled he pulls his weight, but it takes a lot of work and with the final boss so close, most just boot him to the Caravan.
- Cool Crown: He wears a circlet in his character art.
- Counterspell: In addition to the three elemental spells mentioned below, he also knows Dispel, which in this game acts as a pre-emptive counterspell against spellcasting enemies.
- Dub Name Change: His Japanese name is the rather obscure Oneia/Onaya.
- Expy: Like Alef from the first Shining Force, he is the top tier mage who joins the Force at the eleventh hour, though he's only human compared to Alef who is a foxgirl.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: As a Wizard, he is one of the game's few magic users who can use the Blaze, Freeze, and Bolt spells.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Apparently he isn't well liked in the Force itself, as he laments at one point that few of his fellow warriors talk to him, believing it's because they think him to be haughty.
- Late Character Syndrome: Chaz is technically the most versatile Wizard in the game. Too bad for him that it doesn't matter because the party already has and has had Kazin and/or Tywin for all their spellcaster needs.
- Legacy Character: He is the son of Hawel, who was a Wizard in the first Shining Force game.
- Looks Like Jesus: Has long, wavy hair; a long, lighty-colored robe; and some facial hair.
- Luckily, My Powers Will Protect Me: "Magic sure is helpful in a battle, isn't it?"
- Optional Party Member: Recruiting him requires the Force to return to the seemingly-deserted town of Yeel and play the piano in the tavern, opening up the hidden passageway to the tunnels where Yeel's townsfolk (including Chaz) now live.
- Parabolic Power Curve: Experiences this late game, as his defensive stats start to dwindle the more he is leveled.
- Wizard Classic: Though he is young, he checks off every other item on the list.
Lemon
- 11th-Hour Ranger: He's the very last character to join the force.
- The Atoner: He joins the Force to make up for all the evil things he did while he was the Devils' puppet.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Like (ironically enough) Sheela, Lemon's a cool character in concept but not all that great in practice, with stats that are behind both Jaha and Randolf. He does have a counter rate which is twice as good as those two if they're promoted to the Baron clsss, but generally it's not that great a consolation prize. And because he joins the party so late, he also suffers from Can't Catch Up.
- Death Seeker: Since becoming a vampire, he tries to die. Being immortal, it doesn't work.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Unlike Jaro, the Force has to both face and defeat him before he snaps out of it and joins them.
- Driven to Suicide: Well, he tried. Multiple times. All of them didn't take.
- Easily Forgiven: By Sheela apparently, seeing as how she never confronts him after he joins the Force despite swearing vengeance against him for his crimes as the Red Baron.
- Heroic Sacrifice: He ends Zeon for good by throwing himself into another dimension, taking Zeon while he's possessing King Galam with him.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: Though, not for lack of trying. His immortality means that any suicide attempts inevitably end in failure.
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: Has a huge square jaw.
- Late Character Syndrome: His doubled counter rate would come in handy during the Kraken and chessboard fights midway in the game. By the time he joins, nothing he has matters.
- Magically Inept Fighter: He comes with a cursed sword that can randomly OHKO enemies with Desoul, but has no spells of his own.
- Man on Fire: Zeon tries to kill him by setting him on fire, since vampires are vulnerable to fire. Luckily, Lemon had the Jewel of Light on him, allowing him to survive long enough to sacrifice himself and end Zeon for good.
- My Country, Right or Wrong: His initial attitude. It costs him dearly.
- One-Hit Kill: His sword randomly casts the Desoul spell, which is this if it connects. Unsurprisingly it's much more accurate and effective before his Redemption Demotion.
- Red Baron: His name while he was controlled by the Devils is the "Red Baron". It came about due to how his armor became stained red from the blood of those he killed.
- Redemption Demotion: Like Jaro, his stats decrease significantly upon joining the Force.
- Resurrective Immortality: Like Peter, Lemon will always auto-revive after a battle if he is killed. He even helpfully tells Bowie this if they talk to him at headquarters.
- Shout-Out: He strongly resembles John Cleese as Sir Lancelot.
- Token Evil Teammate: Played with — He is not evil by nature, but he was brainwashed by the devils into become their Red Baron and as the Baron racked up a very high body count.
Antagonists
Zeon
The king of all devils, who was sealed away in Arc Valley while his powers were sealed away in the Jewel of Evil before the start of the story. He seeks to one day break free from his prison and conquer the world, an opportunity that presented itself in the form of a young thief named Slade...
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The guy is huge, but fortunately, you only need to worry about the head.
- Breath Weapon: He attacks the Force by unleashing the souls of his devoured victims through his mouth.
- Big Bad: ...Well, yeah.
- Convenient Coma: He puts the kidnapped Princess Elis in one after the final battle by placing a curse on her. Only a True Love's Kiss from Bowie can wake her up.
- Eldritch Abomination: Though he looks like a powerful lich, he's actually the King of all devils. His face is rotten and skeletal, with no nose and two rows of incredibly sharp teeth, and looks like it's in a state of severe decay. His special attack involves spitting out the souls of his devoured victims at you, and the stage where you fight him in has a floor full of screaming faces. Demonic Possession by him or his Gizmo minions results in the victim gaining a Nightmare Face that's similar to his, as King Galam demonstrates. If you fight him and you choose the "Attack" option, you can see that the walls where his head is peeking out consists of more bodies of Zeon's victims as they wallow in eternal torment. Concept art from Shining Force II depicts him as a rotting corpse with green decaying skin and most of his chest has rotted away, exposing his rib cage and heart. There's also the fact that King Galam, while possessed, tried to turn Princess Elis, the daughter of his neighbor King Granseal, into a Human Sacrifice in Zeon's name, adding a darker angle to the game. All and all, Zeon's a more terrifying villain than Shining Force I's Dark Dragon turned to be.
- Fate Worse than Death: Regards his imprisonment as this, to the point of having a breakdown as Lemon drags him back into his can.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: He wants to break free from his sealing and take over the world because... reasons?
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Has several teeth that are both long and sharp.
- Nightmare Face: Try look at his profile image and not get creeped out by it.
- Our Liches Are Different: He may look like a lich, but he's actually a Greater Devil. King of the devils, in fact.
- Poke in the Third Eye: Creed and Bowie attempt to scry on him with the help of the "Evil Spilit", only for Zeon to hijack the transmission to deliver a ransom note to them.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Well, he would've stayed that way if Slade hadn't tried taking the Jewels of Light and Evil...
King Galam
- Beard of Evil: He already had a beard before his Demonic Possession, but after becoming a villain, his beard became one of these.
- Beat the Curse Out of Him: Subverted. He looks for a moment as though he's gone back to normal, but that's apparently not the case.
- Blasphemous Boast: After being beaten he claims that he's never before lost to anyone other than the gods.
- Bookends: Where you first meet him in the beginning of the game happens to be the final battle area. While you may have leveled up a LOT, so did he, and the battle isn't easy either.
- Breath Weapon: Like his master Zeon he is capable of using the very powerful Demon Breath attack. He is the Darksol in this game.
- Dragon-in-Chief: He provides a lot of the antagonism in the game, but he ultimately answers to Zeon.
- Demonic Possession: Is a victim of this thanks to a Gizmo working for Zeon. Then later he is possessed by Zeon himself.
- Eyes Always Shut: His "normal" face has these.
- Face–Heel Turn: Did this after he got possessed by a Gizmo.
- Fate Worse than Death: Poor Galam throughout this game. Along with Zeon and Lemon, he is sealed away in the darkness Zeon escaped from, though this time it is permanent.
- Forced into Evil: Oh poor King. Sarah states that Granseal and Galam were allies before the disasters. The non-playable characters also stated that Galam never used magic before and that Galam under his leadership was peaceful. If that Gizmo was indeed Zeon himself, it would explain why King Galam was able to use the weaker form of Demon Breath during battle and how King Galam's body can fuse into Zeon's huge but immobile body that can cast the stronger Demon Breath. It would also explain how Zeon would have control of King Galam's body once again. Otherwise, see below.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: The Gizmo that possessed him was just a run-of-the-mill Mook. By the end of the game, he has become the second strongest devil there is, exceeding Darksol from the previous game on stats, especially on Attack.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: His eyes turned completely white after he ewas possessed by a Gizmo.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Pulls this near the end of the game. Somewhat explainable in that your party just got through whaling on him, and he's manipulative enough to make it work.
- Nightmare Face: Gains one after being possessed by a Gizmo that looks similar to Zeon's, except it's complete with a Slasher Smile.
- Palette Swap: To the King chess piece during battle animations.
Zalbard
- Affably Evil: Rather friendly compared to the other Greater Devils, and seems willing to retrieve the Jewel of Evil without killing Bowie or his allies. Once Astral insults him, he drops it.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: His skin is a sickly green.
- Evil Sorcerer: A Greater Devil who can use magic.
- Gentleman Wizard: The devil equivalent of one.
- Good Wings, Evil Wings: As seen when he attacks, he has a pair of head-wings that masquerade as a hood when not unfurled.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Astral really shouldn't have insulted him.
- Horns of Villainy: He has the classic devil horns.
- Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: However the hell he managed to imprison the goddess Mitula?
- Our Mages Are Different: He's a devil Wizard.
- Shock and Awe: His magical forte is Bolt. His goes up to Bolt 2, and it's easily one of the most worrisome things about him.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: He's quite a challenge, and a good sign that the Greater Devils are not going to be easy to take down. He can be interpreted as the first TRUE boss of the game, in some ways.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Unlike the other Greater Devils who stick around for several encounters, he is killed off in the same encounter he is met in.
Cameela
- The Baroness: Has shades of this, as she is a Friendly Enemy to the heroes and seems to have a soft spot for Bowie in particular.
- Dark Action Girl: She even has a pretty impressive weapon.
- Death Equals Redemption: She tries to warn Bowie and the Force about Geshp with her last words.
- Enemy Civil War: Her and Geshp do not like each other, and spend a lot of time sabotaging each other's respective schemes.
- Epic Flail: She'll even drop it, occasionally, but nobody in your party can actually equip it.
- Foreshadowing: In her first encounter, she appears to be a Damsel in Distress. This helps show the player just how tricky devils can be, such as the case with Galam's I Surrender, Suckers moment and Oddler's true nature as one of Zeon's top generals.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Played with, as she has green eyes and is literally a monster (being a devil and all) but she is not particularly envious and in fact ends up being something of a Friendly Enemy.
- Kill It with Fire: If she's not bashing your brains in with her Epic Flail, she's using Blaze (which she casts by using the Iron Ball's magic ability) to do this.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Played with. She's purely a warrior devil without magical abilities, but there's no rule against her weapon being a magic item that can cast Blaze 3.
- Morton's Fork: Attempts this in her first encounter, by pretending to be a Damsel in Distress beset by devils. If you fail to rescue her, the devils can kill you and steal your jewel. If you succeed, she can get close and do it herself. Fortunately, between Gameplay and Story Segregation preventing the former and Sir Astral's involvement preventing the latter, this fails.
- Playing with Fire: Her magic specialty is a powerful Blaze 3 spell, but she does this by using her Epic Flail as an item, since she isn't a magic-user herself.
- The Starscream: Confirms the other Greater Devils as a variant of this, as without Zeon being fully revived, each of them is vying for his favor, and in her case, against his orders.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Her Iron Ball is actually obtainable if the player is very lucky and she drops it (or if she is made to drop it via a code), but no party member will ever be able to equip it.
Geshp
- Amazing Technicolor Population: He has green skin.
- Co-Dragons: Effectively serves this role with Odd Eye. With Zeon sealed away, Geshp is the field commander and strategist of the devils, and coordinates most of their operations after the fall of Granseal. Odd Eye is even stronger, but isn't much of a commander or schemer; instead, he's Zeon's personal knight and handles the most important missions, such as the fight against Darksol, attacking Volcanon, and getting the Jewel from Bowie after Geshp fails.
- Deadly Dodging: Does this to trick one of Higins's men into charging him, resulting in a Lizardman killing him.
- Demonic Possession: Attempts it on Higins. Thanks to the Shining Force's intervention, it doesn't take.
- Dirty Coward: He prefers to lead from the rear and retreat when his troops are beaten. It's only after Zeon grows tired of his failures and threatens him with death that he finally fights the Force personally.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Eagle-eyed players will notice on replays that Geshp actually appears before the game even begins, specifically during the prologue. It's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, but when King Granseal is fretting about being watched by an evil spirit the night Zeon is released, Geshp's sprite appears above him. Since he masterminds the possession of Higgins later on top this, it's safe to conclude Geshp is in charge of all the Gizmos that go around the game posessing people.
- Enemy Civil War: He and Cameela do not like each other, and spend a lot of time sabotaging each other's respective schemes.
- Epic Flail: Like Cameela, though there is nothing special about his Flail (it's actually just a low-tier weapon that can be obtained in any number of shops). But he's got a pretty good swing on him, and so, he does a HUGE amount of damage with it.
- Evil Plan: He comes up with several tricks and schemes to kill the Shining Force. None of them work, but he gets points for effort.
- Exact Words: He probably shouldn't have told Zeon that he'd "stake my life" on killing Bowie. Leave it to a devil king to take that kind of promise seriously.
- Faux Affably Evil: Has a semi-friendly conversation with Higins, just before the above bit of Deadly Dodging, plus killing Higins's other comrade by siccing a Lesser Demon on him, and then attempting to have another Gizmo possess Higgins.
- Good Wings, Evil Wings: His rarely-used attack animation reveals that he has classic demonic bat wings. Like Zalbard, his wings look like clothing when not unfurled...in his case, a neat mantle.
- Hate Sink: As mentioned below, he's the only one of all the greater devils not to have a positive trait of any kind. He's deeply unpleasant, a villain through and through.
- Hope Spot: For him, being let go by Bowie. He promises he won't forget it (probably not in a grateful way, knowing him) and starts to slink off when balls of fire surround him and Zeon's voice rings out to remind him of his promise. A few seconds later, he's toast.
- An Ice Person: His magic specialty is Freeze, and his goes up to Freeze 4.
- I Shall Taunt You: He's kind of fond of this.
- Karmic Death: He kills Cameela with a fire spell after she is defeated, smugly reminding her that it is Devil law that traitors die by fire. Guess how he dies?
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's a little on the short side, but he's among the most dangerous of the devils.
- Smug Snake: Unlike literally every other greater devil, he never shows any positive traits, just smirking arrogance and slimy cowardice. He even claims he knows everything.
- Villains Want Mercy: Begs for his life after being defeated, and is so pathetic about it that Bowie spares him. Unfortunately for him, Zeon is not in a forgiving mood...
- Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: Fitting for a Devil tactician.
- You Have Failed Me: And Zeon executes him for it, just as he promised he'd do.
Odd Eye
- Badass Cape: To cement his Shadow Archetype nature.
- Bishōnen Line: All the devils before him are visibly demonic in some way, but Odd Eye has no devil features of any kind.
- Co-Dragons: Effectively serves this role with Geshp. With Zeon sealed away, Geshp is the field commander and strategist of the devils, and coordinates most of their operations after the fall of Granseal. Odd Eye is even stronger, but isn't much of a commander or schemer; instead, he's Zeon's personal knight and handles the most important missions, such as the fight against Darksol, attacking Volcanon, and getting the Jewel from Bowie after Geshp fails.
- Cool Sword: His weapon is the Counter Sword, a Mithril weapon. It can actually be made from one of the Mithril rocks the party obtains, or if you're very lucky he may drop his.
- The Dragon: He's notably the only Greater Devil that Zeon doesn't treat with contempt. Or maybe he just treats Geshp that way.
- Easy Amnesia: After losing his fight with Volcanon, he falls to Bedoe and loses his memories of being a Greater Devil.
- Eyes Always Shut: Well, almost always. He opens them to use his special attack ala Cyclops of X-Men fame.
- Eye Beams: His specialty attack.
- Four Is Death: Particularly so in his case, as he is not only one of the four Greater Devils, he is the fourth of them, and easily the strongest.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: He uses a sword, fitting his role as the Shadow Archetype of the hero.
- Meaningful Name: He may have appeared as a normal boy when you first meet him, but there was something definitely... ahem, "odd" about him.
- Noble Demon: So much so that he is literally called this in game.
- Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: He apparently gave Volcanon quite the fight, though you only see the aftermath.
- The Reveal: That kid that's been following you around? Turns out he's actually one of the most dangerous guys in the Devil army.
- Shadow Archetype: He's essentially what Bowie would have turned out to be if he was a devil instead of a human.
- Shonen Hair: As Oddler his hair is flat but after regaining his memory and becoming Odd Eye again his hair flares up into this.
- Sixth Ranger: He's a secret recruitable character in one of the Shining Force Gaiden Games.
- Spirited Competitor: As Odd Eye, his reaction to being commanded to fight Bowie is to think to himself that it will be interesting because of how much stronger Bowie has become since he last met him.
- Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Justified, as he was always working under Zeon, in both this game and its prequel Shining Force: Final Conflict. However, the latter gave him a reason to fight alongside the Shining Force, as they were fighting the same common enemy: Darksol, who was as much of an Arch-Enemy to Zeon as Max. In II, he reluctantly fights this iteration of the Shining Force, whom is in direct opposition of Zeon.
- Tagalong Kid: After losing his memory he tags along with Bowie and the Force for a little while, though he doesn't take up a party slot and doesn't fight.
- Tragic Villain: He returns to Zeon's side and fights Bowie because... hey, he's a devil and Zeon's his boss, that's his job. But he's not particularly happy about having to, and after being beaten he expresses a wish to reincarnate as something other than a devil.
Taros
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: He's a giant bronze statue. His battle sprite goes off the top of the screen and doesn't even reach his knees.
- BFS: Since he's a gigantic statue, his sword needs to be huge as well.
- Expy: Of Talos from Greek Mythology.
- No-Sell: The result of trying to hit him with anything that's not the Achilles Sword.
- Outside-Context Problem: He is not a devil or affiliated with Zeon's forces, unlike a majority of the game's other antagonists. He's not a type of enemy the Force has faced before either — up to that point, all they've fought have been assorted monsters and devils. He is also notably one of the only bosses who is left out of the secret postgame Boss Rush.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Unlike many of the foes the Force faces, Taros is not malevolent. It's just his job to guard the Caravan, so that's what he does.
- Riddle for the Ages: Who would go to all the trouble of building a giant, nigh-invulnerable combat robot just to safeguard a glorified Clown Car?
- Shock and Awe: Via his BFS, the Taros Sword.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The strongest of magics won't damage him, but one particular sword will do the trick.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: His Taros Sword is actually obtainable if the player is very lucky and he drops it (or if he is made to drop it via a code), but no party member will ever be able to equip it.
Willard
A talking rat that lives in the tunnels of Floor World in Creed's Mansion. He and his fellow rats attempt to eat the shrunken Force. He is also bizarrely among the bosses the Force face in the secret postgame Boss Rush.
- Make My Monster Grow: Despite being an ordinary-sized rat who should be no threat to the Force again after they return to normal size, he fights them again at the Boss Rush at the end as this.
- Red Is Violent: He's red, unlike his blue minion rats, and is much meaner in a fight than they are.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: He's large for a rat, but not to the point where he'd be of any concern to human-sized opponents. Until the Boss Rush at the end, that is.
- Shout-Out: His name is, of course, a shout out to the 1971 film Willard.
- Talking Animal: He only gets two lines, but he does get them.
- You Dirty Rat!: He's a villainous rat who is shown to giggle at the prospect of eating the Force.
Other NPCs
Sir Astral
- Adults Are Useless: During your first battle, all he does is stand by the side and never attempts to help you once. This theme continues throughout the entire game.
- Dirty Old Man: In the Japanese version only. Notably, he even pervs on his own student Sheela, which the US version tastefully changes to admiring how much she's matured.
- Expy: He's a thinly veiled one of Gandalf, at least in appearance, though he is rather less helpful.
- Idiot Ball: Localization-only. Insulting the Greater Devil Zalbard wasn't very helpful.
- Informed Ability: He's constantly praised as a great wizard, but aside from exorcising a Gizmo from King Granseal very early in the game there is very little evidence of his magical prowess.
- Old Master: He's 70 years old and a master mage (though this verges on Informed Ability).
- Tagalong Chronicler: He accompanies the Force through the entire game but not once does he ever join in battle. The most he does is drive off a Gizmo and Cameela in between battles.
- The Mentor: He fills the same role as Nova from the first game.
King Granseal
- Blush Sticker: A more realistic example than most.
- The Good King: In contrast to King Galam.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Early on. His brief Demonic Possession only galvanizes him into action. But the loss of his country and daughter leaves him despondent for 90% of the game.
Princess Elis
- Convenient Coma: Was put into one after she was kidnapped by Galam. A true love's kiss from a pure-hearted hero was supposed to wake her up.
- Damsel in Distress: The perfect hackneyed stereotypical example. All she needed was for Zeon to tie her to the railroad tracks.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Has golden hair and is a nice character. Too bad we don't know much of her personality beyond that.
- The Quiet One: Due to spending most of the game as a Damsel in Distress. She actually only gets a handful of lines throughout the entire game.
- True Love's Kiss: Receives one from Bowie (who barely knows her). This ends up leaving Sarah, who was revealed to be in love with Bowie all along, completely heartbroken.
Creed
A former Greater Devil, who retired from doing evil things that all Greater Devils do and is currently living a comfortable life in his mansion.
- Heel–Face Turn: He used to be a Greater Devil... but these days, he's a pretty chill dude. Heck, his butler's more malicious than he is.
- Irony: Late in the game, he acts as a stand-in for the priests, taking their usual role as a talking Save Point. A Greater Devil. As a priest.
- Mr. Exposition: He's the one that explains most of the situation with the Devils to you.
- Mysterious Past: How exactly does a Greater Devil come to retire? Every other one we see regards working for Zeon as a lifetime job and Zeon himself doesn't seem the type to let his minions retire on him. Possibly justified if he never worked for Zeon. Comics claim Creed is the firstborn offspring of Zeon but this is at best apocryphal.
- Retired Badass: Just be glad he's on your side.
- Save Point: Acts as one before the final battle.
Mitula
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Unlike Volcanon, she's a beautiful goddess who helps the Shining Force smite the devils.
- Damsel in Distress: Unlike Volcanon she is not at all a combat-oriented kind of god and is imprisoned by the weakest of Zeon's Greater Devils. Bowie and the Force have to save her.
- The Reveal: Remember that old lady who always greets you when you start up the game? Turns out it was actually Mitula in disguise.
- True Blue Femininity: A beautiful goddess who's decked in blue all over.
Volcanon
The powerful, birdlike god of Parmecia, who lives in Mount Volcano north of Polca Village. Unlike Mitula, he hates humans, and doesn't care if they die off or not. Or so he leads them to think.
- Divine Birds: He is a bird god himself and is also the creator of a species of Divine Birds, the Phoenixes.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: The reason why he was an asshole to the Shining Force at first is so he can motivate them to display their true courage. Once they proved themselves, he dropped the act and became their ally.
- Humans Are Bastards: Seems to hold this belief towards the people of Parmecia. He even states that he's okay with the prospect of humans becoming because it is their destiny as a species. The Reveal at the end of the game implies he's not as negatively predisposed towards humans as he wants them to believe, though he still prefers Birdmen.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: His battle with Odd Eye is never seen, as the Force only makes it in time for the battle's aftermath.
- Physical God: He's by far the most powerful of the gods the player meets, defeating Odd Eye in a fierce battle that left scars all over the town of Bedoe.
