YMMV / Shining Force II

• Anti-Climax Boss: Zeon. Shining Force II does ramp up the difficulty for bosses this time, unlike the first game. However, Zeon suffers the same fate of the final boss in the previous game of not being able to move, meaning almost the same strategy applies. The main thing that makes the battle harder than usual is that the battle has the most powerful enemies in the game to deal with and you can only attack Zeon directly with just 1 non-flying unit. On the other hand, there are no enemies that regenerate in this battle.
• Awesome Ego: Like him or hate him, the vain and narcissistic Eric is statistically the best Centaur in the game. Karna is a younger and milder case, being the best healer and having a precocious child's conceit.
• Cliché Storm: Most notable here, rather more than the original, which was notable for being extremely creative with a lot of established RPG themes. However, this one has somewhat of an inversion of the first when it comes to the plot - the first game had been done to death over the years so the second actually comes off as more original.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
  • Sarah is frequently promoted into the Master Monk class over the default Vicar class: because she's unable to learn the most powerful healing spell, Aura, she has less to lose from the MP penalty that comes with the former promotion and on top of that, becomes a physical powerhouse. This is exaggerated to the point of becoming fanon.
  • Kazin is similarly promoted to the Sorcerer class over the default Wizard class, as his spell list with the latter is so awful - with one underpowered Blaze spell and three Useless Useful Spells - that he has the most to gain from the latter's unique spell listing. While Tyrin may be the "better" Sorcerer, his far superior spell list as a Wizard means he has more to lose upon choosing the former over the latter.
  • It's common for players to give Garhalt - an expy of the first game's Zylo - a Running Pimento, so that he could perform his attacking role more effectively and be that much closer to being just like his predecessor.
  • Upon leaving Oddler at Creed's Mansion, the player is given a choice between four characters to join their party, the other three of whom are put back in the office and left there until Creed's Mansion is destroyed. Karna, who does possess Aura, is by far the most frequent choice of these character, as the player would be left without an Aura caster until much later in the game. Tyrin is the second most chosen option, as he's the first available user of Freeze, as well as the most practical user of Bolt. The other two choices, being Magically Inept Fighters, are not picked nearly as often outside of Self Imposed Challenges.
• Damsel Scrappy: Princess Elis for a lot of players, especially because she sinks the Fan-Preferred Couple.
• Even Better Sequel: The first game was certainly a very good game in its own right, but there are few who would tell you that the second didn't take every single aspect that made it good and polished it to a shine (including balance issues!). You will invariably find it on any credible list of the best JRPGs on the Genesis, frequently at #1.
• Fanon: Given how many players prefer promoting Sarah into the Master Monk class over the default Vicar class, she is almost universally depicted as the former over the latter in fan works.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Sarah is generally the favored Love Interest, especially when compared to the canon Elis. Several long-time players were somewhat bitter that the character who's been with you the whole game and loved you from the start loses out to a princess who gets maybe two lines in the whole game.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Peter the Phoenix is, quite frankly, absolutely ridiculous. He joins very early in the game where leveling up is easier to do, he can fly, has a huge movement range, does not need equipment, gains absurd stats per level post-promotion, and, being a phoenix, automatically comes back to life if he somehow manages to die, no priest required. Most of the later battles in the game can be trivialized by flying a sufficiently-leveled Peter straight to the boss and two-shotting them. Speedrunners have a saying: "When deciding whether a character is viable in a run, you have to ask yourself one question: Are they Peter?" Those who hated how Shining Force I did Bleu wrong for forcing leveling him up or go useless were delighted to see Shining Force II make up for it with Peter (although a bit too delighted). There is no reason to not put him in the team other than as a Self-Imposed Challenge, or accidentally eating up experience meant for the other characters.
  • Karna, one of the characters you can pick up at Creed's, is almost as good as Peter, the defensive powerhouse of the game to Peter's offensive powerhouse. A Counterpart Comparison to sister JRPG classic Phantasy Star IV nicely illustrates why Karna deserves mention here: she combines the strengths of that game's two most effective healers into a single character, having the same accelerated level growth (via abuse of the Boost spell) as Rika while also having Raja's multitude of powerful healing spells and the MP to abuse them prodigiously. And unlike Peter, Karna can even be customized to a player's preferred style: promote her to a Master Monk, and she'll lean far in the Rika direction with top-notch attack power and speed, while as a Vicar she'll stand in for Raja perfectly and keep the Force alive until approximately the heat death of the universe. All this, from one character.
• Good Bad Bug: The second vigor ball in the English version(s) of the game is actually not supposed to be there. Some data got scrambled and caused a second Vigor Ball to be obtainable in a place where it shouldn't be. The result? You can make both Sarah and Karna into Master Monks - which are generally considered to be some of the best characters in the game.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Not the last time a second installment in a JRPG series would have a rodent Ninja in a major role.
• Low-Tier Letdown: Sheela and Kiwi are both popular characters, but as playable units, they tend to be left behind more often than not... Sheela because she's the weakest of the Master Monks (though some players use her anyway, because Master Monks are amazing and having a second/third one is never a bad thing), and Kiwi because his advantages as a Stone Wall are quickly made null by the game's multitude of spell-casting enemies. Chester is an even worse case, as like Sheela, he is the weakest character of his class, but unlike her and Kiwi, he never has any abusable advantages, he's just the first centaur to join the Force. And sadly, both of the two Birdmen characters fall here, as their class offers nothing that a Pegasus Knight can't do better. Skreech is easily the worse off of the two, but even the noble Luke is often booted to the Caravan in far of a Pegasus Knight-ed Eric or Rick.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • The jingle used for new characters joining the Force, especially when it comes after a turning point in their Character Development (as with Slade, Peter, and Lemon).
  • The triumphant sound that plays when a character is promoted.
  • Promoted Attack
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Master Monks are a lot more effective than Gong was in the first game. It helps that Master Monk is now a Prestige Class that can equip weapons.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Peter being AI-controlled in his first few battles, meaning he'll Kill Steal from other characters and take the Experience Points meant for them. This is especially frustrating to players that intend on benching him for a Self-Imposed Challenge, making all those impressive level-up bonuses go to waste. This can be mitigated by leaving another character behind specifically to impede his movement, although using too many characters will simply have him fly over all of them and go even further than he would have.
  • The Dwarven blacksmith. You have to hold on to useless lumps of mithril throughout almost the whole game, taking up valuable item space (at least before you get the Caravan), before the blacksmith can do something useful with them and upgrade your weapons. Although there's only about 5 pieces of mithril you need to hold on to before you get the caravan. Once you get the caravan, you can easily go back to the others. And once all that’s done, it’s a toss-up on whether or not he makes a simple Mithril weapon, or that class’ Infinity +1 Sword. Prepare for Save Scumming. A lot.
• Strangled by the Red String: At the very end of the game, it's revealed that the Princess can only be awakened from her magical sleep by a kiss from her true love. An NPC then informs the main character that they're talking about him. Which is good because, until that moment, there's been no indication that the Princess would have been able to pick him out of a line-up, let alone been in love with him. The princess gets one line appreciating the hero's bravery, then literally right afterward is pulled into the Demon World and stays there for the next 4/5 of the game, only appearing again after the Big Bad is defeated and the kissing matter comes up as mentioned.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The "Elf Village" theme uses a similar chord progression as the "Fairy Fountain" theme from The Legend of Zelda series.
• Tear Jerker: Odd-Eye's death.
• That One Boss:
  • The Chess fight can be incredibly difficult, in fact it's one of the most difficult bosses in the game, and it's not even at the end but towards the middle of the game. Your best bet is to go straight for the king and try to ignore the other pieces.
  • The Kraken can be this to an insufficiently prepared player, especially since its water bubble attack ignores defence. Again, it's best to go straight for the head to avoid being bogged down fighting the tentacles.
• That One Attack:
  • Unlike the previous game, enemies and bosses can carry Freeze 4. Geshp is the earliest boss to have it. If you are underleveled, this spell can One-Hit Kill your characters.
  • Demon breath Level 2. Carried on from the previous game, this still does massive damage to your allies (around 40 damage) within a 13-square diamond.
• That One Level: There are a few fights in the game that can be a little aggravating:
  • The initial encounter with Zalbard is this: not only is his lightning a One-Hit Kill (possibly even a Total Party Kill if the player positions their troops wrong), but most of the enemies he commands fall squarely into Demonic Spider territory for the level the player is at. Zalbard himself is also positioned in such a manner as to make it difficult for the hard-hitting melee units to get to him, and attempting to used ranged or flying characters (both of which are limited, and lack sufficient defense) will invariably add up in resurrection fees. Fortunately, he's much easier in the game's hidden Boss Rush.
  • The fight that takes place between the Odd Eye and Zeon boss fights fits in here, due to the gratuitous amounts of flying enemies with devastating spells and magical abilities, while the party is limited pretty much to following a straight path up the tower.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: A minor example is the changing of the series' Infinity +1 Sword from the awesome name of Chaos Breaker to the generic sounding Force Sword. Final Conflict tried to address this, claiming it was renamed in honor of the (second generation of the) Shining Force. To even add, the Force Sword is not even the strongest weapon in the game, as the mythril and final cursed weapons in the game exceed its power and no longer retains the unlimited use of a spell.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Slade; given his importance in the prologue, one would expect the story to treat him as a major character, which is reinforced with the Character Development he undergoes over the course of the first act. Once the first act ends, however, Slade gets Demoted to Extra as Peter takes over as the Deuteragonist. While it's implied Slade continues undergoing character development through Gameplay and Story Integration, he disappears from the narrative and is relegated to just another playable character. He's never even mentioned by name in the encounter with Volcanion, who blames "the humans" for releasing Zeon and causing the problems in the story.