Shining Soul II

"Best Hack 'n slash on GBA"

Shining Soul II has to be one of the best adventuring games out there. Why do I say that? Well, the graphics are nice. Not cheap 3D like Golden Sun, not horrid SNES graphices like other games. The graphics are simple, yet they look very good. This also keeps the game from lagging a lot, unlike a lot of live-action GBA games (Advance Guardian Heroes *shudder*).

Graphics: 10

As I said, they are simple, yet they show what they need to show. The sprites and the backgrounds work well together, and it's nice to see some "outside of the box" thinking (going through walls).

Music: 9

The music isn't some sort of orchestra (like the LOTR games), but rather a light-hearted adventuring kind of compilation. It fits the mood of the game, which is simply adventuring towards a goal. I especially liked the Goblin Fort music, because it seemed the most appropriate for the location, and the way that location looked. Very nice.

Customization: 8

As we progress technologically, we see more games that allow you to customize a person to the point that literally no two players will be the same (even though they may pick the same character). This holds true for Shining Soul II, in the aspect that people will employ different strategies for developing their characters as the game progresses. One may be levelling up strength to crush enemies with their regular attacks, but may find that they need to gain some MP to use a lot of charged attacks. They then raise a little of intelligence. The point system is very nice and well done. You can see the progress you're making as you're making it.

Items: 10

In an adventuring game such as this, it is important to have a variety of weapons, armor, healing items, and accessories to help your character through the best and worst of times. This game has more than any other of its kind. The fact that each character will have different items in the stores, and that these weapons and armor continue to progress even in Advance mode, show the remarkably diverse selection of items to use and equip throughout the game. Also, the various metals (mithril, orihalcon, etc) have the hidden level system in them, which is very nice.

Gameplay: 10

Excellent. Simple, yet addictive. Even if you have a warrior, which will only entail pressing A throughout the entire game, you will still be amazed at how fun this game can be. The variety of items, combined with the various uses and hidden things to do with them, makes the gameplay fun, and the enemies can get extremely hard even in the early parts of the game.

Replay: 1000000000000

This game has almost unlimited replay value. A total of eight different characters, each with the option of Advance Mode, make this game a hack 'n slash that could take easily 50 hours to complete. Truly awesome.

Overall: 9

Excellent.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/07/05