2025 Special - Shining Soul 2

I feel it's a necessity to mention that my review of Shining Soul 2 is truncated and not intended to be a thorough explanation of all its subsystems and whatnot. In adherence to the (admittedly messy) rules of 2025 Special, I played through the game as the warrior, aka the guy who uses a sword. If you'd like to experience the game for yourself - and I recommend that you should - know that there are 7 or 8 other classes to choose from, all with their own abilities and builds. Even if this Action RPG isn't as deep as more modern games like Path of Exile, it's still a massive undertaking with a surface I'll barely scratch. In my view, limited as it is, Grasshopper Manufacture put out a Game Boy Advance classic, without losing any of the flair that has made their output so interesting to follow.

The bulk of the game has you the player dealing with a series of unfortunate events. We're talking kidnapped princesses, missing heroes, world-ending calamities, all of the greatest hits. How you deal with these problems is typical of the genre; hit them with your sword until they fade from existence. Each of the 10 dungeons consists of a series of bespoke floors packed with enemies that spawn in. There might be a couple obstacles or some minor tasks that don't involve monster smashing. Considering the basis of the genre, which has you killing over and over for precious stat-gains and better drops, monotony is expected. Thankfully, even when the repetition is noticeable, it's never unenjoyable. 

Monsters. Always monsters.

Now, for those of you out there who decide to play a melee-based class, there is one thing you need to know. You're going to get attacked, a lot. Whether those attacks actually do anything depends on defense and dexterity. Of the two, it's better to focus on dexterity, since that also affects the ability to hit things. Every level-up doles out a few points to distribute, though you can also get a ton of mileage out of some decent gear. Rare weapons and armor tend to have stat-boosts attached to them. The effects of sufficient grinding are noticeable. Anyone can appreciate the idea of having several monsters wailing on them yet barely doing any damage whatsoever. Hmm... I don't know if that last sentence sounds right. Whatever, I ain't fixing it.

When you get into resistances, the numbers tend to be negligible yet also agonizing. There are six elements. They include stuff like getting roasted by a monster's fiery breath or the chilling effects of a wizard's freeze spell. Now, where it gets "interesting" is that repeated exposure to elements will boost your resistances. These boosts are permanent but also S L O W. I mean, anyone can sit in molten lava to boost their fire resistance, but they'll need plenty of herbs and maybe a book. Even after an extended hot bath, a simple fireball can still take a big chunk of life. The efforts really don't seem all that worthwhile. If your goal is reaching the end of the game in a reasonable amount of time, then know that enemy spawns are pre-determined, and the most dangerous attacks have at least a little wind-up. Given enough practice, there's a lot you can avoid without the aid of stats. That said, you're unlikely to leave town without a full inventory of healing items. Nature of the beast and all.

Your character of choice can also have a build, which is determined by how skill-points are invested. This is perhaps more important than stats and resistances combined, because it's a reflection of your playstyle. Multiple classes rely on charge attacks over repeated button-presses for their monster slaying. Spells can be a factor as well. There's a lot to experiment with, but unless you're really committed to tackling Hard mode, I don't think you'll end up with a useless build. Stumbling through the world hitting things with a sword seemed to work just fine for me.

While there are a lot of complexities to account for, the moment-to-moment gameplay is endearingly simple. Moving from floor-to-floor crushing everything that isn't you is instantly accessible and fun. The pace is steady. Your protag moves at a decent speed and enemies don't take too long to defeat. If the quality of an Action-RPG is determined by how often the player is moving, then Shining Soul 2 does a very fine job. Since gear is often unidentified when found, most of the equipment management will be done in the hub area. Carrying identification scrolls with you into dungeons is actually counterintuitive. It's better to just keep a couple of wings handy to fly back to town whenever. This Action RPG is very good about adhering to the unwritten rules of handheld gaming. No matter where you are, it's easy to pick up right where you left off.

Seems like I'm always dealing with giant tentacled things.

Doubtlessly, each dungeon has an array of mid and end bosses to content. You'll face off with these fiends in suitably climatic encounters. Besides making for visually exciting set-pieces, these fights also have mechanics that aren't often seen in fights with average minions. What's here tends to be really good. Also, you don't have to redo the entire dungeon if you're defeated. The player can't predict everything that happens, so why punish them for that? It's just smart design to allow them to immediately retry the battle. Besides, there will be times where you'll be blindsided by a series of attacks and die in seconds. This is the developer compromising so that you don't feel cheated.  

While specific examples are hard to point out with words or screenshots, this game has a different vibe to it, likely the result of Grasshopper Manufacture's influence. Perhaps it starts with the eclectic soundtrack, which has some funky rhythms interspersed throughout. The story is a bit more nuanced than standard sword & sorcery fare, with some clever writing sprinkled around. Nothing particularly weighty, but still considerate. It's enough to keep you interested in the things that happen outside of slaughtering of looting. The bevy of sidequests, many of which tied to bonus dungeons, are all quite nice. 

Ultimately, I can't make any grand conclusive statements about Shining Soul 2. Besides my singular play-through as a sword-only Warrior, which probably took about 10 hours, my experience with the game feels insufficient. It was a good time though, and maybe that's all that ever matters. Feel free to give it a go.