Shining Blade (シャイニング・ブレイド Shainingu Bureido) is a PlayStation Portable entry in the Shining series. It is notable for being an all star cast of previous Shining characters from the Tony Taka era.
Plot[]
The Dragonia Empire are laying waste to the world with a plan to use the souls of their victims to revive the Dark Dragon and kill the Spirit Lords.
To oppose this, Roselinde Freyja, a shrine maiden knight of Crantor, summons forth a powerful soul blader, Rage Sheena, from the world of Elde, in order to join her resistance army of heroes from other worlds and seek out the legendary Shining Blade.
When Roselinde and Crantor is attacked, Rage attempts to protect her, but is thrown from a cliff during the battle into the sea, promising to come back and save her even as he falls. When he awakens on the shore of Fontina, he is rescued by the princess and protector of the elven forest kingdom, Altina Mel Sylphis. Although humans are not allowed in the forest, Altina is persuaded by both the Cait Sith, Lin Xiaomei and Rage's soul blade, Yukihime to nurse him back to health.
After helping Altina protect her forest from the Empire's forces led by the undead centaur knight Sleipnir, Rage hears about the Valeria Liberation Front's location from the lost Elmina Rodelia, and decides to head to their location to join the effort against the dark forces.
Arriving in Argo, Rage and his allies meet Fenrir, a wolfling seasoned warrior and the vice captain of the Valeria Liberation Front, but are surprised Fenrir seems to know who Rage is. When meeting the captain, Rage is shocked to discover he knows them. It's Sakuya, his swordsmanship teacher from his world. She introduces Rick Elwood to Rage, who takes an instant dislike to him, blaming him for not being strong enough during Crantor, as the day he was thrown from the cliff is the day Rick's friends lives were lost. Sakuya attempts to have the two get along as she trained both of them, but Rick is unable to let go of the past. Rage is also taken aback when Lin Xiaomei reveals herself to actually be a beastman, transforming into her true form, and having been tasked with leading Rage back to Sakuya.
During a mission to fend off monsters from the surrounding area, Rage meets yet another member of the Valeria Liberation Front, Amil Manaflare, who always hangs around Rick. Sensing she seems to be a nice person, Rage wishes to see what she can do on the battlefield, but Amil vanishes when the fight starts. Confused at first, Rage finds out that Amil is in actual fact a Soul Blade similar to Yukihime, only she used to be human. She is one of the victims of Crantor, and her soul was reshaped by Sakuya into a blade allowing her to reunite with Rick. Amil holds no grudge against Rage, and requests he become Rick's friend to help him recover from the pain of losing her and their other friends. The soul of Airy Ardet, another of Rick's fallen friends, is found by Sakuya and transformed into a soul blade by her, allowing her to reunite with Rick and Amil.
Rage and Rick are forced to team up by Sakuya, in order to clear a path of Cleria, allowing Sakuya to meet back up with some old allies, the naive holy maiden Ryuna, and her knight, the dragonewt Gouryuki who were defending the White Dragon church from the Empire's forces. After rescuing the two of them, they reveal they've discovered a mysterious cyborg. Upon Sakuya touching the cyborg, she awakens and introduces herself as Kerberos, identifying Sakuya as her master and joining their cause alongside Ryuna and Gouryuki.
Elmina is still worried about her friend, the missing Princess Aira, and so they launch a journey into the mountains to rescue her. After fighting their way to the top of the mountain they come into contact with El Blanc, the ice dragon and request information about the missing Ice Spirit King, the one who can release the seal of the Shining Blade. El Blanc tests to see if they are trustworthy through accepting his trial. Upon defeating the ice dragon, El Blanc notes they are favoured by the light. Princess Aira, upon seeing them triumph comments that Sakuya selected the right person. El Blanc explains the Spirit King of ice was absorbed by the Empire whilst El Blanc was kept busy fighting the giant robots they sent to distract him. With the Ice Spirit King dead, El Blanc entrusts the next generation of Ice Spirit King to Elmina, handing her a blue egg to keep safe. Confused, Elmina fears they won't be able to communicate with an egg in order to release the seal, but Aira tells her she needs to sing the song from their past. Confused, Elmina does so and the egg cracks, powering up Yukihime and revealing that Elmina is in fact a Loreley, a songstress that can sing a mana song to remove the seal on the shining blade.
Seeing this, Altina becomes worried about Fontina, as the Wood Spirit King also appears to be losing his power. Sakuya suggests they hurry back to Cleria as a result and start a war meeting. El Blanc gives Sakuya a magical program that can control spirit energy. At the war meeting Sakuya explains the war is slowing down, but they're still outnumbered and Runevale may be under attack. Fenrir, who has a score to settle with General Surt, suggests putting himself forward to bait him out, but Princess Aira offers to use herself as bait as Fenrir would make Surt wary. Sakuya is unsure, but Aira ensures her that she can handle herself and she trusts them to watch over her. Elmina insists she also act as a decoy alongside Aira, refusing to let her do it alone.
The trap works, and Surt falls for it, hoping to steal the Ice King Spirit Egg from Aira and Elmina, but soon finds himself surrounded. Elmina uses her Force Song, defeating Surt's force field, whilst Aira, Rage, Fenrir and the others defend her. After being defeated Surt flees, with Fenrir wanting to pusuit him when a new batch of enemies arrives. Rage is confident they can defeat anyone who shows up, but to his surprise it's Roselinde under control of the Empire, using her own Force Song manages to capture several souls in a soul lantern. Rage flashes back to his first meeting with her, where they became friends. Rage spaces out, with Yukihime chewing him out for it as Roselinde is not alone. The mysterious man with her clad in black armour, Fafner, pulls a sword from Roselinde's heart and weilds it to protect her. Rage angrily yells at Fafner to return Roselinde to him, but she appears to be brainwashed, not knowing who Rage is and obeying the empire beginning to attack him.
After the group defeat Fafner and Roselinde, they retreat. With Surt having fled, the Valeria Liberation Front leaves Runevale's defence to the charge of the holy knights order, and continue on to the Elf Kingdom Fontina to seek the Wood Spirit King's status lead by Altina who is full of mixed emotions. Fontina is under attack from Sleipnir with the situation worsening since Rage and Altina left. Altina lead the group down a secret path, but in doing so went against the strict elven rules of the elders. Upon arrival, Altina, despite being the princess, is taken to meet the elders immedietly.
Altina is brought before the elders and Chairman Alpheus accuses her of ignoring elven law by bringing the outsiders in. Altina tries to plead that she has only done so to keep Fontina safe, but as it goes against tradition, the elders are furious. They reveal Altina's sister, Ranah Elwyn Sylphis, has also recently returned and is ignoring their rules as well, having gone to speak to the Earth Dragon. Ryuna, requests permission to speak and is recognised by the chairmen. Ryuna suggests Yukihime reveal herself, and showcases her and Rage to the elders announcing them as the heroes of Crantor and the legendary blade. Ryuna explains the nation is in a dire situation, to which Alpheus grants special permission for them to remain in the forest in return for defending their village.
Altina plans to go after her sister, and Rage, Elmina, Fenrir and the others suggest going with her, much to her surprise. After walking through the forest for some time, they come across Ranah, who happily greets them and acts non chalantly about Altina's rules. Altina chews Ranah out for her carefree attitude, but Ranah brushes her off saying she has to talk with Beilgran, the Earth Dragon and to get the egg. Realising Ranah will face the trial alone if they don't aid, Altina and the others chase after her, catching up with her.
After defeating the monsters, they meet Beilgran who reveals he knows of Altina and Ranah. Once again they must face the trial of the dragon to obtain the wood spirit king egg. Upon defeating him, he shows where the egg is kept and hands it to the elven princesses. To Altina's surprise, Ranah tells her she's the Loreley, not her. Altina sings her song, and the egg hatches. Ranah reveals she always knew Altina was the one, and went to get the egg to spare her the trial. Altina is upset that Ranah once again made a decision all by herself and doing whatever she wanted for Altina's sake. Altina becomes upset that she cannot hate her sister, calling her an idiot. Once she calms down, Altina thanks the others for their help in keeping Ranah safe, which surprises Rage and Elmina. Altina takes umbridge at their opinion of her. Sakuya asks Ranah what she will do now, and she joins the Valeria Liberation Front, as Belgeria bestows a new power upon Sakuya.
Sleipnir has returned to Fontina, and captures a Alpheus' grandaughter who was heading to the hidden village from shelter. Ranah, furious, leads a mission to defend the villagers, and retake the city that Sleipnir and his Dark Knights captured. The mission is a success, and by leading the mission Ranah is officially coronated as queen, much to her displeasure, with Altina and Alpheus encouraging her to take the responsibility. With her first royal command, Ranah states Fontina will be aiding the Valeria Liberation Front and she will be fighting on the front lines.
With Fontina safe for now, the group head to Bestia, the land of the beastmen. Here they meet up with Jin-Crow, an ally of Sakuya's who explains the situation. Their king, Diocres has died in the battle in the capital and their twelve generals have gone missing. Worst of all, the sealed body of Dark Dragon was taken. With their kingdom's spiritual energy so low, Ryuna worries that the Flame Spirit King that resides there may have been taken by the empire and encourages the group to head to meet with Blaeburn, the fire dragon. Unfortunately the empire has seized all ships, making getting to the volcano island where Blaeburn lives difficult and Jin-Crow also explains the enemy general Alberich has captured prisoners.
Hearing Alberich's name triggers anger in Rick, who demands to know where he is. Jin reveals he could not track Alberich as he moves like a phantom. Rage tells Rick to calm down, but Rick is boiling with anger. Sakuya tells everyone to calm down as fighting amongst themselves. She asks Rick to wait a little longer, to which he calms himself and agrees. Xiaomei suggests they find out why Alberich is keeping alive prisoners. Jin offers to investigate whilst Fenrir prepares an ambush to draw the enemy out.
Jin returns and the group decides to send someone to infiltrate. Rick volunteers to go, but Rage insists on going too. Sakuya agrees that whilst Rick is likely strong enough to do it alone and is the more skilled one at infiltration, it's not safe for him to go alone. Rick tells Rage he can come but to make sure he doesn't get in his way. Rage and Rick infiltrate the fortress and defeat the patrolling guards. Locating the prisoners and having obtained a key, they head to rescue the captives. Rage questions what the fortress is, and Rick explains it's not just a holding camp, but a place to gather people and kill them more efficiently, having overheard the people of Bestia talking about how their people were being sent to these slaughterhouses. Jin catches up with the duo to warn them that Alberich is on his way with lots of soldiers. Fearing the imprisoned people will be too weak to flee Alberich, Rage tells Jin and the others to rescue the prisoners whilst he stays and buys them time by holding Alberich back. Rick tells Rage that holding Alberich back won't be enough, and that he will stay and defeat him as well.
Worried Rick will let his anger take over, Rage reminds him the mission is to stall Alberich to buy people time to escape. He promises Rick that he will get another chance at vengeance against him. Rick states he knows this, and Rage should save his breath.
The two engage Alberich in combat, giving enough time for others to get to safety, before exiting themselves. They regroup with Sakuya, unhurt, and Rick is greeted by a volunteer soldier. He apologises for believing the rumours that Rick killed his own allies, and realises that Rick is the polar opposite of what he first believed. Rick is taken aback and softens at this, but his embarrassment prevents him from thanking Rage for his help. Sakuya teases Rick for not being more honest with his feelings before walking off with Fenrir to plan their next mission, with Rick calling after her asking what she was trying to imply. Rage meanwhile thinks about the holding cells and reflects on Roselinde, trying to understand why she would be with the Empire, concluding she must be under their control as she would never work with such monsters. Yukihime attempts to comfort him by telling him the empire will not kill Roselinde whilst she is useful to them, and that gives them a chance to rescue her. Rage states that if she is rescued by sacrificing more victims, it'd only bring her more pain. Rage vows to defeat the Empire, as it is the only way she would be happy.
Gameplay[]
The gameplay is reminiscent of Valkyria Chronicles' real time turn based strategy gameplay, with players taking a party of five characters onto the field and moving them around the map in real time before attacking, and then their turn is over. Each character has a stamina meter which dictates how far they can travel on their turn. Characters on the field can team up allowing players to move units together. Also similar to Valkyria Chronicles, each character has a set of unique traits which can affect them depending on their surroundings in either positive or negative ways. For example Rick Elwood has a trait called "I hate Rage" that lowers his defence if Rage Sheena is standing near him, whilst Rage has a trait "Hot-Blooded" that increases the damage he deals when attacking enemies.
After a turn if the character has attacked they will become fatigued and their attacks slightly weakened, with each subsiquent use of a single character weakening them if in the same battle phase. Other status effects can be inflicted upon them such as paralyse, which prevents any further movement for that battle phase, poison, which slowly saps their health and confusion which locks off the ability to use Force powers.
In towns, Sakuya is able to use her Soul alchemy to create artifacts that can alter the stats of characters when held. She can also enhance these artifacts using materials found in battles and enhance Force abilities of each character making them far more powerful. All these enhancements cost Souls which are obtained from winning battles.
Much like in Shining Hearts, bread also plays a significant role, with many different bread types being able to greatly enhance everyone's stats for a single battle when purchased.
At a later point, certain characters obtain the Force Song ability which allows them to nullify the force fields generated by boss-class enemies. Whilst powerful, the Diva that uses it is unable to be selected and is left wide open to attack. This can be nullified by other units that have guard attractor abilities such as Rick with Ardet Arms or Gouryuki. The song can be cancelled if needs be but the forcefield will be placed up once again.
The characters also have inter-character relationships with the more time units spend together, the more their relationship improves, side stories and strength of team attacks when using the Link system. In towns Rage will be able to talk to the characters and given a set of dialogue responses to react to their questions to also improve the relationship between them.
Characters[]
Shining Blade's cast consist of various returning characters from the Tony Taka era of Shining titles:
New[]
- Rage Sheena: A good hearted and brave, if straight forward heroic young man and the brother of Kanon Sheena, the heroine of Shining Wind. Rage weilds the legendary blade 'Soul Blade Yukihime'
- Yukihime: The incarnation of a legendary blade from Dream Land Endias' Krantal Kingdom, she possesses endless spiritual power and can take human form. She is partners with Rage.
- Roselinde: A shrine maiden clad in crimson knight armor, she has become an unknowing puppet for the Empire. She can use her power as a songstress to gather powerful souls onto the battlefield all for the purpose of reviving the Dark Dragon. Rage, having realised her situation vows to rescue her.
- Altina Mel Sylphis: An elven princess of the forest kingdom Fontina, she protects the holy ground known as the Silver Forest. She's good natured but straightlaced and doesn't take kindly to careless humans. She's the younger sister of Ranah Elwyn Sylphis and Alvin Ray Sylphis and adores spirits and singing.
- Fenrir: A wolf beastman and vice commander of the Valeria Liberation Front. He is a brave warrior with an exemplary record who can command individuals troops with a calm demanour, although his hot blooded side can be harsh with younger soldiers, putting them through hellish training. He has a long standing feud with the Dragonia Empire's Imperial general wolf beastman, Surt.
- Gouryuki: A member of the Dragonewt race and a heavily armoured knight with a tough body and extraordinary strength. Whilst he looks imposing he's kind and believes in defending the weak. Works alongside Ryuna.
Returning from Shining Tears[]
- Aira Blanc Neige Galdinius: Princess of Holy Kingdom Runebelle and Elmina's good friend, she is known by her enemies as the Witch of the Ice Blade due to her powerful magic and unforgiving, cool nature.
- Ranah Elwyn Sylphis: Princess of the forest kingdom, Fontina and Altina's older sister. Ranah has a bright and innocent personality but defies Elven law and by leaving her insular society to travel the world freely. This puts her at odds with Altina at times.
- Ryuna: A holy maiden of the White Dragon sect, she stands strong to protect the people from the demons of the Black Dragon sect and has deep knowledge about the origins of the world. She protects the weak alongside Gouryuki.
Returning from Shining Wind[]
- Kanon Sheena: Rage's older sister and heroine of Shining Wind. She has a peppy and positive attitude. She travels from world to world as many times as it takes to retain peace. She's known to be a meddlesome overbearing sister towards Rage, believing him to be lazy and incompetent.
- Xecty Ein: A warrior homunculus created from splicing elf genes with Ancient Endias' bio-organic weapon, Xecty is studying abroad under Kanon's protection. She is currently Kanon's protege, and follows her from world to world.
- Kureha Touka: Shrine maiden and songstress, she travels alongside Kanon and Xecty to other worlds and uses her considerable spiritual power to stop the interference and destruction of worlds. Rage has a crush on her.
- Elmina Rodelia: A naive noble girl living in the outskirts of Runebelle. A songstress who studies magic in order to protect her friend, Princess Aira. She's a slow bloomer, is deathly afraid of boys and has a horrible sense of direction. She first appears in the novel "Shining Tears to Wind"
- Clalaclan Philias: The oldest princess of the holy kingdom Philias, Clalalcan is a princess knight who fights on the front lines for her subjects using her defensive power and holy magic.
- Jin-Crow: A black clad, white crow birdman who was once a spy for the beast kingdom Vestia, he took to wandering the lands making a living as a ninja.
- Kaito Kiriya: The hero of Shining Wind, he has infiltrated the Dragonia Empire under Sakuya's orders.
Returning from Shining Hearts[]
- Sakuya: Otherwise known as Maxima Enfield, Sakuya is the overseer of worlds, has the blood of the ancients running through her veins and is the leader of the Valeria Liberation Front. She teaches both Rage and Rick swordsmanship and has the ability to use Spirit Cards in order to transform herself and her weapon into five additional forms alongside her default Noir mode.
- Rick Elwood: The hero of Shining Hearts, Rick is haunted by the deaths he was unable to prevent when his village and the bakery he used to run was destroyed by Alberich of the Dragonia Empire. He apprentices under Sakuya and bickers often with Rage, seeing him as a carefree idiot in the beginning, before slowly becoming his friend and ally. Rick uses his fallen allies as his soul blades.
- Mistral "Misty" Neries: A dreaded pirate and sea witch, Misty belongs to the dragonereid race. Blessed with a long life due to her dragon's blood, at 317, she is still relatively young for her race. She believes all men to be below her, and takes on a queen like disposition although she has a weakness for animals.
- Neris Filiam: Rick's neighbour, and one of the three girls who worked at the bakery alongside him. Neris was unfortunately killed, but her soul was preserved as the Bowgunblade Filiam for Rick to weild.
- Amil Manaflare: Rick's neighbour who ran the bakery back in their hometown. She died in Rick's arms during the attack from the Dragonia Empire. As a result she remained with him when he joined the Valeria Liberation Front with Rick despite being just a soul. Sakuya transformed her soul into the Magic Crystal Blade Manaflare, allowing her and Rick to fight together still despite her death.
- Airy Ardet: Rick's neighbour who helped with bakery deliveries whilst also working as a nun at the church in their home town. She went missing after the Dragonia Empire but was discovered by Sakuya who transformed her into the Holy Shield Blade Ardet, allowing her and Rick to be reunited once again.
- Lin Xiaomei: A Cait Sith, Xiamei appears in her real form in Shining Blade for the first time. She is Sakuya's confidant and helps watch over, protect and cultivate brave humans. She has the ability to transform into a cat eared beastman and join the fight too.
- Gadem: A black panther beastman who swore his allegience to Misty after she saved his life. He's an old fashioned warrior type who has his interested piqued by Yukihime and loves to test his skills against strong opponents.
- Isari Gerrard: An eccentric bounty hunter who makes a living hunting down demons and dragons. His hobbies include fishing and he happens to be a member of the Arc Buccaneer Pirate crew.
- Dylan Rouen: Leader of the Arc Buccaneer pirate crew, Dylan has ties to Sakuya and is known far and wide as Twin Swords Dylan.
Trivia[]
- Much like other Shining games during this era, the game did not get a western release, although an artbook was released Shining Blade & Ark Collection of Visual Materials by Udon Entertainment including information and interviews in English.
- Kanae Itō who previously voiced Neris, Amil and Airy in Shining Hearts returns to voice only Amil Manaflare. Neris and Airy are voiced instead by their replacement voice actors, Mai Azawa and Shiori Mikami respectively, from the anime adaption Shining Hearts: Bread of Happiness.
- The idea of an all star Shining line up occurred some time after Shining Tears and Shining Wind were wrapped up, with Shining Blade being the result of that concept. Tsuyoshi Sawada, producer of the Shining series pitched the concept of a land of war filled with Tony Taka's Shining cast creations.
- The original plan was to use Lazarus from Shining Tears alongside Ryuna, but due to his voice actor, Daisuke Gori, passing away, they decided to let Lazarus pass away with him, and created Gouryuki. [1]
Gallery[]
- ↑ Shining Blade & Ark: Collection of Visual Materials, pg 95