Shining Wisdom

Shining Wisdom is Sega's thoroughly mediocre take on The Legend of Zelda. Now with 90% less references to Shining Force!

To do: Find a way to get a proper Japanese script up. The script uses an unknown encode in addition to SHIFT-JIS. Basically anything and everything related to enemy stats and Working Designs.

Debug Menu#

To do: Machine translation of the two unknowns suggests the first option may be some kind of animation viewer, while the second is an event of some kind?

To reach it in all versions of the game, set 06006637 to 01, or just using Action Replay code 36006637 01 and then pressing R during gameplay. This menu was not translated for the US/European release.

Additionally, pressing L in-game will display your current co-ordinates on the bottom-right of the screen. This also allows you to clip through most parts of the game, though it may need to be retoggled occasionally. In addition to this, various buttons on Controller 2 appear to play various animations for Mars.

• Controller 2:

Pressing A, B, X, Y, or Start on the second controller will play various animations for the character Mars; these may change depending on if the character is standing still or in motion. In addition, L will freeze the game. While in this state, pressing A/B/X/Y/Start on the second controller increments the game frame by frame.

• X04.BIN

Found alongside the dialogue for debug are additional options that have yet to be discovered, or may just be remnants of options removed from the game.

ﾇ<    ﾛｼﾞｯｸﾃﾞｰﾀ ｵｰﾊﾞｰ ｱｲﾃﾑ ﾓﾀｾﾙ   ｱｲﾃﾑ ｽﾃﾙ    ｱｲﾃﾑ ｿｳﾋﾞ   ｱｲﾃﾑ ｿｳﾋﾞ ABC   ｱｲﾃﾑ ｺｽｳ    ｿｳﾋﾞ ｱｲﾃﾑ ABC   ｱｲﾃﾑﾒｲ ｼｭﾄｸ SHININGW_   aaa SW-         Mars     X = ﾒｯｾｰｼ 3/20  Y = ﾓｰｼｮﾝ 3/25  Z = ﾄﾘｶｰｲﾍﾞﾝﾄ   A = ﾄｺﾃﾓ ｾｰﾌ    B = ｷｬﾝｾﾙ   C = ﾌﾗｸｾｯﾄ TR = ﾏｯﾌｷﾘｶｴ    TL = ｲﾝﾁｷﾊﾗﾒｰﾀ  SELECT CHAPTER :    MP :    X  :    Y  :    :       ?     0 : 0     :   MOUND_AFTER ROYAL_AFTER GUDO_AFTER  CASL_E_AFTER

Additionally, files relating to a removed map named "M000.MPD" and "M000.BMP" are referenced at the very end of X01.BIN.

Bonus Content#

If inserted into a CD player, this will play. It's the same song used in the Sonic! Software Planning logo, minus the announcer. The one the game uses is stored in SONILOGO.CPK.

Unused Items#

Action Replay code	Icon	Item	Description	Notes
* 36006140 0001		Blast Gloves	Pick up heavier objects	Gets placed in the equip slot. Similar to the Power Bracelet in Link's Awakening.
N/A		zzz	zzz	Placeholder items.

Unused Text#

X10.BIN#

The first line may be two words stuck together, removing the first character gives you "Paste".

Also, located right before the item/location names is a massive enemy list from Shining Force II. It's untranslated in every version of the game, and it isn't clear what it would be used for.

M231.ETC#

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: The first line references an event flag of some kind. Add Japanese lines at some point.

Buried in the dialogue for the file select is a mysterious block of text. It wasn't translated for the European release, and Working Designs dummies it out with the following:

[#if 0]
[Something here #1{05}]
[Something here #2{08}]
[{02}Something here #3{05}]
[Something here #4{05}]
[Something here #5{06}]
[{02}Something here #6{05}]
[Something here #7{05}]
[Something here #8{06}]
[Something here #10{05}]
[Something here #11{08}]
[Something here #12{05}]
[Something here #13{05}]
[Something here #14{08}]
[#endif]

Regional Differences#

To do: Find more English text differences and add Japanese names

For some reason, Sega chose Working Designs to publish the game in America. The initial script was translated and handed to Working Designs by Sega/Camelot, but it was deemed to be poor in quality and turned down. That discarded script was later polished somewhat, and used for the European release, while the American release...

...Had virtually every line of text rewritten, for better or worse.

Even something as simple as generic system text wasn't spared:

Name Entry#

Japan	US

Aside from removing the Japanese characters as an option, the US version also adds a set of lowercase lettering. It also prefills in the name "Mars", likely to make the default name more obvious to players (pressing Start without entering a name in the Japanese version gives you the name "マルス" or Mars).

Beyond the Beyond#

A new developing power is the nation of Strom Sang! This country has been becoming more prominent lately, and they have developed strong ties with other tribes.

What lies Beyond the Beyond? No one knows, for the journey is fraught with boredom and mind-numbing despair. Even the most enthusiastic adventurers became tepid and abandoned the quest.

A reference to Shining in the Darkness (albeit misspelled, as the place was called Stormsong) was rewritten to reference Beyond the Beyond. According to Working Designs head Victor Ireland, this was done as part of their infamous feud with Bernie Stolar, who was at the time head of Sony's US PlayStation division.

Removed Shining References#

Many references to Shining Force II, the game's prequel, were scrubbed clean in the American version; only Granseal was allowed to remain intact. It's worth noting that the European version uses an alternate spelling of Zeon.

Other times, references were paved over entirely.

Item Names#

Item Descriptions#

Oddities#

M221.MPD#

Strangely, the title screen is considered its own room, complete with an ID that cannot be seen under normal circumstances. There is also an .ETC script present, but it's completely untranslated and even then there doesn't appear to have any unique dialogue in it. No CHR file (what appears to be the file that controls NPCs) for the map exists.

Attempting to swap the .ETC files will just display the map with the title screen in front for a brief second, then load the File Select.