The time is finally here, shining fans!
V24 is ready and is available using the button to the right.
Please let us know in the forum HERE if you have any issues or feedback.
Lots to share about this release, so I’ll get right to the patch notes.
Patch Wizard
- Debug mode has been added as an option during patching. Ask in the forum or Discord about its use.
- The view mod has been removed as an option during patching. It was causing all sorts of issues in various places. Adventurous souls can still hunt it down and apply it separately.
- Patched images now provide the build date as a consistent checksum date
In-game:
All Scenarios
- The order of difficulties “Difficult” and “Hard” have been fixed. Previously they were swapped such that “Hard” was to the left of “Difficult” in options. Now they are properly in order of difficulty from left to right and “Difficult” has been renamed for clarity. They are now Standard, Hard, Harder, Insane.
- The Status screen headers were previously skewed to the right. They have been centered in all scenarios.
Scenario 1
- The Moogie Arrow was placed on the empty mountain top in Battle 16. Previously a game shark only item which enables the special attack Goddess Charm, which has the effect of a Charm spell. The Moogie Arrow was, of course, named after our Goddess Moogie and this addition to the game will be accompanied by her inclusion in the lore, specifically in the SF3 World Book Translation Project. This is a fitting tribute to everything she has done for us over these many years.
- Weapon second and third bonus effects have been fixed. This is a bug in the original game where only the first weapon affinity bonus worked. Now all intended Holy, Demon, etc. bonuses will be applied.
- Hagane MP gain bug fixed. Previously, Hagane would get little or no MP when leveling up between levels 21-30 (he joins already promoted). Now he gets the proper gains.
- Ratchet no longer gets healer XP. Previously, Ratchet would get XP like a priest for healing and curing status effects.
- Previously it was seemingly impossible to save Irene in Battle 6 on Insane difficulty. Now she will heal herself exactly once when her HP is low. In addition, a 15% land effect was provided on the tile where she stands her ground to provide survivability. This will happen on other difficulties as well.
- {spoiler} Previously when the Elbesem Orb was returned to Synbios and Kahn’s inventory was full, the version of the Orb given was non-working. That has been fixed.
- The fix for the Storich Chicken bug provided in V23 introduced a bug where Benetram would show up as the advisor in Vagabond on revisit instead of Palsis. This has now been corrected.
- {spoiler} After the Titan was made defeatable in V22 a bug from the original game came to light where if the Titan’s HP landed exactly on 5000 or 4000 his arm wouldn’t die (which also caused the water cutscene not to fire). This has been fixed. To be clear the Titan has 6000 HP total. The first arm should die after 1000 damage and the second arm should die after 2000 damage. After that the Titan will have a dark barrier that must be removed by using the Elbesem Orb. Then his remaining HP can be damaged.
Scenario 1 and 2
- Previously there were force members who received enemy weaknesses because they shared IDs. The devs fixed this in Sc3. Now it is fixed in Sc1 and Sc2. Force members will no longer suffer these undo Magic, Holy and Demon penalties.
Scenario 2 and Premium Disc
- {spoiler} Due to the difference in characters between the Japanese and English, the secret of JuMeSyn was coming out JuMSy in-game. The correct number of letters is now used when creating this name. This was implemented for Scenario 3 in V23.
- {spoiler} Effect of Support and Slow were restored for the Kraken’s head and arms. Previously, those enemies weren’t properly affected by Support and Slow (even though the legs were).
Scenario 3
- {spoiler} Edmund redemption scene enabled! If you spare Stella in Sc2 and defeat the Masked Monk boss in Battle 12 while Edmund yet lives, his redemption scene will fire.
- The Ruins of the Wise (commonly known as the Sc3 hero’s test) previously wouldn’t give boss/floor reward items if the boss died on its turn (counter attack or poison damage). If that happens now, the reward item will go to the hero.
- Some of the less popular final promotion portraits have been replaced with the more popular portraits from the Premium Disc. Portraits replaced: Synbios, Dantares, Irene, Julian, Medion, Edmund, Jane, Bulzome?. Campbell had an issue and will be coming in the future. Note these portraits do not have moving mouths when talking, but this is in the works. If for any reason you wish to preserve the default portraits, before patching delete all the files that begin with KAO at this location: SF3PatchWizard\Patcher\GS-9203
Scenario 3 and Premium Disc
- Irene now gets proper healer XP. Previously Irene would not get XP like a priest for healing and curing status effects after her final promotion.
Premium Disc
- Image viewer crash fixed. Previously the game would crash when choosing next image viewing Campbell.
Text and Dialog:
All Scenarios
- Many corrections across all scenarios.
- Pyra’s Wand (game shark only) description now reads: Wand – Special Attack, Spark L3
It doesn’t regen MP as the previous description noted. - Alchemy Rod special attack is now called Midas Strike. Previously Change Gold which was an oddly worded translation.
- Zero Wing special attack is now called T Minus Zero. Previously Zero Count
- Removed the use of “Earth” as a proper term (but not as a general term for dirt/ground)
- Removed the use of the term “superhuman” and replaced those instances with the term “supernatural”
Scenario 1
- Cybel join dialog tweaked to reconcile with the information discovered in her World Book profile.
- {spoiler} Spelled out in the advice for the Titan battle that the Elbesem Orb is required to defeat it outright.
Scenario 2
- On the title/splash screen the subtitle has been updated to read: Target: Godchild
- {spoiler} Mother dragon in Battle 26 (Aspinia volcano) is now known as Arch Dragon.
- The music note character from David’s singing easter egg has been restored. Keep knocking on his door on the Stump Skywalk to trigger this scene.
- Ilia’s dialog clarified at the end of Ch5.
Scenario 3
- {spoiler} Dialog surrounding Thousand’s fate at the end of Battle 6 and in Foothill village cleaned up. Previously the dialog wasn’t correct for all three of his fates (talked to and joins, defeated by Cyclops and joins or killed).
- Thousands final class is now Sacred Dragon.
- Dragonman Claw special attack now known as Dragon Soul. Previously Change Dragon which was an oddly worded translation.
- Rollie’s ultimate special now known as Virgo. Previously Change Virgo which was an oddly worded translation.
- Maya and trials dialog cleaned up.
- Irene now properly speaks in broken English in her Sc3 HQ dialog.
Lots of nice new fixes and improvements. On behalf of Knight 0f Dragon and Rikapso, we hope you enjoy V24!
So excited to finally have the Moogie Arrow in the game! Moogie has meant so much to us shining fans for so long, it was only fitting that she have her own bit of lore in the shining world.
It’s always exciting when the translations come in from the World Book because you never really know what you’re going to get. Sometimes it is a big reveal and sometimes it’s a bit disappointing in its lack of development. When the story of the “First Mother” was a blank slate, it seemed like a perfect fit for a tribute to our own First Mother, the Goddess of all things Shining.
As a part of the World Book Translation project, I’m beyond happy to share that lore with you HERE.
V24 features the Moogie Arrow icon to celebrate its inclusion in the game. This icon has also been added to the icons included with the patch.
Thank you for your enthusiasm and support as always.
Until next time,
legalize freedom!
I’m SUPER STOKED for this, been waiting PATIENTLY for years for a proper release for the last 2 games, bless you all for working so hard over the years and making fan dreams come true.
Respectfully,
Mark “ShiningFan” Indiana
Thank you very much for your hard work!
Thank you so much!!! This is fantastic
Incredible. Is there a Kofi or anything I can use to throw a few bucks your way?
legalize freedom! edit: Thank you! Not at the moment, but we do have focused causes from time to time where we accept donations.
❤❤❤❤❤
Wow, you guys are doing Elbesem’s work. Thank you all for your continued efforts. Cheers.
I’m so happy to see this is still ongoing. This was one of my favourite games from my childhood, but I never got to experience the 2nd or 3rd discs. Thank you so much for continuing with this after all these years! Hope to see all 3 discs saying “FINISHED!” one day. 🙂
Thank you so much for the wonderful work!! Just one opinion: I’m not a big fan of the change of portrait artworks as it feels like a bit too heavy a change to the original game (eventhough yes the PD artworks ARE better). Perhaps this could be changed to an in-game option for scenario 3?
legalize freedom! edit: Thanks for the kind words and feedback. We will look into it.
Re:Moogie Arrow, adding any real-life person from the fandom to SF3 that wasn’t originally in-there is innacurate and unnecessary. I suggest making one patch for accuracy, and one patch for localization if you really want go down that route. I appreciate the efforts in general so far (played SF3 when patch v.16-18 was new, it’s my favorite SRPG), but not this.
legalize freedom! edit: It is our plan to make some things optional during the patching process. The Moogie Arrow has been in the game for many years as a game shark only item. Where it is placed is a perfect solution for an unused location the devs left in the game and is a good strength for where it is found. If the principle of the tribute is bothering you for some reason, simply don’t go out of your way to get it. Problem solved. The tribute to Moogie is both fitting and unique. We’ve made Sc1 far more accurate than the official release, so I’m not sure what you’re considering holy with this complaint.
Agree with shiningforceforever, the self-referential additions to the translation just seem like self-congratulation. Even poor translations that disregard accuracy in lieu of localization don’t add completely novel elements absent in the original. Crediting the team can go in the credits of the game if so desired, but this is unwelcome in the game itself. You should make this “feature” optional.
legalize freedom! edit:
Moogie is not a part of the translation team (other than doing the title screen image work many years ago) and had no input on this tribute. No one from the team is self-congratulating. That should be clear to anyone who has followed this translation over the last 18 years. And the item is completely optional. The in-game item we added to the empty unused space was present in the original game with a game shark. I think the outrage is misplaced and unfortunate.
[spoilers!]
Hello, legalize freedom. Just to clarify, if you spared Stella and kill the Masked Monk in Scenario 3, battle 12, does that mean you can now have both Produn and Edmund?
legalize freedom! edit:
No, you can get either Produn or Edmund, not both. If you spare Stella then you will have the opportunity to get Produn in Ch3. If she is killed, you will have Edmund from the beginning of the scenario.
There’s a few things I’ve noticed and that is the world “kill” for a character and the number of kills merge into one another and is Bernard supposed to be weak to Aspinia Mages and Masked Mages, because they seem to have a property bonus against him lol.
legalize freedom! edit:
Thanks for the report! We’ll look into those.
You have gone from translating, to editing the original content, making creative decisions. Portraits and moogie. You dropped ball there. It’s in really poor taste.
What’s the latest version of the patch that DOESNT have your tarnishing changes? 23?
Thanks for your efforts. You have a good thing going. Try not to ruin it, eh?
legalize freedom! edit:
Yes, that’s generally what is involved in localization. There are some no-win decisions just like there is no direction that will please everyone. Personally, I’m not interested in being in good taste. I joined this effort to help translate the game for my own enjoyment and obviously share the work with other fans. Over the years it has become possible to improve the weaker spots. The point is to have the best version of the game that we can make it. There is no version of the patch that doesn’t include our “tarnish”. You may just have to hate it or make the changes you want for yourself.
Every now and then I come back here to see the progress made on the translation/improvement, patiently waiting for the whole trilogy (+ premium disc) to be finished so that I can finally play the *best* version of Shining Force III. 😀
Contrary to some commenters, I think that crediting Moogie the way the team did it is a nice easter egg that doesn’t stray away from the original work in an objectionable way.
Keep up the awesome work!!! 😀
If you dont like the new changes just use an older patch they are well documented in what is in it.
As for me you guys are very detailed in your work and quality if you want to add new characters and levels and bring new life to the game by all means I am very excited for any changes or improvements. Cheers!!!