Shining Wisdom

Shining Wisdom's Japanese box cover. Illustration by Hiroshi Kajiyama.

Shining Wisdom (シャイニング・ウィズダム, Shainingu Uizudamu) is an action-adventure game developed by Sonic! Software Planning and published by Sega for the Saturn in Japan in August 1995 and Europe in June 1996. Working Designs published the game in North America in 1996 with an original script. The game was originally in development for the 32X platform.

Shining Wisdom was the first game in the series to receive development support from Camelot. Other contributing studios included R.I.S., Rit's, and Treasure. It was also the first Shining game staffed by P. E. Jareth Hein, an American programmer whose contributions include the game's English translation. Producer Hiroyuki Takahashi wrote the game's original Japanese script, and programmer Yasuhiro Taguchi directed.

Shining Wisdom was the last game in the series to feature Hiroshi Kajiyama as its primary artist and Motoaki Takenouchi as its composer. Both had become attached to the series starting with Shining Force Gaiden.

Localization Differences

The European release of Shining Wisdom uses an English script translated by Kei Kuboki and P. E. Jareth Hein. As Hein would have worked alongside the other developers of the game, this script is a close adaptation of the Japanese source material and retains references to previous games in the series.

Kei Kuboki and P. E. Jareth Hein's names also appear in the credits for the North American release of Shining Wisdom alongside that of Working Designs president Victor Ireland, whose company published the game with a rewritten script. It appears that Ireland used the script prepared by Kuboki and Hein as a basis for his localization, as the scripts share more similarities in specific phrasing than is likely to occur by coincidence.

Ireland's localizations were controversial for his tendency to replace sections of scripts that he considered boring with improvised material including crude humor, pop culture references, and exaggerated stereotypes. Working Designs would also invent new names according to Ireland's taste, which in Shining Wisdom resulted in the renaming of returning characters from Shining Force II.

The rumor that the ability to use names from previous Shining games was somehow denied by Sega is not plausible has proven impossible to verify. The idea may stem from confusion with a dispute that did exist over the names used in Working Design's localization of Magic Knight Rayearth, a game developed by Sega based on the anime adaptation of the manga series by Clamp. However, in the case of Rayearth, the dispute only arose after Ireland refused to abandon the names that he had invented in favor of those found in the English version of the anime that was being released at the time. After a protracted battle that coincided with significant delays, a compromise was reached in which Working Designs agreed to use the names found in the English manga instead. The entire debacle is chronicled in detail in inflammatory Usenet discussions from the late '90s in which Ireland himself was a regular participant.

Working Designs Translation Notes

Translation notes from Working Designs included in Shining Wisdom's North American instruction manual.

In the translation notes provided by Working Designs in Shining Wisdom's North American instruction manual, Victor Ireland incorrectly credits Sonic! Software Planning, the game's primary developer, as Sonic Team, a different studio known for the development of Sonic the Hedgehog games. Ireland spends half of the page talking inconsequentially about his spellchecker, which may be explained by Sega's rejection of the original draft of his notes. In response to a Usenet post asking Ireland to apologize for delaying Magic Knight Rayearth, Ireland writes in 1998:

. . . SoJ must approve the translation notes, as usual - they made us change the Shining Wisdom ones when the original one detailed honestly the more than 30 bugs we found in the released Japanese version we had fixed . . .

When asked to elaborate on these bugs, Ireland continues:

Um, I have enough grief over CURRENT projects. I really don't want to stir things up over a game that's 3 years old. That team is still doing stuff, and I wouldn't want to sour relations with them by going against their strong wishes. Suffice to say that the bugs in the JApanese version were similar to the one or two that remained undetected in the US version, just a LOT more of them and MUCH easier to reproduce, even accidentally.

Impact

Although Shining Wisdom was not a widespread success internationally, the title was one of the best-selling Shining games in Japan. Numbers attributed to Famitsu cite sales reaching 167,641 units within the game's release week and a lifetime total of either 301,242 or 315,579 units, making Shining Wisdom somewhere between the twenty-fourth and twenty-seventh best-selling Saturn game domestically. The dungeon-crawler Shining the Holy Ark and strategy RPG Shining Force III would be unable to match this success. This would likely have influenced Sega's decision to create more action RPGs in the early 2000s starting with Shining Soul, followed by Shining Soul II, Shining Tears, Shining Wind, Shining Force Neo, Shining Force EXA, and Shining Force Cross.

Sega continued to produce strategy RPGs in the Shining series for handheld systems and mobile phones but never again for home consoles.

Djinns

The following text on djinns is translated from dialogue found in Shining Wisdom's Japanese release.

Magician No. 1

I may just be an apprentice magician, but magic is easier than I'd thought. After all, I mastered it in an instant! It's said that in this country, magic can be used fairly easily because of the power of magical spirits! But where are those spirits?

私見習いの魔法使いなんだけど魔法って思ったより簡単よね　だってすぐにマスターしたもの!　この国は魔法の精霊の力のために割と楽に魔法が扱えるんだって!　でも精霊ってどこにいるのかしら?

Magician No. 2

The magical spirits stole the power of the giant, but that power threatened to control them . . . It seems each was sealed within its own labyrinth. I believe that if the spirits are freed, they will go into the giant's cave in the underground swamp and resurrect it . . .

魔法の精霊は巨人の力をうばったがその強大な力に操られかけて･･･それぞれの迷宮に封じられたそうだ　精霊がひとたび解放されたなら地底の沼の巨人の洞窟へ向かいやつをよみがえらせるだろう･･･。

Magician No. 3

I control fire! If you borrow the power of a fire djinn, such things are trivial. Wa ha ha!

炎をつかさどる　火のジンの力を借りればこんなことなど朝飯前だ　ワッハッハ。

Magician No. 4

The four djinns long ago . . . sealed away Surtr, the giant. Much of the magical power we use is given to us by the djinns.

4つのジンはその昔･･･スルトの巨人を封じ込めたのじゃ　我らの使う魔法の力の多くはそのジンに与えられておるのじゃ。

Magician No. 5

O young warrior! Let me tell you! This land is a corrupted place! It was in this land that the sinister giant of legend fell in a decisive battle between the ancient gods and devils.

若き戦士よ　教えてやろう!　この地は汚れし土地じゃ　古えの神々と悪魔の最終決戦で伝説のいまわしき巨人が倒れし土地ぞ。

Resources

See: Shining Media § Shining Wisdom

Game Directory

Seeː Shining and Related Games

Shining Games
Mega Drive	Shining and the Darkness・Shining Force・ Shining Force II・Shining Force CD
Game Gear	Shining Force Gaiden・Shining Force Gaiden II・Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict
Saturn	Shining Wisdom・Shining the Holy Ark・Shining Force III Sc. 1・Shining Force III Sc. 2・Shining Force III Sc. 3・Shining Force III PD
Game Boy Advance	Shining Soul・Shining Soul II・Shining Force: Resurrection of the Black Dragon
PlayStation 2	Shining Tears・Shining Force Neo・Shining Force EXA・Shining Wind
Mobile	Shining Road to the Force・Shining Road 2
PlayStation Portable	Shining Hearts・Shining Blade・Shining Ark
Nintendo DS	Shining Force Feather
Arcade	Shining Force Cross・Blade Arcus from Shining
PlayStation 3	Shining Resonance・Blade Arcus from Shining EX
PlayStation 4 / Switch	Shining Resonance Refrain・Blade Arcus from Shining Rebellion
Related Games
PC-88	Fangs: The Saga of Wolf Blood
Mega Drive	Land Stalker: The Emperor's Treasure・Ragnacënty
Super Famicom	FEDA: The Emblem of Justice・Lady Stalker
Saturn	FEDA Remake!・Dark Savior
PlayStation	Alundra・FEDA 2: White Surge the Platoon・Alundra 2
Dreamcast	Climax Landers
Game Boy Advance	Golden Sun: The Broken Seal・Golden Sun: The Lost Age
Nintendo DS	Golden Sun: Jet Black Dawn