Shining Soul

The game was followed by a sequel, Shining Soul II, in 2003. Both games were re-released in Japan in early 2006 as part of the Game Boy Advance "Value Selection".

• Title — Shining Soul • Developer — * Nextech • Grasshopper Manufacture • Director — Akira Ueda • Designer — * Akira Ueda • Masashi Niwano • Artist — * Akira Ueda • Rika Kurokawa • Writer — Akira Ueda • Composer — Shingo Yasumoto • Programmer — * Tetsuya Nakazawa • Tooru Yoshio • Producer — Junichiro Takahashi • Series — Shining • Genre — Action role-playing • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer • Platforms — Game Boy Advance

The game takes place in the land of Rune, where a creature named Dark Dragon has gathered an army of Darkness in an attempt to bring about the destruction of the world. Your character is a hero of the Shining Fleet, which has trapped Dark Dragon and its five generals in the region of Runefaust and is now preparing to make a final assault on the enemy forces.

The game contains four main classes (Warrior, Archer, Dragonute, or Wizard) and several dungeons that involve hack and slash style fighting. The player can cycle between magic and weapons based attacks. As you progress through the game and gain levels, you're able to allocate points for your main stats, like strength and dexterity, as well as distribute skill points. Skill points allow you to raise weapon and magic proficiency levels and to raise the levels of other abilities that are class-specific, such as defense for the warrior, critical hits for the archer, and so on.

The game saw a European release in March 2003, with Infogrames handling distribution and Sega Europe handling publication. In December 2002, THQ, who held a deal with Sega at the time to publish their games on the Game Boy Advance in the market, announced they had no intentions on releasing the title in the region.