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Just completed this. There is some good,bad,and ugly. But mostly good.There are some graphical glitches with portrait sprites when blinking or talking. Also the character Celeste is an mess of random colors on the battle slide. Battles with respawning enemies could loop infinitely. You could use it to your benefit but it's usually a hassle. Though I have seen this in many other SF2 hacks. There is alot of cool things in this one. There are new battle backgrounds which are nicely done. Most characters are now viable with upgraded magic or equipment unlike the original. Also your attacks have a chance to inflict status on the opponent. There are some minor tweaks to the plot and a cool castlevania reference towards the endgame. The difficulty is handled well. At first you are completely overpowered and the game gradually gets harder with some good challenge at the end. In all I had fun with this one. If you are a big fan of Shining Force try this out.

Gotta appreciate Dark Claw's work on many Shining Force 2 mods. After playing, I'll relay the pros and cons.

Pros

Battles are more challenging. Certain allies and enemies have a chance of landing a status effect forcing better strategy. More equipment to better your attack and defense are optional. This forces better item management. The re-color of some characters is fresh.

Cons

There are some noticeable glitches. Janet's animation is glitch central. The dialog is still vanilla Shining Force 2 with not many changes. (I blame this on playing return to grans mod), At one point Janet is called a rat - dialog needed change by switching characters here.

[Further Playthrough Edit] Things become rather unbalanced unfortunately. After arriving at New Granseal, the battles become more difficult. When you first meet the Dark Dwarf, it has ridiculous attack power and tends to get double attacks and the battle formation almost guarantees Chester is executed quickly. Enemies gain much more health and enough defense to withstand attacks. Magic damage does not help either. By the time you get near Mt volcano, the first enemy will require all of your team to beat with far too much health and excellent defense even with the new equipment that helps your attack power isn't enough.

My suggestion is to nerf this or give magic a boost like in the Shining Force 2 mod Requiem.

There are some great changes, but game play becomes unbalanced.