User:Sojourna/Shining Force II save file issue

This personal article relates to the version of Shining Force II as it existed on the Steam digital-only compilation known generally as the Sega Genesis Classics. The author was not the owner, but has had locally-stored files through the Steam "borrow" feature thanks to a sibling sharing it a very long time ago.

Background

SEGA Genesis & Mega Drive Classics was developed and published by Sega, released on Steam on 1 June 2010. D3T Limited would later be credited on the application's Steam page with developing on SEGA Genesis & Mega Drive Classics in a 9 June 2017 change.

The compilation was an emulator application of the Sega Genesis console, offering over 50 retro video games (though Sonic the Hedgehog 1 through 3 were later removed in a 2022 update). It was sold on Steam until its de-listing on 6 December 2024.

As part of the digital-only version, the Sega Genesis Classics Hub was included and presented a virtual hub in the form of what a Sega fan's bedroom may have looked like in the 1990s. Games that were in its library would be presented as jewel cases in the floor bookshelving.

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  An official overview screenshot of the virtual hub. The bed and nearby Sonic comics on the floor to the far right are not shown.
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  A screenshot showing the author's "empty" game library.

The issue

A problem is immediately noticed in that the floor bookshelves are empty, rendering the main purpose of the virtual hub inoperable. The user is left with ignoring SEGAGameRoom.exe and launching the emulator, SEGAGenesisClassics.exe, directly.

Upon launching Shining Force II and going through the usual rigamarole, the player can proceed to either starting a new game or continuing a prior game if a save exists already. Nothing else plays a role here. To keep this simple, the assumption here is that the player is starting completely fresh.

1. Start a new game and play until whenever the user wants to end the session (length is irrelevant).
2. Press the ESC key to bring up the main window for the emulator application. Select "Save Slot".
3. Select "Resume" to return to the game.
4. Find a priest and ask to save. When the priest asks afterwards if the player wants to continue on, choose "No".
5. Progress the dialogue for the priest, followed by the witch's. Either wait or press any button to eventually return to the start screen.
6. When the witch asks "Whatcha gonna do", the only option available is "Start" — as in begin a new game. The saved game is treated as though non-existent.

The only way to avoid this problem is to not use the save slots. Utilizing the "Quick Save" (default key F5) will also cause the same problem as using a save slot — don't do it!

This means the user will have to select "New Game" from the main window every time, but at least any existing saves will show up as intended and at the correct progression point.

Sega's response

The library and save file problems existed even before the compilation's de-listing from Steam and were never resolved by the publisher. It is unknown what caused them nor why it happened to some users and not others.

Consumer response

Being able to utilize save slots (or even quick states) would save the user from arguably the greatest pain point in Shining Force II: crafting mithril weapons. Mithril weapons can only be crafted by the Dwarven Blacksmith within the hidden Dwarven Village fairly late in the game, and what is crafted is (mostly) random. The "best" weapons have the lowest drop-rate, at 6.25%, meaning there'll be many attempts involved if pursuing them.

The Sega Mega Drive and Genesis Classics unfortunately uses a mix of proprietary file extensions. In the case of Shining Force II, the file extension used is .68K. As a result, finding a community fix or work-around is very difficult — assuming that any exist and that the user is technically savvy enough to try it.

This all combines for a rather negative experience for the user.

Author's notes

After suffering the problem(s) for many years, I am finally putting this out here owing to a major screw-up on my part that resulted in losing so much real-life hours of effort and need to shout into the ether.

I forgot I needed to avoid the save slot feature and proceeded to grind for the best mithril weapons using said feature the entire time. After "properly" resetting the game state and loading my save file (I'd mistakenly saved over the save slot I was using in a bad spot), I despairingly realized that I was back to square one on the mithril weapon grind despite having "saved" with the priest NPC after each successful drop. Lesson learned.