UPDATE: SHINING FORCE III – English Translation Patch v.24 RELEASED!

On Monday, November 21, 2022, a new patch (Version 24) was released by the Shining Force III English Translation Project. This replaces the last patch, v23, released over a year ago on August 7, 2021.

PATCH DOWNLOAD PAGE

HUGE SHOUTS to the SF3 Translation Team for bringing this latest update to the community for Shining Fans to enjoy! While this update dropped quietly and caught us by surprise, we are SUPER excited to patch our own copies of the game and take it for a spin!

Below is a copy the official release notes for this latest patch, written up by legalize freedom! (Steve Simmons). Check out all of the improvements:


The time is finally here, shining fans!

V24 is ready and is available using the button to the right. >>HERE<<
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!

About the author

SaturnDave

A massive Saturn fan since Christmas '96, Dave is enthusiastic about growing the community and spreading Saturn love and knowledge to fans old and new. Co-founding the SEGA SATURN, SHIRO! podcast back in 2017 and creating the SHIRO! SHOW in 2020, he seeks to create interesting and engaging Saturn-related content for the community. Dave's interests circle around game preservation, and he is a huge fan of game magazines and developer interviews.

Readers Comments (2)

  1. Hi is there anyway I can play these translations on the actual Saturn console? I absolutely loved SF3 and have such great memories of playing it. I’ve wanted to buy a Saturn for such a long time and SF3 is the main reason. I only wished there was a way to play scenarios 2/3 if this is possible it would be like a dream come true. Any help is massively appreciated

    • Yes. You can totally play through all 3 scenarios translated from Japanese to English on REAL HARDWARE! If you have a bit of money to spend, you can get an ODE (optical drive emulator) that replaces your Saturn’s disc drive, and allows you to load games from an SD card. Or you can go the disc-burning route, and buy a Pseudo Saturn Kai cart that will allow you to boot backup games burned to CD-Rs. Feel free to join our Discord community, where there are folks who can help you get up and running! https://discord.gg/w3FQ7pZ6Hy

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