New Cheats Discovered in Shining the Holy Ark

You never know what secrets continue to lurk in Sega Saturn games, even after nearly 30 years.

This week saw new secrets come to light, as one industrious Shining Force fan discovered cheats for Shining the Holy Ark that hadn’t been known to the English-speaking world before now.

A member of fan site Shining Force Central’s forums, S3M — perhaps better known as the person behind the Randomised Gaming Tumblr blog — was doing research for a video about Shining the Holy Ark when he dug up a Japanese fan site called Uepon’s Game Land that had codes for the first-person dungeon crawler released in the West in the summer of 1997.

There are codes for enabling a sound test and starting the game with helpful items. Although they’re not traditional codes, as in button inputs — they involve using a specific name when starting a new game. Most of the names are spelled in katakana, one of the Japanese syllabaries, so they can only be input using a Japanese copy of the game.

For example, inputting your name as シシオドシ — pronounced shishi-odoshi, which is a scarecrow-like device used to frighten animals — enables the sound test, accessible from the options menu by pressing the R trigger. It also allows for main character Arthur to be swapped out of the main party and placed in reserve.

Or inputting ダブルオー, which is pronounced “double oh,” starts Arthur and Melody with one of each of the permanent stats upgrade items, such as Power Juice and Brave Apple, in their inventory as well as extra healing items and a pair of Squeak Sandals.

And one of codes uses English letters and numbers so it can be input on North American and PAL copies. That one is “ZX-9R,” which is a model of Kawasaki motorbike, and it places 10 Quick Chickens in your inventory from the game’s outset.

Thankfully, all versions of the game read the same save file, so players could input a cheat name with a Japanese copy of Holy Ark, then switch over to a North American or PAL copy to play.

Screenshots are courtesy of Randomised Gaming’s Twitter account.

But another method is to input the Game Shark/Action Replay codes that fellow SHIRO! staffer Knight0fDragon discovered today after S3M published his findings yesterday on Shining Force Central’s forums.

Not only did Knight find codes for the cheat names that S3M found, he also discoverd new cheats that aren’t even mentioned on the Uepon’s Game Land site.

The new cheat names include ナナメミギ — pronounced naname migi, meaning “diagonal right” — which starts players with squeaky sandals, a loin cloth, power undies and a goblin helmet; ダーミズダ — pronounced dar mizu da — which gives a supply of brave applies; タgUチY — pronounced taguchiy, I guess? — which unlocks all pixies, but only when a particular byte is set to 1; and アーサー — pronounced Arthur — whose effect is still unknown.

The cheat names to be input as well as their associated Action Replay codes and their effects are as follows:

North American copies of Shining the Holy Ark

ダブルオー • Permanent stats upgrade items, extra healing items, Squeak Sandals
1607B760 C0DE
1607B762 CCDE
1607B764 D9B5
1607B766 B000
1607B768 0000
1607B76A 0000

アーサー • Effect unknown
1607B760 B1B0
1607B762 BBB0
1607B764 0000
1607B766 0000
1607B768 0000
1607B76A 0000

シシオドシ • Sound test
1607B760 BCBC
1607B762 B5C4
1607B764 DEBC
1607B766 0000
1607B768 0000
1607B76A 0000

ナナメミギ • Squeaky sandals, loin cloth, power undies, goblin helmet
1607B760 C5C5
1607B762 D2D0
1607B764 B7DE
1607B766 0000
1607B768 0000
1607B76A 0000

ダーミズダ • Brave Apples
1607B760 C0DE
1607B762 B0D0
1607B764 BDDE
1607B766 C0DE
1607B768 0000
1607B76A 0000

タgUチY • Unlock all pixies
Note: This code requires 060217A6 to be set to 1
36021876 0001

1607B760 C067
1607B762 55C1
1607B764 5900
1607B766 0000
1607B768 0000
1607B76A 0000

ZXー9R • 10 Quick Chickens
1607B760 5A58
1607B762 B039
1607B764 5200
1607B766 0000
1607B768 0000
1607B76A 0000

Japanese copies of Shining the Holy Ark

ダブルオー • Permanent stats upgrade items, extra healing items, Squeak Sandals
1607BD00 C0DE
1607BD02 CCDE
1607BD04 D9B5
1607BD06 B000
1607BD08 0000
1607BD0A 0000

アーサー • Effect unknown
1607BD00 B1B0
1607BD02 BBB0
1607BD04 0000
1607BD06 0000
1607BD08 0000
1607BD0A 0000

シシオドシ • Sound test
1607BD00 BCBC
1607BD02 B5C4
1607BD04 DEBC
1607BD06 0000
1607BD08 0000
1607BD0A 0000

ナナメミギ • Squeaky sandals, loin cloth, power undies, goblin helmet
1607BD00 C5C5
1607BD02 D2D0
1607BD04 B7DE
1607BD06 0000
1607BD08 0000
1607BD0A 0000

ダーミズダ • Brave Apples
1607BD00 C0DE
1607BD02 B0D0
1607BD04 BDDE
1607BD06 C0DE
1607BD08 0000
1607BD0A 0000

タgUチY • Unlock all pixies
Note: This code requires 060217A6 to be set to 1
360217A6 0001

1607BD00 C067
1607BD02 55C1
1607BD04 5900
1607BD06 0000
1607BD08 0000
1607BD0A 0000

ZXー9R • 10 Quick Chickens
1607BD00 5A58
1607BD02 B039
1607BD04 5200
1607BD06 0000
1607BD08 0000
1607BD0A 0000

Knight0fDragon did not investigate Action Replay codes for PAL copies of Shining the Holy Ark.

The cheat name for the sound test has been on Uepon’s Game Land site since January 2014. It’s unclear how long the other cheat names have been on that page.

Another fun tidbit in S3M’s video is that a 3D analog controller can be used to look around in Shining the Holy Ark. Just hold the B button and use the analog stick to look in any direction. The function isn’t mentioned in the game’s manual.