"Shining Force II: The Ancient Seal")[4] is a tactical role-playing game for the Mega Drive/Genesis console developed by Sonic!

When not in combat, the player can explore towns and other locales, talk with people, and set the members and equipment of the army.

Units can become stronger by fighting enemies and performing various actions which give them experience points (EXP), which allow them to gain levels.

In a shrine south of Granseal Castle, a thief named Slade unwittingly breaks the power of a magic seal by stealing the jewels of Light and Darkness; this unseals the demon king Zeon trapped therein.

Sir Astral, the court's adviser, along with his apprentices, Bowie the squire, Sarah the healer and Chester the knight, investigate these events at the castle.

Greeting their arrival in the tower are devils named "Gizmos" springing forth to attack, though their ultimate intentions are unknown.

In the ensuing battle, Bowie wrests the Jewel of Darkness from him, but he is unable to rescue Elis, and the ground around the Ancient Tower collapses.

[7] It is here that the true nature of the threat is revealed, so Bowie and friends must now travel across Parmecia to gather allies, solve the riddle of the Jewels, obtain the Force Sword, and seal away Zeon once more.

Hawel is still living in the town he pledged to establish in Final Conflict, and has sired several children; one of them, Chaz, joins the Shining Force II party.

He also passes on information concerning the Devil Kings that he learned in Final Conflict, and a student of his called Kazin joins the party in the early stages of the story.

Artifacts from Final Conflict such as the Caravan and Nazca Ship make return appearances, and several monsters, most notably the Kraken, still terrorize the lands.

Fan translators have since uncovered (and Shining Force II co-director/programmer Yasuhiro Taguchi has confirmed) that the Devil Kings are in fact Darksol, Lucifer, and Zeon.

Additionally, producer/co-programmer Hiroyuki Takahasi remarked in a 2009 interview that "We were in a really precarious position at that point because we knew that if we couldn't produce another hit we would have no future."

[18] GamePro panned the game, saying that the cheerful and upbeat soundtrack is out of place, the menu system is confusing, the style is too RPG-generic, and the use of turn-based instead of real-time combat makes battles "slow and cumbersome".

"[16] Stan Hojnacki of the Santa Cruz Sentinel recommended the game, describing it as "a worthy sequel to a popular first edition.