Yogurt
Yogurt (ヨーグルト, Yōguruto, EN: Jogurt) is a rodent[1] of unclear size and origin who wears a helmet reminiscent of the X-wing flight helmets in Star Wars.
Yogurt first appears in Shining Force, where the character repeatedly crosses paths with Max before finally joining the protagonist's party in Yurt. Yogurt is first encountered standing on a cliff by the priest's cabin near the Ancient Gate. Subsequent hidden appearances are typically triggered by the player returning to previous areas at specific points in the story's progression.
Yogurt was designed by original Shining series artist Yoshitaka Tamaki to be used as a test graphic early in the development of Shining Force.[2][1] However, Yogurt would go on to become a mascot of Climax Entertainment and a staple of the Shining series' identity, with the character featuring prominently in magazine coverage and Yogurt or the character's likeness making appearances in Shining Force II: The Ancient Seal, Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict, Climax Landers, Shining Soul, Shining Soul II, Shining Force: Resurrection of the Black Dragon and Shining Force EXA. The character is an icon within the Shining community, being incorporated widely into the imagery of fan sites.
Catchphrases and Portrait Text
The character's catchphrase is ikasu (イカス), similar in effect to the English expression "Cool!" The word is spelled out in katakana in Yogurt's portrait in Shining Force: Legacy of the Gods, though the text was removed for the game's English release. Yogurt uses the word in magazine appearances and carries a sign with the text in Shining Force: Resurrection of the Black Dragon.
In Yogurt's Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict cameo, the kana in the character's portrait are rearranged to spell suika (スイカ), meaning "watermelon".
Yogurt's portrait in Shining Force: Resurrection of the Black Dragon features the onomatopoeia niyari (ニヤリ) suggestive of a menacing smile. Tamaki frequently uses this sound effect for characters like Dark Sol in Doom Blade: Shining and the Darkness Gaiden.
Manner of Speech
In Shining Force: Legacy of the Gods, Yogurt only repeats the line "I really don't understand" (よく わかんない) when spoken to. The character also uses this dialogue in the secret Yogurt ending of Shining Force: Resurrection of the Black Dragon, though Yogurt's headquarters dialogue is changed in the remake to contain utterances of foods and other miscellanea, which are left untranslated from Japanese in the English release. The choice to render Yogurt's dialogue in transliterated Japanese may be a joke based on the English version also retaining the portrait's Japanese text.
| Original Text | Translation |
|---|---|
| ...Er... | |
| ...... Yakiniku! | Grilled meat! |
| ...... Koohii! | Coffee! |
| ...... Hirune! | Nap! |
| ...... Hinata-bokko! | Sunbathing! |
| ...... O-furo! | Bath! |
| ...... Tsubusu! | Smash! |
| ...... Ippai! | One drink! |
| ...... Sakana! | Fish! |
| ...... Kutsu-himo! | Shoelace! |
| ...... Nureta! | Got wet! |
| ...... Shio-aji! | Salty! |
| ...... Asa-gayu! | Rice porridge! |
| ...... Lasuto! ... and Ripiito! | Last! And repeat! |
Resurrection's Yogurt Ending
As verified by testing conducted by Shining community artist Lynx, a special ending cutscene featuring Yogurt in the place of Adam is earned when the player successfully triggers all of Yogurt's secret appearances.
[Lynx] I tried different things, first a game with all the cards and with Mawlock executing the dark dragon, and with all the alternative costumes on Ahri, Tao, Khris and Narsha. but without watching all the yogurt scenes and I got a normal ending, then I tried watching all the scenes, and killing the dark dragon with max without the girls in the team and without the alternate costumes equipped. and I got the yogurt ending.
so I would say that the only trigger is seeing the yogurt scenes in each episode.
I don't know if having all the cards is necessary.
In the original game if you had the protagonist without promotion and you killed the dark dragon, the protagonist promoted himself, in the GBA version, the protagonist does not do that, he will simply do the animation of burying the sword with the corresponding sprite (without promotion, with promotion or with yogurt suit)
[Ari] Mind if I cite you on our Shining Force article?
[Lynx] No problem, I played the game again this time a game from scratch without being a game +, nor having all the cards, nor obtaining any alternative suit, using an immortal Max with codes, and indeed, the only trigger to obtain the ending of yogurt is to see those scenes.
Lynx's recording of the English version of this ending is available on YouTube.
Creation
Yoshitaka Tamaki explains the design process for Yogurt in an interview originally published in French in a 2001 issue of Animeland.[2]
[Interviewer] Where did you get the idea for Yogurt?
[Tamaki] (laughs) Oh, that one! It was originally something that was used for a graphical test for the developers. But it became the first character. In fact, I'd just scribbled it in pencil when the programmer said to me: "Please give me a design". I told him that I hadn't even drawn the heroes and that this design itself wasn't finished. He told me that it didn't matter, that anything would do, as it was just for entering graphic data. So I gave him whatever I had to hand. The character's name also comes from this beta-test phase: we came across the character "yo", by chance, and it just so happened that all we could find were names of foods (beginning with this syllable). We came across "Yogurt" and that name stuck.
[Interviewer] It seems that this character was Climax's mascot for a while, wasn't he?
[Tamaki] Yes, that's true. But I have to admit that for me it was just a doodle, for tests, so I didn't feel like redrawing it. Climax must have really insisted that I redraw it and I was very reluctant at first, I wanted them to let me off the hook with this character! Since then we've seen him again in Climax Landers.
Climax producer Kan Naito, who worked as a programmer on Shining Force, recalls Yogurt's history in a memorial to Tamaki published by Beep21.[4]
He drew this enigmatic character named Yogurt. Tamakichi didn’t just do illustrations—he also thought up detailed backstories for his characters, and Tamakichi even came up with this inscrutable backstory for Yogurt that he was personally very proud of. With that, Yogurt became a huge hit with the staff, and the character made an appearance in Shining Force, where I even went to the trouble of programming Yogurt to show up in certain places as a secret. When all was said and done, Yogurt had become a beloved character, and we ended up making a life-sized(?) costume of Yogurt to wear to a gaming expo for the reveal of Climax Landers (Dreamcast, September 15, 1999).
Golf legend Hiroyuki Takahashi, at the time still a Sonic! Software Planning producer, tells the following story in a weekly edition of Famicom Tsūshin from 1992.[5] The following English text is found in a shmuplations translation of the interview.[6]
[Interviewer] By the way, who or what is Jogurt? He’s mysterious.
[Takahashi] Yes, he’s a mystery. (laughs) He was originally just a sketch made by Yoshihiro Tamaki [sic], who did the concept art for Shining Force. He thought it would be cool to have a completely out-of-place character in those battles.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Dreamcast Magazine, 1998 Vol. 6. SoftBank, December 25, 1998. pp. 64–67. 「『シャイニング・フォース』というゲー ムを作っていたときに、キャラクターを表示す る顔窓用の暫定データとして「とりあえずなん でもいいから作って」と言われて、即興で描い たキャラクターなんです。『齧歯目』だとは思う けど、特に何かの動物がモチーフになっているわけではありません。」
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Yoshitaka Tamaki Interview", Animeland, Issue 71. May 2001. VGDensetsu. September 29, 2003. [Archived] October 9, 2023.
- ↑ Nintendo Power, Issue 180. Nintendo of America, June 2004. p. 87.
- ↑ Beep21. “Mourning Yoshitaka Tamaki” (「追悼 玉木美孝」). Kan Naito, December 19, 2023.
- ↑ Weekly Famicom Tsuushin, Issue 176 for May 1992. ASCII, April 17, 1992.
- ↑ "Shining Force — 1992 Developer Interviews", shmuplations, shmuplations.com. [Archived] February 1, 2019.
Shining Force Character Directory
| Protagonists and Supporting Characters | |
|---|---|
| Shining Force Members | Max・Rag・Ken・Tao・Hans・Lowe・Gong・Goth・May・Chip・Anri・Arthur・Balbaroy・Amon・Diane・Zappa・Pale・Yogurt・Kokichi・Vangarde・Gantz・Ernest・Domingo・Lyle・Baryū・Musashi・Taurus・Aleph・Adam・Hanzō |
| Supporting Characters | Balios・Nova・Otranto |
| Antagonists and Monsters | |
| Primary Antagonists | Cain・Ramuradu・Mishaela・Dark Sol・Elliot・Barbazak |
| Monsters | Dark Dragon |