Shirley (シャーリー, Shārī , "Sharlie") is a spirit found in Shrine of Shirley and is one of the original seven Dragoons from the Dragon Campaign.
Story[]
Prologue[]
It is noted in writings that Shirley was the glue that held together the disparate band of seven original Dragoons. She was the kind mother who loved all and hated war; for this reason Belzac, the Gold Dragon Spirit Dragoon, fell deeply in love with her. Whether his feelings were mutual is left unknown. She also shares a strong bond with Rose, as the two women supported each other in the time of war and cared for each other in the time of Shirley's afterlife.
Shirley died in the final battle of the Dragon Campaign in Kadessa. A huge stone roof had collapsed and bits of debris that came off knocked Shirley unconscious, but before the whole roof fell on top of her, Belzac caught the roof and held it above Shirley preventing it from crushing her. However while he was holding it up, a Virage had spotted them and impaled its hand through Belzac. Belzac was slowly dying, but continued to hold the roof above Shirley in an attempt to save her.
Shirley takes aim at the Virage.
At this point, shortly after Belzac's impalement, Shirley woke up to see him dying. She quickly noticed the Virage and the situation at hand, stepped up and told Belzac that his death would not be in vain, readying her bow while the Virage prepared to fire its eye laser on the two Dragoons.
In her final moments, Shirley shot her arrow at the Virage, but in this process, it is assumed that both Shirley and Belzac were killed as well. However, even after death, Shirley feared for her fellow Dragoons and, as a ghost, used some of her power to fix the souls of the other Dragoons to keep them bound in Vellweb to prevent them from going to the Death City of Mayfil. Shirley would go to her Shrine in Serdio, where she would reside for the next millennials, alone, recruiting only Drake the Bandit at the time of the game to guard her and her treasures, hoping that one day new Dragoons would come and save her old companions.
Serdian War[]
After Dart and his group overcome the dragon Feyrbrand in the Serdian War between the Kingdom of Basil and Imperial Sandora, Shana is poisoned by the Dragon's posion in the Nest of the Dragon. In order to save Shana, Dart, Lavitz and Rose search for the legendary Dragoni Plant which is said to be able to cure a Dragon's poison. Following a hint by Dabas, they visit Shirley's Shrine, and after overcoming several traps set up by Drake the Bandit, they fight and defeat Drake himself. In the aftermath, Shirley reveals herself and recognizes Rose from the old times. Not having the Dragoni Plant anymore, but still having the White-Silver Dragoon Spirit with healing powers in her possession, Shirley puts Dart and his group through a trial to test their worthiness to receive the Dragoon Spirit from her.
After Dart, Lavitz and Rose prove themselves worthy, Shirley asks for one more request to use the healing powers of the Dragoon Spirit to save Drake the Bandit, who defended Shirley's place against bandits and thieves for a long time. Seeing her wish fulfilled, Shirley ascends to heaven with her soul being at peace.
Fate and Soul[]
Despite saying farewell during the events of the Serdian War, Shirley meets the new Dragoons one more time in Vellweb and tells them of the fate of the seven original Dragoons after dying in battle. Having locked their spirits in place to prevent them from going to the Death City Mayfil, Shirley asks the group to save their souls after meeting with Emperor Diaz.
Fighting the spirits of the original Dragoons and liberating their souls is an optional sidequest on Disc 4 and rewards the group with an Accessorie Stone which halves elemental damage taken from the corresponding element of the Dragoon defeated.
Battle[]
During the battle with Shirley, she asks deeply personal questions to Dart, Rose and Lavitz, looking into their hearts and transforming into their loved ones. When talking to Dart she will transform into Shana; the voice during this attack is not Shana's but a much younger sounding voice. While talking to Lavitz she will transform into Albert; as with the Shana form, the voice is not Albert's.
Dart's wrong answers are: "It's none of your business" (choose "To pursue the Black Monster"), "I don't know yet" (choose "Of course, get revenge!"), and "The Black Monster" (choose "Shana").
Lavitz' wrong answers are: "Yes, Your Majesty. Coming." (choose "That's not like you!") and "Don't command me!" (choose "Shana needs me!").
Dart and Lavitz then each get questions to which there are two answers, neither of them wrong. Shirley has a different reply to each answer. The answers can be seen here. There are no wrong answers for Rose; Shirley's answer is the same.
If the Shana or Albert forms are attacked, they will counterattack. Furthermore, although they will ask the same question as if not attacked, they will give a curt version of the normal answer. If the player has been attacking the whole time, by this time "Shana" or "Lavitz" are near death, and after the next hit, Shirley will revert to her own form, and then give the regretful statement as if the player had answered wrong ("I cannot give you my spirit. You lost control. Think it over again"). However, it is unknown whether the vision reverts to Shirley because the vision died, or because of being attacked earlier and having finished with the questioning.
Shirley's Albert form has 100 DF and MDF instead of the 80-120 of her normal form, but the Shana form is the same. Shana's counterattack is the normal attack; Albert's is the basic attack without completing the Addition, or Albert's "Spinning Cane".
If Shirley is attacked while in her normal form she counter attack with Light Syphon, or with Heaven's Spell:
- Light Syphon: Shirley send out waves of light, at a party member that swirls around and absorb his/her HP, the HP is then transfered to Shirley healing her. It seems likely that this attacks for a percentage of max HP, since Dart gets hit for more than Lavitz despite having better MDF[1]
- Heavens Spell: Shirley uses a random light magic at max power
- Revive: Shirley heals herself to full HP with a healing spell when her HP drops to 0
Shirley promises Belzac his death will not be in vain
Although it is fast, attacking Shirley is much more time-consuming than even the process of asking the questions, due to her counterattacks. One cycle of attacking and questions can take about two minutes 45 seconds and yield five attacks,[2] but Healing Items or Guard would add to this time a little: Attack + counter x 3, Q & A: Love (either, doesn't matter, default is faster), Attack + counter x 2, Q & A: (wrong answer). Around 31 seconds per attack.
Trivia[]
Shirley's unused Dragoon Battle Model
- At one point in time, Shirley was an available boss in her original Dragoon form, like Damia, Belzac, Kanzas, Syuveil in Vellweb, Zieg on the Moon That Never Sets, and Rose as part of the Dragoon tutorial in Hoax. However, her fight was ruled out, as the White-Silver Dragoon has a weak basic attack (Dragoon Addition) as well as possessing unlimited MP she could constantly heal to max HP with her spells, this would have made her an unbeatable boss, thus the creators excluded her Dragoon battle, but left the data on the disc.