In 2014, Sega released Shining Resonance on the PS3 exclusively on Eastern shores, much to the chagrin of many overseas fans of the company’s long-running RPG franchise. Given the long history of Japan-only releases in the series, Shining Resonance seemed unlikely to receive a localisation, which made it all the more surprising when the company unveiled Shining Resonance Refrain, a current-gen remaster which would be receiving a worldwide release. The question is, has the wait for a new Shining game on western shores been worth it? Well, kind of.
The story opens with a prologue that’s as bombastic as it is derivative, foreshadowing much of the narrative elements that will follow over the next several dozen hours. An amnesiac main character with god-like power and a low sense of self-esteem? Check. A hot-headed warrior princess with a heart for helping the weak? Check. A conniving and impish mad scientist with a penchant for torture? Check. Just about every possible cliché anime trope you could think of is present and accounted for and seldom are these tropes presented in any memorable way; there’s very little to this story that you haven’t already heard or seen done elsewhere.
Yet despite the campiness, the story still does a decent job of building a convincing and detailed world that adds much-needed context to the gameplay. The wartime setting and the cultures of various races and religious orders are well thought out and consistent (if not very original), and party members have strongly defined personalities and organic interactions. There’s even a dating sim element to the plot, in which you can have optional late-night conversations with other characters to reveal more about their backstory and sometimes receive certain gameplay benefits, too. It’s all satisfactory, then, but there’s little to the plot or character interactions that sticks out as being truly memorable; it’s done well, but not exceptionally so.
Combat drops turn-based action in favor of a more action-oriented setup, much akin to the Tales series or the recent Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana. Upon engaging with a roaming enemy, a light blue ring encircles your party and your enemies, and everyone draws their weapons. You can control any character in the party and each one has two primary forms of attack: a basic attack and a break attack. The basic attack is exactly what it sounds like, while the break attack assists in building up an enemy’s break gauge, which disables the enemy and doubles the damage they take if it’s filled. These two basic attacks are governed by an AP ring that encircles your character’s feet; each attack takes a few AP points to use, and if you use too much, you’ll have to wait a few seconds for the gauge to refill.
Fortunately, the AP gauge fills up almost immediately, and but if you don’t want to wait to continue your assault, you also have a series of up to four Force Abilities that can be deployed at any time, at the cost of MP. These are more specialized attacks that can hit multiple enemies, imbue attacks with certain buffs or debuffs, or directly support allies with healing and other effects. Though it’s rather easy for MP to run low if you abuse these too much, it can easily be gained back by hitting enemies with normal attacks, which makes for a nice loop that encourages you to use all aspects of combat equally.
Later on in the narrative, a certain team based attack is introduced called B.A.N.D., which ties in nicely with the game’s overall theme of music. Each character wields a weapon (called an Armonic) that resembles a musical instrument, like an electric guitar that doubles as a battleaxe, and characters can come together for a team attack once a special gauge is filled that sees them using their instruments in concert to cast a team buff. This can do things like boosting critical hit rates or physical attack damage, and the effect is decided according to who you set as the 'Center' in the setup menu. Though it can seem rather overpowered at times, B.A.N.D. is a lovely inclusion to the combat system that helps break up the repetition a bit, while offering players more strategic options for harder battles.
On top of B.A.N.D., there’s another super attack option available to the main character, Yuma, which allows him to unleash the power inside him and take on the form of the Shining Dragon itself. As long as Yuma has MP he can unleash this power whenever he wants, and it slowly saps away at MP with each passing second. Though the additional firepower offered by the dragon is welcome, it’s balanced by the danger of the dragon becoming unstable, and the chances of this happening increase as Yuma’s MP lowers. If Yuma loses control, he’ll suddenly go on a rampage that can also damage party members, which can have catastrophic consequences to a fight that was otherwise going swimmingly. This ‘beast out’ mode is yet another welcome way to break up the repetition of combat, but once again, it feels like overkill for most of the fights that you’ll encounter and seems like a rather tacked on (though seriously cool) feature.
Refrain takes an interesting approach to leveling characters, offering up a slightly more dynamic means of character progression than rote level gains. Each characters Armonic can be given a certain 'Tuning', which levels separately from the character, and each Tuning gives certain percentage buffs to different stats, with these percentages being boosted higher by leveling the tuning. On top of this, Tunings each have skills attached to them, such as faster attack speed or a deeper MP pool, and this differentiation in different Tunings presents some nice strategic options. Do you keep a character using a specific Tuning and power it up considerably, or do you swap them out and take advantage of the different skills they possess? The Tuning system helps to elevate character progression to more dynamic heights, offering you the chance to mold and shape your team to whatever builds you desire.
To a lesser extent, character growth can also be impacted by the Bond system, which decides the frequency and type of 'Resonance' that takes place in battle. A Resonance occurs randomly during fights, and results when a party member chooses to buff your character or debuff the enemy you’re currently targeting. How you choose to link up your characters in the web-like Bond diagram dictates which Resonances take place, and the kinds of Bonds you can create are affected by changing the 'Trait' equipped on each character. Traits are obtained both in dungeon crawling and optional character interactions and provide a meaningful way of encouraging exploration beyond mere consumable items.
A key flaw that runs throughout all these interlocking systems, however, is the game’s failure to adequately explain how they all work. Granted, what’s here isn’t rocket science, but the tutorials for new systems feel rather rushed and the game seldom offers much more information to clarify. Learning by doing eventually teaches you everything that you need to know, but it’s the need for some extra trial and error that feels sloppy and lazy.
From a presentation perspective, Refrain manages to offer up a satisfying audiovisual experience, particularly in handheld mode, although it isn’t necessarily a showcase for the Switch’s abilities. The game’s roots as a PS3 title rear their head every now and then, especially in the simplistic and flat world design. As opposed to the verticality and depth of the worlds in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 or Ys VII, Refrain’s world feels distinctly lesser in scope. Though there’s plenty of cool details and features to decorate the world, like towering cliff faces or a thick canopy of trees, it all feels rather like superficial window dressing, as if each environment is the same room painted a different color.
Even so, the cel-shaded anime style is bright and cheerful, and there’s an impressively varied color palette to match the equally colorful characters. Though the world may feel a bit empty, it’s certainly easy on the eyes, and the true beauty of it really pops on the Switch’s portable screen. As with many Switch games, it never really gets old to be playing a game that looks like this on a train ride, and performance oddly seems to be even better in portable mode than docked. Framerates usually stay around a fairly consistent 30fps, but drops can be spotted here and there when there are lots of enemies or you’re fighting a large boss character, though we detected fewer drops in portable mode. Either way, the frame drops are never enough to impact the gameplay, things just get sluggish from time to time.
The music, on the other hand, does a fair job of setting the tone for scenes, but is oddly forgettable in a game with music as its central theme. Nothing in this soundtrack approaches what we would describe as bad, but much of it is forgettable and doesn’t do much to add to the overall experience. It’s a bit of a shame, especially given the potential that seems wasted with the game’s music theme, and it does lessen one’s enjoyment of the game somewhat, but it’s hardly a deal breaker.
As an enhanced re-release for the West, Refrain also comes with a wealth of additions to raise the overall value. New to this edition is the titular Refrain Mode, which takes the shape of a non-canon second playthrough that sees key villains joining the team for a 'what if' scenario. It’s a neat new feature and gives fans a compelling reason to play again after the credits have rolled, especially when taken with all the other inclusions. The original Shining Resonance had an eye-watering 150 distinct pieces of DLC, all of which have been included in this package. These can range from mostly insignificant things like new character costumes to a fairly sizable side mode which lets players explore optional dungeons for exclusive loot and enemy encounters. There’s no shortage of content in the base game as is, but the integration of all the DLC into the main package help to create a pleasingly well-rounded experience.
Conclusion
Shining Resonance Refrain is the kind of game that can put on a solid performance, but it’s also abundantly clear that it doesn’t quite have the pipes to hit the high notes; it’s a good game, but not a great one. A fascinating setting, live action combat system, and eye-catching cel-shade visuals are all balanced by a slightly dampening feeling of mediocrity that never seems to go away. Fans of RPGs will find plenty to love here, it’s a well-rounded, content-rich game that understands its audience well, but it’s also a very safe RPG. We’d ultimately give Shining Resonance Refrain a recommendation, especially if you’re a newcomer looking for a good RPG to show you what the genre is all about, but veterans may be a bit disappointed with the final product.
Comments 73
If anybody has any questions, feel free to ping me and I'll get back to you!
I had the game on preorder, tried the demo twice, I couldn't get into it.
@SwitchVogel Thanks for the review! Was definitely waiting for one to decide whether it was worth the purchase, and this one covers everything really well. I did have one question, though. If an RPG doesn't have a spectacular story or really intriguing gameplay elements, a good challenge often makes up for those shortcomings. How difficult would you say the game and combat are overall, apart from the overpowered elements you mentioned? It wasn't the most engaging in the demo, but it sounds like at the very least there's more variety as the game progresses.
@FionnTheBrave It's very easy for most standard fights (even if you don't use the dragon or BAND), but the bosses dramatically ratchet things up. I wasn't a fan of the difficulty spikes at the bosses, but they aren't too bad, and the generally easy fights against normal monsters help to keep the pace moving briskly.
I'll buy another Shining game when Sega gets a clue and returns the franchise to its proper, tactical SRPG roots. Nobody asked for them to change the core mechanics of a beloved IP into a bland button-masher that would supposedly appeal to a "wider audience" that doesn't exist in the first place. They did the same garbage with Valkyria Chronicles (Azure Revolution) before fans' outcry (and resulting lack of sales) forced them to return to that series' incredible turn-based/real-time SRPG system. So many amazing IPs Sega has either grossly mismanaged or has just been sitting on (while churning out endless Sonic drivel) for years now; it's a travesty for the entire hobby.
Its on the list but octopath beat it and ys for me.
As others have said, it looks fun, and I'll definitely be playing it at some point, but there are too many other better-looking JRPGs coming out in this same time period. Would have been an instabuy earlier in the year, but now I'm afraid I'll have to push it off to a slow period next year.
Which one is better, Shinning or Ys VIII? I feel like they are pretty similar, but so far Ys seems to be the better game.
Like others I`ll also buy Octopath Traveler so either game`ll have to wait...
Considering this, maybe after Octopath and Ys.
I'm eventually going to get this, Octopath and Ys VIII anyway, and I just need to decide the order. The review sounds like the game is as I expected. Fortunately, I don't have to settle for one long, deep RPG at a time.
The character designs and battle system interest me more than anything. I wasn't expecting Shakespeare with the story, as long as battle is fun and the game is reasonably long.
@AtlanteanMan
Dude you're so right !
This game is a shame if you love the Shining serie.
I even ask myself what is "Shiniesque" in this game ?
Sega likes to destroy their big names, Sonic and Valkyria are good examples...
Glad I went with ys viii instead of this one.
@Steel76
Absolutly right !
@SwitchVogel Thanks!
Shame it reviewed as kind of good but not great, but the overall systems in play still seem very fun if you just love big RPGs, even if it's not the best of the huge cache of RPGs coming in this short time period.
@MattFox They're extremely similar, but I'd recommend Ys 8 over this. It's more focused and feels more rewarding, plus the soundtrack kicks ass.
I found the demo very average but I decided to pre-order it anyway since I'm just that much of a sucker for the genre.
Honestly, this scored better than I though. I was thinking it would be 5/10 or 6/10 for sure.
I'm not getting to this game for a while though thanks to Octopath and YS VIII.
@AtlanteanMan I'd love to see a return to Shining Force style myself. Shining is a bigger brand than just that style but I'm hoping we get one. That aside I am down to play this game though.
I'd love to support it but the demo wasn't enjoyable for me, it was a visual novel which just made me cringe and then you run about for a couple of minutes just to repeat that cycle.
I'm sure Ys and Octopath Traveller will crush this which is a shame, hopefully SEGA see this as bad timing and not a sign that we don't want JRPGs on Switch.
@Nunya I've had to make that decision with Ys VIII myself! I'm really interested in YS, considering it's probably one of the oldest actionRPG franchise out there(perhaps even the grandfather of the genre) but Octopath releases this coming Friday and... right now I saved up for Octopath.
But I might very much well end up buying Ys VIII soonish later because I'm still interested in it and...
… frankly, with the drought of anything close to major jRPGs back in 2017, to see all the RPG and RPG-adjacent(such as adventure platformers like Owlboy) titles finally releasing with Battlechasers, Ys VIII, Octopath Traveller and so many others... I'm really happy at all the stuff I can still end up buying for later to build a collection of single player games with the longer playtime normally found only in this genre.
Sega really needs to return the Shining series back to its root (as a turn based strategy series) and I mean seriously. The Shining games outside of the Genesis and Saturn were mostly garbage to decent at best as most are just Tales clones. If I wanted to play a Tales of game I already got Tales of Vesperia on the radar, probably may skipped this game for now. Thank goodness I waited for Octopath Travelers instead.
Solid pass. I stopped caring for anime infused JRPGs in the early 2000s around the time I fell out of love with anime.
Octopath has my full attention and can't wait to get into that game.
I will get this sooner rather than later as this game is in a similar situation that Titanfall 2 was. It released between two bigger titles and got shafted as a result. While it wont become my favorite rpg, like how titanfall became my favorite fps, im sure this game will be enjoyable and a good addition to my collection.
I think Shinning should go back to Camelot for them to get another crack at it or even just go back to its more Fire Emblem inspired roots for a title. Granted I don't think SEGA will ever do that... But I will give this a shot when it gets a price cut ($70 Canadian is a bit rich for my blood).
EDIT - I know Shinning was not inspired by Fire Emblem itself. It was more for comparison
I liked the demo. Will probably be getting it down the line sometime.
Wait, why were people excited for this all of a sudden?
...Oh, it's not the fighting game in the Shining franchise, it's just yet another one of the derivative Action-RPGs with dating sim elements. I mean, I guess if you're desparate for a Tales-Like RPG, I could see why someone might be interested in it, but...
I'm up to my armpits in Tales games, Ys games, you name it. And so many of them probably have more interesting and memorable stories, why would I even think of choosing a game like this, that doesn't even try to stand out? I'll just save myself $60 and play what I got...
Yeah I might have to pass on this unfortunately. Other games are bigger priotities for me.
@CanisWolfred From what I played of the demo the combat does not seem as deep as the Tales of Series. I'm more hyped for Tales of Vesperia & the new Tales of main series game. I want to try Y's VIII, I have heard nothing, but good things about the series. But between this and Octopath Traveler... yeah the choice is rather clear. I don't get the hype for Shining Resonance Refrain, as even on the console there are better JRPG's available either right now or within the year.
@Kimyonaakuma Considering Sega/Atlus are working on SMTV and in their servery asked Japanese fans if they wanted Persona 5/Persona 6 on Switch... I think this game tanking won't hurt their interest considering how much money the 3DS printed for Atlus.
Amazon already shipped and should be here tomorrow 🙂
Liked the demo. Waiting for all the patches to finish for Ys8 before buying it and Pixel Art style games are just not my thing. Anime style RPG - Easy pick for me.
First time I've known this site to have the same score on a game as it's sister site PushSquare.
I played the demo and really enjoyed it.and like @Agramonte above i should be receiving my copy tomorrow.
Of course,whether I actually start it any time soon is another matter,what with Ys VIII still unopened and Octopath due soon..
Tried the demo, was awful.
Actually my fiancee wanted to try Ys. She told me it sucked. Turns out she accidentally played this game's demo.
Bare minimum in terms of style and delivery.
The combat reminded me of Parasite Eve.... Sort of. May pick this up because can't find many games with that type of battle system (which I love!).... It just felt a little slow and sluggish when playing the demo
@AtlanteanMan THANK YOU I WANT A TRUE SHINNING FORCE GAME POSSIBLE A PART 4 !
I will get this eventually. Just not right now. Maybe when it drops in price.
Meh.
@SwitchVogel does the whole musical theme start to annoy after a while?? And does it factor majorly in the story?? I like to feel the world I'm engaging with is plausible to a degree like yeah obviously its all fantasy but a whole world where music is so central to everything seems a bit of a stretch if that makes sense.
@MattFox Ys is better but Shining Resonance ain't bad either. If you're a fan of JRPGs you should definitely buy all 3 when you can.
For now, I’m settling for Octopath Traveler.
@JJ286 @SwitchVogel Thanks!
@Agramonte same here it's already shipped, we'll be here tomorrow. I like the demo. I Didn't bought ys viii yet I'm waiting for the patches too, they should have delayed it if it wasn't ready. But I've preordered octopath too, and with xenoblade expansion I have enough jrpg for a while.
Sounds great!
Loved the demo, instantly preordered digitally. It'll have to take back burner to the excellent YS VIII and Octopath, but it's definitely on the agenda.
Preloaded this one and I know it is going to be great. Y8 and Octopath are going to make my summer game vice complete. I have been waiting a while for some decent JRPGs since Xenoblade 2.
I'm interested in it but with Octopath Traveler and the X Collection just around the corner I'm gonna pass for now.
@Wexter Honestly, I don't think even Camelot has the right talent left to make a new Shining game work. The series has been in this weird quasi-existance for too long now, it's probably not worth trying to revive the old style of play. All I want is a full english release of Shining Force III to properly end the series, at least by my measure. Send it off in style, not just stretching it out so thin you can see the light shine through...
@nathatruc Nice!... Yeah - I do not trust them with Ys8 at this point. On PC it is still having issues after 2 months of patches and I didn't get the PS4 version because of the translation. Once it is confirmed fixed -I'll get it hopefully for August.
On my list also: Shining -> Ys8 -> Dragon Quest XI -> Valkyria 4 > Xenoblade 2 DLC
Yep, I'm pretty much set also - Good times!
If Octopath Traveller were not coming this week, I would be excited to pick this up. As it is, I will wait for the time being. On the wishlist it goes, as it sounds plenty fun to me.
Glad this game turned out well. On the wishlist it goes..
I remember a similar review for Arc the Lad Twilight of the Spirits. I ended up loving the game! I look forward to getting this game in the future. Safe is good enough for me!
@bluemage1989 Not really, and it's more of a thematic dressing than it is an active part of the story. Like, nobody acknowledges how ridiculous their weapons look, it's just kinda accepted.
Man I just started Ys and now this is out and Octo's hitting a few days later. No more JRPG's for a while. Damn, just remembered Vesperia and Valkyria aren't too far off.
So many cookie-cutter JRPGs nowadays. No doubt there are excellent releases every now and then, but quality doesn't seem to be as consistent as PS1/PS2 days. Back then even the safer RPGs were still really good games.
I'm passing on this at release, as it's too close to Octopath's release, but I'll definitely come back to this, maybe later this year. Honestly, I have a big soft spot for decent-but-unspectacular JRPGs.
Having played the original, for mine this is better than Ys, simply because there is far more content. I beat Ys in a little under 40 hours and had exhausted what it had to offer in 50, whereas SR clocked in at close to 70 by the time I'd run through what it had to offer. Despite being fairly archetypal, I also found the cast charming.
No two ways about it, if you don't like anime this game is absolutely not for you, but that much should be obvious from the briefest glimpse at any of its promotional material.
@Agramonte yeah it's a great time, I have valkyria chronicles 4 preordered too. I read the issues of ys viii, I hope they correct it right for the switch wait and see.
The switch have so many games and it's great
Would love to see a new entrance in the real Shining Force (Tactical) Series.
So this is a real Battle of the B.A.N.D., huh?
Anyway, the mechanics don't sound like my cup of soda, so I'll pass.
@Nunya I feel you, I want this game, Octopath and Ys, But can't get into them all at the same time.....This year my wallet will suffer
Edit : Not to Forget Valkyria Chronicles....
Ys VIII costs 60 while Shining costs 50 I think that it is kinda worth it to buy Shining if you don't want to pay more for a smiliar game. I got it and until now it is pretty fun. SInce I haven't got Ys VIII yet I can't really say which one is better ^^
@Nunya Since yeah true I just switched Shining with Ys VIII will get Ys VIII later for sure but right now... no money octopath is a must :')
If this didn't release the same damn week as Octopath, I'd probably buy it. Sadly, it will probably have to wait for a month or two
@Nunya XD
Well, that IS an apt description of the first six months of 2018 to be honest.
This said I actually found the pace of 2017 pretty decent.
Though to be honest this was helped by the year starting with such a large game as Zelda helped pad out the waits a bit and I would say this is probably the only way in which 2018 lagged for me since I'd very much exhausted all I could enjoy of Zelda(despite owning the DLC) and did not have similarly meaty games to transit to before I would feel properly able to return to Zelda to finish the DLC content I started on my third playthrough of the game.
In comparison, all the jRPGs releasing so close to each others(starting with Octopath and Ys VIII, but there's some others on my list who're already out in fact) means now I might have much more of a surplus of choices on what to play than the prior "drought" of early 2018(for the exception of Dragon Quest Builders in my case... though I've played so much of it between February and March I'm only just finally getting the itch to return to it months later).
@Wazeddie22 @nathatruc It is here!... the metal sleeve feels great. And there is a card on how to get the Japanese audio pack in the case. Hope you all got yours!
@Agramonte got mine too, I'm downloading the japanese pack right now.
I really like the metal sleeve too.
@Agramonte Yep got mine too.Totally love that metal sleeve!
I downloaded the Japanese audio but from what I've played the English voice acting isant too bad.
The demo was definitely fun. "Safe" RPG is a pretty correct assessment, and unfortunately with Octopath Traveller offering me the best RPG experience, I have to back log this along with Ys VIII. Also, while its nice this is a part of the larger "Shining" series, I particularly liked Shining Force series the best. The 1st person RPG Shining in the Darkness did nothing for me, and the dungeon crawler Shining Soul I couldn't get into. I don't know if I'll ever play Shining Resonance Refrain, but at least I do like action RPGs, and it gets points for that. A sale could change my mind (or a GameFly rental).
@Wazeddie22 yeah! Eyes were super tired after work so didn't want to read subtitles. Switched to the English audio, and it is not bad at all.
@SwitchVogel I have issue in the japanese pack it doesn't get merge with my physical copy
So controlling Yuma, he seems to walk right into the model of Sonia.
Anyone else had this issue?
All the other character models are fine except for Sonia, its definitely a little odd.
Pretty happy to see true fans like @AtlanteanMan who still remember what Shining used to be before it was transformed into this generic anime pandering crap. The games aren't even good, they simply copy from better, more successful games and throw in anime fanservice in hopes it'll sell. This is on top of the infamous incident where Sega of Japan took down Shining Force videos because they wanted to make sure their new Shining game would pop up first in searches, or the incident where the Shining director attacked US Shining fans on his twitter simply because of the "Save our Series" petition.
If people are truly interested in any kind of a JRPG, I implore you to skip this TRASH and go for better games. Most of the comments here make it clear this is a pretty meh game, so just save your cash and get something better.
SEGA you're killing me.
Stiff animation, no in-game cutscenes ( we have to make due with 2d static illustrations while characters say EXACTLY WHAT THEY'RE THINKING), derivative characters... I can't believe big studios in Japan are still producing games like this.
The last good Shining game I played was Shining the Holy Ark.
Great waifus 9/10
@SwitchVogel
Do you feel that the game holds your hand too much? I've been playing too many games like that, and I could use something with less of it. For example, SOME instructions/tutorials in-game are okay, but if I'm 50 hours in and it's still doing that, it gets annoying. Is there any customization apart from costumes? Like setting up skills, renaming heroes like in older Shining Games, or class changing?
BLADE ARCUS Rebellion from Shining released 14/03/19 for SWITCH.
http://shining-world.jp/ba-r/
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